Murray Mania
Posted: December 8th, 2015 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 308 Comments »DeMarco Murray had a limited role in Sunday’s win over the Patriots. I didn’t make too much of that because it was a strange game. As Chip Kelly noted, the Pats have big LBs. The best way to deal with them is quicker RBs. Also, the offense had limited snaps due to the return TDs. The Eagles didn’t run their normal number of plays, which meant less snaps for all skill players. It also meant they were likely to be used differently.
Just 48 hours later, we’re dealing with Murray Mania.
This story has taken on a life of its own. There was a lot of discussion about why Murray played less. Chip gave his explanation. Pat Shurmur got hit with the same questions on Tuesday and offered his thoughts. The media wanted a definitive answer, but none was given.
Then Ed Werder came into the equation.
Werder is an ESPN reporter and writer. He generally does good work. Werder has been ESPN’s Cowboys reporter for years. He is well connected with that organization, their players and their agents. So it is no shock that Werder wrote a piece about Murray and his frustration with Sunday’s game, as well as the season.
DeMarco Murray‘s frustration over his lack of playing time and confusion as to how he fits into Chip Kelly’s offense were the topics of a lengthy conversation the running back had with Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie following Sunday’s game, sources told ESPN.
The 2014 NFL rushing champion with the Dallas Cowboys, Murray says he doesn’t want to be a distraction — especially after the Eagles beat the New England Patriots 35-28 for the team’s biggest victory of the season. However, he expressed some frustration after playing just 14 offensive plays, gaining 24 yards on eight carries.
“He’s obviously upset about what happened,” a source close to Murray said.
The conversation between Murray and Lurie occurred as they sat beside each other on the team’s charter flight home following the victory in Foxborough, Massachusetts. It is not known whether Murray or Lurie initiated the discussion.
Murray has struggled from the beginning in Kelly’s offense. He was recruited as a downhill runner, but Kelly’s system has required him to frequently run laterally, and his production has plunged.
I have no problem with Murray talking to Lurie about the situation. Lurie isn’t a meddlesome owner. He won’t go order Chip to make changes. Football players have big egos to go with their big salaries. Sometimes you have to massage those egos. Lurie can act as a sounding board for Murray.
Everyone has a hand in this situation. Kelly sunk a lot of money into a RB, which is not ideal in today’s NFL. With that money came expectations, from fans, the media and Murray himself. The thought was that he would be the centerpiece of Kelly’s offense. There would be lots of downhill running and play-action passes.
Instead, Kelly has run more laterally this year than ever. He doesn’t have an OL that can just drive defenders off the ball, but he does have athletic blockers who can get outside and block on the move. If you watch the Giants game, I can think you see what Chip had in mind. Run wide. Wear down the defense. Then attack N-S. Murray ran for 109 yards in that game and was very physical.
Murray has not adjusted well to the new offense. Re-watch any game and you will see holes or running lanes. Murray finds some, but looks lost on other plays. He hasn’t looked comfortable in the offense with any regularity. It would be easy to fault Kelly, but other RBs have adapted and fit in well. LeSean McCoy went from Andy Reid’s offense to Chip’s and got better. Darren Sproles has had success after playing in multiple “conventional” NFL offenses. Ryan Mathews has thrived this year. Chris Polk had success last year.
Could Chip adjust things a bit for Murray? Sure. But Murray also has to embrace this offense. He has done that to a certain extent. He really looked lost in September. He looks better now, but still hasn’t made the kind of progress I expected.
OL injuries haven’t helped the situation. Line play is erratic. The passing attack hasn’t helped things either. The Eagles are inconsistent at throwing the ball so teams can really focus on the run.
The key to this whole thing is what happens going forward. Chip isn’t going to just blindly hand the ball to DeMarco from the I-formation 25 times a game. Murray has to show that he will do his part. Maybe Chip mixes in more inside zone runs. Part of it will be driven by matchups. Buffalo has struggled with run defense in the last month, giving up almost 125 yards per game. The Bills don’t have massive LBs like the Pats so this is a game where Murray should get more touches.
I don’t anticipate Chip being petty and benching Murray as punishment for these media rumors, but you never know. We’ll have to wait and see how things play out. Sproles just had his best game of the year. Barner had the best game of his young career. Unfortunately, he also fumbled in a key situation and we don’t know how that will factor into things. And Mathews is coming back from his concussion. Chip has lots of options. Heck, he might dress all 4 RBs and rotate them. He’ll do whatever he thinks will help the offense.
I think Chip will try to make things work with Murray. Let’s keep this in perspective. Murray didn’t run to the media to shoot his mouth off after a tough loss. He’s complaining, but in a reasonable way. Murray is owed so much money next year that cutting him doesn’t make sense. The Eagles need to find a way to maximize him in this offense, for now and 2016.
Chip had success with all types of RBs at Oregon. We remember LaMichael James the most, but LeGarrette Blount and Jonathan Stewart were 230-pound thumpers that excelled in his offense. Chip should be able to figure this situation out…unless egos get in the way. That’s true for both Chip and Murray. They need each other to help make this thing work.
*****
The Eagles added LB Steven Means to fill the spot opened by the cutting of Miles Austin.
Means is 6-3, 263 and was a very good player at the University of Buffalo. He’s bounced around the NFL for a couple of years. The Eagles need depth behind Connor Barwin and Brandon Graham. Means is someone to take a look at for the future.
Marcus Smith is getting on the field more than ever, but his development is happening at a glacial pace. That would be fine if the Eagles had 100,000 years to work with him. That’s not the case. Smith has improved on STs, but isn’t a standout and he’s very limited on defense.
Bryan Braman is a good pass rusher in blowout situations, but isn’t an every down LB.
Travis Long is coming off consecutive knee injuries and can’t be counted on.
Smart addition, even if Means doesn’t pan out. The Eagles need to put some pressure on Smith and they need to look at some young OLBs for the future. They’ll get a month to decide if Means is worth keeping around.
_
Bills giving 125 yards per game you say?That means the Eagles should run for, mmmmmm, about 37. That’s how it feels like these games go anyway. Say something should happen and it turns out the opposite.
that’s how I feel too. In fact we won’t even run much b/c Kelly will say well they dictated to us what we should do, whoops I mean that’s how the game presented itself. They edge the safety closer to the box, we abandon what everyone thinks should be the game plan.
O good. That means we can utulize oir amazing WR corps. Haha.
Or your amazing spelling skills…
Lol! Gotta love typing on a phone. Thanks for noticing though! I wish I could say I was kidding but sadly that isn’t the case.
What surprises me most about Murray this year is his lack of burst/explosiveness. I always remembered and envisioned Murray as a speed back (with power) in the mold of Marcus Allen. If you conducted a poll and asked ‘which RB is more quick and elusive – Ryan Matthews or DeMarco?’, I’m sure the overwhelming majority would have picked Demaro Murray. Why then, does Murray look so much slower than Matthews? If you were to gauge 40 times by using the eye test in games, it would appear that Sproles runs a 4.3, Barner a 4.4, Matthews a 4.4-4.5, and Murray a 4.8. He just looks very slow this year.
I get that the OL has been banged up and inconsistent. But that excuse is getting old. Matthews, Sproles, and now Barner are able to run with more consistency and efficiency.
Great backs (we are paying him to be a great back) find ways to produce despite unfavorable conditions. Sh*t, go watch Corey Dillon highlights when he was with Cincy. It’s time for Murray to put up or shut up. I don’t think he’s a team cancer or anything like that, I’m just extremely underwhelmed and disappointed that we signed him.
You can go look at his performances last year. His best runs come from running behind his line and exploding through the middle for 10+ yards. Murray has straight line acceleration but he’s going to slow down immensely when he has to juke someone.
Urray has no later speed just is what it is. Very slow getting to edge.
The Murray problems are twofold.
1. He’s got heavy legs. There’s no burst or acceleration.
2. His vision is fucking atrocious. Everyone wants to complain about all these OZ plays with him but jesus he’s making it harder on himself. He either strings it out to the sideline which is dumb because he doesn’t have the burst to get the edge or he pitter patters and gets chased down from behind. There’s lanes to at least pick up 4-5 yards more often than not and he just refuses to put his foot in the ground make a cut and lower his shoulder to break an arm tackle. It’s soooooooo frustrating.
Is #1 just what it is or a result from over usage last year and maybe won’t be the case in 2016? I didn’t watch enough of him before this season to know.
It’s definitely a result of usage last year. Will it ever come back? Probably not a ton.
I think if he gets traded to a team that lets him get a head of steam and creates “runways” for him where he’s got a 7 yard head start and he’s running through B gap no matter what it would be mitigated.
I think even if we rebuild the OL and get the IZR back on track he’s probably not a good fit because his vision is just such shit.
The usage thing has been pretty well busted, D. http://archive.advancedfootballanalytics.com/2008/07/drunkards-light-posts-and-myth-of-370.html
whatever the reason, the burst and physicality is missing
1. The article mainly disputes that there is a magical number at which a back falls off. Which I agree with. However there is only 25 data points of backs over 370 to begin with (which is a comically small set)
3. I’m talking about the eyeball test. Something is clearly wrong with Murray.
4. Murray had 450 touches last year. Plus all the collisions on him staying in to block. That pretty clearly will have an effect on the human body.
wait what happened to 2?
I ate it. I’m hungry.
I thought you were saving it. maybe save the best point for later, or maybe some fool come at you like “D3FB you don’t know what you’re talking about!”
the you drop the duece:
“2. Deez nuts.”
That’s the biggest thing for me. He looks slow, even on most of his good runs imo.
I thought that way from the beginning of the season (Mathews got more done with the same OL), but the more he played, the more obvious it got.
The Patriots game was the nail in the coffin for me. Same OL, same opponent, same play calling. Sproles and Barner always seemed to run for at least 4 Yards (before the Patriots knew we were running all the time and stacked the box), Murray had one big run and other than that, only negative runs or 1 or 2 Yard gains.
And especially Barner is far from an elite RB.
Shady looked similarly slow last year. A lot of people thought he was done.
I wouldn’t say that. Sure, Shady wasn’t as good as he used to be last year. And I’m sure some people thought he’s done. But: altough he didn’t play good, he was NEVER as slow as Murray is right now.
And part of that is simply due to the fact that Murray isn’t a fast/shifty back to begin with. He’s a power back. But if a power back can’t use his power, because he’s met in the backfield before he shoots through the hole, he’s useless.
At the beginning of the year, I thought the OL could be the reason for the many negative runs. But when Barner and Sproles (and Mathews before that) make something happen at least more often than not and Murray can’t, it’s not the OL. It’s Murray.
I don’t need to read no fancy science article to know that someone who is over used is more tired than someone who is fresh.
He has huge burst, it’s just straight ahead, not lateral. But Kelly is determined to use him as a lateral runner not between the tackles.
Murray always ran behind his OL until he had enough space to build up some steam or when there’s a big enough hole to hit. I just don’t see it here since he loses a ton of steam going east and west. It also probably explains why the other 3 RBs look much better than him right now. Our OL isn’t good enough to make him enough room to get downhill consistently. It’s a shame since I was also suckered into thinking that we finally got a N-S runner instead of this jet sweep crap Chip makes him do.
Exactly, some RB can get into gear very quickly like Shady; others need to get up to speed in space like Murray. Runners like Shady can also juke/cut at speed whereas Murray seems to slow down or stutter step to make cuts. I think some of the lack of burst or not hitting the hole hard or being hard to tackle etc. are due to Murray being uncomfortable in the offense and either not knowing what to do on certain plays or being unable to do it i.e. the play does not fit his skill set.
I don’t think he trusts his OL yet and how can you blame him? He was getting hit in the backfield constantly at the beginning of the year. Maybe that conditioned him and he’s adapting to bad habits. Perhaps maybe even the 392 carries last year really did put a lot of wear and tear on him. It’s easy to blame him right now for sucking but this team as a whole has stunk.
OL obviously a work in process. Maybe not the worst thing that he be limited. If he had 350 carries he might be done for good . Like to see what a smaller bowling ball like barner may do. Use those 3 guys in the first 3 quarters and then just hang Murray at the end of the game .Do think Murray is the best pass catcher of the bunch. Mathews is by far the most talented.
I don’ think Chip trusts the Online either.
Great post, Tommy, agree with you 100%
My son is 3, he owned a DJax jearsey when he was an infant, a McCoy shirsy last season, and just got a Murray Jearsey for Channukah… So I think it’s pretty clear where DeMarco is headed…
Ha.
Cooper jersey for Christmas?
I toyed with that idea, but don’t have the stomach for it. I could never allow him in public with that. And maybe, just maybe, with DeMarco playing below expectations the reverse effect will happen this time.
reverse the curse, give him an andy luck jersey this year
My boys are a little older, but have had a similar impact. They have worn McNabb, McCoy, DeSean, Maclin, and Asamough.
I blame the pro shop for only having a small selection of options for kids.
Learn from your past mistakes and only by jerseys from retired players. Dawkins, Westbrooke, etc.
Ouch, and you were just slamming someone for spelling.
Was thinking of taking it a step farther, only players whose legacies are enshrined and unassailable: like Bednarick.
We all thought that Shady and Chip would be a beautiful marriage after 2013. After all, Shady is the shiftiest back in the league and did everything well enough. That didn’t really happen because the OL started declining and injuries happened to Shady. This is the key though, what did Chip neglect over the years he has been here? The OL.
You can argue that there were lanes and holes that Murray or any of the RBs missed but here’s the sad reality of it. When there’s nowhere to go when you first look and you start trying to be patient enough to find another hole then you’re out of time, the OL has already let a guy into the backfield. Now you have to beat that guy and the incoming guys. Most RBs can only get through one or two guys unless you’re Barry Sanders.
I agree, all the discussion about the backs and even QB is a distraction from the more important factor. It seems to me it was last year that the offense was broken–disguised by lots of volume, but actually quite inefficient. We won our games last year because of special teams and defense TDs, not on O. Whether it was because of OL decline or teams figured out Chip’s offense or whatever, the run game was not good). This year, of course, has been even worse, but without the historic “extra TDs”, the record is bad.
Last year, LeSean ran for 4.2 Y/C (24th in DVOA) as well as having some absolutely horrid games. This was down from 5.1 2013 (#3 DVOA) and his career average of 4.6. This year, he is back to 4.6 Y/C.
DeMarco ran for 4.7 Y/C last year (#5 in DVOA), and is down to 3.5 (#30 DVOA) this year. (However, note he ran for 5.2 Y/C (#1 DVOA) the previous year. Perhaps this points to some slowing down already, or perhaps it was a case of defenders knowing the run was coming).
nice job as usual Tommy and i pretty much agree. I defended Murray in your last post and i have not wavered on my stance. Too many runs from the shotgun and too many east-west runs is killing his production and at the same time hurting this offense. Has Murray looked as good as last year? not at all and i think he could still be weakened from all the touches he had last year. But i figured Chip would kind of wrinkle his offense to suit Demarco a little better. Murray is a bowling ball type of back that needs to be heading downhill before he receives the handoff and once he gets to the line then is able to make jumpcuts while keeping his momentum going forward. On Sunday Chip at least twice ran the delayed sweep and each time the backside defender chased down Murray quickly. You can beg him to run faster but he can’t, so as a coach you have to play to the guy’s strengths which is putting the QB under center and get him going downhill. Chip has done it before this season and i remember him even doing it with Shady before, so why not continue it? Yea it may set up a tendency where defenses recognize “hey, QB under center with 29 in the backfield, they’re going to run it”…..so what, go ahead and run it. An offense with a runner like Murray is supposed to have a “Shove it down their throat” type of attitude and i believe chip can still do this and run his offense. This will also be a nice setup to once in a while break the tendency of handing it off and running a play action….chip did it to the Giants the last two years at home, both for touchdowns over the top of the defense (James Casey, Riley Cooper)
I’m a pretty big fan of Chip, i guess you can say i just liked the cut of his jib since he showed up here and i think he is a smart guy….but the Murray signing is looking like it may turn into one of the biggest free agent blunders in team history. Murray just isn’t that fast acceleration, get to the corner, cut on dime back. He’s more of the plodding, build up momentum and put his head down to punish defenses type of guy. You don’t run the latter on sweeps out of the shotgun, or out of the shotgun that much at all. Definition of square peg in round hole and the numbers show it.
If all salaries were equal, Murray would be on the bench this Sunday and Barner would be the #3 RB. Murray’s touches are usually wasted downs.
So, the important question is which one of Murray or Mathews should I start in fantasy this week? Any thoughts?
Mathews … He’s much more effective. Legs are fresh. And, it’s clear Murray is in Chip’s doghouse.
I’d stay away from both this week. Throw in some Sproles. There will be limited touches for all and dart throw as to who will score…
I’ve sort of spot-started Matthews here and there and he comes up huge for me a couple times….i’m thinking of doing it again this week just because idk what better options i have due to injuries/matchups. I dont like the fact that 4 RB’s may be activated
[…] Murray Mania – Iggles BlitzInstead, Kelly has run more laterally this year than ever. He doesn’t have an OL that can just drive defenders off the ball, but he does have athletic blockers who can get outside and block on the move. If you watch the Giants game, I can think you see what Chip had in mind. Run wide. Wear down the defense. Then attack N-S. Murray ran for 109 yards in that game and was very physical. Murray has not adjusted well to the new offense. Re-watch any game and you will see holes or running lanes. Murray finds some, but looks lost on other plays. He hasn’t looked comfortable in the offense with any regularity. It would be easy to fault Kelly, but other RBs have adapted and fit in well. LeSean McCoy went from Andy Reid’s offense to Chip’s and got better. Darren Sproles has had success after playing in multiple “conventional” NFL offenses. Ryan Mathews has thrived this year. Chris Polk had success last year. […]
Your take on the Murray conversation certainly makes it sound like less of a deal than the reaction yesterday. The piece that seems to be missing for me, though, is if this was a civilized conversation on the flight, why are we hearing about it from a Cowboys ESPN reporter? Someone leaked the story, and did so with an agenda.
Or, it’s possible Ed Werder threw on a wig and posed as a flight attendant. Anything for a scoop!
I read yesterday a trade could be a way to go, since it would “only” be 4m dead instead of 13. We would also save something against the cap with a trade.
To be honest, I would trade Murray even for a conditional 7th rounder, just to get that contract out of the books. And that’s not a frustration move or “I hate Murray”. It doesn’t mean Murray can’t get better here or for another team, but his contract + his status (former rushing champ, part of the new triplets, it’s the reason we’re even discussing this) isn’t worth the risk imo. I think it could be a win-win-win deal for us, Murray and his new team.
Question is: how many teams think Murray is not done? And how will the big contract affect the interest in him? We basically got a 2nd rounder for Shady (a 2nd rounder who played great in his rookie year, but has one year left on this rookie deal and had an injury). But while he had a huge cap hit, he did have a better contract (much less guar. money, was there any?).
Sign a mid level FA instead of Murray, let Mathews be the workhorse as long as he’s not injured (and he will miss some games, was always the case with him). Go with Mathews/Sproles/X/Barner into 2016 and let Barner replace Sproles after that. That would be my ideal scenario, as it stands right now.
Murray’s contract situation as I understand it:
If cut the Eagles assume all the guaranteed money, both the prorated bonus hit and his guaranteed base salaries. Meaning it’s a $13 million dollar hit versus just $8 million cap charge to keep him (7 in base 1 in prorated signing bonus), so that’s not happening.
If traded however the new team would assume the guaranteed portion of the base salaries ($7 mil in 2016, $2 million in 2017) so the only cap hit would be the $4 million in dead money from the remaining prorated signing bonus.
So the Eagles would get $4 million in cap savings to trade vs keeping him
(Effectively meaning we only paid him a total of $9 million for his one season)
The other team would get be taking on a guaranteed $7 million in 2016 and $2 million in 2017 (they would probably renegotiate prior to 2017 season).
So you’re asking a team to take a 28 year old RB with alot of mileage for $7 million dollars next year. That’s probably doable if you ask for basically nothing. I’d ask for a 7 which conditions up to a 5 if he hits like 1200 yards. And I’m not sending him back to Dallas. The WIP crowd will kill Chip but it would be recognizing a sunk cost and making the best of a bad situation.
Also Kiko has two years left on his deal after this one because his injury was non football it didn’t count towards his contract. So he’s presently in year 2 of 4.
Good breakdown! That’s what I read, only more in depth.
And I agree with you, could be doable. You only need one team in need of a #1 RB to think he’s not done and the lack of production is more scheme than anything else.
And of course the one team I absolutely wouldn’t send him to is Dallas. I don’t think he would be as dominant as he was last year with the same OL and the same scheme, but imo, he sure would be better there than right now for us.
I knew that about Kikos contract, it’s a great contract situation for us. What I was trying to say was that 2nd rounder from Buffalo instead of Kiko would have given us one more rookie year with that 2nd rounder (4 instead of the 3 we got, he’ll also be a RFA in the 4th year of the contract, 5th year in the league, but that’s not that big of a deal), but on the plus side, Kiko showed that he can be a good player in this league and that has a value in itself.
If it’s true that we only take a 4 mil cap hit from trading Murray (I heard 3 different explanations of his contact by 3 different reputable media members) , try and trade him to either
A) teams with dumb or impulsive owners like Jim Irsay and the Colts
B) Teams that struggle to attract big names in free agency like The Browns
C) Teams that bid on him before he signed with us, reportedly Jags and Raiders
..
In terms of compensation, like trading Shady, we won’t be able to get any type of decent draft pick in return, so our best bet is to try and get a young player on a cheap rookie deal in return like Kiko, or try and get a low Risk, High reward type like Josh Gordon. Unfortunately, we have nothing to suggest that chip will value talent enough to deal with a kid like josh Gordon. But who knows, maybe failure of a rough season force chip to recalibrate the importance of talent and what chip is willimg to put up with to get that talent. chip Is going into year 4, maybe he feels he has a veteran, high Charechter locker room in place that he can trust to try and help a problem child get his life/Career back on track…. Some kids will NEVER change and you have to end up cutting, but there have been problem child’s who grew up. Became model citizens and are rewarding their franchises for taking a chance on them. Perfect example is the HoneyBadger. Every team would have loved to have his skillset, but not every team was willing to take a Flier on his baggage.
..
Hopefully more time in this scheme, and a much improved OL in front of him can Salvage Murrays Eagle career, but if chip reaches the conclusion that it’s not going to work, getting a team to take his contract off our hands becomes important even if we can’t get anything better than a 7th round pick in return
…
But Longterm, Im not ready to quit in murray. It hasn’t been ALL BAD this year. Seen plenty of players where he looked like a beast running out of SHTGUN for us, hurdling defenders, so hopefully we can salvage his Eagle career by adding some much needed POWER at the Guard spots. Like Tom points out, our line is good at getting to the perimeter, if we can add an infusion of size and power to the interior of our Line, with another offseason getting comfortable in this offense, maybe we will see the Murray/Mathews tandem we envisioned when they were signed?
Was Means a regular on Hard Knocks? Don’t remember him, but that doesn’t mean much.
Means was with Baltimore in camp. So coaching staff saw him in person during our scrimages. He was cut with an injury settlement (groin) at the end of camp and picked up by the Texans only a few weeks ago. Wee worked him out in October but he clearly wasn’t fully healthy yet.
Thanks for the info.
We all know Ozzie is a great GM, maybe the best out there, but imo, he’s especially good with Front Seven players in general and Pass Rushers in particular. Means was cut before the Suggs injury and because of injury, so there could be at least a chance for Means to be able to compete.
He seems to be well spoken of everywhere he goes but has had rotten luck with injuries and the like. Good H/W/S. The bit of college tape he didn’t overly flash.
I’d pencil him in as an decent shot to push for a 53 spot next year. (Long is probably done, Smith will be back but has to show something to get kept, so Braman, Barwin, Graham only locks) They’ll likely bring in a low level vet, a day 3 pick and a priority UDFA to compete with Smith for 2 spots.
I’m pretty frustrated with Murray. On the one hand, he hasn’t been productive at all, which seems to be a frustration he and the fans share at least. Also if winning is supposed to be the ultimate deodorant, winning in Foxborough should be a spa day, so why are you stinkin’ up the joint, c’mon man! How do you even think that way?
On the other hand, at least he cares. He got paid, but he still wants to be the rushing champ. He still wants to be a work-horse back. I can appreciate that to some extent. Too many guys cash in and check out. Murray seems obsessed with not being one of these guys.
I think he just has to be patient, this year is going to be whatever it is. But give another off-season to bounce back from the absurd number of carries he had (he just looks run down this year, doesn’t look anything like the guy from Dallas), get more comfortable with our system, for Chip to really accentuate his strengths, and maybe fortify the O-line then we’ll see. In the mean time, don’t f this up!
Here is a 2014 DeMarco Murray highlight clip. It has rap music and lots of bass, so NSFW. The actual football starts at around 25 sec.
You can see that these plays are pretty well blocked up. To me, it looks like he has good vision, balance and fundamentals, gets through the line and then makes a nice move in the second level to pick up some more yards. He is not a burner who is gone once you miss, he doesn’t have much wiggle and he is no rocket. More of a bruiser, really. A lot of these highlights are against the Saints, so not worth a whole lot, but he did some good work against Seattle. It’s possible he has slowed down a bit (we all do), but the type of plays he was effective in are totally different than the type of situations Chip is putting him in.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f9tLMuSDCH4
while he has definitely lost a step since last year and he cant seem to break any tackles, the difference in the run blocking is night and day. I hadnt watched his highlights from last year until now because i hate the cowboys but wow. that ol is something else.
Here are some Ryan Matthews highlights from the same period. You can see clear differences in their styles and abilities. Matthews runs wilder, faster, harder, but with less balance. He runs through contact and usually ends up in a pile of several defenders. He isn’t taking anything to the house either, but he is more athletic, bursty, and at least one time got a good game on a sweep (something I didn’t see in the DM vid).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mlFPAY9WnBQ
“… I think Chip will try to make things work with Murray. Let’s keep this in perspective. Murray didn’t run to the media to shoot his mouth off after a tough loss. He’s complaining, but in a reasonable way.”
Tommy, what about him going behind/over Chip? Is that a reasonable way of responding? To me, it seems hugely disrespectful and damaging to the team. Murray seems more like a me-first guy than McCoy, in this instance. I know Murray’s agent is probably pulling the strings here, but I expected more class out of DeMarco.
Let’s see what he says when a reporter finds him and asks him. Talking to Lurie sure isn’t good, but if he rants publicly, that’s when the situation would get out of hands, imo.
Apparently when they tried to talk to him he kept saying “I’ll talk Thursday, I’ll talk Thursday”
So it seems like he knows someone in his camp fucked up and he needs to figure out how to walk this back.
I hope he does try to walk this back. In the meantime, the story takes on a life of its own. Not good.
Murray was always characterized as a high character player. It would fit if he doesn’t want to make his frustration public.
I think we can all agree that we would be upset if we’d be in his situation, too. As a matter of fact, it would be a bad sign if you don’t care that you’re the #3 RB (which he was against the Pats) as the rushing camp the year before. Thing is, do you blame yourself and work to get better or do you blame others?
That’s where me first and team first players seperate from each other.
As long as he doesn’t have to “run this back” he should be fine…
i think the best way to use murray effectively would be to use murray in the backfeild, ertz/celek at tight end, matthews and agholar outside and sproles/huff in the slot. if you want hand it off to murray motion sproles/huff on orbit motion so the defense isnt sure whos getting the ball. either run a sweep with sproles/huff with a fake up the middle to murray or hand the ball to murray up the middle and fake the sweep action. or run play action off of this with the option of checking it down to huff/sproles in the flat or even fake that action and dump off a screen to murray the other direction. or run play action and throw the ball downfield (like thats going to happen). i never want to see murray run a sweep again. sorry for the ramblings i havent had my coffee yet
how is Frank Gore doing anyway? when he changed his mind, Chip got thrown off balance.
Looks like him and Murray have similar YPC, 3.5. Think we would be saying the same thing about Gore today, except he is 4 years older….yikes.
Colts o-line terrible, but wheels def falling off gore late in the season
I guess that’s the million dollar question. CK has an offensive plan that’s proven to be very successful. Do you change your offense for 1 player? Sproles/Ryan don’t seem to have issues with the offense. Change the scheme for 1 player seems like a lot to do. I think DM will get better once he excepts his responsibility as an rb in this offense.
I don’t know that I’d say the scheme is proven, it has definitely been challenged recently. It peaked in the middle of year 1 then it regressed last year, which prompted Chip to double down and get his guys and not make too many concessions. That hasn’t worked for him so far. At some point he does needs to put the players he has in the best possible position to be successful if for no other reason that this isn’t the time of year he can get the best possible players to put his scheme in a position to succeed. It’s certainly easier to call a few extra N-S runs for Murray than Murray to just get with the program and acquire incredible lateral speed and vision.
Line has trouble blocking north and south. So it’s like do you do what the back is good at or what the line is good at?
The best option is likely the course Chip took so far, reduce the role. In a previous post I stated that the best path for now is for everyone involved to be patient. Another year removed from the huge number of carries, another year with the scheme, another year for Chip to make tweaks, reinforce the O-line, and we’ll see.
You want to put players in the best position to succeed, but not at the expense of other player’s strengths, of course. That’s why building a roster isn’t so much about tailoring the roster to the scheme you have in your head so much as making sure the player’s individual strengths synergize well with the other players on your roster.
A poor example of this, we are going for a big group of recievers, you have to be willing to abuse secondaries with that catch radius. But we have a QB who is the antithesis of a gunslinger, and the scheme is designed to get receivers into space and pick up YAC. Get the big guys downfield and throw the ball at them and go get the football. Throwing a big guy the ball 5 yards short of the sticks and expecting them to get the remaining 5 doesn’t play to their strengths. Neither does waiting for the big guy to get wide open.
I happen to be listening to 97.5 and Sal Pal was on speaking about Murray. Of note he asked Mike Miss about Murray’s last three runs of the game. In all three, the first was for 19 yards, he ran out of bounds in the 4Q, stopping the clock. I saw this, and in the back of my mind said WTF. After the three runs he was not put back in the game. Any wonder ?
I Ryan Matthews, Sproles and Barner can do the job better than Murray, I don’t care if he is making millions more. Win the game !!! Stop criticizing Chip for signing Murray. I did not hear anyone complain when he signed him. In fact everyone was saying that the Eagles had the best RB group in the league. Okay, so Murray needs to grow in the system. They need to keep him for next year, and maybe he will get better in the system. Stop being fans that only know “what have you done for me lately.” Look at the long term view. If you don’t fortunately Jeff Lurie will.
It’s not as if Murray even went to Lurie’ office to complain. Did Murray seek Lurie out or were they sitting together and it came up in conversation? I get it that discussing playing time with the owner is going over Chip’s head, but context. Means a lot, The other side of this story is that Murray Murray has not quit. He wants a bigger role. I can’t fault him for that. Much has been made about his slide nnear the end of a game, but fans have ignored his explanation that he was trying to. run out the clock, If he was, it was dumb, but I will take him at his word. I don’t think quitting is in his DNA, but. I have to admit that I, along with the media and fans, don’t know what is going on in his head,
Some interesting tidbits from a Cowboy forum. YMMV of course:
“I’ve never been a Murray fan, although he did run the zone read well. Something about his demeanor or attitude comes off really weird and kind of fake. Also trying to read between the lines it seems like there has definitely been a bit of a failing out between Murray and Witten, Tony, etc.. I think Murray is just showing his true colors a bit. He has always been about himself and seems a bit sensitive, not too intelligent and a bit of a crybaby. Even when he was on the Cowboys he would whine and complain about the run game at times. I think he is not a fan of Chip’s system or the hurry up attack because it’s not what he thinks is best for him. The only time he does well is when he thinks is trying to prove something to someone. He thought he would be living the high life as a Cowboy and now he’s just another football player on another team. It’s only a matter of time before he only gives what he has to keep his paycheck because he is doesn’t feel special or respected.”
http://cowboyszone.com/threads/eagles-player-questions-effort-of-teammate-demarco-murray.337271/page-2
interesting i thought last year he was the guy buying imacs for his o-line and shit. ive been a murray fan for a couple of years, ever since he came on as a rookie and saved my fantasy season, but hard to read personalities.
Funny thing is, before the season we asked ourselves who will win the bet: the Cowboys with their OL or we with the shining RB?
And in the end, they both needed each other. Dallas can’t convert a 3rd and short for the life of them, despite their “potentially GoaT” (we can put that to rest, I think) OL and Murray is avg. 3.5 YPC in Philly.
Sounds like speculation thinly disguised as more speculation.
Maybe he just wanted to express frustration in general. He comes from Dallas, where players are accountable to the owner. By all accounts, Lurie was fired up before this game. When Murray wasn’t able to come up big it makes sense that he’d be frustrated. He knows he got paid a ton, he knows this season has not gone well. Maybe he just wanted to clear the air with the guy signing his paychecks? It’s the only pro culture he knows. We really don’t know enough about the situation.
Murray is making 8mil next year, and it would cost 13mil to trade or cut him, which basically means that Murray ISNT going anywhere and Chip and Murray need to find a way to work this out… I don’t know if they can work it out THIS YEAR, but they need to work it out in time for next season.
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I think this past offseason, keeping Murray out of action because Cowboys put so much tread on his tires proved to be a big mistake. Early in the year Murray was talking about how every practice Rep was precious to him, which to me says he was struggling to adjust to this shotgun running style.. This next offseason, chip can’t worry about the wear and tear on Murrays body, Demarco NEEDS to get a heavy workload this offseason in hopes that he can get comfortable running out of the gun..
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It’s december and we are in the playoff hunt, so we can’t be worrying about hurt feelings. The guys that produce have to play, but Chip and Murray NEED to FIX THIS during the offseason, hopefully an improved OL and anothet summer of getting comfortable in this offense can solve this Murray problem. If another summer of Reps and improved OL ISNT the solution, than its up to chip to do what good coaches do, adjust, and add some packages of players better conducive to Murrays talents… Obviously we are NEVER going to line up in I formation 25 times a game, but is it THAT big of a deal to stick Trey Burton in the backfield and let him lead block for Murray 5 times a game?
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Some times a free agent signing DOESNT get comfortable until year 2. We saw that with Nolan carroll. Even Jenkins elevated his game during his second season as an Eagle. Hopefully more time to get comfortable is the solution. But if Murray is still struggling in August, it’s up to Chip to add some packages that can take advantage of the talemted RB he gave 20mil to
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Actually, to trade Murray would cost only the pro-rated amount of his bonus ($5 million) — not $13 MM.
The new team would assume his guaranteed $8MM salary.
we really control our own destiny. if we beat the bills this weekend then we can win the division by beating the giants and skins. cards games wouldnt matter. futhermore if the skins lose either of there next two games(bears and bills) we can lose to the bills and cards and only need to beat skins and giants for playoff spot. i hoenstly think the bears at home will beat the skins which gives us an easy path. the giants have to play the panther next week so im not worried about them. basically this divison comes down to our game vs the skins as the giants down scare me. we own them
Wait I thought the team was blowing up and everyone was getting fired? What a difference a win makes.
…And two losses. If WAS and NYG didn’t lose this week, it would be completely different.
Chip saying that Murray spoke with Lurie because they sat next to each other on the plane. Sounds a lot more reasonable than the “Crybaby Murray ran to Lurie’s office because Dallas sucks!” narrative that’s been going around.
The guy hasn’t played as well as we would have liked. That much is obvious. But we don’t necessarily need to start creating shit up about him to let out our anger at the season.
My guess (hope, rather?) is that the scheme adjustment and the yardage from last year were just too much for him. That’s not good, but it means he’s not a complete lost cause. I’d rather put in our other runners than him at this point, not to spite him, but simply b/c of production. But that doesn’t mean he can’t be valuable to his team. He’s just overpaid, THIS YEAR. We’ll see about next.
agree 100%. Chip mentioned that he ran out of gun 100% in college, so i think he assumed that he’d have an easier transition back to running out of the gun.
Can you imagine if we could snap our fingers and be back in “college shape?” I’d be able to stay out until 3 and somehow be functional the next day by 10 am. Also, I’d have a full head of hair.
Yes, I am still waiting for my transition back to my college abilities.
I also wouldn’t have to go to work Thursday or Friday.
A credible source with inside knowledge of the situation revealed more about Murray’s conversation with Lurie on the charter flight. In addition to reservations about his role with the team, apparently DeMarco had several other complaints: Sproles kept kicking the back of his seat, the wi-fi was down, Beau Allen managed to lock himself in the forward lavatory, his NFL-supplied Surface Pro is not an “approved electronic device,” Spadaro stole the window seat, Swoop’s costume took up the overheard compartment, Dave Fipp demanded and was allowed to fly the plane for a harrowing twenty minutes, he was too far away to see Jon Dorenbos share pictures of his wife, the beverage cart kept slamming into his elbow because the flight attendant had to swerve around Bradford’s sleeves on the floor, Sanchez grabbed the peanut basket at one point and began throwing bags all over the place, and even though he was the first to board the plane everyone outran him down the jetway so he had to sit with the owner.
HAHA, #bradfordsleeves!!!
“Sproles kept kicking the back of his seat,”
As if his teeny little legs could reach.
You beat me to it.
Any reports on whether Matthews and Agholor caught any peanut bags, or if they all ended up in the hands of defenders?
“too far away to see jon dorenbos share pictures of his wire”
excellent work
Chip said in presser they will dress and use 4 but bc of proclivity for injury Mathews can’t be lead back. IIn addition chip said dm faced lighter boxes bc teams doubled either dez or witten . Also mentioned whole offense sucks, blamed inconsistentcy on the line.
so wait, he faced a lighter box because dallas has receivers that demand double teams? where have I heard that theory before? sounds familiar
Has anyone seen the troll lately? Eagles need to win more often!
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he also stated that Chip would not be the head coach at the start of next season
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You miss him?
it was rhetorical lol
CRUNCH TIME in the NFC East.
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GIANTS
Might not be likely, but I can see a scenario where the Giants don’t win another game this year, mainly because their OL is a mess, and the have to go up against some of the best Defensive lineman, and Front 7’s that they should struggle against
1) Miami is there most winnable game. Never know what you will get from the Dolphins, but Donkey Kong Suh is very capable of turning on the switch and completely dominating this game the wAy he did to us. Is Lazy Suh gonna show up? Or will he small blood and take advantage of such a mess of a Giants OL and decided to put on a show and completely take over the game?
The Giants secondary is also struggling, hopefully the young miami WRs light them up and win this game sunday
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2) how the hell are the Giants going to hold up against the front 7 of the Panthers? Kawaan Short and Star Lotululie are going to dominate the interior of the Giants line, get in Eli’s face and open everything up for all the Panthers playmakers like Kuechly, Tommy, to put on a show.. The physical Panthers OL and those Power RBs Robert and Stewart are going to pound the average a best front 7 of the Giants. Forget all the plays downfield MVP Cam can make against Terribke Giants secondary, Carolina can Dominate the Giamts on both sides of the Line of scrimmage
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3) Vikings are in the playoff Hunt, and have a ton of young talent on that team, good chance coach Zimmer has a lot of fun scheming up a game plan to attack the weak Giannts OL.. Just look at how much top notch youmg Talemt Zimmer has to work with on Defense:
EVerson Griffin, high paid stud edge rusher
Anthony Barr 1st round edge rusher
Sharif FLoyd 1st round DT
Linval Joseph Huge stud run stuffer poached away from the Giants
Eric Kendricks 1st round talemt, probably having a better year than his bro
Trae Wayans 1st round corner
harrison Smith top Rated Safety
That’s a ton of defensive talent in the hands of an excellent defensve coach in Zimmer, and im drawing a blank,because I’m sure im leaving off some big names.
4) Even if we Imploded and didn’t win another game, Id be extremely confident because I feel like Cox,Logan,Ced. Vinny, Mychal,Meco, BG, BARWIN COMPLETELY OWN Eli and the Giants. the Giants have also had the Most late game implosions in the NFL, this wears on players, if they lose these next couple games and are eliminated from playoffs, with all the talk they willl hear in NY about their coach getting fired, I could see them completely quit just like the Eagles did in NY when we knew it was Andys last game.
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REDSKINS:
1) BEARS IMO are a better coached team, john Fox has done a solid job with that mess and we have seen that the Skins have been terrible on the road. They have yet to win a game away from DC and Players can’t possibky be confident in Cousin leading them on the road with how terrible he has been.. Hopefully the Bears do us a solid and continue the skins road woes.
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2) THE BILLS… This for me makes the eagkes/Bills game even more important. I want the Eagles to kick Shadys ass, beat the Bills and send them home pissed off ready to take it out on the skins.. After losing to Dallas Monday, it would sure be great to see the skins come to philly on a 3 game losing streak with psychological effects of continuosly losing on the road becoming a heavier and heavier gorilla on their back..
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As for us, beating our Bitch aka the Giants is the ONLY game im confidemt in us winning. But we need to go 3-1 beating Bills, Skins, Giants to control our own destiny. But as good as the Cardinals are, chips teams always play them tôugh and if Boykin and Nate Allen make the 3rd and long stop on John Brown instead of letting the rookie beat them both deep for a Td, we would be 2-0 against Bruce Arians.. The Cardinals are Legit. It’s no fraud and Carson should be 3rd in MVP vote behind Cam and BRady. If we have to lose a game, hopefully it’s this one… Sadly team is so inconsistent they are capable of going 1-3… Hopefully it’s time things click and we see a good finish to a rough season
if Murray gets more snaps and still sucks, and sproles and Barner have less, and Mathews has less, then Murray has officially screwed us with this complaining to the owner and coach move.
if we lose because we have to feed the ego, then Chip is blowing it.
I don’t think Chip would give Murray carries to feed Murray’s ego. He may do it out of his own ego and to spite the media.
yeah either way somebodies ego is going to hurt us or be hurt
If he continues to feed Murray carries and it’s not working, then yes. Often players play better when pissed off and looking to prove every one wrong so it could benefit us.
Looking like the winner of the NFC East will end up hosting the Seahawks in the playoffs who are one of the hotter teams as of late.. However, the seahawks have OL trouble.
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The rest of this year, the Eagles will only go as far as Cox and the front 7 takes us. They are the strength of our roster and they need to take games OVER like we saw them capable of doing in the Giants, Patriots and Saints games.
We have some good teams left on our schedule, but our opponents have beatable offensive lines, and it’s up to Cox and the boys to impose their dominance against inferior offensive lineman
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I feel like Cox and the boys have grown up and can be trusted to show up. The much bigger concern is our Offehsive line and I think it’s pretty simple, if we are done with OL injuries and the five players who played the entire Pqtriots game can stay on the field for every snap the rest of this year, I think we will see the best stretch of Eagle football we have seen all year. if we have to continue playing Musical chairs and shuffling offensive Lineman all over the place we are going to struggle to make the playoffs and we will need the defense to hold teams to 17 points or less to stand a chance…. But if we can just go on a 4-5 game stretch of CONTINUTY with the OL we had in New England, GOOD THINGS will happen and we should be the favorite to win the division… The heakth of the OL will determine how this season will end..
I think ti’ll be vikings
the season will also depend on whether chip will be smart enough to feed Mathews and sproles and barner, and starve murray.
maybe he will be fresh towards the end or playoffs (if) and he can explode then?
It feels good to be 100% correct about my interpretation of the Murray issue yesterday.
http://igglesblitz.com/2015/12/the-joy-of-winning/#comment-2400474067
Congratulations, but no need to be smug and rub it in peoples faces that you were right about 1 particular topic.
I know, but these days everyone is being so negative that I can’t stand it.
Understandable.
90% right maybe but still your comment was pretty gross:
” I want to carry the load on my back as much as possible.”
come on now, no way he said that.
damn that was a rough presser. How many times does Chip need to answer the same question, jeez? Eagles beat the patriots? Crickets. Report that Murray talks to the owner, swarms of reporters to the Novacare center. I get due diligence, you want to reach Chip for comment on it, but at some point it just seems like you are begging Chip for a story. “Chip can you please just say that Murray is a d-bag? Please? How about now?”
You can’t put on Espn this week without:
1) Murray-snitching-to-the-owner-gate
2) Stephan A smith dusting off the oL chip is racist Narrative and now every Analyst on ESPN has to address it
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70% of NFL coverage is those two stories
I was just about off the Chip wagon, now I’m full on circle the wagons mode, screw them, lets go win and make everyone look stupid.
Welcome back. Only we get to criticize Chip.
i saw the clip of Stephen A talking today saying “I’m proud of what Lesean said and the way he handled it”…..what? i know the guy is what you would call a charlatan Geagle : ) but what the hell did he do to make SAS proud of him exactly? He indicated that a coach was making decisions based on the color of players skin….sounds like racism to me, but when he was asked to expound on this claim, he refused to and just let it stew, never presenting anything that was remotely factual, but still claims he stands by what he said. My biggest issue with the whole thing was that McCoy was able to pretty much get away with it because it’s “what he felt”, that is such bullshit and sets a horrible precedent for future disgruntled players to feel as if they can throw baseless accusations at anyone and not provide any evidence to their claim. What someone feels doesn’t make that feeling the truth, and because of this cop-out of it being a feeling a guy had to answer questions all summer of whether or not he’s a racist or makes decisions based on race. Even after going to visit an injured black player on a different team in the hospital and going to the funeral of a black cop who was shot in the face while trying to buy a video game for his son. SAS decides to stick up for the other guy because that is who he is, a race-baiting charlatan who i believe is really just a racist himself. It’s disturbing that people like him are allowed to shout their opinions on TV but i guess this is ESPN’s idea of entertainment. There is a reason why First Take comes on the same time as Maury Povich….it’s trash tv.
Is it me or is the Philly beat writer circuit getting worse and worse? These guys are so goddamn negative I doubt they even like this team.
Negativity sells and is easier than patience.
Let’s try not to talk about politics here…
I see what you did there.
RE: Kelly’s RB History
T-Law mentioned that, at Oregon, big backs Jonathan Stewart and Legarrette Blount excelled in Kelly’s offense.
With the Ducks, however, Kelly’s clear preference was for smaller backs.
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When he arrived in 2007 as the new OC, Kelly inherited both Stewart and Blount — recruits of then-HC Mike Belloti.
In Stewart’s one season under Kelly, he ran for 1700+ yards.
In 2008, as offensive coordinator, Kelly promoted RB Jeremiah Johnson to 1st-team RB ahead of Blount.
Johnson was listed at 5’9″ 200 lbs — and looked smaller.
In 2009-2012, now as HC, Kelly’s top RB recruits — and players — were:
– LaMichael James was 5’9″ 195 lbs.
– Kenjon Barner 5’9″ 185 lbs.
– DeAnthony Thomas 5’9 176 lbs.
_________________
Kelly did not recruit big backs at Oregon after becoming the O-Coordinator.
He like short, quick guys. A lot.
we should trade for McCoy.
its really going to be something watching him run against us. every time he gets the balls he could go far and do it in a way that makes you say, “Damn! wish we had that guy”.
he was so fun to watch against the giants and skins for years.
I bet he fumbles at least twice against us. He’ll be trying to make big plays against us and will swing that arm out.
I bet he scores at least twice instead. and possibly breaks some ankles in the process.
I don’t think it’s necessarily an either/or proposition.
I really think last year’s SB impacted Kelly. Blount and Lynch both had huge impacts in helping their teams get to the SB. Murray and Lacy helped their teams advance. I think Kelly saw this and felt in order to win late in the season you needed a big, powerful back. Enter Murray and Matthews.
In hind sight maybe McCoy was a perfect fit here
I think Mathews / Sproles / Barner can be effective running outside. not sure why it took so long to get KB in the mix.
You can argue McCoy as a better fit for this year’s run scheme. Last year, he left a lot to be desired.
If the OL is leaking, neither are any good. That was part of the problem early so McCoy probably would have been bad too. The line has been getting better though, and Murray has not improved as much as the other backs.
I thought the light had come on in Murray’s house a few weeks ago when he put his shoulder down and ran through defenders a couple of times… then the “slide game” happened. I’m not sure what’s up with this guy. Is he injured? Does he want his teammates to think he is a patsy? Is it the scheme? Lack of understanding the scheme? So far, I haven’t seen a great explanation as to why he stinks, but we can all tell that what he is doing isn’t working.
Chip wanted to replace McCoy with a back that would follow the game-plan. Mathews was a hit (but that injury bug keeps biting him). So far, I agree that Murray looks like a miss.
I’m all for Sproles and Barner all game this week.
from Chip’s press conference today, i just get the feeling that Chip will at least get Murray 10-15 carries, and that this would be the same as “benching” him, just so not to hurt Murray’s feelings. Every carry Murray gets at this point is to help quiet him down, and for his ego. Earlier in the season, of course, the big free agent needs 20+ carries, game after game, even if not producing, because you don’t bench a 40 million dollar back just because he had a bad first game. But at this point of the season, he has had the opportunities to warm up to the offense and show what he has.
With Mathews back as a bigger back, there is no situation in the game where Murray would be the best RB option to run a play, rather than any one of the other three. Three is also plenty to share carries, so no one is tired.
It is a nice gift, Chip will give to the other team, running at least ten plays not to get the most yards, but to have some evidence that can support his post game spin to the media and to Murray, about not benching, sharing the ball, and flow of the game, whole offense did not get enough plays off, etc.
this will make me mental
http://www.csnphilly.com/football-philadelphia-eagles/chip-kelly-never-considered-adapting-scheme-demarco-murray
More and more I get the sense Kelly had no idea what he wanted to do at RB besides get rid of McCoy. Once he did, he just went helter skelter via FA to acquire RBs.
Just another piece of evidence that raises serious questions about Kelly the GM.
Because of an article that states he met with both players prior to signing them, discussed his plans for their use and received agreement from them, and used them as planned during the game you draw the conclusion that he had no idea what he wanted?
What in that article points to helter skelter?
I agree with you ATG. First off its a CSN Philly article which, for the most part, are always terrible and the article itself doesn’t say anything that means he panicked or went “helter skelter” like he said.
Headline disingenuous. Chip wanted Gore plus Matthews, which i think would have been great. Looking at teams in the playoffs they typically have big backs that can run downhill and create yards. McCoy wasn’t that last year, though he seems to be this year.
When Gore fell through he knew he needed to get another back. Mathews is too injury prone to be a lead back. He got DM b/c he ran out of shotgun with Same in college. Figured they’d be good together. Of course he paid extra which was probably a mistake. Not sure why he doesn’t like going draft / UDFA for backs. But i don’t think he didn’t have a plan.
exactly, I also read somewhere that Mathews and Frank Gore were the most efficient in ypc out of the shotgun formation for the past 3 years or something to that effect. When Gore backed out of the deal I figured the idea was to get another physical back and Demarco was targeted for the reasons you stated..plus taking him away from a rival team would be like killing two birds with one stone
exactly. Just because plans don’t work doesn’t mean you didn’t have a plan.
There we go with the negativity again…killing birds?!
It certainly hurt Dallas. Their running game evaporated this year, and Romo got hit a lot more without Murray picking up blitzes.
instead it killed one bird
Retrospect says we should have overpaid slightly for Maclin, used the 1st round pick on another position(Dupree?) and then drafted a RB in the mid-rounds.
Unclear to me if Maclin would be wasted here. Would Sammy even throw to him. Looks like we get more production of our RB / TEs but i can’t tell if that’s just b/c or WRs suck or its scheme.
to quote forrest gump: “i think . . . maybe it’s both?”
Combination of a poor pass game, and heavy wallet syndrome probably would have limited Maclin’s production.
I’m starting to think its the scheme/route tree here
The Chiefs paid him $55 million. He went to his home state. It probably would have cost $60 million to keep him and the howling and screeching would still be going on. Especially when he was concussed. In your retrospect, where do the improved defensive backs fit?
Sorry. I typed before scrolling. ;~/
Kelly and his staff had goals for running back, ie, Gore, Mathews. Gore chose to go elsewhere, Mathews is here and Murray just feel into their hands out of the blue. You must have a short memory.
Mike Sielski
@MikeSielski
3m3 minutes ago
You can shake LeSean McCoy’s hand only if you’re a 21+ female and you sign a confidentiality agreement. #Eagles #Bills
That’s great. All he was missing was tagging McCoy in the tweet.
I can hear her now, “But Mr. McCoy, that’s not your hand.”
#HandShakeGate
Boo. You have to be more clever then that.
I stole it from someone! lol.
lol Touche sir.
“McCoy said he’ll talk to players and Lurie, but he won’t be shaking hands with Chip. “We don’t have that kind of relationship””
That’s funny. Because I don’t have to have a relationship with anybody in order to shake hands with. He’s just a bitter kid. Will be interesting to see when he finally grows up.
Agree. But honestly. Chip put him in a better situation. clearly that relationship wasn’t great, seems like he gets along much better with Rex.
That’s because Rex and Shady are both kids still!
Not surprising. Rex is an unprofessional POS so he doesn’t have the same type of expectations as Chip does.
You obviously don’t shake hands the way McCoy does.
Aight, bro. I also must not care what car you drive. Lol
Haha
I assume Chip did not submit a photograph and confidentiality agreement before the deadline.
I think the other backs are doing a better job running the one cut style that zone blocking implies, plus have better lateral movement than murray. He was always a banger, that is meant to run kind of like Bettis or Marion barber.
With the suck fest that is the eagles oline, he is trying to do more lateral movement than he is good at. Shady, was I ever wrong about him, has that knock for reading the blocking and setting guys up. Murray is a guy, with mediocre blocking, can hit a hole with power and push out a lot of yards.
I thought the signing was strange and more of a sticking it to dallas move.
I was trying to ex press that shady is a good slashing back running sweeps and zone to edge plays.
Then I looked at the stats. He had a lot of runs wide in dallas. But. My lying eyes say slant, dive or maybe off tackle.
I really loved Shady, and had hoped that he would be a decent human outside of Philly. Instead he calls him a racist, and won’t explain his position. He’s an arrogant asshole, with a very low IQ. Did he break single digits in his Wonderlic? He’s so dumb I can’t take it.
I found out he got an 11 on his Wonderlic. That roughly corresponds to an 82 on an IQ test, which would mean you’re dumber than over 90% of the population. That’s better than I would have expected from him.
What if my IQ is 140?!
I don’t have a high enough IQ to understand how the hell IQ scores work.
Standardized IQ tests have an average score of 100 by definition, and also attempt to enforce a standard deviation of 15 points. From there it’s easy to see where you rank.
Years ago the standard IQ tests were slanted heavily toward urban middle class life experiences. There were no questions which would be understood by children growing up on a dairy farm or a reservation or surviving in a sharecroppers shack in Mississippi. Consequently it was easy to call such people unintelligent, simply because they didn’t understand the questions.
My eye que is 20/20
my wizard has a lot of intelligence points…so there’s that
What if mine is over 9,000?!https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiMHTK15Pik
OVER 90000000000000000000000000000000000
ITS OVER 900000000000000000000000000000000
dank meme bro
If your IQ is truly 140, on a standardized test, then you are (140-100)/15 = 2.666.. standard deviations above normal. That corresponds with about 99.5 percentile. In a room of 200 people, you are likely the most intelligent person there.
So you’re saying there’s a chance I might be the biggest smart arse on here. I’ll take my odds!
I must inform you that is not the case if your IQ is 140 :).
Well, he is from Germany….
thank god for beer, the great equalizer, or we’d be screwed
What about the cars?!
i wish i was dumb enough to be making $12m a year guaranteed.
He pay is based on his athletic ability, not his intelligence.
I am not a fan of using IQ tests as a proxy for intelligence. It does not capture a wide spectrum of human mentality, including athletic, musical, or social endeavors. It also tends to conflate education/social class with innate mental ability, a disgusting error.
Based on your definition of intelligence, frat brothers (social endeavor) who can play guitar (musical) and also start on their college football team (athletic) would be considered having high intelligence? Seriously, are you saying a person’s physical athletic ability is directly related to their intelligence? How about tall people, are they more intelligent? Muscular people, are they more intelligent?
Anyobody seen the rant of Herm Edwards on TV? What happened????
what happeend?
In a nutshell…Shady didn’t like that Chip did not run the team based on Shady’s input. Herm thinks the players are too self-absorbed and it should be about the team first, not what the individual player wants.
EDIT: HERM SHOUTED HIS RANT AND MADE A SPECTACLE ABOUT IT.
Is it like Dennis Green, Jim Mora- rant like!?>
More like like a STEPHEN A SMITH rant, but making a valid point.
You may be the first person to successfully put “Stephan A. Smith” and “valid point” in the same sentence.
that’s a valid point about stephan a smith
Pssh, you’re third. It has been done now.
wow that sounds like what chip would say
What happened?
He’s sick of Shady’s bitch-ass attitude most likely.
I must see this
this is supposed to be the “full version”
https://twitter.com/ESPNNFL/status/674705110610657280
*edit: both links are the “full version”
https://twitter.com/Turk0219/status/674699955953643521
Not a huge fan of Herm the tv personality…..but damn did he nail it as best he could without getting fired….i think he had a lot more to say but held back. I agree with him, the players are so self-absorbed nowadays and think everything is about them and when a player like McCoy says something like he did the media LOVES it, regardless of the facts. I know that is not a surprise to anyone with half a brain, but i’m glad to hear someone on tv say it.
“nowadays” do you forget the days of TO, Ochocinco, Irvin, Sanders, etc. i think the game has gotten way “better” in terms of that though admit i sort of think it’s fun when it’s on the field
There always has been, and always will be, narcissistic superstars. The difference is the media coverage is over the top. Can you imagine what Twitter would be like with TO doing push-ups in his driveway?
The gifs, memes, vines would be awesome.
im including the days of TO and Ocho into nowadays, and sure Irvin and Sanders were “characters” who spoke their mind, but to me they played the character part to a tee. Today i think there are more guys that are worried about their brand and how they look to the public. I was a kid when Sanders and Irvin played their prime so maybe i didn’t pick up on athletes in general being this way. And yea it adds to the fun to a certain degree
Yup. There have always been characters speaking their minds, but most of them backed up their words with actions. Look up names like Bednarik, Night Train Lane, Alex Carras, Hollywood Henderson, the guy that cursed the Detroit Lions. Even Frenchy Fuqua, who is still burbling. Dwight White, several (gag) Oakland Raiders. Nowadays they would all be fined for talking.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_Prep_Academy
Deion was so narcissistic and egocentric, he started a charter school and named it after himself. He had his own reality series. He made Darrell Revis look like a team player as he consistently jumped from contender to contender in an attempt to gain exposure by winning Superbowls…San Fran, Dallas, Baltimore.
He was one of the the guys I just couldn’t wait to retire so just I didn’t have to see his “brand” anymore. Unfortunately, the NFL Network loves his brand as he plays a prominent role in the network.
I met Deion last January at a corporate event. He was pretty cool to me and there was no real reason that he needed to be. He also forced Nick Foles to sing the Eagles fight song (with me accompanying him on guitar).
now we know what the other teams felt like with shady coming to town. a guy you have to game plan for.
who is our guy they have to plan for?
Ryan Mathews? Its kinda sad the Eagles don’t really have one but after all, isn’t that what Chip kinda did/wanted to do to this team? Some interchangeable parts with no super stars?….. He sure has that now!
Cox… Just ask Tom Brady
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SPROLES seems to get some extra attention at times
Spot on. Fear the Sprole Train.
That’s how we Sproles!
McCoy is special and we know this.
sproles is also special.
People are absolutely singling out Cox, Jason Peters, Sproles, and the front seven in general.
nah, sproles yes.
Donnie Friggin Jones!
How can anyone forget about the legendary Donnie Longball.
Malcolm Jenkins.
I would love to see a writer ask Shady…”Do you consider yourself as having a fixed mindset or growth mindset?” I can only imagine his response.
There would be no response to that Dave. I don’t think McCoy is intelligent enough to understand what was being said to him if that question was asked to him.
See my comment below. Lesean Mccoy is a very unintelligent person.
What’s a mind?
was listening to a Buffalo Station and one of the hosts was saying that he’s confused by Shady, how he can never get a straight answer from him..not sure if he’s ever sincere.. and that his conversational style and logic is similar to his running style, zigging and zagging all over the place. Also they don’t understand how someone can say they don’t have issues with an individual, and everything’s fine but then also say that they can’t even shake hands as a courtesy..obviously there is a problem.
what’s confusing? he tossed a woman off a bus. nice people don’t do that
Q: In Pats game, who was the player that chased down James White and tripped him up at the 1 on the drive that ended with Jenkins’ 99-yard INT return?
Walter Thurmond… HUGE PLAY!!!!
At this point we shouldn’t expect anything less from THE BEST safety duo in the league. Wait did I just say the Philadelphia Eagles have the best safety duo in the NFL right now? Damn did that feel good just typing that.
I don’t know about best, maybe second best. Earl Thomas and Kam are back to form there.
Right now Jenkins and Thurmond are the best duo in the NFL. Jenkins is the #2 rated overall safety in the league right now. Remember the NFL is a “what are you doing for me now” league and right now the Eagles have the best safeties. Don’t get me wrong Thomas is an immense talent as is Kam but at the moment they aren’t playing at the level of Jenkins and Thurmond and I stand by that.
Hope we will re-sign Thurmond.
I agree GE. Actually lets hope the Eagles resign both.
Isn’t Jenkins signed through at least next season?
You may be correct but I was in the thought that Jenkins signed a 3 year deal when he got here.
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Edit: Just looked it up GE and he is an unrestricted FA at the end of the season. Eagles better lock them both up because I doubt the franchise tag is an option for them with the Eagles hopeful to keep that in their back pocket for Bradford just in case.
Need to look it up. But am pretty positive that he won’t be a FA after this season.
Read the edit above friend.
Jenkins is signed through 2016. It was a three year contract but this is year 2. He was not here in 2013.
You are correct. He is signed through 2016. He will not be a FA at the end of this year. TD is dead wrong on this one.
http://www.spotrac.com/nfl/philadelphia-eagles/malcolm-jenkins/
Jenkins is signed through 2016
I don’t see any possible way Bradford gets tagged unless he plays lights out from now until a super bowl win, like Joe Flacco did.
His tag # would be crazy. Is the tag # disregarded for cap purposes?
Jenkins is signed through 2016. Thurmond is a FA at the end of the year.
http://www.spotrac.com/nfl/philadelphia-eagles/malcolm-jenkins/
It’s good to see considering the lack of good safeties in the league. It’s funny how many folks complain endlessly about how Chip addressed, or did not address, some areas of concern, but absolutely refuse to mention where there has been great improvement. i guess it would spoil their (not ours!) whiny narrative.
Well said Maggie and I totally agree.
Jesus you like to complain about complainers.
Followed by another huge play on the next snap where Jenkins knifed in and got a tackle for a loss and putting them into a passing distance.
It would have been easy to concede the TD in that situation. Great safety play.
We’re also forgetting that Thurmond was the one who initially tipped the pass that Jenkins picked off and took to the house.
Yup, he was a FORCE on that drive and had a big hand in the key 14 point swing…
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No FANBASE appreciates such amazing safety play like we,do, starved since the loss of DAWKINS..
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If,Demarco Doesn’t Turn it around and become our star RB, I vote to have the #29 retired..after Nates dissapointing career, if Murray flops, we need to just retire that number
Shortest post in a long time snd great ides.. rrtire a bad #!
The underrated part of that play is after the Pats got the big play, Jenkins had the presence of mind to get the defense lined up quickly because he know (probably from film study) that the Pats line up quickly a lot of times after big plays. I was at the game and you could see Jenkins trying to get everyone lined up before Brady tried to get his guys lined up.
Watching the game.again, I feel like I was too nervous watching the game live to really pay attention to what was happening. I literally went in my yard to not watch the last two TDs the Pats scored when they were mounting a comeback. It Looked way too much like a classic eagke collapse and BRady comeback, so I missed most of the last 3 drives because I couldn’t bear to watch..
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But watching the Game again last night, I got pretty excited from what I saw out of Bradford, he made some really impressive plays Showing that the drastically improved pocket presence he has been showing is no Fluke. He continues to show a “feel for pocket pressure” and he is rolling out, extending plays, holding the ball Til the very last second so he can give the crossing routes time to unfold and then hit WRs on the run with some real nice ball placement… Most important, when you look at his play these days, you can NO LONGER say that you are seeing a QB who is SCARED OUT THERE on the field. these days he is playing the game with a toughness about him that I worried he didmt have in him… If fans get over that goofy look on his face, and really judge him on his recent play, SCARED Bradford has been long gone for Weeks and we are seeing him really grow into the role of QB of the Eagles
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He is showling some serious skill. Leadership and,QB toughness and it’s about time Eagle fans start to respect it. Whenever we get ready to play the Giants and the Doufus eli Manning, I always write one of my favorite Defensige quotes “There is NO Pressure, like pressure straight up the middle in a QBs face” and that I prefer to not sack Eli, because if you get in Elis face and pressure him, he will throw up INTs every time!..pressure right up the middle is the best way to Attack a QB, typically it affects them the most…go watch that Pariots and see how many big time throws bradford made with pressure in his face, and defenders closing in on him. He stood in that pocket fearless and he held on to the ball as long as he needed to so that the route could unfold and then he delivered balls with some real zip on them where only the WR could get to it.. SAM showed Big arm strength in August, and then early in the year we went thru a period where we were knocking his arm strength, but now that he has been throwing some legit LASERS the last few games, I look back and can’t help to wonder if he went threw a “Dead Arm” period for a stretch early in the season? Regardless. That is clearly No longer the case and the arm strength has been on display. Hopefully as he gets more comfortable every week, and trusts his weapons more we will see an increase in attacking down field and really start to show Off his arm talemt. But INTS are really crucial this time of year do if he continues to not throw INTS, I can live with him not taking unnecessary chances down field
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there was NOTHING SCARED about Bradford in New England. SAM was also perfect in the Redzone with the fireball he threw to Ertz in the back of the redzone, and the beautful ball placement on the crossing route to Jordan who bradford threw open from 2 defenders
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The Crucial 3rd down completion to Cooper was another play he had to stand in the pocket, pressure was coming in his face, and he didn’t know Peters was going to block the pressure from the left side at the last second’ SAM stood Tall and ICED US THE WIN with that pass to Cooper
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last 3 games he is completing 68% of passes, with 4 TDs, and No INTs.. But even without the Stats, the EYE test shows tremendous growth from the scared kid we saw at the beginning of the year that didn’t trust his body to hold up and was still getting reacquainted withNFL speed while trying to grasp a new offense.
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Lit up the Saints defense and beat brees
Walk off overtime TD against hated cowscum
First win against BRady
19-3 first quarter lead vs Miami
.what I feel bad about is his WRs robbed him of the chance to beat MVP Cam and undefeated Panthers team. SAM was,sharp that night and WR dropped 10 passes he put on them on the money. Who knows if we win that day, but Bradford was certainly sharp enough that night to give us a chance. Sadly it wasn’t the first time his teammates łet Sam down this year
Agreed. Sam has been looking a lot better. I thought he played well enough to beat CAR too
I’ve been impressed with how he has been able to avoid sacks. He also seems to understand situational football. I hope he keeps building. But he is night and day a different QB then then the guy who started the season
Yes sir
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It was no secret that he was an accurate kid with some legit arm talent, but you are right, it’s the small things I wasn’t sure of, like QB toughness. pocket awareness. Understanding of situational football. Heck COUGHLIN and Eli have two SB rings and those morons still show andy/Donovan level clock management which is no complimemt
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He is showing pocket presence, he senses the pass rush, knows when to side step, or step up in the pocket to buy an extra second. Coming off the knee injuries, I had no idea he would be so capable of rolling out and throwing accurate on the move witha defender on his ass
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it’s a real shame we didn’t get to see what would have happened in that Carolina game, if WRs made routine catches on perfectly placed Balls. For a lot of that game, we looked like the Panthers biggest challenge this yeat and they are still undefeated
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It Bothers me that SAM isnt getting his due these days. All week, Radio, Internet, TV, I still hear plenty of people list Franchise QB at the top of our NEEDS, and im damn sure Not ready to give up on SAM. if the season ended today, I would 100% wañt Sam back, to see what he can do next yeàr with an entire offense to train to be our QB, instead of rehabbing your knee the entire offseason, start Practcing in August like he did coming into this year..
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bradford is also a smart QB who can read defenses well. I look forward to seeing what he looks like when this offense becomes second nature to him, and who knows, maybe chip eventually trusts him to give Bradfprd the green light to Audible..
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And it certainly doesn’t suck after 6 QBs to finally have a QB that knows how to friggin slide…
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Curious to see what his body looks like next year, wonder if they try to bulk up his legs and upper body a little this offseason
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As we stand Today, getting SAM thru the season Healtny is still the single most important thing for this franchise. Talent like his, is not easy to get our hands on. We would be foolish to give up on him while he keeps showing growth and progress each week…. Assuming our insane media and batshit crazy FANBASE HASNT chased him away yet and he actually wants to remain our QB lol
When was the last time you could use the phrase “climb the pocket” and “Philadelphia quarterback” in the same sentence? That’s probably the single most obvious trait with Sam that sticks out. I can only imagine how much better he would be with a good interior line.
Truth!
“it’s the small things I wasn’t sure of, like QB toughness. pocket awareness. Understanding of situational football.”
Those things are NOT small – they make up skill that a franchise QB MUST have – IMO.
#raise_the_trophy_2016
We’re talking about 4TDs in 3 games. To me that’ the part that needs to improve drastically.
Not neccessarily..
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Id glady take 4TD/0 INTS for the next 3 games if that comes with 6 rushing TDs.
REDZONE conversion Percentage is what matters to me.. Don’t really care if a RB or WR gets credit for the TD
Yes just ask the Chiefs.
I was drunk when the game started and even drunkerer when the game ended.
I thought I was the only one…
As Michael Jackson would say: you are not alone.
Anybody going to the #HandShakeGate on Sunday?
I must give huge props to that Gian GEAGLE guy. Very refreshing to read your posts these days, thank you!
Brandon Graham: double digit sacks on the season – over / under?
What’s he at now? 6?
6.5
Under. End of the season more sacks BG or Curry?
graham
Depends on if Jeffrey Lurie keeps firing him up with pre-game speeches
The LTs he’s facing down the stretch aren’t the best, so I’d hope he’d get to 10.
what do you guys think about how kiko is playing? I saw a couple busted coverages but havent really noticed how he’s playing.
hurt and a bit lost….looks like casey matthews out there
unfortunate.
yeah, he’s gotta get benched. Goode isn’t nearly athletic but probably more scheme sound at this point.
I think Najee has played well whenever he’s been ask to step in. He looked really good over the summer as well.
Kiko just isn’t 100%… physically or mentally
Actually I watched the game again last night and thought it was the tale of two halfs..
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There were stretches, that he looked solid, getting stops for us in various different ways, you can see him blow up a RB for no Gain, you can see him blow up the Guard so Kendricks could have an open path to the ball carrier. You can see him run well covering the RB out of the backfield, forcing BRady to overthrow it, then a play later you can see,him closely covering the TE down field Scott Chandler and breakng up the pass…
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But as well as he looked at times in the first half, he looked pretty bad in the second half, falling down, getting beaten on double moves by the RB a.
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After watching the game again. I buy the Eagles coaches assessment of him that they made a mistake playng him way too many snaps.plays he was making in his first 35 snaps, he was coming up short on in the last 35 snaps… 70 snaps was clearly way too much of a load for him. And they need to keep up on like a 45 snap pitch count. it’s not ALL BAD the way the media is portraying, but I do think this will end up being a case of needing to wait Til he is two years removed from the injury to get back to his ferocious, pre injury, Buffalo level of play.
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Think it’s pretty simple, if he puts the Knee injuries behind him, we should see a signifcantly better KIKO next year. If he has setbacks with the Knee, we will never get to enjoy the beastly LB that was rookie of the year.
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Personally, I would have shut him down for the seasn and not łet him come back from the injury a month ago, and he damn sure can’t be playing 70 snaps for us, but I do think the game time he is getting under his belt is good for getting him back to where he was before the knee injury as long as he doesn’t get hurt again of course.
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But Ultimately, I think he has to stay healthy, get thru this season, and all the offseason training and if he can get thru it all without another knee injury, we should see the rookie of the year KIKO playimg for us september 2016
Long way from that 160 tackle, 2 sack, 4 pick freshman season. That said healthy hicks, kiko, kendricks back there. Exciting. We fix the o-line , get everyone healthy and next year could be a crazy year.
Just looks like muscle endurance is not there yet. Structurally looks sound. Resting him will do no good. More game time n live reps will get the body back into sooner rather than later.
Not having had a spy on the airplane like the Dallas writer, I have no idea what was said. Just, Mr. Murray:
Orange you glad you aren’t that guy?
Citriously!
You are all awesome people.
Preach Herm Preach!
http://www.bleedinggreennation.com/2015/12/9/9881858/espn-demarco-murray-lesean-mccoy-herm-edwards-rant-video-eagles-bills-nfl-live
I don’t know about that, man. It’s not 1950. We have a different relationship with authority. We know too much about our coaches, politicians, priests, doctors, teachers, police officers, CEOs, etc. to blindly obey them and keep our mouths shut. The NFL is a business and it’s not about taking care of these men who are one bad play away from career-ending injury, paralysis, or death. Nor is it possible to control millionaires who have agents, PR firms, and constant electronic interaction with the masses. I have no problem with outspoken players, I only ask that what they say be insightful or at least funny.
There is a certain irony to Herm Edwards talking about Shady McCoy being an over-discussed media topic becoming the most discussed media topic.
Shady is a shithead and Espn is a gossipy Joke.
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Just saw the ESPN ticker come across my screen and under NFL news it says: Shady said he refuses to shake hands wth Chip Kelly..
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SMH!!!
<<<SMH:
at least you are shaking something. 😉
“I am stunned that we haven’t been able to win more games without Tony,” Jones said, via the Star-Telegram. “And I would have thought that we could have coached it up enough, and put it together enough, that we would not have lost those games without Romo early. We would be in better shape than we are right now.” – Jerry Jones
May the GM who set the Dallas roster live forever. 🙂
lol I saw that on NFL Network… what a dope… Maybe he’s prepping for his off season coaching changes
Is it just coincidence that we have our two worst defensive performances after Hicks got injured or was that rookie really holding the defense together?
I’m no expert on the 3-4 D but ILBs should b the players making the most tackles… and he was disciplined in his gap assignment too and seems to have a really great feel to diagnose plays n attack the ball carrier. Chip struck gold with him… if he can stay healthy.
Hey tommy u guys seen this yet? Im a eagles fan but my buddy pointed this out to me…. http://nesn.com/2015/12/nfl-officials-missed-multiple-eagles-false-starts-in-patriots-loss-videos/
Pats fans rally are the worst.
I noticed Peters and Johnson false-starting constantly. I was baffled that they weren’t called.
Was it that noisy, or is the Eagles’ snap count just so predictable that our Tackles are terrified that the defense is going to get the jump on them?
Whenever I’ve watched Peters he has always been within an eyeblink of false starting, but he does it so consistently either he has fantastic timing or he’s talked it over with the refs to know how far he can push it.
If Johnson is starting to follow his lead then maybe that’s a good sign for his development, picking up a ‘veteran move’.
I’m not sure how you guys all feel about the possibility of winning the division, but I don’t know if my heart can take a L-L-W-W path the the title that would be crammed full of tie-breakers. Beating Buffalo on Sunday would go a long way to restoring some measure of trust with this team.