To Tag Or Not To Tag
Posted: March 2nd, 2015 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 477 Comments »The Eagles have until 4pm today to decide whether to use the franchise tag on Jeremy Maclin. And this is a big decision.
Reason to do it…safety. You ensure Maclin is here in 2015 (and hopefully beyond). If you don’t tag him, there is no guarantee a deal will get worked out. Can you afford to lose him and get nothing in return?
Reason not to do it…money. The tag carries a cost of just under $13M and that would eat up about half of the Eagles salary cap space. They could still try to negotiate a long term deal, but Mac may be fine with just playing for the $13M and then facing the same situation next year. The difference is that his price tag as a franchise player would go up automatically.
A few reporters seem to think the Eagles won’t tag Maclin. Maybe they know something I don’t. I think you almost have to. If you lose him, Jordan Matthews becomes the key to your passing game. Suddenly you have to sign another WR or draft one early. I certainly don’t want to commit that much money to Mac for a year, but there is so much uncertainty at WR I’m not willing to risk losing him.
In a fantasy world, the team will announce a long term deal with Maclin today at 3pm.
It will be interesting to see how this situation pans out.
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Howie Roseman spoke over the weekend at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference. Zach Berman has some good quotes from the appearance.
“When you’re looking at trading up, at some point, your board drops off so dramatically in terms of how you evaluate that player,” Roseman said, as heard on the conference’s webcast. “But the history of trading up for one player, when you look at those trades, isn’t good for the team trading up and putting a lot of resources into it.
“Because the guys who are really good at the draft, if you’re hitting on 60 percent of your first-round picks, that’s a pretty good track record. And then it’s dropping as you go through the rounds. So really, the more chances you get, the more tickets to the lottery you get, the better you should be doing.”
Howie is right. Putting a lot of resources into one player hasn’t worked out a lot. Just look at the Skins and RG3. They had one amazing year (2012) and then injuries hit. Then character became an issue. Was RG3 more interested in doing Subway commercials than studying game tape? The Rams added a lot of talent with those extra picks while the Skins remain a roster with many holes.
I think Howie would be the first person to tell you that no two situations are alike. The Skins were a bad team looking for a savior. The Eagles are coming off consecutive 10-win seasons. There is plenty of talent already in place. The point in using resources to move up is to add a player who will put you over the top. That’s very different.
Also, there isn’t a question about scheme fit or personality fit since Chip Kelly recruited and developed Marcus Mariota. That angle makes this a particularly odd situation.
If you follow the math, this wouldn’t be a deal to do. There are times when you don’t follow the math.
Make sure to read the article. Roseman had good thoughts on a variety of subjects. Whether you like him or not, Howie is a very smart guy. I’m always interested in his take on things.
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I wrote some more on Todd Herremans for PE.com. He had an interesting career, going from the insane 2005 team to the Chip Kelly era. Think about the QBs he blocked for.
Donovan McNabb
Koy Detmer
Mike McMahon
Jeff Garcia
AJ Feeley
Kevin Kolb
Michael Vick
Nick Foles
Matt Barkley
Mark Sanchez
Crazy.
I also went over some veterans who have been cut recently. Unfortunately, I’m not seeing players that would interest the Eagles. Some guys just aren’t good any more. Others are interesting, but at a position where the Eagles don’t need help.
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If the Eagles don’t move up for Mariota, they could take an OL with pick 20. Tyler Aston has reports up on some interesting targets.
Fit with the Eagles – TJ Clemmings is a powerful and athletic blocker who profiles well as a fit for the Eagles. He is a bit raw, having made the switch from defense just two years ago, but has a very high ceiling. He is an ideal candidate to play RG for the Eagles next year and can transition to RT down the line. He will also have to transition from a power run scheme to zone blocking, but seems to be intuitive and has a skill set should ease the transition.
Fit with the Eagles – A big nasty bruiser, he would certainly be a popular player with the Eagles fan base. I don’t think he can play either tackle position for us. He could however be a great guard. Playing him at guard would minimize his liabilities in vertical pass pro, and would emphasize his zone blocking, brute force, solid lateral movement and ability to get to the second and third levels both in the run and screen game. Ultimately I doubt he is available when the Eagles pick, but he would be a fun player to have.
Fit with the Eagles – Sambrailo best projects as a zone blocking lineman. He should be a natural fit in Kelly’s scheme. He has the pass protection skills to play LT for us and could play 4 of the OL spots for the Eagles. Stoutland and Kelly are sure to love his motor, tenacity, and football IQ. He needs to improve his functional strength, but is capable of playing immediately.
Scherff and Clemmings could both be targets at 20. They could plug into RG as rookies. Scherff is the better player right now. Clemmings has the higher ceiling.
Sambrailo would be a trade back from 20 or a move up in the 2nd round. I see him most likely going in the early 2nd, but it wouldn’t surprise me to see him go late 1st. Very good prospect.
Some of you have talked about the Eagles going for Orlando Franklin as the RG. I’d love that, but he could cost a lot of money and I’m not sure the Eagles have that to spend, with the other areas that must be addressed in free agency.
I’ll cover the RG situation more in my Offseason post, which I’m now finalizing.
_
“Roseman also said decision-makers must fight the “recency bias” and not just go off what the player just did in the past season, but also consider what the player could do in a difference scheme or different environment. And he made clear that a team must know its priorities entering the free-agent market.”
Great words
You mean — like Nnamdi?
exactly. Lesson learned.
Or, on the other side of the coin, anyone signed by NE. They really seem to have a knack for finding guys that will play better for them than they played elsewhere.
Hmmmmm! That might mean that coach, ESPECIALLY ON D, can take a group of guys and mold a “system” to their talents.
Or, find guys with underutilized talents that will be highlighted in his system.
You’re right which is why he’s one of the best to ever do it and to expect your team to be able to replicate that is short sighted.
So don’t model what you do after how the best do it. Got it.
That really seems like an apologist’s mindset to me.
No it’s more like:
“Well Shady doesn’t have Bo Jackson’s speed, that’s unacceptable”
“Foles doesn’t have Peyton Manning’s presnap recognition, that’s unacceptable”
“Jason Peters doesn’t have Jonathan Ogden’s length, that’s unacceptable”
“Connor Barwin doesn’t have Lawrence Taylors explosion off the snap, that’s unacceptable”
“Eric Spolstra doesn’t run the triangle offense like Phil Jackson, that’s unacceptable”
“The Eagles offense doesn’t have the same aeiral potency of the ’07 Pats, that’s unacceptable”
There’s more than one way to get the job done.
Just because Philly’s defense doesn’t have the same flexibility that Bellicheck does with his defense, doesn’t make Billy D a bad coordinator. Just saying force a mish mosh of part together to create an awesome defense is a great way to get a whack Frankenstein than a better unit. Defense is about the sum of it’s parts being greater than the total of it’s individuals.
This. Plus: Belichick is a defensive coach, Kelly is offense. Kelly made the 3 star recruit Mariota into a great college QB. Before Mariota, he never had a great QB, but always a great offense. He never had elite WR, and while his RBs were great in College, they never did anything in the NFL.
In the NFL, he coached Foles, Cooper, Maclin, DJax and Sanchez (maybe a few more) into career years – in two years in the league.
You simply can’t expect to get a coach like Kelly on Offense and a coach like Belichick on Defense. If you have one – great. Many teams don’t have a genius on one side of the ball.
Doesn’t mean Billy D is perfect. But only because Belichick finds a way for Patrick Chung to not suck, doesn’t mean Billy D is awful.
Great points.
Amazing how well Chung looked playing with Revis and McCourty…
Yes it was.
“Funny” thing is: what went wrong with the scouting of Chung? You have to assume that Billy D and Kelly wanted mirrored Safeties from the beginning.
On a good day, I have about 0.1 percent of the Football knowledge Kelly and Billy D have. But even I saw that Chung was a pure box safety. If a amateur like me can see this, I really don’t get how Kelly/Davis couldn’t see that.
It’s not just that the results we hoped for weren’t there, Chung is probably the only FA signing in the Kelly era where the way to the signings seems to be unclear.
Kelly and/or Roseman might have thought Chung had some value as he had already been in NE. Don’t forget how much Kelly likes Belichik.
true, very true…
Remember people thinking Jenkins would be a bad signing last year. He turned out okay for us.
Yes! Jenkins is a good example of finding a guy that could be better for us than he was up to that point.
I think the Eagles still thought he had a couple years left in him
Great read! Thanks. There’s a lot there but there is 1 area I need to comment about — HR. First off, he shouldn’t say a word about the draft. A couple of reasons — 1) It’s not like he’s a draft master and produced SB winning teams(or, just team). and 2) more importantly — he just threw down a challenge to Chip Kelly. IF Chip were to move up for the QB .. and fail .. HR would say “told you so”. 3) it’s not his job anymore.
….
OR will this finally stop all the silly rumors that the Eagles will move way up to get him? Maybe this is such a fabricated rumor that HR can talk(out of turn) about it?
They can let Maclin walk if he wants to. They drafted 2 wrs last year. And they have Riley Cooper. Any scrub can catch a football. Just ask Andy Reid. He was always “Happy with the receivers he had”. Even James Trash and Todd Stinkton.
Please let this be sarcasm, please!
Just listening to the tunes of “Return of the Mac”…
No tag.
I agree with Howie, trade up is risky. Also, I don’t pay over chart value on a trade up.
LOVE all of those OL names. Clemmings and Scherff would be fine at 20. Symbrailo all good at 52.
Risky? Polite way of saying absurd!!! 🙂
Just wondering if the Eagles drafted Martavis Bryant instead of Huff — would the Eagles let Mac walk? (I have no idea what Huff will be, just on paper today, Bryant is better so I’m wondering that question)
I think Huff’s versatility is just so much more than Bryant’s, where we drafted Huff, you’re looking for a WR that can contribute on Special Teams and knows how to block, Huff excels on those two categories so he was the better pick in Rd 3. We haven’t seen the best of Huff, I have a lot of confidence in what he can do.
Bryant was taken much later – he’s something like 6-4 and a downfield threat that Huff is not. Again, that’s just today like I said. No idea how the two will do in the future. He can be a number 2(maybe 1?) at some point. Huff ceiling is 3rd wr.
Weren’t we missing a 3rd wr a the time? The eagles wanted to see if macling could play the 1, and he filled in nicely. Matthews looks like he can play the 1, 2 and 3. Cooper came off a year where he was a tall downfield threat, he didn’t have a great year producing, but can we look at his size and talent and say he could still be better and address the 3rdWR?
Bryant was a one year wonder, who was a HWS guy, from a dynamic offense and in his best season put up 42-828-7. He was a massive gamble. Huff on the other hand while he will likely ever be more than a number 3 gave Kelly a guy he was comfortable who had a skillset unlike anyone on the team, that gave Kelly a guy who could play the TAZR spot, and could be a dynamic playmaker from the slot, split out, or in the backfield.
and we needed a returner
Bryant benefits from playing with Rothlisberger. Not to say he isn’t good, but a lot of WRs look exceptional coming through Pittsburgh.
That and Antonio Brown, Le’Veon Bell, Heath Miller, and Marcus Wheaton…
I think tagging Maclin – without having a potential replacement in place – is a shot in the head.
Unless the Eagles can’t ‘un-tag’ him which I am pretty positive they can on any given day.
they can un-tag him? if true that changes everything.
If Maclin doesn’t sign it; it can be pulled.
That’s what I had in mind. Thanks.
But even if Mac signs his tag it won’t keep them from continue on negotiating a long term deal.
Again, tagging Maclin is a no-brainer to me!
Contrary to a report, the #Eagles have NOT approached LeSean McCoy about restructuring his contract, 2 sources close to the situation said.
If true that will make cutting Shady outright very unlikely. Unless the Eagles decision makers have met insanity over night.
If you look at Shady’s contract, only this year’s number is a tad high. He’s very affordable for 2016 and 2017. At that point we can curb kick him and hopefully have the next RB in place for 2018.
http://overthecap.com/player/lesean-mccoy/761/
no he is going to the Jaguars in the trade up.
http://www.bigcatcountry.com/2015/2/28/8125849/jaguars-trade-down-eagles-nfl-draft-lesean-mccoy
That’s laughable. If somebody from Jacksonville approached me in person with that offer; I’d crack their skull in half.
Shady, #20, #52, and 2016 #1 for the #4.
Go F yourself Jacksonville.
Shady and the #20 is about all I’d give them.
Just out of curiosity:
Who would be our RB in this scenario?! Mariota???
Abdullah?
Yes, but he won’t be around in round 3 when the Eagles are on the clock.
rb is not the position is use to be. I don’t want to say dime a dozen but you don’t need that elite, or even tier 2 rb to win…
that’s right esp for $10M. I know Media Mike takes offense, but I would do that deal. What I don’t want to happen is give up a 3rd one. So you would need to trade a player. Giving up Shady at $10M really is better than say Lane Johnson.
It’s a QB league. If Chip thinks he needs MM then get him.
Agree with the first part of your opinion, but not with the latter.
In fact you’d need a reliable RB to move the chains.
yes but getting a RB is much easier than a very good QB.
Yes, but the notion that Shady’s production can easily be replaced by player X is just wrong.
I agree, but this all is suboptimal. You can’t just pick MM with your own pick because he won’t be there.
I am choosing what Chip believes is the much higher upgrade at QB and the lower play at RB (though for far cheaper), then to have what Chip believes is not good enough play at QB because upgrading QB is near impossible and upgrading QB to the guy Chip may think is his ideal guy only has one chance.
I’m not arguing that player X can just replace Shady. Of course the trade will make you worse in less draft picks and possibly losing a player or two.
i don’t think the drop off would be as crazy as you think w/ the right style runner.
Realistically, if you move McCoy, it’s because you’re trading up for Mariota who will provide a running threat himself and open things up for whoever replaced McCoy.
CJ Spiller.
It seems logical that if Shady is gone, you replace him with a much younger guy, maybe a rookie, not a contemporary who could also drop off next year.
I’d ride with Polk!!! I fucks with the kid, and most of his injuries are just offseason stuff
See his rotoworld, Polk missed like 3 games this year and a bunch of practice with the hamstring injury, in addition to all preseason basically.
http://www.rotoworld.com/recent/nfl/7424/chris-polk
I really don’t think that is too unreasonable. RBs 6 years into their career with McCoy’s salary don’t haver a ton of trade value.
The Tag Game:
– DT from Broncos
– JH from Chiefs
Suh will NOT be tagged by the Lions. Wow…
that tag price for suh is basically their whole cap
Hello Raiders or Jags for suh
With his behaviour and reputation he’d be a perfect fit with the Raiders. ;~)
http://www3.pictures.zimbio.com/gi/Tony+Pashos+Oakland+Raiders+v+New+York+Jets+_G5i_G76EvAl.jpg
Looks like McCourty is going to not be tagged
http://espn.go.com/blog/new-england-patriots/post/_/id/4778574/stephen-gostkowski-a-more-likely-candidate-for-tag-than-devin-mccourty
Looks like he may be available, which will means that either the eagles can take a run at him or it will make one of the secondary targets is going to be available.
that would be awesome for the Eagles to have a shot, but given how bad NE’s secondary has been in prior years I just don’t see how you franchise a kicker instead of your safety.
I’d love McCourty…
Is anyone concerned that McCourty might fit the Chung model?
Chung looked pretty good in NE, then left in free agency and duped some sucker team (I can’t remember who) into signing him and hoping to see him be a productive starter. After his shortcomings were exposed and he was released he returns to NE and once again looks like a acceptable player.
Three years from now, is McCourty going to be back in NE and people remembering how we once thought he was going to be the answer?
if we can’t make it work with good players…maybe its us not them
Never say never, but sometimes you just have to trust your eyes. I’m far from being a good evaluator, but I was very sceptical when we signed Chung. I thought: as a back-up and STer, yes. But not as a starter.
The reason: I didn’t liked him in NE and a good friend of mine, who’s a huge Patriots fan, said: “No problem to lose Chung.”
With McCourty, it’s different. He was the second best DB of the Patriots (and he was only the second best DB because they had Revis, who is a top 3 CB imho). He can do it all. Box, centerfield, cover slot receivers, great instincts, great work ethic.
If you would be sceptical of McC because of Chung, you’d must be sceptical of Maxwell because of Nnamdi. I’m not making the calls (which is a very, very good thing for the Eagles ;)), but imho, you have to go for McC big time. If I could choose between McC and Maxwell, I’d take McC in a heartbeat.
Good stuff, thanks.
I am not arguing against McCourty, I am saying that I don’t see enough NE games to know, but as a general rule players look better during their time in NE than they do before or after.
Maxwell and Nnamdi share little besides position. One was the declining, best player on a bad defense. His teammates meant it was easier to go around him than through. Maxwell is tested regularly and is young enough that his best years are still likely in front of him.
except adalius thomas
You’re right about Maxwell/Nnamdi. I made the same point a few days ago, actually, so we really view this the same way.
My broader point I was trying to make was: don’t act based on angst. It’s tough sometimes, and you better be very thorough, but don’t let fear dictate your action as a football operation.
I totally get your point about NE players looking better in Boston, but I think, even if McCourty will play “only” 90-95 % of what he showed in NE, he will give this Defense a huge boost – a boost that is huge enough for a big pay check.
Also, while he had his best season last year, he’s far from a one hit wonder. Plus, he’s known as a high character guy. That all helps to translate away from the great Belichick calling the shots, imho.
As I said, I don’t know enough about McCourty to have a strong opinion, I was just talking more in generalities. It sounds like you have knowledge of him, so I’m sold.
And you are absolutely right about not being motivated by fear of failure. I such a low probability of success situation, if you are afraid of failing you will be paralyzed.
Can we not have both?! 🙂
You have to ask the cap experts. 😉 I doubt it, personally, and while I’d love to have Maxwell, I think McCourty would have more impact on our Defense. Because of Fletcher and Williams we sometimes forget how awful Nate Allen was last year (OK, we don’t really forget it, but the focus CAN shift to the CBs ;)). Good safety play can help the CBs a lot.
Another thing is money value. You have to pay the best CBs around 13m, the best Safeties around 10m (based on their tag money). It’s getting philosophical, but I think you’re better off with a 10m Safety (which means one of the best in the league, which McCourty is imho) and a 8m Corner (not named Cary Williams, lol) than a 13m Corner and a 5m Safety. Same cap hit in the end, but I personally prefer the great Safety because there are so few of them (which makes the low tag money kind of insane, but that’s another story).
I personally think it’s easier to find a capable CB than a capable Safety, to put it this way.
But truth be told we haven’t been really blessed with good CB play since Sheldon Brown left…
You’re right. Many teams are looking or a quality safety. Bidding wars ensue.
We can if we cut Cary Williams and restructure Ryans and Cole
Rather have Searcy. Trust him more. His career trajectory is still climbing, he is still hungry. Don’t like signing super bowl winners looking to cash in…where as McCourty can only get worst. He is already at the peak of his game, while Searcy keeps improving. A little cheqper to
I’m surprised. A month ago or so, you were rooting for McCourty to hit the market, calling him something like “the best fit we could hope for”.
I share your original opinion. Of course there’s always a risk with SB winners, but on the other hand, there’s a risk in every FA signing, as long as the check is big enough, because he could slow things down as soon as he made his money.
McCourty is known as a high character player. I think it would be likely that he wants to win as many SBs as he can, even if his pay check is big.
After all, Jenkins was a SB winner, too. 😉
yeah i don’t really get the change in philosophy, a month ago mccourty was literally the perfect signing.
Someone told him about a different player. So now he likes that player more and will talk about him ad nauseum.
well, we should always be trying to gain more intel, and when you gain more info only morons stick to the same opinions.. the more i keep watching the kid, the more I like him… there are draft prospects i love or hate today, that i will probably change my opinion about 3 times from now til the draft….
..
if both players cost the same, think its a pretty easy no brainer to go with McCourty, he is a perfect mirrored compliment to Jenkins,, but them big name players coming off of superbowl wins usually get PAID, and if we are talking about a 2-3mil difference between McCourty and Searcy, searcy becomes attractive to me…
..
In terms o fmirroring jenkins stylistically, McCourty is the better fit, but there isnt really anything i view as a liability of Da’Norris game..
,,
but fair warning, Im not going to have the time to go crazy with the draft process like I did in previous years.. you probably wont be seeing me narrow down my draft prospects to such a specfic list like i did the previous years….. the only reason i got so familiar with da’Norris because the Bills have been my “AFC mistress” for the past 3 or 4 years, I always enjoyed watching their defense closely, so it was easy to get engulfed in watching him play…. Last year I had the time to watch like 5 of the free agent safeties closely so i was able to rule out certain free agents like chris clemons and mike Mitchell who would get attached to us…. this year, I cant help as much because whlie i have a solid understanding i think atleast of searcys game, I dont have a solid understanding of the other safeties on the Market… for example I tend to see Rahim Moore and searcy as two of the higher rated options, but I really have no idea about Rahims game..so while i can pound the table for searcy and believe in his ability, i dont have close to the complete picture that i had in the past… for all i know, i could be dead right about searcy, but Rahim could be drastically better then I think right now
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so im really not going to be much help this offseason… I can pound the table for a few guys, I can eliminate a few other guys from consideration but Ill probably have a much more fluid opinion of our possioble free agent targets,.. and when it comes to the draft, usually Febuary, March, april im watching tapes on kids saturdays and sundays as a hobby. I dont like college footblal, but i normally spend the college season getting familiar with the kids in the next draft, but my opinions usually would grow so much this time of year after the coolege season ends til the draft….. but come march madness this year i will be so busy with work, that i who I like, and what I know about kids now, will probably be the same opinions on kids that I have now, where as previous years, from now to the draft my opinions would change and grow a million times…
…
I doubt I will even get to enjoy the draft process much this year..Im going to take advantage of being able to closely follow free agency, but from mid march to may, it will be hard for me to find half as much time as i would normally like to talk football and follow the draft process
That’s gonna mess up my evening routine, reading your posts gets me through the offseason
Eagles need to be willing to tag. A player who has had a tumultuous career (physically) like Maclin wants to get a deal done. He made a gamble on himself last year and it worked out. Time to get paid. No way does he want to have another contract year and risk a situation where if he misses a game or struggles with a nagging injury it totally torpedoes his next contract. He needs to sell high. Hopefully both sides see reason and get it done.
Great point. Tag works entirely in the Eagles favor (well, entirely, except for the huge cap hit). But if they do need to use it, it’s almost a surefire bet that a smart person in Maclin’s position would take a 4 year deal with the upfront guarantee instead of putting it on the line again this season.
at what price? it must be pretty high.
The question I have is what is our offer, if we abuse the leverage I described, and offer so low that Mac could get a better offer next year even off of a down year, he’d gladly call the bluff, or take a very lucrative 1 year tag and see if he can can’t grab a better contract than what we’re offering next year.
yeah 2 acls and 1 year over 1000yds, but eagles just gotta deal w/ the reality of the day.
“well, entirely, except for the huge cap hit”
The problem is, this is not an insignificant factor which works very much in Maclin’s favor. With thefranchise tag, that money gets entirely taken from the available cap space we have. On the other hand, a long term deal can be negotiated in such a way that it has a much smaller impact on our cap space. On top of that, it is not very clear whether or not Maclin would sign the franchise deal or not. The way this has been reported, it certainly sounds that in lieu of a BIG long term deal, getting franchise tagged wouldn’t necessarily be a terrible option for Maclin. He bet on himself once, he could very possibly do it again. While Maclin is a key player we need to resign, we need the flexibility to go after key free agents as well. So if the Eagles feel Maclin would in fact sign the franchise tag if we used it on him, they have to be sure they are comfortable with how much that will impact them salary cap wise.
Ideally, we want to sign Maclin to a long term deal, but he does have interesting leverage here, depending on what the Eagles think they want to do I’m FA. Without the cap, the may be hurt in FA, but at the same time, if Maclin gets past today’s deadline without getting tagged, the Eagles would be slightly desperate and may need to pay Maclin big to keep him from becoming a FA.
I agree Maclin has some leverage, but the franchise tag would (I think) benefit the Front Office’s position more than his.
The Eagles have shown over the past decade that they know how to get the players they want in free agency while keeping themselves in good cap position.
We’ll see how it plays out, all of these scenarios are plausible.
Really, though, this is all Riley Cooper’s fault. If he didn’t have such an albatross of a contract while sucking so badly the situation would be a lot clearer.
I guess the issue to me comes down to whether or not the Eagles will be players in FA this year. Seems to me there are significant holes to fill, and I would rather us have some form of option in place than be forced to reach again in the draft. With the Eagles predicted to have 26 mil in cap space and the WR franchise tag costing ~13 mil, that leaves you with only ~13 mil available for rookies, any FAs, and any left over to allow for in-season signings, injuries, etc. That’s simply not a ton to work with. Tommy thinks to believe it is almost a given that we will go after Maxwell. We need someone to step in at RG. We need to add a safety and most likely a LBer or two. That’s a lot of needs to target with only 13 mil. Signing Maclin to a long term deal gives us significantly more to work with, hence why I think we don’t have the leverage in that situation that the team normally would want.
That is the cap space at the moment. dropping a couple of players and their salaries would increase the $$ to play with while trying to sign better replacements. I know the cap can be strange, but 4-2 should still =2. Sort of.
Good points. It’s definitely in the Eagles best interests to sign Maclin long term. Looks like he’s not getting tagged anyway. It’s a reasonable decision by the front office not to do it, but as I said, I think there’s a solid argument FOR doing it as well.
Absolutely. At the end of the day, Maclin is a player I don’t think we can afford to let walk. Let’s hope that the Eagles believe they can sign him to a long term deal this season and that is the main reason they didn’t use the franchise tag. While I definitely understand the logic of not using the tag on Maclin today, letting him walk, IMHO, would be a bigger mistake than not tagging him, even if it meant it handcuffed us a bit during FA.
Hopefully by Monday this conversation proves pointless and we have Maclin signed long term.
Idle wondering. Cooper to Jacksonville? They need WRs and he used to have pretty good hands. Maybe get a 3rd round pick back?
Cooper has an unmovable contract. His substantial cap hit accelerates entirely into this season if he’s traded (I think- that’s all of his signing bonus) and no team would want to take on his base salary for his below average production.
He’s in Philadelphia no matter what.
Marquis Lee, Allen Robinson, Allen Hurns, and Ace Sanders.
How do they need WR?
Maybe. But if you believe that Maclin truly wants to be an Eagle, and if you believe that you are truly offering him a fair deal that he isn’t accepting, maybe you let him go and find his worth. Let him hit the market, let him field a few offers with the understanding that he will use them as negotiating points with the Eagles before making any decisions.
There is always the risk that some offers stupid money, like happened with Dawkins, and you lose him. That seems unlikely though, since he isn’t even the biggest fish in WR free agency pool this year.
Ideally, you end up with a long-term deal and a content player.
he might get good money on the market he’s the top wr that will hit the market.
Former Packers’ LB Brad Jones is visiting Eagles today per Jim Wyatt of the Tennessean(he mentioned it in saying Jones had visited Titans). He’s the guy that got burnt on the fake FG attempt by Seattle. 7th round pick. Was OLB in college. Was reserve at OLB and good STs playerbefore becoming starter at ILB. Was replaced in starting lineup this year and relegated back to STs where he didn’t do as hot. Wouldn’t be a bad depth pickup if for cheap.
Ian Rapaport is reporting that Bryant and Demaryius Thomas will be the only players given the franchise tag. It also looks like the Pats won’t franchise McCourty.
And Houston.
Sorry, meant receivers.
Wow, the chances of Mac not returning will increase if that’s true. Better have a plan B in place then!
It doesn’t seem many players are going to be tagged. So, if Maclin did leave, there’d be plenty of opportunities to upgrade elsewhere.
Not really in my eyes….
I have Maclin and Cobb rated as my No. 3 and 4 WRs in this FA, behind only Dez and DT who both will receive the tags. So unless you can sign Cobb in case Maclin leaves, I don’t know what other Free Agent could be seen as an upgrade to Mac.
Not necessarily at WR. At other positions, namely OL and defense. I think Kelly is confident in the ability of his scheme to generate production without needing great talent at the skill positions.
Fair enough.
Houston got it already I heard
Agreed on a lot of these points, but the trade hasn’t really worked out for the Rams either. Sure, they’ve added a lot of individual talent, but the team itself hasn’t improved all that much; they’re still going nowhere because they have no QB.
2015 salary cap has been set at $143.28 million.
Always pick the lesser of two weevils.
Only way we would pay for Orlando is if Mathis was the next head R
To roll off the chopping block, but I have no reason to believe Mathis is getting axed….
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Really like sherf and TJ but TY does nothing for me. I would take sherf of he fell to 20 too good to pass on, but I’ve been fixated on Jake Fisher for sometime now…
Can’t justify losing Mac. Coop is gone next year and we only have huff and Jordan cheap rookie contracts on the books. We have so little tied up into the WR position that I don’t see how they can lose Maclin. As for the Tag its probably not rocket science, if talks are progressing well and getting a deal done is just a formality then he won’t be tagged. If they at still really far apart they will tag him just to buy more time to negotiat with him exclusively. IMO if Mac is t tagged, I take that as a really good sign that a deal is imminent .
Pray McCourty isn’t tagged so he can be th most expensive safety and coveted safety and we Can target Searcy cheqper
Also seems Revis will hit the market which will make Maxwell cheaper
very true… but to play devils advocate McCourty not being Tagged and being allowed to hit the market could be because they are prioritizing Revis over him and a big revis extension could be announced soon… but I havent heard anything about it, just trying to see every point of view…
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…i could see a scenario where Bellichek is losing McCourty, because he is prioritizing keeping Revis…
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but it would be great for us if both McCourty and Revis hit the open market.. more quality options available, better our odds of fixing the secondary
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I thought you were praying for us to get McCourty?
I like Searcy more. If I needed a safety to play 1 game right now, Id easily go with McCourty, but I have always been wary of free agents willing to leave the team they just won a SB with to cash in.. I think MCCourty is peaked as a player, and he has a few more seasons of high level football, but I think Searcy is the hungrier young player who is still improving even tho he is playing at a high level. steady improvement each of his first 4 years, and i still think his best ball is ahead of him..
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if we talking a 2-3 year contract, Id be fine with McCourty, but 4-5yr deal Iwant Searcy… also should be a mil or two cheaper atleast I assume…
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Basically two different types of signings. Part of McCourtys price tag comes from his past play, where as I think with Searcy you are paying him more for his future, then for the cache his name has built up in the past.;..
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at the end of the day, eagles sign either safety and its party time,… But as i got thru more and more of this past seasons Searcy play, a fall more and more in love with the kid and few him as a great young piece our young defenders can grow with… but either safety would give us the best safety tandem since Dawkins fore midnight green, but id prefer save a few dollars, go with the kid with some less mileage who is just starting to make a name for himself as a Top DB..I assume Searcy is Hungrier…
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also if I have any hope of seeing Maxwell become an Eagle, we have to forget all about McCourty… even signing two top guys like Max and Searcy would be hard, but i feel like hoping for Max and McCourty is just a pointless pipe dream.
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think we can all; agree that we would be going insane with joy if the eagles announced the signing of Max and McCourty…
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This article makes me feel better about the Eagles, football, and life in general.
http://grantland.com/the-triangle/grantland-exclusive-the-re-oranging-of-the-cleveland-browns/
I do not understand the Rams, every team except the Rams decided to carry over un-used cap space from last year. Why on earth wouldnt they do it?
Paperwork error?
They actually didn’t have any room to carryover.
Jason from Over the Cap posted this a few days ago:
Jason_OTC
@Jason_OTC
27 Feb 2014
@adbrandt Giants, Rams, and Redskins should be the 0 carryover teams
It appears the Rams had zero to carryover while the Giants and Redskins only had about $100K each.
expensive to pay for all those extra first round picks? 🙂
Ahh that makes sense. How do such a bad team have zero room?
Sam Bradford. The last of the first overall picks on the old CBA.
dez officially tagged.
With Maclin, I think the best bet is to give him the transition tag. Ideally, of course, you’d reach a long-term deal with him but if not I would not allow him to be entirely free. Placing the transition tag on him versus the franchise tag saves you about $1.8M in cap room. It doesn’t give you two 1st round picks if you don’t match an offer sheet, but no one is giving up two 1st round picks for Maclin anyway. Typically, one of two things will happen with the transition tag. Either it will scare teams off and you can eventually get the player signed to a long-term deal or you basically have another team do the negotiating for you and then you match their offer sheet. It’s rare that a team will sign a transition tag player to an unrealistic offer sheet because they don’t want their cap room tied up while waiting on your decision to match or not while other players are going off the board. It’d be different if you were targeting a FA on a team without cap room or flexibility, but the Eagles could easily match any non-crazy offer. You could run the slight risk that a team with a ton of cap room like Oakland or Cleveland could throw him a significant offer closer to the draft after you’ve spent your cap room that would make you consider not matching, but all in all I think it’s the best option.
find it kind of disturbing that after we gave Chip a free pass the first two years to do whatever he wanted to “Build this program”, so many fans could be so nonchalant about potentially losing some of our top players..
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IMO, AXING top players that you dont want as part of the future is something that should have been done during the first two years. This is year 3, the only players we should be losing in year 3 are guys like Bradley fletcher who were always just stop gap bandaids..
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the top players from the past regime should have been cut the first two years.. we prioritized building a strong locker room so much, and now that we have a strong locker room, its a shame to see fans be ok with moves that really crap all over the locker room we spent two years building.
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Im banking on Chip knowing Better.. Im banking on someone who cared so much about building the right locker room, not be as willing to make too many moves that are counterproductive to everything.
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i dont really get it.. we NEVER spend our entire cap, we roll over money every single year just about as if we are soo good that we have no use for spending an extra 10mil on talent that we usually end up carrying over.. Most teams draft and hit on High Quality players, lock them up long term, and BUILD on it!.. when it comes to us, we have to be concerned about losing high quality talent/character that we drafted, developed, built chemistry with?
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assuming we didnt cut any players under contract this offseason, BUILDING on last years roster was already hard enough without creating more holes to fill, pissing away our high caliber players to create MORE holes to fill as if we didnt already have enough work to do this offseason IMO is just so dysfunctional
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we arent getting anywhere if we fill holes, and then create more of them losing High end talent we drafted. Dysfunctional teams like the Bills draft and develop top talent and then lose them in free agency like a glorafieds minor league feeder team… I would like to think the Philadelphia Eagles are better then that…. Losing Maclin after you jettisoned desean, made a mistake paying Coop, have two cheap rookie contracts at the position, basically having so little money tied up into the WR position Imo IS dysfunctional Insanity..
,.,.
I know the rumors, I know the opinion, but Im praying that our coach knows better… Losing top talent in their prime that we drafted is absurd, what are we, the friggin buffalo Bills?
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Unless you plan at making a serious run at Dez or Demaryious which isnt happening, Losing Maclin for me is just crazy
I’d love to re-sign Maclin too. I just have more confidence in Kelly’s ability to scheme offensive production without great talent at the skill positions than I do in Davis’s ability to scheme a quality defense without talent upgrades on the defensive roster. I’d rather pay to help the O-line and defense than commit a ton of money on the offensive skill positions. I’d be more comfortable paying Maclin if we weren’t spending so much money on the RB postiion.
i dont like to view our cap in a 1 year vacuum… its easy to look at Coopers cap numbers for this year and get worried about how much we pay Maclin, but overpaying for a certain position group for one year isnt the end of the world, especially when good chance we are just waiting for next year being more cap friendly to cut him then this year….. So while today we can view paying Maclin, Cooper both as a problem, but its easily solved by cutting COOPER or forcing him to take a significant pay cut..
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i really hate the conversations justifying lack of talent.. dont really care how much of a genius chip is, Id rather him scheme high level NFL talents Wide open, then to have to scheme open less talented players
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I also havent gotten to enjoy having a true #1 WR since 2004. Basically in almost the past 20 years, I have had 2 seasons of rooting for a true #1 WR: T.O in 2004 and Maclin in 2014… after what Maclin did last year for Foles late in close Games, he officially reached true #1 status in my eyes..
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i understand why we had to lose TO… but t finally have a #1 WR AGAIN, but who is still in his prime and is a perfect fit in just about every way imaginable. Been rolling over cap year after year for as long as I can remember. The excuse for never really going all in during free agency was because we had to carry money over into the future so we can retain our young talent… now one of our top young talents might not be retained? i would have a serious problem with that…I have a problem with front office telling me I cant have the top free agents on the market because we need to save money to not lose our young talent, yet now we are talking about letting one of our best players walk? i would have a major major problem with that…
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Id rather cut Shady, then to lose Maclin.. for a team that doesnt even consider elite free agent talent like Justin Houston, to lose the top talent it drafts and develops is something I have a major issue with
The Giants gave Jason Pierre-Paul the francshise tag, which I think is crazy. Flash player. One great season, a few good games at the end of last season when he kicked it into gear because he knew it was contract time. The majority of time he’s been middling.
wow. so he and houston getting the same $$ next year?
Houston will actually get less because the linebacker tag is less than DE. They need to change the CBA to reclassify players as edge rushers. There’s a report that Houston may challenge his designation as a LB instead of a DE. However, he does often lineup as a linebacker and not a down DE.
the fact that the giants have two recent rings and we have non really kills me. edit, didn’t realize he had 12.5 sacks last year.
there is not anything worse in all of sports to be honest.
Wow, didn’t know that part of the tag business. I thought “DE” is just a more easy way to say Pass Rusher.
It’s absurd that MLB, where the best like Willis earn around 7m, and pass rushing All Pro OLBs, who have every cent as much value as your All Pro DE, will get tagged the same way.
Why is the NFL assuming a 43 when it comes to tag, when about half of the league is playing a 34?
Another thing: Thornton is a DE for us. Would he be viewed as a DE when it comes to the tag? Would be crazy, imho, because he has a completely different role than, let’s say, Robert Quinn.
It’s about time for the NFL to change that – it’s in the best interest of the players and the teams, imho. Say D-Line, ILB, Pass Rusher, CB, S – would be much easier.
Yep, Thornton would be considered DE for tag purposes. He’d never be tagged. The tag definitions are antiquated.
yeah it really needs to be addressed, and updated…. you cant be grouping in 4-3 DE’s with 3-4 DEs, thats a bigger difference then CB and slot CB which are two entirely different positions… its bad enough that glorified WRs like Jimmy Graham can be ripped off by being tagged as a TE, when there really isnt anything TE about him. He is a finesse Nancy boy who is a big veteran but coaches dont trust him to even let attempt block anyone..
It’s the same reason that 34 DEs don’t make pro bowls and you get dumb stuff like pass rushing OLBs who are 270lbs having to play a 43 Will.
That said, the difference between OLB and DE is very small.
Suggs did the same and got the Ravens to split the difference.
Yes, a negotiated settlement between the two sides. Seems like the relationship between Houston and KC is more contentious.
The difference is like 13.1 for LB’s and 14 and change for DE’s. I think the hassle of arbitration may outweigh the potential gain for him.
Dez Bryant and DT got franchise tags. Maclin isn’t close to either of them as a player. Why franchise a non-franchise player?
Often players get Tagged, but NEVER play a single game on that Franchise Tag contract. not uncommon to see the tag used, if a team and the player really expect to reach a longterm agreement, but need more time to negotiate, so they use the tag to buy more time maintianing exclusive negotiation rights,…
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In Maclins case, I would strongly assume that if we see Maclin get tagged, a week or two later the Franchise Tag is removed and a Maclin Extension is announced..
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Really dont see us tagging Maclin but him actually playing on that Tag contract this year… if the eagles tag him, its most likely just to buy more time because both sides are confident they can eventually work it out and come to terms…
The player can sign the tag at any time and accept the one-year salary. You can’t just assume that you’ll eventually get a long-term deal done.
there is no assuming involved.. we have been in talks with Maclin for over a year, safe to say we have a very good idea without having to make Baseless assumptions..
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Maclin already risked it all betting on himself on a 1yr deal, I assume he will be motivated for security and not press his luck again playing on another 1 year deal. …whats the WR tag, 13 mil? I assume he would be happy to forefit his franchise Tag salary of 13mil, if he can have some longterm security at 10 or 11 mil…
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at the end of the day Im pretty confident we will see Maclin in midnight green come september.. how we actually reach that point, I really dont care much because its a position we are investing so little in.. Id be more concerned about the details on how we go about keeping one of our players at positions we are investing alot in… for example OLB.. when we are paying Barwin and probably will extend him soon, while we gave Marcus smith a first round contract, while we continue to pay Cole good money, THATS a position we have alot of money tied into which are the negotiations that really concern me… what do i really care if we pay Maclin 11 or 13, when after next season the only money we will have tied up into the WR position are Jordan Mathews 2nd round money, and Huffs 3rd round money. Im trying to look at things thru the eyes of our decision makers and our decision makers care more about how much money they are paying a position as a hole, intead of what 1 individual player at that position is making
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but for a team that jettisoned Desean and has been rolling over Salary Cap for years because we are so petrified of losing young talent, the thought of losing Maclin for me is ridiculous.. fortunately we dont have to wait another two months to find out, driving us mad…
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Eagles adjusted cap number for this year almost 160,000,000 !!
Doesn’t change our projected cap room. That’s just the league-wide cap for this year plus the cap room we carried over from last year.
Whats the point in filling holes during the offseason that kept us from being Elite last year, if instead of BUILDING on last years team, we decide to fill holes, while pissing away our Talent and creating more holes?
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what good is strengthening the secondary if we are going to turn the WR position into a weakness that needs addressing? whats the point in filling our ILB NEEDS if we are going to create OLB needs?
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Losing high level talent that we draft is what dysfunctional teams do… I would like to think we are a healthier organization then the Buffalo Bills…
What high level talent have we lost this offseason…or are you making a hypothetical?
talking about Hypotheticaly losing Maclin over an extra mil or two at a position we have so little money invested in past this season.. bad enough I have to watch us lose BG after the years we waited for him to get over Microfracture surgery
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we had a starting OL, now we have to prioritize finding a starting RG, but OL is so important that i dont mind
Don’t we have 22 million dollars invested in cooper?
i was under the assumption that he is a lock to get cut after this season when his dead money drops..
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best case scenario for him I expect would be pay cut to stay… and im not talking about moving his money around and restructure him, im talking real pay cut or gone after this season…
No it was a 2 year 10 million dollar contract. They could have called it a 10 year 100 million dollar contract, but if you can cut a play for not cost after 2 years and 10 million that’s what it is.
I’m not worrying about Maclin until he’s gone. I think he stays. I don’t think anyone that’s currently a FA on this team, Maclin aside, isn’t replaceable.
Cobb was looking for $9m a. Year that’s an attractive number, plus Cobb was a great returner. Hopefully seeing what happened to James Jones keeps him from going to the raiders
personally, if vegas offered odds on whether Maclin is an eagle or not in september, id be comfortable putting a few dollars on him being here… I would be really surprised to see him not brought back because he is the perfect fit in every way. Performed LIKE A legit #1` WR showing up late in games during crunch time, Great chemistry with our franchise QB Mr. Foles..Never having to worry about him getting arrested during the offseason, blocked his ass off….
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AND THE MOST IMPORTANT ASPECT ABOUT Maclin that needs to be valued and respected above all else is the Fact that a guy who was busy betting on himself on a 1yr deal with an uncertain future, watched the eagles not only spend a 2nd and 3rd round pick on a WR’s, but one came with Chip kellys favoritism(Huff) and the OTHER WR we drafted came with as much hype as a rookie could possibly get in this city.. Jordan Mathews became the “Pope of south Philly(Greenwich) village, the Coaches loved him, the media raved about him and the fanbase annointed him instantly… instead of Maclin worrying about Jordan Mathews while Maclin was busy fighting for his EAGLE future, he still was a class act who Jordan Mathews praises continuously for taking him under his wing, helping him so much, when Jordan and Huff posed some level of a threat to Macs eagle future…
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You dont lose a player like that…he literally Checks everysingle box we could hope for in a player in his prime we are considering making a rich man,..
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Losing Maclin, and think you can easily replace him with something similar who will be exactly what we are looking for in every aspect just like maclin is IMO is bad business and you are playing with Fire…
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when you put an emphasis on your locker room, when you put an emphasis on veterans who can set examples and help groom the young talent we bring in, I dont see how anyone can think we can just easily replace Maclin…. Losing Maclin would be such a mistake and major blow to this team, and far more value then just what we see on the field..
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you can cut Herremans, but losing Maclin or Demeco right now IMO you cant even consider it…
Maclin and possible cuts Ryans/Trent/Graham.
We had one of the better front 7’s in the NFL last season (especially before Ryans got injured) and we need to maintain that.
Personally i think we can replace Graham/Trent with a more natural OLB in FA at an effect cap saving, bring back Maclin and still get a CB and a S and have cap left for extending our young talent.
yes sir!! i see things your way
I think you’ll see restructures before fa. Pay cuts if we need the space
Maclin I think is really the k lot one we’d really miss from that group.
There wasn’t that significant a drop off in play once Ryans went out imo.
It’d be interesting to see if pass d was worse after meco left.
100%!!!!
TOTALLY DISAGREE! The Loss of Ryans from schematic flexibility point of view was a HUGE loss for us last year!! a big part of everyone complaining about always getting burned in single high safety late in the year was because of the loss of Meco, we NO LONGER had the ability to use our nickel package when meco got hurt, we were forced into choosing between Base and Dime, and if teams are forcing us to play alot of Dime, you can bet they will also try to be sneaky and run on our dime.. I wrote in depth about just how much losing Meco crushed our defense down the stretch, people really have the wrong idea about how well Casey Mathews stepped up… Absolutely true that he held us down against the run, but losing Meco really really really screwed with our ability to get off the field on 3rd down, which you wouldnt think considering how bad people claim he is in coverage which isnt really true, more of an “old wives tale from the sea”
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wish i knew what thread I posted my Meco post in, but i dont feel like rehatching that discussion in detail again..
We’ve been getting burned deep for two years now, I don’t buy that’s all on Meco. Have to factor in we also loss Goode. I think Meco is replaceable either by Goode, FA or potentially the draft.
I have serious concerns about his ability now after two Achilles injuries, not to mention the almost $7M cap number
why wasn’t Meco providing help on Dez’s TD over Fletcher on the corner of the end zone??? WHY???
yeah you really arent understanding what Im tryng to say, but I wrote about it in depth twice already and cant do it a 3rd time… If I come across one of my two previous posts on the subject, ill make sure to copy and paste them under one of your more recent posts…
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but the gist of it is, you are schematically FUCKED and limited if you only have 1 LB you can fathom putting on the field on 3rd down passing situations.
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The simple minded embarrassing level of media coverage talks about demeco as if he is horrible in coverage when that isnt at all true. Its true that he isnt the best guy to have in man coverage, but he often compensates for his man to man defficiency by just knocking the WR on his ass as soon as the ball is snapped. Cant burn him if you are on the ground as soon as the ball is snapped… but YES, he isnt a weapon in man coverage on a wide reciever on 3rd down like a kid like christian Kirksey would be for us….but this city and media doesnt give Meco the proper credit for his ability to drop into zone coverage. Really crafty understanding of depth in his drops..knowing exactly how far back to drop to get in the QBs way on a given pass play which is why we see Meco come up with more INTs then we would expect..
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we got a way with losing him on first and second down with Casey filling in better then any of us thought,, but Mecos injury really had a negative impact on our 3rd down defense..
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Year 1 we had Base defense and Nickel defense but NO dime… Finally at the start of last season we had a real defense that actually had the option to line up in Base, Nickel and DIME… when we lost Meco we completely lost our Nickel Package, and its a little silly to people cry about getting beat in man coverage so much when we are in single high, when those same people would have complained sooooooooo much more if Billy let offenses force us into Dime defense and run the ball down our throat like the saints did in the playoffs against our nickel…it was more important for the safety to not let teams force us to play dime and run the ball on us at will, then it was important to have both safeties helping our weak corners
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if i find one of the posts ill post it, it was much more detailed then this… moral of the story, we desperately need another LB with similar ability as kendricks in 3rd down passing situation.s
Cortland Finnegan got the ace. Dolphins shedding salaries
sign him!
I hope you’re joking about signing Finnegan. He is on the same level as Bradley Fletcher and has been in a steady decline for 3 years now.
haha take it as you wish..
oh my brother, Finnegan is even worse than Bradley Fletcher.. Finnigan and Ike Taylor IMO should have been out of the NFL two years ago and they keep collecting checks off of their name, and how they performed years ago,..
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if you were starting Cortland last year, Bradley Fletcher is probably an upgrade… Finnegan and Ike Taylor have been horrendous
Yeah, but his name sounds like a leprechaun, so maybe he would be lucky, or at least expand the breakfast offerings at camp.
I wonder with how much Maclin wants and with his agents willingness to drag his feet in order to give them more leverage, at what point does the price point become so high they just decide to go after a taller player like Demaryius Thomas? I mean if it’s going to Cost you for a WR you might as well have one that’s 6ft 3 230.
Thomas was franchise tagged. I don’t think we’d be willing to give up two 1st round picks for him.
Snap!
dT got tagged so unless you are ready to give up two 1sts he will not become an Eagle.
let’s do it and trade for MM and not have a 1st round pick until 2025
the anti hinkie blueprint?
Don’t you think the Eagles would have placed the FT on Maclin by now?!
Mac won’t get tagged, get used to it.
Mac will be an eagle nest year…. get used to it “)
I have to admit Im pretty darn clueless when it comes to Tampa Bay players and how they have performed the past two years… Can anyone speak on this player?…
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Anthony Collins – T – Buccaneers
According to NFL Network’s Ian Rapoport, the Bucs will cut OT Anthony Collins if they can’t trade him.
Collins signed a five-year, $30M deal one year ago that included $15M guaranteed. But all the cash was up front, so the Bucs can move on from Collins and only leave $3M of dead money behind. We wouldn’t expect GM Jason Licht to be able to swing a trade-roto
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any chance this kid is an extra option, or is he someone we wont even look his way due to scheme, character or recent play?
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Anyone have a solid grasp on Colts FS Mike Adams ability?
Bucks line was generally terrible.
surprised to hear that considering they have invested in it the past few years. its not like they ignored it… either bad front office talent/scheme fit evaluations or poor coaching… most likely a little of both..
I can’t believe Adams is still playing. He’s gotta be pushing 34-35 at this point
really odd to see how he is getting so much praise at his age… typically players dont wait til they are 33 years old to make their first probowl….
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via roto: The Indianapolis Star’s Stephen Holder “senses motivation from both sides” as the Colts look to re-sign free agent FS Mike Adams.
Adams was a bright spot for the Colts’ secondary in 2014, logging five interceptions and his first Pro Bowl nod. The No. 11 safety in Rotoworld’s free agent rankings, it sounds like Adams isn’t going anywhere….
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…. i had to make sure they were talking about the same mike Adams that i was thinking of,
So he has 4 years @ 15 million with only 3 guaranteed left on his deal? Two observations: (1) if he is a guy we are interested in, ofering a piddling amount in trade to preserve his contract might be the way to go, and (2) this is why bad teams never have any cap room.
not even necessarily a trade target,.. if he is on the trading block, safe to assume he will be cut if no one offers the bucs any value.. and the TIMING of when he gets cut could be attractive if he were a realistic option for us, which i have no idea if he is or isnt, I cant even think of who he is, what college he played for. Drawing a complete Blank..
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Mike Adams i have heard good and bad things about, really didnt watch much of the colts defense this year and when i did, I watched as a fan not as someone who really wanted to understand their defense.. word is the Colts and Him probably will reach an agreement but he is one of the free agents at our position that i have no idea how good or ow bad he is
Collins was a very good reserve tackle for Cincy that ended up starting a bunch, primarily IIRC at LG and RT. He seems to have done poorly at LT. I’ve always thought of Adams as a poor starter or good reserve but he has improved with age. He played for Denver before last season when Undlin was DBs coach there. He played for the Colts last season and had the best year of his career.
ahhhhh the Cincy OT. Now I know who we are talking about. Thank you
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2334181-justin-houston-franchise-tagged-by-chiefs-latest-contract-details-and-reaction
Posted less than an hour ago. About 2:20 EST.
McCourty officially on the market.
Yep, they tagged their kicker.
Dolphins gave TE Charles Clay the transition tag.
clay was on his way to having alot of suitors on this market
that seems like tagging your relief pitcher
Late to the party today, but I just saw this. Could bring Searcy down?
More players available but also more cap room league-wide available. In other words, not necessarily.
maybe not significantly… but if we go after searcy hard immediately, some other teams could be waiting on McCourtys answer first before they go after Searcy, so its possible that if we move quickily McCourty reaching the market means us bidding against two or three teams less then we would, if the moment the market opened Searcy was the best option..
,.,.,’
Hoping Teams wait for McCourtys decision the first couple of days, and im hoping Rahim Moore is a more attrractive safety league wide, sliding Searcy down to like the #3 safety option..
,.,,
id still place a bid on restricted browns safety Tashuan Gipson… i dont give a crap if owners collude not to bid on each others restricted layers, Id try to steal that kid from the browns
From the Patriots’ Boston Herald beat writer:
Karen Guregian
@kguregian
10m10 minutes ago
There should be plenty of suitors for Pats safety Devin McCourty, who was not
tagged. Among them are Giants, Bears, Broncos, Eagles.
I am really surprised. Did they tag the kicker?
Yes.
repeating what I said below, but that seems odd like tagging a relief pitcher.
Giants and Broncos have limited cap and the Bears suck so there probably has to be some other suitors otherwise the eagles may be in business.
Belichick often gets the benefit, but no kicker is worth almost 5 mill.
In terms of value added, McCourty adds so much more value for only 4.5 mill more
its $5.5m difference. The problem is they’d have to get under the cap limit by the 10th, which might be hard if they haven’t restructured revis by then.
They are either giving Revis a new contract or cutting him. No way he plays for 20 mill.
Still, no kicker in the history of the NFL adds enough value to pay him almost 5 mill.
Until Parkey.
Gostkowski had most kicked made, hit 94% of FGs. 35 FGs, over 100pts. 2 FGs kept us out of the playoffs.
http://www.nfl.com/player/stephengostkowski/2506922/careerstats
Look how bad he was 2 years ago and for 3 straight years. Kickers FG% is some of the most volatile in the NFL because of the sample size.
Cody Parkey’s 2014 was better than all but of Gost’s 9 seasons. Cody Parkey just had a rookie scoring record and its not like its hard to hit 100 points for a kicker for a good teams
I just can’t believe the Eagles won’t place transition tag on maclin. At least give yourself a chance to match after you see final offers.
27 more minutes.
Problem with T tag is that if you don’t match you don’t get any compensation.
Especially with teams like the Jets, Jags, and Oakland all needing WR and having literally $60+mil to spend.
You still at least have a formal option to match. And agents can’t bs you about the amounts they are seeing from other teams.
Yes but if an agent says $13, which is very likely given the cap and the fact that he and cobb are the best guys out there, do you pay that (doubtful) or lose mac and the comp. pick you would have gotten.
The T tag doesn’t help when it’s obviously lower than the market.
Just eliminates agent speak and you really know what the other offers are. Instead of guessing
The Eagles still have until March 10th to get a deal done with Maclin.
Eagles just annouced that they have signed Brad Jones to a 2 year deal (its most likely just a 1 year deal with a team controlled 2nd year)
Have to see how much money is involved. As long as it’s for less than $2M a year, it’s fine.
Its most likely small money with a chance for Jones to earn some more with playing time
SPLASH!
im not really certain that this is a signing that will be a lock to make our roster this year. Of course I need to see the terms of the contract to really be able to make that statement… but from his play the past two years, i dont see how i can just assume he is a lock to make our roster… and if we are looking at him as a ST linebacker, There are other ST LB i would much rather prefer… how much better is he then signing Jason Phillips two years ago?
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if i had to go ILB shopping, GB is probably the LAST team i would look at lol
and the fact that they signed him so quickly.
yeah wouldnt shock me to see him turn out to be just a camp body…
Ended up signing Brad Jones on a 2 year deal.
Wonder if the Eagles see him as an option over Demeco or as a Casey Matthews replacement?
Think bit of both. Most likely just depth signing on a potential athletic LB
is he good?
He wasnt good last year, but the Packers defense was just badly coached from top to bottom and that DL was horrible at protecting the LBs
He’s okay. Played really well in 2012, less so past two years.
so good they moved clay matthews inside.
clay must be pretty good
So since McCourty is hitting the market, which is more important? McCourty or Maxwell? Can they afford both? How much on extensions will they spend? Also, please tell me something is going to get done with Mac.
Its a tough one, but I think McCourty would help the secondary more than Maxwell.
Elite safeties can really help the CBs more than elite CBs can help a safety.
definitely agree… Malcolm Jenkins and McCourty can really help make whoever our corners are look a little better then they really are… in todays game where teams have like 5 pass catching quality weapons to throw at, a safety brings you wany more bang for our buck then a CB does… you can avoid a corner if you are a QB… you cant avoid a safety all game…
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id be willing to bet that put safeties like Jenkins and Searcy or McCourty back there and Nolan Carrol will have a quality year at outside corner for us
A Safety with range would have helped us against Dallas, Washington, and GB.
a safety like searcy that never commits a penalty and doesnt let WRs get behind him, wins us the Cardinals game which changes the entire season.
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shocker, Bruce Arians sent his rookie burner at Nate Allens side, having him run a double move swinging for the fences on 3rd down with the game on the line, instead of playing safe and just picking up the 3rd down…embarressing for 5th year Nate allen to let a rookie do that to him… Searcy probably wouldnt have allowwed john Brown to get behind him when a team is losing in crunch time with the game on the line…
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a safety that wouldnt let John Brown get behind him on that play would have been awesomne. and no exzcuse why 5th year Nate allen is blowing important games like that at the hands of a rookie
you had me at “Nate Allen”
Revis
Da’norris Searcy IMO is the most important,. who would have the biggest impact on our secondary…. nothing i have seen from the eagles that gives me any bit of confidence that they would sign Max AND McCourty… Best we can hope for is a top 3 free agent at corner or Safety, and a lower tier young player at the other DB position who we think will go on to play his best ball during his next contract..
,,]
Basically I think our best hope thats somewhat remotely realistic of being something the Eagles would do is either:
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A) Sign Searcy or McCourty at Safety, and go with a Davon House type at Corner…
or the opposite…
B) Sign Maxwell, and go with a second tier young cheaper safety who we think has the best chance to blow yup during his next contract like a Marcus Gilchrist…
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and if we are going with track record and Familiarity, it would be Rahim Moore (with his DB coach in town) and Kareem Jackson since we already have half of the Texans defense in place…
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Obviously i think every fan would be celebrating BIG TIME to see us sign Maxwell and M<cCourty or Searcy, but i dont see how anyone can rationally predict that with any convidence when there is nothing in our recent history that would suggest spending that much on half of our secondary…sure as hell hope im wrong tho!!
WTF? this is the second time one of my posts came out typed like this… i think its pretty cool and would love to know how to do this on purpose
I know. I was just looking at that. Are you doing this on a phone or a computer?
comp… this is the 2nd time one of my posts did this…. weird
Hmmm – Mac, Windows, or Linux? Which browser are you using?
windows… pretty sure last time it happened i was also on my Comp..
Did you take the Red or Blue pill? lol Matrix
half n half… like to live on the wild side
Figured it out. This site automatically recognizes different languages if someone was putting in a script or html code (not really safe IMO).
It seems that you may have inadvertently put in “” it automatically puts it in for you.
With Brad Smith and now Brad Jones on the roster all we have to do is coax Brad Johnson out of retirement and we’ll have Brads with 3 of the 5 most common surnames in America. #SuperBowl
LOL
Would have to re-sign Brad Smith first.
WHATEVER IT TAKES!
Eagles officially didn’t use the franchise or transition tag on Maclin.
wow. playing hardball, 10 8 days to get a deal done.
I think Maclin’s gone. OAK, JAX, CLE have tons of cap room and pronounced need at WR. They’ll overpay. I think Eagles look at another strong WR draft and think the money is better spent elsewhere at positions where the draft is weak.
Yep plus the two ACL history for Mac is a question. Given our pressing needs, this decision could be the right one. Maybe Cobb or someone will be tagged, otherwise, as you said, the WR draft looks interesting.
OD there you are, what is your take on Maclin? Chip looking at this from a completely different angle, like thinking I’m not even going to entertain over paying for a WR.
Yes, he does not want to overpay. But for me his calculus is beyond my comprehension. I am just guessing that he has his own value chart for O and D needs. We all will be going wtf when FA and the draft are done. Chip will go BOLD in his 3rd year.
it’s killing me waiting around these days to see it all happen.
Yeah, me too. But as I mentioned on another forum, Chip is go for a 1st on his own thirty type of coach. I saw one game where it was 4th and 12 on the thirty and he went for it. Of course, he had Mariota which gives you an idea of what is coming this year.
He wants an O and D where he can go for first on his own thirty. He is a BOLD sob which his why he draws many of us to his team.
i dunno about that… i interpret that as the exact opposite… for me, i interpret that as sides arent that far apart and dont expect it will be a problem getting the deal done before he reaches the open market..
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but we’ll see…
In a world where teams didn’t tamper, I might agree. I’m sure his agent is talking to other teams and know he can get more on the open market than the Eagles would be willing to pay him.
I think the cap floor is going to cause some people to get absolutely silly money.
especially b/c he and cobb are the only big name guys out there not getting tagged. i think not tagging him — and the way things have been going you gotta think he walks at this point.
There is a legal tampering period now, so he can begin talking legally with other teams before the 10th
we will see…. but going into this, i expected the franchise tag to only be a possibility if sides were still far apart and we needed tl buy more time because we didnt think we could come to terms before the market opened… i never viewed him playing the season out on the tag as a real option. for me the tag was just a tool to buy more time for two sides to inevitably reach an agreement… fortunately we will find out soon..
,.,
when does the legal tampering phase open? this weekend, or next weeked?
I think March 7th, then teams can sign March 10th
so this weekend starts tampering, tuesday or monday starts the open market? it better be this week, i have a terrible travel schedule the following week.
I believe so. I’ll go to Revis’ house if it’s in NE.
The legal tampering phase starts Mar 7th, the actual tampering phase started long ago.
yeah i dont know why the nfl doesnt stop kidding itself when they know everyone is chatting at the combine.
,.,.
still donbt get how Jerry Jones is getting away with talking to adrian Peterson on the friggin phone during the NFL season…
if that they could have tagged and hen worked on it. The fact that they didn’t even transition him means they don’t want to even give him $11m, which if that’s the case, he’s gone.
Unless they came to a deal that they’ll announce today / tomorrow.
do you take this as Chip thinking, hell no I won’t even risk paying Maclin $13M?
Might be Kelly who has told Howie (who is doing contracts) that he believe he can get any talented WR the kind of production Jackson and Maclin have just had.
This is most likely because Kelly is super high on Matthews and think Huff is good enough to help a ton next year.
but why not just transition tag, then you can at least match or not. Is there a downside?
I think Chip with full personnel control is going to be really interesting and have a few wtf moments. He’s got some ideas.
Well consider Howie is still doing contracts, I really doubt Chip is interested in this part anyway.
are you suggesting not applying a tag was Howie’s decision and not Chip’s? I don’t think so.
I think it was Howie’s decision.
While Chip is in full control, Howie is still the one dealing with agents and doing all the trade talk with other GM, so why wouldnt he be the one in charge of the check book?
I highly doubt that. Howie has input but Chip is drawing the lines in the sand etc. Otherwise, Chip doesn’t have the control that he won. I would be really surprised if this wasn’t Chip’s decision.
what say the rest of you?
I agree. Roseman might be doing the negotiating but on a bright line issue such as “Do you want to give him the franchise tag to ensure keeping him?”, I think Kelly is dictating things.
I think if Howie tell Kelly its a bad idea bc of something or because they are close, I think Kelly listens.
I think in that case Kelly is smart enough to know that being “close” doesn’t ensure that he won’t leave.
No, but Kelly is also smart enough to know he know 0 about NFL cap management and will leave it to one of the best.
Only reason we kept Howie is for something like this.
I think if Kelly said hell no, I’m not losing him, tag him. Howie does it. Which means Chip is calling the shots on tagging. Otherwise, he doesn’t control a really important aspect of the personnel control he fought for. This isn’t just “contracts”.
This is what Howie does according to the Eagles. so he is on charge if all contract and salary cap related. Only thing Kelly gained was control over the draft.
“In his role, Roseman directs contract negotiations, salary cap management and NFL strategic matters while also overseeing the team’s medical staff, equipment staff and more”
ok we just disagree. One guy of the two has final say, and I think it’s Chip. Of course they each can give input, but if Chip can’t sign who he wants b/c Roseman tells him I won’t pay for that, then Chip only won who he can draft. That’s not what I think happened. Chip won.
We kind of a agree, I just think Kelly is not stupid enough to go against Howie if Howie tells Kelly that player X is too expensive.
I think he is if he agrees with the analysis. IF he doesn’t agree i think he’ll tell Howie what he wants and howie will do it.
Chip said earlier that he has zero interest in the contractual stuff, so he is most likely going on what Howie says.
You have to pay him $11 mil this year if he signs the tag.
ok thanks. I get it.
He is probably going to get 10 mil anyway. So what’s the harm in having the leverage on agents to where they can’t lie to you about the amounts they are getting from other teams. You have a formal opportunity to match the best offer.
Because Maclin is probably going to go get 12 or 13 in FA. If we don’t want to pay him that much, there is no point to the transition tag.
“Agents lying about offers” Front offices all know each other. If an agent tells Howie that Tampa Bay is going to pay 15 a year for Maclin, Howie is going to call Jason Licht and ask, “so how hard should I punch this agent in the face for lying?”
I imagine Howie’s punch-strength runs the gamut from “slight breeze” to “moderate breeze.”
It’s also agents we’re talking about here. The strength of the faces run from greasy to gelatinously scummy.
Slick as a cup of custard.
This is such the key point. The open market bidding on Maclin is going to drive his number up beyond the point where he’s worth it to the Eagles. They don’t have a desire to pay him the franchise tag number at appx. and the transition tag number placeholds you with more money than you’d want in year 1 of a 5 year deal anyway.
felt better when howie had power and chip was getting whatever he wanted anyway, but howie could keep him on a leash
Anyone else get absolutely no work done this afternoon?
Ditto. I’m wringing my hands over FA and the draft. My crystal ball is cloudy.
other than the parades.
i didnt go to sleep yet because i decided to be a crackhead and watch an entire first season of the show “Vikings” last night…i literally watched 9 45 minute episodes from like 11pm to 6am… so i was pretty much destined to not get any work done today regardless
so how is that show? kind of like Game of Thrones or something?
yeah, season 1 was pretty darn entertaining, Viking culture is insane.. similar type of show to G of T, but Vikings is really low budget compared to Game of thrones… kind of annoys me a bit that the main charecter Ragnar Lothbrook reminds me so much of Jax Teller from sons of Anarchy… but yeah, id say that a show that caused me to pull an all nighter on a work night because I had to watch 9 episodes in a row is probably a pretty good show worth recommending,
,.,
Best things I saw this week, The JINXED Bob Durst HBO 6 part series, what a creeepy fucker that dude is..
,,,
and the Kobe bryant showtime documentary was excellent…
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but I been mostly busy watching Emmanuel Mudiay return to china and have a monster game in game 3 of the playoffs, watched Dario Saric win another championship/cup tournament, and Hezonja have another ridiculuos 3 point shooting night in Barcelona…
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ill be in philly the next 9 days, if anyone is going to a sixer game give me the heads up…
This is
I agree
You would.
This is a <test of the emergency broadcast system. We're seeing if this comes out looking like code. Or something like that.
how did you do it? lol
I just posted it below. It’s Disqus trying to turn what you say into html/css code.
lol thanks… sucks that its only a disque thing, i could have adopted it like my “FOles”
So whats the norm here? Players that aren’t tagged, what percentage signs back on with the same team?
Could we lose Graham and Maclin? Market is going to be expensive for both those guys.
don’t sweat it we got brad jones!
Sure. We’re in a good cap situation, just not as good as a few other teams. A few players will get crazy money and the Eagles will be in a good position to sign the #2/3 guys at certain position at more reasonable rates. At this point, I think Graham has a better chance of coming back than Maclin.
wow maclin on another team is not something I like at all…
he is our guy
I heard his jersey is discounted in the Eagles website.
jk
I don’t think I could comprehend it and my head would explode.
doesn’t make sense from the “culture” standpoint. great character, hard worker, great hands, etc…
Yeah, maybe he is asking for more money then we all have assumed. The change of agents may have been a power play on his part. He may have felt that his old agent was to friendly with birds FO and couldn’t get the max money from them.
$5.25m now feels really low for last year, wonder if that played a part in how he’s approaching this year.
What was Djax’s number, $9m?
Djaxs I think was like 10m. I may be wrong. What you said could very well play a part in it. He doesn’t seem the type but maybe he feels disrespected by the long term deal he was offered last season, and the one year deal he signed. Probably has a lot to do with the changing of agents.
Informal poll: Choose A or B
A. Jeremy Maclin plus 1st or 2nd round safety
B. Devin McCourty plus 1st or 2nd round WR
I thought our First was gone in the MM trade.
and second!
#20 plus Will Murphy, G.J. Kinne, and Taylor Hart
Gotta get a 2017 first rounder in return for Kinne.
C. Both
Can i have Maclin and still take a wr
B. Obvious answer if that’s the way they are playing it. Wonder if they take Matthews outside and move huff to the slot?
I rather let Matthews stay in the slot while the rookie WR fights for the #2 spot.
probably not a fair poll because the first or second round safeties suck this year… id rather have 6 WRs in this draft before I even consider any of the safeties..
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but two similar high caliber talents, Id take the continuity and the Devil we know every time, unless the devil we dont know Dwarfs him in upside and potential..
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strongly believe in majority of team building being done in the draft…losing talent we drafted for some other teams talent is something I would like to avoid as much as possible… the good ones win Championships because of their drafts
B. Finding serviceable safeties in the draft has become almost impossible.
This was a clever question, and the answer is B.
Howie Roseman’s office was recently moved from the football
operations end of the NovaCare Complex to the business side, sources
said, another indication of the former Eagles general manager’s
lessening involvement with decisions related to the team.
Two years from now, Howie will have Smolenski’s job.
yup….unless chip leaves first….
,…
Id bet that Howie remains an eagle longer then Chip does.. if chip stays another 5 years, id assume you are right and he will take smolenskis job in two, three years….but if Chip leaves in two years, Id bet we see howie resume his GM powers and I assume we would be seeing Howie Roseman pick the next coach who will succeed Chip
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kind of wish howie didnt lose his mind and start power tripping. Felt much more comfortable with Howie having some type of power to keep chip in check…
Wonder if this means guys like Crabtree will be in the mix. Also to mention Cobb is only 24. Cecil Shorts, 6’0″ 202, Jarrett Boykin, 6’2″, 218.
Problem with a lot of guys that are left is whether they can actually beat man coverage.
I’d rather Torrey Smith than Crabtree.
I heard crabtree was sorry
We cannot test top CBs with a sorry receiver like Crabtree.
Crabtree was awesome in 2013. He was coming off an injury. Plus, Kaepernick sucks reading the field. He’d be a good value on a 1-year, prove it deal.
Kaep is completely illiterate when it comes to reading a field.
well maybe not playing SEA twice a year will be a good for him.
always wondered how good cecil could be if he wasnt in a joke of a pro offense.. the problem is his lack of durability makes me not want to find out..
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Crabtree I hate and want nothing to do with
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Cobb IMO is pointless, really nice player but will have a very similar pricetrag to Maclin, and for that Price Id rather have Maclin, the continuity he has with our offense, and knowing for a fact he is a great fit in every sense of the word…
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now Jarrett Boykin is an interesting name as far as Im concerned, If we lose Maclin, no one is viewing Jarrett Boykin as Maclins replacement, but his price tag shouldnt be crazy and he has been a nice little weapon. If his price is modest enough, I would consider Signing Maclin, but also signing Boykins to replace expiring contract Brad Smith, then cut Maehl and rewplace him with a rookie WR…. next year all we will have to do is get out of the cooper contract and we will practically have a reconfigured WR corp in place after we replace Coop next year
I like Boykin in theory as well, good size, had a couple of good games but he was easily unseated by their rookie, i think we’d be dissapointed with him as a Maclin replacement.
oh hell no,… i wouldnt even consider him for maclins replacement…if the eagles were to sign him, i would want it to be in addition to mac. not sure what his price tag will be, but if it were modest after the down year, i would love too see him upgrade Brad Smiths expiring roster spot…
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but i have no clue what boykins price range would be, so i have no idea if he can be had at a cheap enough price where he can be a depth upgrade to Brad smith
According to unnamed sources the Redskins are the front runners for Jeremy Maclin who’d reunite with DeSean Jackson forming a great WR trio with Pierre Garcon.
no effing way.
no effing way.
damn how much $$ do they have? They’ve also been linked to Suh, Iupati, etc.
Culliver too, and every other free agent worth a damn from the niners… didnt they already sign Ricky Jean? everyone does whatever they want in free agency, expect the eagles. we roll over cap every single year just about, we wont sign top tier free agents, yet now we also allegedly let our top young talent get away in free agency..
i don’t know how i feel about the maclin situation. How much would you give him?
similar to what Cobb gets, maybe a little more…
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i really dont see paying him an issue, when once we cut Coop next year, you will be paying big money to Mac, but you will be paying chump change for 2-3 more years of Huff and Jordan… I dont care how much we are paying Maclin, ifthe #2 and #3 Wrs are going to be on rookie contracts…I care about not spending too much on the WR position as a hole…what 1 of the 5 WRs gets realy doesnt bother me as long as the combined price of the 5 WRs is reasonable for what we should be investing in a position group…
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i guess if we didnt want to cut Cooper next year, id give more thought to how much we can and cant pay Maclin… but as long as this is rileys last year, i really dont see any reason why we have to lose maclin..
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id rather not pay shady then to lose Maclin
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I dont think Mac should make as much as Demaryious or Dez, but i do think he should make atleast what Cobb gets, if not a little more.,. you get what you pay for in life, and Id be happy to get WR play like Mac provided this year…. heck, Mac was beasting while our run game wasnt half of what it was in 2013 along with the OL… Desean was able to get his stats while everey defense was getting destroyed by shady… there were games early on where shady couldnt gain 30 yards, yet Maclin was still beasting…
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thank God Foles got hurt half way and sanchez doesnt have the arm to use Maclin, imagine whaty Maclins price would be if he played the entire season with foles..we would really be screwed..
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Maclin is the only legit #1 WR besides 1 year of T,O that I have had the pleasure of rooting for in the past two decades..let that fact swirl around in our brains for a second..all the amazing WRs to come thru the NFL the past two decades and as an Eagle fan of the past 20 years, I got to enjoy exactly 1 year of TO as a legit #1 and 1 yr of Maclin as a legit #1, and now people are talking about losing that over an extra mil or two? ..
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i find it especially ridiculous when i know that after the Eagles are done signing all the new players they get in free agency and the draft, id bet there is still atleast 3mil dollars of Cap money that we wont use,… instead of carrying it over, Id rather use that money to not lose a top talent over an extra mil or two that will just be carried over to next years free agency.
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if you are telling me that when we are done signing players this year we wont have any extra cap money left, then it makes sense to not pay Maclin too much… but how can i want to lose Mac over an extra 1-2 mil dollars when I know there will be atleast2-3mil worth of cap money that we wont even use?
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I have always been down with the cap management, modest free agencies so we are able to keep the talent we draft when their contracts expire… yet now im being told that after rolling over 5-10mil in cap for as long as I can remember, i still might have to lose one of the only top WR i have had the pleasure of cheering for for the past 20 years?
Top WR seems a stretch to me, but you do make a good argument about what you are paying the group as a whole.
thats really how the front office looks at it… they are less concerned with simple media and fan worries over how much one of the 5 players at a position worth..
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the way the front office does it is howie has an entire blueprint mapped out for how much we can invest in each position as a whole that will add up to a healthy cap team…on top of how much money we are spending on a position as a whole, ideally the front office will try to map out having a balance of youth and experience at each position…. so for me its pointless to talk about Maclin in a financial Vacuum,…how much we can pay Maclin depends on how much we already have invested over the next few years in the other 4 WRs… just so happens that we have plenty of room going forward for financial addittions especially when we cut Coop next year/
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when I look at the WR position and how Mac fits, we are fortunate that we already have our Youth at the position, so we have room to pay a legit #1, and truth is if we wanted to next year we have the option of when we cut Coop replace him with a modest priced number two….basically its important that the top 4 WR on our depth chart are two veterans getting paid their second contraxct, and two puppies who are still on cheap rookie deals for the next few years… we have carried 6 WRs, and we are losing Brad smith, technically we are in good shape to do whatever we want at Brads spot… we can replace him via the draft and pay another WR on a cheap rookie deal the next 4 years, or we have the option of replacing him with a similar depth Veteran/ST player, someone like Ted Ginn Jr for example..i dont really like him, im just using him as an example for the level of veteran we can replace Brad with… then when its time to replace Maehl, whether its this year or next year we do the opposite of how we replaced Brad. so if Brad is replaced with a cheap depth Veteran, then Maehl will be replaced with a rookie contract. if Brad is replaced with a rookie, we can go with a modest depth ST veteran to replace Maehl..
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my advice is yes, pay attention to where Maclin fits in this years free agent WR market, but even that probably isnt as important because chip will probably value everything a little different then the rest of the NFL does…so more importantly if you want to be able to view the WR position and have any chance of accuracy we should probably focus on Roster Balance at the WR position as a whole.. if we keep 6 WRs, 3 veterans(1 a cheap ST veteran) and 3 WRs on rookie contracts..if you want to take it to the next level of how the front office views it, on top of a mix between youth n veterans at a position,ideally we try to coordinate it so when the pricey veteran like Maclin is expected to get cut a few years from now, around that time we have our young WRs rookie contracts expire…so ideally Jordan Mathews grows into a Maclin caliber player, we sign Maclin to a 4 year deal that we can get out of in 3 years, and if Jordan develops correctly, when Maclins money comesoff the books, Jordan should be developed into a similar caliber WR ready to take Maclins responsibility, and his juicy paycheck that is coming off the books..
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so its more important to try and see how everything at a position fits over the course of the next 3 or 4 years knowing we will want all the WRs salary to combine to stay under a specified amount, we will want young kids who are learning behind the veterans timed out so when the veterans contract is close top expiring or can be cut with no dead money, right around that time, the cheap rookie contract will have to become a more expensive veteran 2nd contract…
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how much we actually think Mac is really worth IMO is kind of a waste of time, we are in a really good position at WR to pay good money for some serious quality, especially next year when Coop is gone
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of course the positional financial allocation blueprint is just a guidline, you know that if we decide we need to spend a little bit more on WRs then what we can allocate for the position, the difference will have to be skimmed off of another position..
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we have all the flexibility we could possibly need at the WR position to pay what it takes to Maclin… the true value is all bullshit any way. Reality is “Your Value is what you can negotiate”… if Maclin is worth more to chip then Cobb is to the Packers, doesnt mean the packers or the eagles are wrong and the other is right…
and that doesnt even take into account the projected yearly cap increases we see as of late
Just wait until there is a team in LA, a team in London, and a team in either Berlin or Munich.
The increase in TV money from the US deals with an LA team, all of England, all of Germany, and a separate deal for the rights to air one of the 9:30 AM Euro games each week is going to push the cap into psycho territory over the next decade.
awesome… then the eagles will roll over 50million in unspent cap every year while then fans continue talking about losing our best players over penny pinching a few dollars when the Eagles have NEVER not had money since Joe Banner arrived 20 years ago…. fans advocate losing our best players to save a couple extra cap dollars that the eagles wont ever spend anyway LOL
ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.
You’re exactly the one person who’d come to that conclusion about the expanded cap.
They told me we cant go all in and try to sign the best in free agency, and i made my peace with it…. Now after rolling over cap money every single year instead of trying to use every penny trying to build the best team we possibly can, Im now being told that we have to lose our best players…. whos next? Fletcher Cox? is a top 5 DL at the age of 23 too expensive?….
…
so we cant have the top free agent talent, and if we draft players that become too good we will lose them too… but hey atleast our genius coach can “scheme guys open”…Awesome… god forbid we scheme a top Elite NFL talent Wide Open/…
If there’s ever a NFL team in Munich, I will be the first one to purchase a season ticket in a suite next to the owner throwing away my hard earned money to be living the dream. Lol.
How does Munich Adler sound?!
holy crap.
huh?
If Maclin did sign with the Skins i would see it as a up yours to Chip
like signing djax?
Yeah something similar.. If both were to sign with the same team thats not a good look for Chip i would say
oh an FU from Maclin to CK. I see what you’re saying and totally agree.
wouldn’t it only be an FU to Kelly if he took less money then someone else was offering just to play with the skins?
and why would he want to be with djax again?
Well if the rumor was Skins front runners to sign Maclin then the question why would he want to play with DJax again doesnt matter i reckon.. Both starting WRs signing with a division rival n the same team kinda get that FU to Chip vibe from it
If the Skins want to invest in 3 top money WRs with no QB to throw it to them; I’ll applaud that move.
until you notice we have no one to cover them at all. and they will get the ball.
RGKnee sucks. His entire style of play is an effrontery to the concept of quarterbacking.
he will be better this coming year.
He’ll be out of the league and working on his CFL brand.
Pretty sure, GE is just trying to rile us up.
yeah pretty absurd notion
Why would I Rile(y) you up!? It’s not February any more…
Sorry but I don’t believe anything about the Rwords unless Dianna Marie Russini says it. Actually, I’d believe pretty much anything she said.
I’d like to point out that this doesn’t mean Maclin isn’t coming back, merely that he’s going to test the waters to see if his market is actually larger than what the Eagles believe him to be worth.
If he gets 5 years / $60, good for him. It just can’t be here.
I think that’s what he’s looking for. The big guys are looking for $15m/yr.
Which makes sense why you’d tag one of those guys.
yup
Cobb is reportedly looking for $12m a year (from his agent to the rest of the teams out there). Gotta think Maclin’s number is the same.
Cobb, although one could argue is more talented than Maclin, is really only a slot player. The Cruz contract with the Giants kind of dooms Cobb to getting less money than Maclin due to slot vs outside status.
Yeah man a lot of people dont realize Cobb played majority of his snaps from the slot
I love the dude, but slot is slot when it comes to contracts.
Whats the source? I just read 9 million, not to say what I’m reading is accurate but curious as to where its coming from to see if it trumps what I’ve read.
roto – top story. But as pointed out below he played all of his time in the slot. That said maybe someone moves him outside, he’s got decent size, obviously shifty since he plays the slot, and did KR/PR well.
Also means he was abusing second tier DBs all last year.
out of curiosity, does anyone use anything other then Roto? i know i dont…. im never quoting them again, dont ask, its the only national site i use….anyone have a site on Roto’s level?
haha 100% agree. They have the game on lock. BGN actually has some interesting info so i check them.
If we lose Maclin, it’s an obvious indication were getting Strong in the draft! Connect the dots people!
Strong would be an excellent addition.
No, Mike, he would be a……….. strong addition! Ba ZING
Boooooooooo
http://www.reactiongifs.us/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/boo_this_man_half_baked.gif
Draft strong. Take a flyer on a guy like crabtree. I think crabtree would excel being back in a spread offense.
Problem right now Cobb wants too much and I don’t think Crab and Smith will be great bargains
Should ‘draft strong’ not always be the philosophy every year?!
Especially when you’re in a 4-3 and you replace a good strong side LB with human scum like Dhani Jones.
I. Miss. The. Air. Guitar.
The only thing that should happen to Dhani Jones with a guitar
http://sportsmedia.ign.com/sports/image/article/743/743150/jeff-jarrett-interview-20061101114835564-000_640w.jpg
seriously, easily one of my 5 most hated eagles ever. EASILY!!!!
I’m not sure about narrowing down to a top 5 hated list; but he’d be on a hated with ease.
Dhani Jones, Sean Considine, Alex Henery, Izell Jenkins, Winston Justice, Nate Allen, Casey Matthews, Jerome McDougal, Mike Mamula, Duce Staley (I own an awesome Watters #32 jersey to help explain that one), Reno Mahe, Tood Pinkston, Charles Johnson, Riley Cooper, Kevin Kolb, Michael Vick, Trotter (overrated by members of the fan base who don’t give Byron Evans enough credit) Bill Bergey (overrated by members of the fan base who don’t give Byron Evans enough credit)
And I’m not even close to being done.
Duce Staley, are uuuuuuuuuuuuuu serious?!
Yes, actually. It bugged me that we got rid of a superior talent in Watters to replace him with Staley, a guy who specialized in getting tackled from behind by fat people.
oh im sure,.,, softest LB EVER, DORK who used to put on a plad bow tie and go play some ridiculous pigmy tribe guitar down in the philadelphia subway platforms…
…
thats all i need to see, my LB looking like a bum on the subway floor playing a Euchalayli while people throw quarters in his coffee cup…
…
i might hate him more then the Fireman who looks like Ellen Degenerous, lesbian canadian Lover…
..
or the big retarded andrews brother(reminds me of the simpleton from the Green Mile) who spent his money literally buying Penguins..while vince wilfork is still helping the patriots win superbowls 15 years after we passed on wilfork for andrews smh
From a purely financial point of view and mixing in baseball terms- if Maclin is a one win above replacement level receiver (and I think we can all agree that he’s better than average) -and that win is enough to get you into the playoffs then you’re justified in giving him around 7-8 million per year on that alone.
A team makes about 18 million per game. The average WR is 2 million. If that one employee can “guarantee” that 18 million, 6 million above replacement is reasonable.
Obviously there are no guarantees and one player doesn’t (generally) win you a game in football. That’s just one way to look at Maclin’s value from a logic/business point of view.
The Moving on From Maclin Mock
Round 1 Pick 20: T.J. Clemmings, OT, Pittsburgh (A-)
Round 2 Pick 20: Jalen Collins, CB, LSU (B+)
Round 3 Pick 20: Breshad Perriman, WR, UCF (A)
Round 4 Pick 14: David Cobb, RB, Minnesota (A)
Round 4 Pick 20: Rob Havenstein, OT, Wisconsin (C)
Round 5 Pick 20: Clayton Geathers, SS, UCF (A-)
Round 6 Pick 20: Mike Hull, ILB, Penn State (B)
Round 7 Pick 20: Sean Mannion, QB, Oregon State (B+)
Havenstein won’t be on the Eagles board.
Noted.
I changed it up a bit in honor of no Havenstein………….. and 19 other GMs smoking crack to let White fall.
Round 1 Pick 20: Kevin White, WR, West Virginia (A)
Round 2 Pick 24 (PITT): Jalen Collins, CB, LSU (A-)
Round 3 Pick 20: Donovan Smith, OT, Penn State (A-)
Round 3 Pick 23 (PITT): David Johnson, RB, Northern Iowa (A-)
Round 4 Pick 14: Ramik Wilson, ILB, Georgia (B+)
Round 4 Pick 20: Ronald Darby, CB, Florida State (B)
Round 5 Pick 20: Clayton Geathers, SS, UCF (A-)
Round 6 Pick 20: Derrick Lott, DT, Chattanooga (B-)
Round 7 Pick 20: Sean Mannion, QB, Oregon State (B+)
Uhhhhhh, not to be that guy but I’m not terribly sure Donovan Smith will be either. Also Darby was with PJ Williams during the car crash and flee incident as well as with Jameis during the alleged rape incident.
I don’t mind you being “that guy” when talking draft. I only mind you being that guy when you undermine my desire to hold the organization to exacting standards.
Round 2 Pick 1 (TENN): Dorial Green-Beckham, WR, Oklahoma (B+)
Round 2 Pick 20: Jalen Collins, CB, LSU (B+)
Round 2 Pick 26 (BALT): Brett Hundley, QB, UCLA (A)
Round 3 Pick 2 (TENN): Jake Fisher, OT, Oregon (B+)
Round 3 Pick 20: Tevin Coleman, RB, Indiana (A)
Round 3 Pick 26 (BALT): Stephone Anthony, ILB, Clemson (A)
Round 4 Pick 1 (TENN): Chris Conley, WR, Georgia (C)
Round 4 Pick 14: Ali Marpet, OG, Hobart & William Smith (B-)
Round 4 Pick 20: Ronald Darby, CB, Florida State (B)
Round 5 Pick 20: Clayton Geathers, SS, UCF (A-)
Round 6 Pick 20: Stefon Diggs, WR, Maryland (B+)
Round 7 Pick 20: Derrick Lott, DT, Chattanooga (A)
Get that Hundley out of there and we’ve got something.
Yah. Mauldin instead.
#neverchange
LOVE this mock
This is filthy
Anthony DiBona
@Anthony_DiBona
13m
13 minutes ago
#Eagles DB coach Cory Undlin was one of four NFL defensive back coaches that was at Wake Forest CB Kevin Johnson’s pro day, per @Gil_Brandt.
Good CB, even better PG, terrible taste in women.
http://www.commondreams.org/news/2012/12/06/mayor-and-husband-education-villain-michelle-rhee-scrutinized-financial-malpractice
Update:
Aaron Wilson
@RavensInsider
5m5 minutes ago
Steelers, Eagles and Chargers displayed the most interest today in Kevin Johnson(River Hill) at Wake Forest Pro Day per a source
Steelers sent their whole scouting team there apparently. Will be interesting since Johnson is a 1/2 round guy.
So if we lose Maclin in Free Agency and Shady in a trade up for Mariota it is safe to assume that MM will be our one man show, handing off the ball to Mariota while also passing to Mariota. Who needs a RB and WR when you have Mariota? I am pretty sure he could step in as Punter as well….!
Chip. Is. Genius.
He could just be tired of playing with ARs players
Nah, AR has left Chip some treasure.
You are getting ahead of yourself. None of these things have happened.
In all likelihood:
– Maclin has overvalued himself on the market and agrees to the Eagles offer
– Tampa takes Mariota anyway
– German is doing shtick
Why are we assuming Maclin is gone and why do we need to assume Mariota will go first
I’m actually just assuming Maclin isn’t going to get a tag-level per year level from the Eagles, but will sign for something more reasonable.
I’m also assuming that Tampa is blowing smoke on Winson, doesn’t want to take a rapist #1 overall, and will ultimately decide that their OC can work easily with Mariota.
Oh OK I misread on Mac and I agree I’m not sure on TB because honestly neither QB is worth taking first
That could totally be the case.
why would you assume that? I sort of think if Mac was asking for $10m a year eagles would have signed him. I thought $7-9m was a good range for him but even i’ve had to adjust based on (a) salary cap increase, (b) no better WRs in FA class.
Just a guess based on the rhetoric not being vile, the Eagles totally ruling out the cap, and a general level of comfortability that the team is going to play contract chicken on this in a successful manner.
I haven’t heard any “Maclin is being ridiculous” or “the Eagles are being cheap” leaks, so I have a better feeling now than I did this morning that Maclin will be back on a 5 / $45 mil level deal.
yeah who knows – you think it’s taken this long to get that kind of deal done?
I think they’re too far apart, but still interested in getting a deal done. Just likely that the Eagles think the final number is WAY lower than the tag number.
Well recent reports are they’re close and if they’re really close.it wouldn’t make sense to tag him
You’re driving up a mountain and look through your rear view. You are happy, because you cannot see any avalanche. Until it hits you..
Mariota —-to Foles —- back to Mariota —-Touchdown!
Yeh, keep Foles and draft Mariotta. Then flank Foles on the outside for a TD.
i vow to do whatever it takes to get Foles traded to the Bills…
Foles for the Bills #1, Stephon Gilmore, and Kiko Alonzo should get it done for me.
They don’t have a first. Traded 1 firsts and a 4th for sammy watkins.
I’ll take Watkins then.
They don’t have a number 1 so I’m going to need more lol
Ok, a two this year and their #1 next year.
Hmm can I get Woods too lol
Sold.
Foles to the Bills for 4th round pick is my goal… this city is going to constantly shit on him then you are entitled to a 4th round pick in return :)… I pray we lose this kid and he goes on to win 5 superbowls for the Bills. Thats the only way this city has any shot of learning so that maybe in the next decade we know how to judge and appreciate quality young winners
The bills have a much better team (qb aside) than the eagles do even with that i still doubt they’d make the playoffs consistently.
exactly why i want him to go to my afc mistress.
..
GM who is a BEAST at drafting Defensive Talent. Dude has a tree in his backyard that grows quality safeties, and he just picks a new one or two every year from his magical safety tree and they are all better then any eagle safety besides Jenkins since Dawkins
,,,
..HC who comes directly from the fruit of the great Buddy Ryans’s loins..
…
Top WR talent for Foles to Horse with…
.
.and Id get to watch the Rainmaker put an END to the BRADY Era of dominance in that division…
..
if the eagles dont get marriotta, hundley or whatever punt returner skills you drool over at the QB spot, I still want Foles out of this city ASAP/… hope he never wins another game for this city who has done nothing but shit on the young man since he arrived…. front running fraud “great fans” lol
I don’t know if i like Foles’ odds against a revis / browner tandem. But Rex is a beast, they could challenge.
actually I changed my mind.. i dont want the Eagles to trade Foles. i want to see him willingly twll philly to kiss his ass and refuse to negotiate with them the moment his contract expires, even if the eagles dont draft a single QB
Meh… I’d probably disagree not much at all on offense for that team but defense is another story
AJ Feeley got us a 2nd with a lesser body of work. I like Foles, so I’m being greedy if he goes.
conditional 5th round pick, that can become a 4th if he makes it to 3 consecutive pro bowls….
Mariota is used in a play with the Ducks where he is a WR. Got a touchdown or two in that formation. So Foles to Mariota could happen.
awesome.. add WR skills to punt return ability….everything I ever dreamed of in my NFL franchise QB 🙂
Still a better QB GEagle. He’s a lot more athletic but more importantly his decision making is lightening fast and he is accurate with short and long throws.
QB run speed is not the biggest differential in my opinion. Decision making speed/rightness and ball accuracy are. In addition you need athleticism such as we see in Rogers.
If the Bucs play him as a DB the Foles to Mariota connection could actually happen.
Andre Johnson is going to hit the market!!!
better not “hit the market” too hard or old man will be needing a hip replacement 🙂
1400 yds in 2013
936 in 2014
I’d pay him 16-18 over 2 years, and then just draft someone.
im a fan…just breaking balls…. plus we can ever have enough ducks or texans apparently
yeah i figured, some people forget just how productive he is – so that was for the group. Those starts are with the QB dumpster fire in TX, but also with the bevy of crappy defense that TX typically faces.
Would love to watch him body DRC.
What about Andre Johnson and Brandon Marshall in Philly?!
Don’t get me too excited, i’m still at work.
Hope you brought another pair of pants!
i would love to see us add him for Nick Foles to make a run with Mac, Dre, Pope and Huff… but you cant add old man for a rook.. and i doubt chip would be interested unfortunately… i have wanted to get that dude for years
If Meco’s on this this team Andre can be, only question is how he’d hold up under fast paced offence. If he took a trip to new england we might as well just rebuild.
thats a very good point about our tempo that i didnt consider… Im just starting to question how willing chip will be in year 3 to continue screwing around with 1yr, 2 yr band aids, when we cant be Elite until we get a few years of continuity with our core in place, growing together, building of the year before, instead of halting the process, taking 2 steps back to later take 5 steps forward…. how long til all the shocking moves are finally over and we can start building, year by year, Playoff win, Confrence Loss, Superbowl… i think the band aid like Bradley fletcher were cute the first two years, but year 3 a headcoach who has been able to make every decision he wanted should start showing somne results,… and i dont wanna hear about how we will start over with Marriotta and win 3 years from now… I dont give a crap who the players are,l a head coach needs to start winning in year 3, if he is going to use Marriotta as an excuse then he better worry about stacking trhe defense behind marriotta…he cant go 10-6 and not win a playoff game in year 3, and i dont care what the roster looks like, because every single other coach is held to these standards..
..
do whatever he wants with the roster… but its year 3, that cant be treated and judged as if its year 1
draft hasn’t been great at filling holes, no ILB, limited pass rushing, no secondary, need o-line. There’s only so much you can do really given our approach to FA.
Excited to see what happens. If nothing big happens this offseason and we go into next year with basically the same time, i’m going to be pretty dissapointed.
I don’t agree that the record is more critical next year. I think you would agree that this team showed progress in year 2 under CK, and withstood some hardships that were not felt in year 1. And yet our record did not improve, and we missed the playoffs. Not wishing the worst, but Eagles could have more key injuries than last year, but how we deal is something I look at as significant. Hell, I was impressed that we won 10 games last year, and I am already convinced that Kelly is taking us up. Some impediments are not foreseeable or avoidable, and I am more concerned about who gets signed than about next year’s record. I believe we will see a day when Eagle fans will have ultra high demands and expectations of the roster, because I think we can get to that level. But next year, we could win a playoff game or two or miss out again. Circumstances are critical.
He’s allowed to seek a trade. That’s not really hitting the market. That’s more like hitting the drum roll….
they said he can seek a trade and if they can’t trade him they’ll cut him.
“The Houston Chronicle’s John McClain reports the Texans have given Andre Johnson permission to seek a trade, and if one can’t be found, he’ll be released.” — The Source (roto)
That makes more sense. Thanks. I’d take him.
Redskins also interested in Dan Willians from ARZ — i guess it’s just easier to link them to everyone.
With them it’s usually easier to come up with a list of guys they’re not interested in buying.
Google
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