Iggles Blitz

by Tommy Lawlor

Slay

Posted June 15th, 2023 | 2 Comments »

Eric Allen is the best CB in Eagles history. He should be in consideration for the Hall of Fame, but is sadly overlooked. Troy Vincent was great from 1996-2003. Those guys were complete players and star corners. Asante Samuel was a big time playmaker during his four years in Philly. He picked off 23 passes in that time.

This will be Darius Slay’s fourth season with the Eagles. He’s picked off 7 passes, made a pair of Pro Bowls and helped the team get to the Super Bowl. At age 32, we don’t know how much longer he’ll stay in Philly. For now, he remains one of the better corners in the league.

Last year Jonathan Gannon moved Slay around, trying to match him up against certain star receivers. This brought out the best in Slay in some of those games. He was a stud in the team’s win over the Vikings in Week 2.

Slay was up and down for a few weeks later in the season. We’ll see if Sean Desai and DK McDonald can get him to play at a high level for the entire season.

Beyond just being a good player, Slay has developed into a team leader. He was a captain last year and talked about how much that meant to him. He’s embraced being a veteran and helping other players.

Slay almost headed out of town in March. He thought he was going to be released by the Eagles so he worked out a deal with the Ravens. Howie wouldn’t release Slay so the two sides worked out a deal that made sense for both. We’ll get at least one more year of him in midnight green.

If he helps the team get back to the Super Bowl, Slay will carve out his own place in Eagles history.

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How will the Eagles replace Slay? Jimmy Bama covered that in a piece on the succession plan for the 30-year old Eagles.

The Eagles used a 2024 third-round pick to draft Kelee Ringo, who will have time to develop in the background as an outside corner behind Slay and Bradberry. Otherwise, Zech McPhearson has been waiting his turn as a backup outside corner the last two seasons, but he’s already halfway through his rookie contract. If Slay and Bradberry are the starters once again in 2024, McPhearson could be a free agent by the time the Eagles need him to play in the regular defense. And then there’s Josh Jobe, who made the team as an undrafted rookie in 2022, as well as some 2023 undrafted guys in Eli Ricks and Mekhi Garner, who also have some talent.

The Eagles have some young players in the pipeline at corner, but for now they’re all question marks.

The only question is how many of McPhearson, Ringo, Jobe, Ricks and Garner will go into the HOF.

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Lito Sheppard was great. At his best. Unfortunately, he was wildly inconsistent. But he did give us some great moments.

https://twitter.com/philly_athletes/status/1669386710071799810

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Walter Thurmond is an interesting player from the past. He only played one season for the Eagles, but it was his best year. He had career highs in tackles, INTs, PDs, sacks, FFs and TFLs. It looked like the Eagles might have found a stud. Thurmond retired after 2015 to pursue a career in the movie business. He’s got some credits at IMDB, but it doesn’t appear that things have gone as he hoped.

Thurmond did have one great moment as an Eagle.

The team signed Rodney McLeod to replace him in 2016. McLeod then helped the Eagles win the Super Bowl in 2017 so things worked out just fine for the guys in green. You do wonder if Thurmond has any regrets.

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Eagles QB Room

Posted June 13th, 2023 | 4 Comments »

Patrick Mahomes is the best QB in football. There isn’t much debate on that. Once you go beyond Mahomes, the discussion can go in a variety of directions. Is it Josh Allen or Joe Burrows? Lamar Jackson is special, but has struggled to stay healthy. Justin Herbert and Trevor Lawrence are young guns with huge upside. Aaron Rodgers is a Hall of Famer. And of course you have Jalen Hurts somewhere in that mix.

Mike Florio did something interesting over at ProFootballTalk. He’s rating the QB rooms of the NFL.

Remember, this isn’t a quarterback ranking. It looks at everything. Starter, backups, coaches, etc.

When considering all those factors, the Eagles come in second.

As we saw with SF last year, you need more than just a QB. You need multiple QBs and good coaching. The Eagles have an outstanding starter in Hurts. Marcus Mariota is now the backup and could be excellent in that role. He’s been a good starter and good backup. He is a good fit for the Eagles offense. Mariota also seems comfortable backing up Hurts.

Beyond Hurts and Mariota, the Eagles have Ian Book and rookie Tanner McKee. Book is the athletic playmaker. McKee is the big pocket passer with a strong arm. They’ll battle it out for the number three spot.

As Florio points out, players are only part of the equation. The Eagles have strong coaches to teach the QBs and run the offense. Nick Sirianni was a successful offensive coordinator and has been an excellent head coach. Brian Johnson did great work with Hurts the past two years. He will now run the offense and Alex Tanney will take over the QBs. Tanney was the quality control coach in 2021 and assistant QBs coach last year. Kevin Patullo will be the passing game coordinator for the third straight year. That is an excellent set of coaches.

Think about Russell Wilson and where he is now vs a year ago. He was considered one of the best QBs in the league in March of 2022. Being on a new team and dealing with a rookie coach brought out the worst in him. Now he’s a question mark.

As good as the Eagles QBs were a year ago, it is possible that QB1, QB2 and QB3 could all be better this season. Hurts can continue improving. Mariota could be an upgrade on Gardner Minshew. McKee could be an upgrade on Book.

Outstanding QB play should help to keep the Eagles at the top of the NFC.

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The Eagles hired Matt Patricia to be a Senior Defensive Assistant. He and Darius Slay had a strained relationship in Detroit so people wondered how Slay would handle a reunion. Slay spoke about it for the first time while at a Calvin Johnson charity event up in Detroit.

Slay told the Free Press in 2020 that he did not respect Patricia after an incident between the two during Patricia’s first season as head coach in 2018.

Now that the two are once again on the same team, Slay said the reunion has been “cordial.”

“It’s another day at the office,” Slay said. “We both got the same goal, just going out there to compete and win a championship, so that’s the main focus.”

Patricia was a disaster as a head coach, going 13-29-1. As many have found out, Bill Belichick’s magic is limited to…Bill Belichick. He can be gruff and awkward with players and make it work. When his former assistants try it, the results are bad. Patricia learned that the hard way.

He should be different as a senior defensive assistant. That will be more of an X’s and O’s type job. He won’t be trying to motivate players and push the right emotional buttons. Patricia is smart so he has a chance to be good in this role.

Sirianni wouldn’t have made the hire if he didn’t think Patricia would help the defense and fit in with the players.

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Dane Brugler is the draft guru for The Athletic. He went back to see where his Top 50 players from last summer went in April’s draft. The Eagles had a good showing.

#2 DT Jalen Carter

#4 CB Kelee Ringo

#9 LB Nolan Smith

#49 QB Tanner McKee

Carter and Smith both went in the first round. Ringo fell to the middle rounds. He was a size-speed prospect who failed to play up to his talent consistently so he slid to Day 3. McKee showed flashes in 2021, but had his struggles last year. He didn’t have a good supporting cast and wasn’t good enough to carry the offense on his own.

Ringo and McKee do have NFL talent. Ringo needs coaching and time to develop. McKee has to show what he can do in an NFL setting.

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https://twitter.com/Ol_TimeFootball/status/1668575930766475264

Legend.

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