PART One of the the twelve part series
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PHILADELPHIA fans. Lincoln Financial Field.
It’s a night game. Twenty-five degrees outside, and the mercury is creeping to the bottom of the thermometer as if it can huddle against itself for warmth. There’s a guy making $15 an hour sitting in a $300 seat, next to guy who makes $12 an hour. Neither can really afford to be there, but neither can afford to be anywhere else tonight.
Breath as dense as smoke leaves their mouths with the words “Fly Eagles Fly.” The smell of beer and the hum of possibilities. Someone nearby has a phone with “Mummer’s Strut” as a ring tone. The atmosphere is festive. Tonight victory is assured, since the Saints have never won a cold weather playoff game. History is on our side for a change.
That night, Saints history would be made and we would fall to them.
In most cities across our great nation, when their football season ends, their fans turn their bitter eyes to hockey, or basketball, or the wait for spring training. It usually depends on which type of pro teams they have there. Philadelphia boasts an NHL team, an NBA team, and an MLB team. Once that Eagles season came to an end, we had our pick of options to fixate on. We could have used any one of them as a distraction, and hid from a loss that could have haunted us.
But we didn’t do that did we?
Despite the fact that we have a franchise from every relevant pro league in America (including Soccer), Philadelphians never really fold-up camp on an NFL season. Here you can talk Eagles 365 days a year, and nobody will say “Hey buddy, it’s the wrong time of year for that”. Not unless he wants to be hit in the teeth with the edge of a ceramic plate. We take our Eagles seriously in this city. We’re rabid here. Unapologetically so.
I used to think we were misunderstood, but that’s not it at all. Other fan bases understand us plenty. And THAT is what they have their issues with. Other fan bases understand that they don’t have our pride. Remember that Forty-niners/Cowboys game where thousands of Cowboys fans sold their tickets to Niner fans? That could never happen here. It’s simply not possible. Other fan bases understand that they don’t have our loyalty. Five decades with no Super Bowl and still the Linc fills to standing room only. Other fan bases understand that they don’t intimidate players like we do. Rival players routinely say they hate playing here because of the fans. Other fan bases understand that our former players love Philly BECAUSE OF US. Players who leave here overwhelmingly speak highly of us. Some even kiss our logo when they return.
Allen Iverson comes home.
LeSean McCoy’s first game back
When have you EVER seen that elsewhere? (Okay, okay Micheal Jordan did it, but not after playing for someone else.)
So no. There’s no misunderstanding. Rival fans understand us perfectly. They understand, that we’re the best.
AFTER A sub .500 year, the Eagles fired the head coach, and brought in a new one who favors the West Coast Offense. This was after a lackluster season by a Heisman Trophy winning QB who’d peaked in college.
I’m not talking about 2015, I’m talking about 1998. The fired Head Coach was Ray Rhodes, the new coach was Andy Reid and the QB was Ty Detmer. Owner Jeff Lurie didn’t call it a rebuild, but he allowed Reid to come in and scrap everything about the Rhodes era. What shortsighted fans don’t get is that we’ve been here before.
This time around it’s Doug Pederson hired on the heels of a toxic Chip Kelly era. As poisoned as that locker room became, do you really think for an instant that Lurie wants Pederson to do anything short of a total rebuild? And what bigger change could the Eagles make than the very face of the franchise?
You used to be able to drive out I-95 near the Broad Street exit, turn your head and SEE our franchise emblazoned on the side of the stadium. The number of Donovan McNabb Eagles jerseys in circulation probably still outnumbers the combined number of Nick Foles and Sam Bradford Eagles jerseys. The Eagles haven’t had such a guy since 2009. And don’t you dare think for an instant that those things are lost on Lurie.
Fixing the culture and the bottom line are easier to do with a new trigger man running the Offense. It also fits hand-in-glove with inking players like TE Zach Ertz and OT Lane Johnson to new deals. (Also the numbers on Johnson’s deal hint strongly at a coming move from RT to LT, which I mentioned about a week ago.)
In case you’re missing it, the theme for this offseason will be stability. And since you can’t get stability with your fingers crossed over a brittle, underachiever with poor leadership skills… Unless something truly disturbing happens, expect the Eagles to move on from Bradford relatively soon.
WITH his rookie deal expiring at the end of the 2015 season, QB Sam Bradford will officially become a Free Agent. He will now be able to peddle his wares to the highest bidder. The going rate (from what I keep reading) is 25 million dollars per year, and much ballyhoo has been made about how his play improved down the stretch of this last season. Based on that improvement many people are asking the 25 million dollar question: Should the Eagles be the highest bidder for Bradford’s services?
For two very important reasons, the answer to that question is “No”.
First, team owner Jeff Lurie keeps talking about needing to have a franchise QB. This raises the question of whether Bradford qualifies. I can’t think of one reputable source willing to go out on a limb and use that term and Bradford’s name in the same sentence. That term being, franchise QB. Some people are willing to debate with you over if Bradford is one, and right there they lose. If a guy is franchise QB (even if they hate him) people acknowledge that he is, they don’t debate it.
Secondly, Bradford improved in a system that A) is no longer here, and B) will replaced with a system he was less than stellar in, back in St. Louis under Pat Shurmur.
So there you have it. Sam Bradford is clearly not worth the goddamned money. Now let us all brace for the 6 year, 32 million per year deal he’ll get, because this is the Eagles, and our Front Office specializes in giving Eagles fans ulcers and nosebleeds.
JEFF Lurie may have fired Chip Kelly just in time. While “The Idiot Kelly” (TIK) may have given away some of our best offensive weapons, it’s not like he brought in guys like Reno Mahe to replace them. While TIK’s moves were generally downgrades, it’s not like we have empty shelves over here.
If you look around you’ll read a lot about the holes on our roster, and how big a job resurrecting the team will be.
Not so fast. We have some issues. That part is beyond debate. However, we’re far from being a long-term project. Whether or not the weapons we have can be dangerous, is more a matter of how we use what we have, and how we augment it.
First lets look at our problems:
If we re-signed every Free Agent we have, QB Sam Bradford would still scare no one, and our interior Offensive Line is dreadful. For years now, cute movement schemes have hidden C Jason Kelce‘s lack of power, but teams started to pick on him right out of the gate in 2015. So don’t expect anything better from him in 2016. Our starting Guards are decent back-ups, but on 3rd and 2 neither man is the guy you’d bet on to make a hole for your RB.
Defensively, odds are strong that we’re going back to a 4-3 front. Most of us think OLB Connor Barwin is a great guy, but anyone who knows football will tell you that he’s a bad fit for a 4-3. He isn’t strong enough for DE, and doesn’t cover well enough for OLB. For that matter OLB Brandon Graham is no better in coverage and may even actually be worse. (Graham however, can play DE.)
We have a number of holes and that 2nd round pick we gave away to get Bradford will hurt us in the Draft, but we can fix some of this before we spend the first red cent. The first thing we need to do is realize that the only way to get better is to rely on the Draft.
Where we’re strong:
We’re as deep as any team in the NFL at RB. And if you look around the NFL, no one is doubting that RB DeMarco Murray will bounce back in 2016. I can’t imagine that he’ll see 900+ yards again so long as he shares a backfield with RB Ryan Mathews, but who cares as long as they can sustains drives. We have some young talent and depth at WR, and now Jordan Matthews will get a chance to be the guy some of us know he can be. The West Coast Offense generally favors bigger wideouts and now we’ll get to see Matthews matched up on the outside.
If DE Vinny Curry comes back as a starter, we have the makings of a dangerous Defensive Line by playing Curry at LDE, Fletcher Cox at LDT, RDT Bennie Logan and RDE Graham. ILB Jordan Hicks can likely make the jump to MLB, and ILB Mychal Kendricks has already played SLB very well in his rookie year here. He also has the speed, strength and versatility to do it again. If Malcolm Jenkins stays at SS, Eric Rowe moving to FS only opens the door for CB Denzel Rice to push for the starting spot opposite Byron Maxwell. Maxwell might now get a chance to play in a scheme more like the one he was in as a Seahawk. He’ll never be a bargain, but now (in the economics of football), he might start being worth his contract. If we can re-sign Walter Thurmond (sanely), it only makes us stronger in terms of depth and when we have to play heavy Nickle or Dime. If we can’t keep him, well hey, that’s hardly the end of the world.
So don’t be too broken up over our roster. There are only tons of question marks if you lack imagination, and are stuck in TIK’s way of seeing these players.
Now here’s how you fix what’s broken:
Fixing the O-Line and QB:
Move RT Lane Johnson over to LT and slide Jason Peters inside to LG. Peters has had some trouble with quickness on the edge this year, but still is as strong as ever. Moving him inside allows him to mentor Johnson and maybe even mask some of Kelce’s power issues. Besides, it’s easier to build the right side of an O-Line than the left side, or to maintain chemistry when every other spot is new. Spend an early pick on a Guard and swoop around later for a RT.
At QB, let Bradford walk and sign Robert Griffin instead. He’ll be cheaper and has more incentive to sign here than anywhere else. Then you grab a rookie QB in the 3rd or 4th round. I’d like to take one earlier, but nobody in this draft who’s worth it will be there at 13, let alone 17th or 18th (HINT! HINT!) So don’t reach early. Better to build a line and take a chance on Griffin, or on finding a rookie gem. If Griffin gets hot early and we’re winning, keep playing him. If he falters or gets hurt, play the rookie. We’re either winning or developing our future. We win either way.
Fixing the Defense:
Resign Curry with (some financial) apologies for not starting him sooner. At WLB I roll the dice on Marcus Smith and spend a Draft pick. A guy like Smith had no business playing LOLB, yet that’s what he was tabbed to do under TIK. I make 2016 his last year here unless he proves something, but I hand him the rope to climb with or hang himself with. I don’t simply put him on the bench for a year, cut him, and leave questions out there about “what if”.
Fixing our missing second round pick and such:
Here is where you’ll need vision and imagination. Before you shoot this down, make sure you read through this part a second time. I’m trying to give you the large picture.
We pick 13th in the Draft. If we’re smart, we want to draft a Guard which we could get in the second round, except we don’t have a second round pick. Enter the Falcons picking 17th or the Colts picking 18th. Atlanta had only 19 sacks this year so they’ll be looking for another pass rusher. The Colts did better with 31 sacks, but still need a guy. We can offer both teams Connor Barwin and let them swap spots with us in round one, in exchange for their second round pick. Since the Falcons and Colts pick one after the other and need the same thing, I’d make the offer very public and put a clock on it. If they know each other is after that move up, there’s now pressure to accept our offer faster. We can’t use Barwin as a player, but we can use him to sweeten the pot. This way we get a second rounder, an open roster spot, his cap savings, and it only costs us a guy we can’t use anyway. Meanwhile they get a guy who’s still 29, proven in two places, with a contract that goes through 2019 with no crazy jumps in it. It’s a win-win. Besides, I’m sick of seeing us simply release talent that we can’t use. Why not get something for him?
QB Mark Sanchez packaged with one of our third rounders (80th) could net us the Texans 2nd rounder (53rd). He likely wouldn’t be a starter for them, but if they can’t get a decent rookie QB at #22 in round one, Sanchez is a much nicer fallback than another year of Brian Hoyer and/or Brandon Weeden.
I’d also try to get DE Taylor Hart, ILB Kiko Alonso, NT Beau Allen, and our fourth rounder (111th) out to San Fran for their third rounder (69th) and either C Marcus Martin or G Brandon Thomas, neither of which really fits what TIK does. Allen is just a guy, and Alonso’s knee has too much wear and tear for us to trust it the way TIK does.
So relax. We’re far from a dumpster fire over here. We need work, but there’s no reason that we can’t be ready to win the NFC East in 2016.
LAST year I said that we don’t need another injury prone, retread QB. I may have spoken out of turn and been wrong there. Redskins QB Robert Griffin might be exactly what we need in 2016. What’s more he could be ours for the taking.
While Griffin’s injury history may have taken away his ability to be an electrifying runner, he still has more than enough mobility to be dangerous. Particularly in West Coast Offense. That immediately loosens things on the inside for RB’s DeMarco Murray and Ryan Mathews in 2016. And unlike Colin Kaepernick (whom some fans wanted), Griffin actually possesses the ability to read defenses.
Sam Bradford sucks as a starter. He lacks the heart to harness the obvious talent in his arm. Treading water with him might be fine if not for his expiring contract. He’s already being overpaid this year, and he’ll be looking for either more money on a short deal, or less money on a longer deal. His career so far indicates that he’s worth neither. He’s simply not a starter and should by no means be paid like one. Griffin on the other hand is a player we can and should sign.
First the “CAN” part:
Griffin has a 5th year option on his ‘skins contract for which he’d be owed 16 million. Now that Kirk Cousins is definitely their starter, keeping 16 million on the bench makes no sense. Especially since Cousins’ contract expires after this year, and so he’ll be calling for a contract in the 10 – 15 million dollar range. The ‘skins simply can’t afford to keep Griffin, so expect him to be a Free Agent in March.
Now the “SHOULD” part:
We need a QB, and with the rapid deterioration of Tony Romo in Dallas, the Cowboys also need a QB. If we leave Griffin out there, Dallas likely snaps him up. If he flops it’s no big deal, but if he doesn’t we’ll have stood by as they re-armed. Not only that, but Washington is making a move to no longer be a bottom feeder in the East. If we grab Griffin, we get a player that can give us deeper details on everything the ‘skins run on offense. Not just the stuff coaches see on film, but the why and how of they build it in practices. To our Defensive Coordinator, Griffin would be worth three times his weight in gold twice a year.
If we grab Griffin the top remaining market for Dallas consists of guys like Bradford, Mark Sanchez, and maybe even a trade for Johnny Manziel. So a grab for Griffin is a building block to upgrade the entire Offense, while saving us a draft pick to boot. Better still, if he signs with us (or Dallas) he gets to stick it to Washington (i.e. Jay Gruden) twice a year. I’m not sure what he can do for Dallas, but his presence alone would make our run game much deadlier, even without a big upgrade at Guard.
It would be stupid not to make the move.
WHILE listening to WIP at 2 – 2:30 this morning I heard something from the host that pissed me off. It’s not just what he said, it’s how often you hear it from guys like him. What he said was that he has no idea what Eagles Owner Jeff Lurie sees in Howie Roseman who is the teams Vice President of Operations.
Howie Roseman didn’t just show up in Philadelphia last week. He’s been here since 2000, working in various capacities while gaining power in the Front Office as well as the trust of Lurie. In fact he’s gained enough trust for Lurie to stick with him even through bad times.
What’s crazy-making is that nobody in our local media seems to have have a clue why that is. It’s one thing for fans like you and me not to know why Lurie trusts Roseman so much. We can’t ask either man a single direct question about the subject. However these mooks get paid to be journalists. They should have gotten a handle on that question YEARS ago. They should do their fucking job.
If I didn’t think it would seriously blur the line between fan and journalist, I’d get a press pass and ask some of these questions myself. However, I make it clear on this website that I’m not a journalist and I don’t pretend to be.
I am clearly biased towards my Eagles and I have no interest in trying to hide my joy at the teams accomplishments, or disappointment over their failures. Oh, and let’s not forget outright rage. Expressing spittle-flecked, profanity laced, chest beating rage in your writing, is generally frowned upon by true journalists. So I’ll stick to being a fan. That way there’s someone out here who can say it, how YOU truly mean it.
Because that’s MY fucking job, and no one does it better.
FOR a second straight week my level of playoff game give-a-damn is totally in the shitter. At this point if NASA beats my grandmother in the Super Bowl, I wouldn’t even shrug over it. I have almost no clue about what’s going on in the playoffs this year. It was sort of this way last year, but not quite as bad. And I don’t like the trend or what this seems to be stemming from.
If your team barely misses the playoffs, you can be mad at your team for that game or two that they dropped. If they get put out of the playoffs early, you get to root against whoever beat you. If they get far in the playoffs you have a new villain to hate forever for “robbing” you. You’re emotionally invested in the outcome of that year’s playoffs.
When your team doesn’t play or win a playoff game in a couple years, you feel that absence. You feel that sense of unfinished business. “We’ll get ’em next year” is something you believe. However, when the drought reaches a decade or so of playoff irrelevance, the games lack the emotional kick they’re meant to have.
I think I’ve gone numb to this point of the year. It used to be in January I would be hoarse from blowing my voice out with 1.5 million of my closest friends, after we cheered on our team and our city to the ultimate finish line. Now I sound great and I can’t fucking stand it.
This needs to get fixed, because genetically I’m supposed to give a damn about the playoffs. If this keeps happening something is going to get backed up and I’ll end up with a condition of some sort. I’ll be that guy who when the season ends, walks around muttering and flipping everyone off. It’ll spread to you and soon Jerry Lewis will do telethons to raise money for our condition.
We can’t go out like that fellow Eagles fan. We need to get this fixed, but in the meantime fuck these here playoffs.
LIE and say that this hire excites you. I dare you to do it without bursting into flames. In all truth I can’t say I like it either, but until he proves us right, we the fans have to live with Doug Pederson as the leader of our beloved Eagles. I could sit here and rail against it, or what I could do is find something about it to like. Find something in it that I can root for each Sunday. When I looked there were already a couple of things that jumped out at me.
Doug Pederson is not a genius. That’s not sarcasm for he’s an idiot, that’s listing not being a genius as a strength. When both Andy Reid and Chip Kelly got here, they were already hailed as leading minds in their areas of expertise; and both men in some way or another attempted to reinvent the wheel in a game as straightforward as football. Pederson isn’t that guy, so his approach will likely be more traditional in nature.
Doug Pederson wasn’t a very good Offensive Coordinator. This year the Chiefs ranked 27th in yards. Last year they ranked 25th. The year before it was 21st. So every year they got worse under him. This means he isn’t going to be married to one side of the ball as his savior. In fact if anything, he’s a former OC who has learned (through his own failures) the value of a strong Defense.
Doug Pederson is a former NFL player. He can relate to players in a way that neither of our last two head coaches could have. He understands what it means to be benched, and can tell a guy that there is an upside to helping groom the man beneath him on the depth chart, as Pederson did for Donovan McNabb.
Doug Pederson has had no bad teachers. Pederson has spent his entire NFL career learning from Andy Reid, and still has his teacher’s brain to pick over stuff. What that will mean now, remains to be seen. However, at least no one can claim his education in and about this league is lacking. Which is a far cry from what I was saying when Kelly was hired.
Doug Pederson is under no illusions. He’s familiar with the Jeff Lurie/Howie Roseman dynamic. He even knows some of the talent that’s still here (Brandon Graham, Mychal Kendricks, Jason Kelce, Brent Celek, Riley Cooper, Fletcher Cox, etc.) . He knows the Eagles are a mess and it’s his job to clean it up. And he knows how the media and fans will be if he doesn’t.
So it’s not ALL bad. In fact there are some building blocks here. So while I’m not thrilled with this hire, I’m not going to belly-ache about it either. After spending three years not believing in Kelly, I’m STARVING for a coach I can get behind again. So I’m going to take a leap of faith based on these good signs and cast my lot with Pederson. No “if’s”. No “buts”. No hedging my bets.
I’m all in.
RECENTLY Comcast Sportsnet put out a story saying that OT Lane Johnson, WR Jordan Matthews, TE Zach Ertz, DE Fletcher Cox, CB Eric Rowe and LB Jordan Hicks were among half a dozen building blocks that the next coach could base his program on.
This is wrong. Dead wrong.
Not knowing who the coach is means we have no idea what their philosophy may be, what system they may run, or whether or not the new coach will see any of the aforementioned players as the sort of leadership that the new regime demands.
Let me explain.
Every Eagles fan knows that Lane Johnson was drafted with an eye to moving him from RT to LT when Jason Peters moves on. However the new coach may see that very differently, and opt to draft a LT during the 2017 offseason, especially if Peters returns to LT for the 2016 season.
Jordan Matthews wouldn’t be a slot receiver for practically any other coach besides the guy who drafted him. That means now he likely moves outside where he hasn’t established himself as a go-to WR yet (though I think he would). Until he proves himself to be “That Guy” he’ll continue to be just “a guy”, and so not a bona fide building block.
Zach Ertz has never quite lived up to the hype of his potential. While he might be a tempting toy to have, head coaches who waste too much energy trying to mine potential from a guy or two, have a high tendency to get fired. Likely the new coach won’t come in and marry himself to Ertz the way that fans have.
Fletcher Cox is a building block. Even coming off his best year playing as a 3-4 DE, I still wonder if he’s being wasted based on his performance as a rookie playing as a 4-3 DT. He was dominant inside, even though he was a just a pup, and his DC was an Offensive Line coach the year before. Makes me wonder…
Let’s be honest. In 2015 Eric Rowe never sees the field if CB Nolan Carroll stays healthy. Carroll got hurt so Rowe started the last 5 games of the season. He was part of a Secondary that gave up 11 TD’s to just 3 picks over that span. For Rowe’s part he made just one play vs the ball (a deflection) compared to 18 tackles. Rowe is a better Safety than Corner, but until someone sees that, he can’t legitimately be referred to as a building block.
We all love Jordan Hicks, but if this system changes does he have a natural position here? He’s not a prototypical thumper MLB, and he REALLY doesn’t seem to have the speed or change of direction skills needed to be a game-changing OLB at this level. That’s not to say he can’t play MLB, it’s just yet to be seen if he can. With that in question, legitimately calling him a building block is murky.
In all truth, we have no idea what we have on the roster until we know who’s calling the shots. Right now everyone on the roster is a question mark. The sad fact is, they will remain so as long as the Eagles coaching search includes candidates from every direction and indicates no clear vision for how 2016 will be different from 2015.
EAGLEMANIACAL.com 