Thursday Notebook
Posted: October 5th, 2017 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 127 Comments »
After reviewing the game, there is no question that Stefen Wisniewski should be the starting LG. He should not have to share the job with Chance Warmack. So why do the coaches keep the rotation?
My guess is that the coaches still love Warmack’s potential. At his best, he is a powerful mauler who can move guys off the ball. Warmack moves pretty well for such a big guy. He’ll never be mistaken for Jason Kelce, but he seems more athletic than someone like Max-Jean Gilles ever did (another massive OG).
The more the coaches play him, the more likely he is to work through some of his issues and show improvement. Practice can only do so much for an O-lineman, who needs live sessions to show what he can and can’t do. Giving him reps each game keeps him focused during the week and it gives him a chance to really work on his game.
Warmack isn’t awful when he’s on the field. He’s inconsistent and he’s not as good as Wiz, but he’s functional. I think the team is better with Wiz on the field, but I can see where the coaches are coming from if this truly is their strategy. If the light really goes on for Warmack, you’ve got a guy with serious potential.
If the coaches think Warmack is playing well and deserves to split reps, then I don’t know what they’re watching or thinking. This staff hasn’t made any awful decisions like that so I tend to think there is some kind of angle here.
*****
Zach Ertz is having his best season, as a receiver and a blocker. He is showing what a weapon he can be in the passing game, but also significant improvement as a blocker. He’s still highly erratic, but he had some legitimately solid blocks against the Chargers. That’s very encouraging.
You don’t need Ertz to ever become a 6th OL. You just need him to be functional as a blocker. He is a gifted receiver and he’s on the field to make big plays.
You wonder if playing so well as a receiver is making him more confident and aggressive as a blocker.
Or is he just scared of disappointing Jason Peters?
*****
Does Jaylen Watkins play over Rasul Douglas this weekend?
I’ll be interested to see how the coaches use the DBs. They’ll have a good group of players to choose from. The coaches can focus on matchups, trying to figure out who is best on who.
Getting Corey Graham back will give them the flexibility to play Malcolm Jenkins against Larry Fitzgerald if they want. It would certainly be nice to have that option.
*****
The Cardinals have given up the most sacks in the NFL. This is a week where the pass rush must make an impact.
Will Derek Barnett finally get his first sack? You know it has to be driving him crazy to be getting pressure, but not finishing. One of Barnett’s big strengths at Tennessee was his ability to finish. He’ll break through one of these weeks and get that sack.
*****
I wrote a piece for PE.com about where the team sits at the quarter pole.
I think you have to be really happy so far. The team is winning. They’re dealing with some adversity. And they haven’t come close to playing their best football. You want to win games, but you don’t want to play too well too early. The best teams are hot late in the season.
_
How does Warmack get to substitute with Wiz based on his potential while Semaulo goes from starter to inactive?
Because Seumalo’s position coach isn’t his position coach from college.
This is why I find the whole situation dumb as hell. If you’re going to force the rotation it should be the best player, and the youth. Not the 26 year old bust.
But hey, Stoudtland can’t develop worth a damn anyways, so might as well be a nepotistic fuck.
Stop being so coy and just tell us how you really feel about it.
Because they gave Warmack a salary bump + extension, so now they have to find a way to have him play well.
I have a very innovative solution for the future, I know it’s going to sound crazy but stick with me: what about waiting to see how someone performs on the field BEFORE giving him a contract extension? Am I thinking too much out of the box?
His base salary is $2.5M next year with another $2.5M in incentives. Wiz signed for $2.5M next year too. Both are reasonable considering how much Brooks, Kelce, Lane and Peters make.
uh, because if he plays well you have to pay him much more. Overpay, usually. He’s cheap, even for a backup right now. And he does have upside given his age.
Does having Warmack at LG, simply says to the defense that the Eagles will run the ball more during that drive, as if when Wisniewski is at LG, the coaches can open more the playbook for pass plays, and the defense can foresee less run plays?
Also Tommy, do you have ant data showing the pass:run ratio when either Warmack or Wisniewski is at LG?
Thanks!
I think one of the beats broke this down after the Chargers game. If I remember correctly, there was no correlation.
It was Ferlinghetti. He said they writhed upon the field in a veritable rage of adversity.
https://phi.247sports.com/Bolt/Eagles-offense-better-with-Stefen-Wisniewski-than-Chance-Warmack-108461244
“Does Jaylen Watkins play over Rasul Douglas this weekend?”
I hope not. Watkins sucks and has no potential for growth. I like how Douglas competes.
Douglas as a rookie is much better than Mills as a rookie. I say give the rookie reps until Darby and Jones are healthy.
Couldn’t agree more.
Watkins is much better at CB, and Arizona has a number of quick and shifty wr’s which can be a struggle for a tall CB like Douglas. I’d like to see them play the matchup game, now that we are getting healthier.
I think the speed Arizona has at WR may get Watkins snaps over Douglas.
Watkins is terrible. He always seems to be late in breaking towards the receiver/ball and he seems to miss a ton of tackles too. Douglas may not be as fast, but at least he can come up and make a tackle.
As a guy who has been grousing about Ertz’s $ vs. his production since he signed that extension……………….I’m enjoying the production this year. It would really great for the team if he turned the corner into a top 5 producer at the position.
He’s one his way to being the top producer at his position.
Although I’m ecstatic with his route running and pass catching, he needs to watch film of Blount if he ever wants to improve his YAC.
I can live with the lack of YAC if he’s going to be maintaining this level of production.
Watch film or switch bodies somehow?
Ertz is 6’5″ and 250 lbs. He is more than big enough to dish out serious punishment to anyone in the back 7 that try to tackle him, just as Celek has done for over a decade.
Yeah, but people are built differently. Some people are wimpy, some are hard as nails.
The one time he put his head down and tried to fight for YAC this season he had a very costly fumble.
I’m fine with him going down right away if that’s what it takes to keep the ball secure.
When was the last time every Eagles fan screamed: throw it to the TE?!
On third downs???
I think that might have been when Tommy McDonald was getting double coverage and Norm Snead was holding the ball too long and getting sacked.
Keith Jackson. .. “throw it to him on 1st, 2nd AND 3rd !! “
“Will Derek Barnett finally get his first sack? You know it has to be driving him crazy to be getting pressure, but not finishing. One of Barnett’s big strengths at Tennessee was his ability to finish. He’ll break through one of these weeks and get that sack.”
I’m less worried if the rookie with the $2.3 mil cap hit is getting sacks than I am if the guy with the $9 mil cap hit is getting sacks. I’d like to see Barnett getting home more often by the end of the year, but there are 3 other DEs on this team who need to be taking the QB down as well.
Unless something crazy happens, I see no scenario where Vinny comes back with an $11M cap hit next season. I could see a reworking of his contract as he is a local guy with strong ties to the Philly area. I just can’t imagine they pay too much for a 30 year old who is being outproduced by 32 year old Chris Long.
Exactly.
HE will be back.
Steven Means
Just saw Cam’s presser for the first time. What a f*** twat.
It’s sort of shocking. Like, ok, yeah locker room culture can be, lets say problematic, towards women. Like, this is a space for men, all women out (we’ve seen a small section of video gamers do this to women in the video game industry), it obvious lots of these dude believe crap like this. But this wasn’t like, “oops I shouldn’t have said that, it slipped, sorry”
This was a real question, was complementary of Cam and co, not antagonistic, questions that athletes knock out of the park all day. But he’s like, look guys, she thinks she’s people. To be completely oblivious-It’s just flabbergasting. I don’t understand how he doesn’t know that’s not ok. He didn’t even apologize. I’ve always defended his character, excusing most of his flaws being part of his competitiveness. But I’m all aboard the Media Mike hate Cam train
Yeah the balls to come out and say that at a presser is amazing.
Haha Brady just threw an awful interception. That always warms my heart.
Hey, Cho, you need to post you short story link again. I almost missed it and I am sure a lot did. That was a fun read.
Sure thing 🙂
“OT: This is _really_ OT. One of my hobbies is writing fiction, and I uploaded a story on Medium. I only mention it because it’s in the form of a comment section, which was generally inspired by our free-flowing discourse here. It’s an alternate history of the 2016 Presidential Election.
https://medium.com/@elegantspanishguitar/worst-case-scenario-fa7e6e5eeb09 “
I don’t know if its just the thursday night football thing or the Bucs just suck, but… man the bucs look like trash.
They’ve been disappointing, but there was also a 90% chance the Pats were going to come out an punch someone in the mouth. Jeering Bill Belichick historically does not work well for us. But the Buc’s are up now so. I’ll give them some credit.
Heartening to see the Patriots defense still be trash. warm fuzzy feeling.
I mean, they scored 19 points and won because of 3 missed FG’s. That’s not exactly “punching someone in the mouth.”
for context, this was written early in the game. I was commenting on how the Bucs aren’t as good as I thought they’d be, but this was supposed to be the game that the Pats go super nova on a team, and the Bucs had the lead (briefly, my fault).
Ha, didn’t notice the posting time!
After reading Tommy for years, I can only view “who is best on who” above as a test from Tommy to see who is paying attention to whom.
The Bucs cover 4 defense is softer than what Jim Schwartz has been playing lately. On a good night the Pats would drop 56 on this garbage.
Warmack is making such an impact in the run game that we run for a massive 3.6 yards per carry with him in
It feels like they are trying to force this Warmack thing to work. If I was Wiz I’d be pissed.
Wiz should be pissed (he’s got PT incentives too) as should Seumalo.
Wellllll… Warmack hasn’t been lighting the world on fire but Seumalo was abhorrent wasn’t he?
Entire OL struggled early. Communication was poor and people were not executing the scheme. Seumalo was bad, especially in a pass pro, but it wasn’t the only problem. Seumalo has good film from 2016 so i think he can get back into form in time.
People pointing to Seumalo as the causal link in the run game make me want to rip my hair out.
I thought his struggles were mostly in pass protection, from my perspective watching the game live.
I don’t mind that we went away from Seumalo but this Chance Warmack thing just feels like we’re forcing something that shouldn’t be.
Maybe Isaac feels the same way and that’s why his hair is so poofy?
He was fine last year. He was ok in week 1. He had a pretty bad day week 2 against a really good IDL.
Chance isn’t this dominant run blocker that people tell you, and he’s given up sacks (and they’re actively sliding Kelce over to him all the time.
If you’re going to force a guy in for development reps, why is it the 26 year old bust? Or should you be working with the 23 year old who is part of the long term plans.
Jesus stonkin christmas, Winston looks like ass tonight. Against the worst defense in the league so far to boot.
I have heard good things about Winston, but haven’t seen much of him. Watching now, he look…pedestrian. On the move he misses throws by a lot.
He must normally play better than this right? He’s been awful so far tonight. I don’t get to see him much but he did tear us to shreds, what was it, 2 years ago?
The only time I have seen him look good was against us last year. Maybe he’s like Kurt Coosins, only beats bad teams??
I knew Folk wouldn’t make it. He’s no Jake Elliot.
Love Jimmy’s take on this game:
“Patriots (-5.5) at Buccaneers: It’s hard to imagine a scenario in which the Patriots begin the season at 2-3. The Pats will find a way to spread MRSA into the Bucs’ locker room or something, if need be.“
How do you overthrow Desean Jackson?
Hargraves is having a very tough night
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沃八达
Tyler
Just drink the cool
Aid.
With Stoutland. Lol
How cursed are the Giants this year that Nick Folk nails a game ending kick on them. Nick Folk is unreal bad.
I mean tho we all knew the Gmen couldn’t sustain winning how they did last year. They were so lucky and flukey we knew there would be regression.
But yeah Folk is unreal bad lol
To be fair, he missed 2 FG’s and an XP earlier in that game. So he was trying…
The Bucs man. It has to be the Thursday Night thing? They can’t be this bad. From touchdown, to missed 31 yard field goal in a few plays.
I was having kind of a downer of a day, it would have meant a lot to watch the Patriots fall flat again. Ah well.
Tampa losing is better for the Eagles’ playoff picture.
Anyone else just catch Chung running as the lead blocker for Jackson? No awareness at all that the ball had been caught 2-3 seconds earlier on the other side of the field.
I bet we could trade Sturgis for Evans straight up if Howie calls right now.
He’s probably working the phones as we speak. Have I got a deal for you!
Bucs are a sloppy undisciplined team
agreed. Played damn close though. Who knows how the game goes with a reliable kicker. Patriots are definitely a vulnerable team this year.
Was that Romo doing the game? I thought he was great especially during the final drive
Of course I hated Romo when he was a Cowboy, but he’s proving himself a talented announcer.
The only thing I had against Romo is that he was on the Cowboys. Gotta respect the guy.
Loved him getting frustrated on the field .. i rewinded twice in high speed and didn’t see his face once .. ok with that
Yes. Not quite as good as Eli Face but in some ways more rewarding since he was a Cowboy.
Hes pretty good but his voice is very annoying lol
Agree. He knows football and comes across as a jovial guy, but his voice is tiny, like a teenager cheering at a game. I’m surprised the network hasn’t gotten him a speech coach.
I thought he sounded incredibly unprofessional, and juevenille.
I hear that. .i took it as raw and energized
Fair enough. I hear that too.
http://www.philadelphiaeagles.com/videos/videos/Exclusive-Tim-Jernigan-Gets-Micd-Up/df9ef88b-9b4a-4452-93a6-51c6f1d2852b
Jernigan mic’d up.
I didn’t know he had that kind of energy. Great addition to the team.
When Beau fell strait on his back…..OUCH.
Didn’t realize he was such a motivator. Love it!
“The Cardinals have given up the most sacks in the NFL. This is a week where the pass rush must make an impact.” — Quick passes a la Giants game plan…Which I’m ok with. Question will be – can the Eagles drum up a decent 4th quarter defense….
If the Eagles keep tackling like they have been, hitting Arizona’s speedsters on 4 yard digs is definitely something I can live with.
With bad tackling, they aren’t 4 yards anymore.
Ah good, another “bad OL” game, where the Eagles will get zero sacks!
Lol. This always happens right!?
I think we get 2 interceptions this game.
ESPN’s Adam Caplan reports Wendell Smallwood (knee) is expected to miss Week 5 against the Cardinals.
That’s such bad news I’m tempted to shoot you, the messenger.
Definitely a bummer man. Hopefully we can overcome this loss. The injuries just keep on comin’ for this team. Let’s go Corey!!
Smallwood is fragile.
As opposed to those other football players who never get injured or miss practices?
I say that to everyone who said we don’t need to draft a running back next year and that Smallwood can be a #1 running back. He gets limited touches and cannot stay healthy.
So you said that after a sample size of 1 season? I say that’s jumping the gun.
How many games has his missed this year to date?
He missed 3 games at the end of last year, plus three games this preseason for an unrelated injury. Both of this year’s injuries happened in practice.
You’re seriously counting preseason? psh…
Ok. I guess Brandon Graham is fragile too.
It’s week 5 and he’s missing. He missed 3 games last year as a part-time player.
I like Smallwood, but NFL history has shown that some people are more injury prone than others.
He’s not missing. Fletcher Cox was ruled out, the game hasn’t started. Wendell Smallwood isn’t missing to me until he’s listed as inactive, or the game starts and we’re told he isn’t playing.
Smallwood wasn’t listed as Out. Or Doubtful. He’s listed as Questionable which per most modern definition scenarios means the player ends up playing.
Now, I do trust Adam Caplan, but still…
Players who don’t practice during the week at all rarely play
Rare exceptions to this rule. Was it Westbrook who used to sit all week and then start on gameday?
yes but he was also that awesome that he took a knee one yard before the goalline. that’s a very rare exception to the rule. 🙂
A very rare exception, indeed. You could almost say he sat during the week and also on the one yard line.
Thanks to the wonder that is the Internet, I was able to track down the point spread of that game. I was hoping that somehow his stopping on the one would have screwed some Dallas bettors. Likely not the case, though, as Cowboys were a 10 point favorite.
I think you’re getting a little too technical. Typically, if a player doesn’t practice on Friday, they don’t play on Sunday. Maybe he plays, but if history is any indicator, he will not.
Perhaps.
Like Eli
Good point. Mr. Anomoly
Seeming like it.
Barner time.
He’s listed as questionable, not doubtful. So we’ll see…
Yep!! We sure will!!
Didn’t they get rid of doubtful (and probable)? I thought it was just healthy, questionable, and out now.
The NFL is getting rid of the “probable” injury designation this season, reports Miami Herald NFL columnist Armando Salguero. The NFL injury classifications going forward will be “out,” “doubtful” and “questionable.” Pro Football Talk is also reporting questionable and doubtful have had some adjustments, as well
[P]reviously, the “questionable” category reflected a 50-50 likelihood of playing, and “doubtful” meant a 75-percent chance the player wouldn’t play. Now, “questionable” simply means that “it is uncertain as to whether the player will play in the game,” and “doubtful” means that “it is unlikely the player will participate.”
Thanks, good stuff. So they changed it from objective criteria to measure a subjective situation and replaced it with an added layer of subjectivity? Sounds like a plan…
Lol agreed!
Eagles need to get big time production of of Curry, Long, and Barnett this week. Didn’t do much last week from a pass rush standpoint last week.
Another week against some bad OL, if they can’t get the sacks then it’s going to be a long year of dinking and dunking on us.
I’ll take a long year of dinking and dunking that results in Ws.
I’m with you.
Its hard to get sacks against QBs that dink and dunk with DBs 10 yards off the ball. At some point the secondary has to make the QB come off his first read.
I am normally not a guy who looks ahead. However the next three games against NFC teams will be telling where this year‘s journey takes us.
I’ll look ahead all the way to the bye.
1. Cardinals. As long as the Eagles stay focused. W
2. @ Panthers. On the road, short week, against a team that’s going to lose this Sunday to the Lions. Looks bad, but Cam continues to be distracted by non-football issues. W
3. Redskins. Home on MNF. Are you kiddin’ me?! W
4. 49ers. Whatever the spread, Eagles cover. W
5. Broncos. If this game was on the road it would be different. Elliott kicks another game-winner. W
During the bye week, everyone but Colin Cowherd recognizes the Eagles are a disciplined football team that knows how to amplify its strengths and accommodate its weaknesses. A very potent brew.
Go ahead, I dare you to tell me why I’m crazy.