WHAT do you think? Should we kick the tires on Vontae Davis, or are we okay with Cary Williams and Bradley Fletcher?
I’m seeing some grumbling about getting a CB early in the Draft, or maybe going after Alterraun Verner or Aquib Talib. For the record I like Davis far more than Verner or Talib as an option, but I think we’re good with what we have, for the moment.
Some fans are a lot harsher about the Eagles CB’s than I am, due to some of the metrics they read about which CB was rated above which other CB, in one of those publications that crunches such numbers.
Okay. I won’t argue that point. We all have our bibles. We all have our sacred sources of information on which we base many of our arguments, and use to solidify, even justify our opinions. (For me it’s Pro Football Reference.com, Eagles Salary Cap.com, and Spotrac.com; because I like being backed by facts that can’t be disputed.)
There are a few reasons I don’t get into metrics, but I won’t get into those now.
Overall, I think our CB play has gotten a raw deal for the last 5 years, due to spotty help from the Safeties. It’s hard to accurately judge an engine with a clogged and crusted air filter, and that’s what our Safety play has been like. Like an engine choking for a full breath of clean air.
Considering that many of the easy to complete passes were over the middle and in the flat, it’s hard for me to crucify Fletcher and Williams, so it’s hard for me to say they need to be replaced.
That said, if we’re going to kick anyone’s tires, I think it should be Davis.
Williams sucks. He’s the new Cortland Finnegan. All talk. No bite. Davis would be a great pick up if we were to lose Williams or Fletcher, but since getting rid of Williams would cost us over 3 million that won’t happen. Fletcher has better cover skills than Williams but isn’t as good as Davis and would be free to cut or trade, so that is a possibility. I doubt it happens, but money wise it makes sense.
What I would do is target Justin Gilbert, Darqueze Dennard, or Bradley Roby in the first. The first two mentioned have a decent shot at being gone before we select. I could see one or both being there based on other teams in disparate need of safeties over corners or just bigger needs at other positions that aren’t as deep in this draft. It appears Chip and Davis both like the bigger corner so Roby may be the odd man out and they could look more to one of the Florida corners or Fuller.
With the likely hood of landing one of the top safeties and possibly another in free agency, or allowing Wolff to continue to grow, corner and OLB seem to be the biggest need for the team.
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Yeah OLB really has me concerned. FA has no pass rushers, and all the OLB’s in the Draft that would fit our system will be gone by the time we get to pick. Barring a trade up.
We can get by with Trent Cole’s pressure for another year, but it would be nice to have his heir on the team in 2014.
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I think Kyle Van Noy falls to us in the second. He isn’t a pure pass rusher like Aldon Smith or DeMarcus Ware was, but that’s not a problem for me. Having him will just confuse the shit out of an offensive line. He can drop into coverage, he can rush, he can play the run, he can allow Barwin to rush more, he can help Kendricks on the outside, allowing Kendricks to cover the middle more making up for Ryans. Adding Van Noy will add a great amount of improvement from our LB core. We would then be able to trade Cole to a 4-3 team like the Bears for a pick, save like 2 million, pay him the 4 and change. Then have Graham as a pass rusher for 3rd and long, move Van Noy inside and take Ryans off the field.
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I’d like to see us develop Graham, but every other thing you read about him has him gone after 2014.
What i like about the OLB’s in this Draft is that they actually seem to be all around ‘backers. It’s just with the way Davis likes to employ his OLB’s, being 235-244 pounds is too small to be pass rushing 8 downs out of 10.
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