FLETCHER Cox is probably safe, but Cedric Thornton had better watch out, because Vinny Curry is making a move. Curry wants a role in the base 3-4 the Eagles use on Defense and not just a spot role when we go to our occasional 4-3 front.
Lost in the fact that Curry didn’t start last year, is the fact that he had 4 sacks while the three starters had a grand total of 6. (Cox led the starters with 3).
Curry has spent this offseason making his 280 pound frame trimmer and leaner, stronger and more explosive. Being that DC Bill Davis likes his DE’s up around 300 pounds, you’d think Curry would want to bulk up instead.
Unless there’s a change coming.
Maybe we’ll be playing more 4-3 than we did last year. Or maybe something more exotic, like folding in some 46 elements. Whatever it is, there has to be a reason that Curry thinks NOT bulking up will earn him more time on the field.
NICK Foles set the NFL on fire last year, and LeSean McCoy led the NFL in rushing. Both went to the Pro Bowl, in addition to 3 of our Offensive Linemen, and a WR.
It was a good year for the team as a whole. But last year there were some players who I think got more credit than they truly deserved, as others didn’t get nearly enough.
I won’t go into who I think is overrated because I’ve done that enough on this fan-site this off-season. If you care, then you already know. If you don’t, then why bore you with it?
I WILL however,talk about the teams two most underrated players:
DeMeco Ryans andMychal Kendricks.
In terms of run support, they are the interior of the Defense. If the NT gets beat it’s on them to fend off Guards and Fullbacks and still get to the ballcarrier.
In terms of coverage, they’re responsible for a sizable chunk of real estate out there. Remember when Charger WR Malcolm Floyd got destroyed?
Look at who’s in coverage, 17 yards deep, on 1st and 10. That’s DeMeco Ryans. Watch it again and look at Mychal Kendricks read and begin a dropback before the ball is released. That’s not chase, that’s coverage. Did you see who delivered he clean hit and who hurried to grab the loose ball? Take a look again if you didn’t
So much is balanced across these two that the system would break if they weren’t so good. Think about it. Sit one and replace him with Casey Matthews or any other ILB on this roster. Would you feel as good about the line-up? If you answered yes then you’re dumber than my cat’s ass, because it doesn’t work without those two.
Worse than Kendricks being treated almost as an afterthought, is Ryans having possibly his best year as a pro, yet being talked about like he was still not quite effective enough. That almost gives me rage issues.
I don’t know if anyone else sees it, or feels how I feel about it; but instead of waiting around for somebody to say it for me, I decided I’d say it myself.
ACCORDING to NFL.com’s projected starting line-up for the EaglesLeSean McCoy and Brent Celek may have competition for their starting spots.
As you can see, of the 11 Offensive starting positions only two are listed with a slash mark. Normally that mark on a depth chart means “either” or “splitting time”. If it means something else then they should say so.
Not that I’m putting a lot of stock in these predictions. One: Because it was done by NFL.com’s Chris Wesseling, who’s an idiot altogether. Two: Take a look at our projected Defensive starters. Notice how there is no DT/NT and there are 3 CB’s? (BTW: He has EVERY team in our division starting 3 CB’s.)
Wesseling’s prediction is thatBilly Davis will use Nickel and Dime packages 65-70% of the time. No, seriously. That’s his prediction. It’s like he didn’t even glance at our schedule.
This season out of 16 games, 9 of them are against teams that lean on power running. I wrote about that back February in my series “The 12”. (Back then we knew the opponents, just not the order.) Power running is the exact sort of game that teams will need to stay in games against Chip Kelly’s fast paced approach.
Does Wesseling seriously think we draftedBennie Logan last year and another NT this year, just so we can start a 3rd CB? With a 2 man D-line? Leaving our ILB’s unprotected against the run?!.
Going nickel or dime 6-7 times out of every 10 downs, is a recipe to have our LB’s beat up and worn down by the Bye Week. I’m far from Billy Davis’s biggest fan, but there is NO WAY that I can believe him to be that stupid.
Seems more like Chris Wesseling is just being an idiot again, which for him I’m afraid may be chronic. Somebody get that guy a ticket to a Pop Warner game. He needs to learn the basics of the game
But it brings up and interesting question. Who do YOU think will be our starters this year?
WHILE not a world-changing pick, Jaylen Watkins should be at least good enough to push the veterans at both CB and FS.
This pick is at least a sane investment in the developmental aspect of the Secondary as a whole. Whether this guy pans out as a HOF player, or he doesn’t make it past first cuts, his presence alone means others have to step it up in camp this year. So from that standpoint alone it’s good pick.
From what I’ve read about this guy, so far he doesn’t sound all that impressive as a player. He’ll tackle, but he’s fragile. He can run, but he has poor ball-skills. He can cover, but he’s grabby. It’s a mixed bag.
In all truth he sounds like a default Special Teamer. But that’s at least something.
Very interested in what we do with both of those 5th rounders.
THE Eagles 2014 Draft has gotten off to a poor start. Spin it how you like, but anytime Eagles fans are walking around with an air of ambivalence you know that something doesn’t pass the smell test.
The bottom line is this guy was a reach pick. Reach picks are fine, if you’re mostly solid or if you’re swinging for the fences on a boom or bust guy who could change an entire franchise should he pan out.
This was not that situation. This is not that guy.
We needed a legit pass rusher and instead we got the standard senior performer. By senior performer I mean a guy that the school pushes or schemes to show off in order to pad his stats and get him drafted so the school can say to new recruits, “Hey, look at the percentage of our players that get drafted!”
When a guy is truly special, you can see it as soon as he gets the majority of the starts in a year. Or his improvement will be steady. With senior performers you get guys who wallow in mediocrity even as juniors and then -BOOM- numbers as a senior. It’s harder to do with guys in the Secondary, but positions like RB, WR, TE, and LB are rife with it. It’s also (I think), why so many top picks turn out to be flops.
Look, I’m not saying this guy is bad player. I’m just saying we could have had him later and not passed on players who truly deserved the spot in history that he now occupies.
My best friend and I watched the Draft at the South Philly Bar & Grill down Passyunk. I ordered a Philly Tap Water (awesome drink), 2 cheesesteaks and I gave away some EAGLEMANIACAL tee-shirts to fellow fans who also showed up to watch.
The annual strokefest that is the Draft was going according to formula, with every pick being a blah-blah “good pick” or a blah-blah “solid pick”. Mel Kiper had his poor Draft evaluation of Ray Lewis thrown in his face, with now HOF Ray sitting just one guy away. It was fun.
When the Eagles pick came in, we were all on our feet. Pryor was gone, Clinton-Dix was gone, Barr was gone, Cooks was gone, and Ford was gone. Who was left? Whoever it was, we all were expecting the pick to be a great one.
Then Marcus Smith was announced. You could have heard a flea fart from across the street at Capitolo park. I haven’t heard such eerie, dead silence in Philly since Mayor Nutter closed the city in preparation for Hurricane Irene in 2011.
Murmurs broke out and I expected full on bitching to commence in 3-2-… But it never came. It’s like the spirit had been gut punched out of the bar. People settled into drinking and a couple guys schlepped over to the beer pong table. You could hear the ping pong balls, but neither man was talking. I ordered another Philly Tap Water, my friend ordered a Pepsi. The night was over.
I don’t know whose idea it was to draft this guy, but barring an amazing next 2 days, that person should be out of a job come Monday. Aside fromDanny Watkins, have you ever been more underwhelmed about a Draft pick?
More to the point, why did we reach so badly for this guy??? CBS Sports had a solid 2nd round grade him. Not a 1st – 2nd grade, a solid 2nd. Draft Countdown had him as a 2nd – 3rd. NFL.com Scouting had him down as a 3rd – 4th. The only thing about him that says 1st rounder, is his Draft history.
Let me go you one better. When you pick a guy in the 1st you should expect him to contribute heavily if not start, in that same year. Did anyone see anything that said “Yeah. Sit Trent Cole down, so this kid can get out there”? I sure as hell didn’t.
It’s 3:21 a.m. now. I came home and went looking for video of this guy. This is video of him in a game which was a runaway for his team. Observe how consistently dominant he is:
THE question of who is going to start at SS opposite Malcolm Jenkins came up yesterday. Some fans say Nate Allen, some say Earl Wolff. Some are even holding out hope for prospect [Calvin Pryor]. Unlike most Eagles questions this one has a simple answer. And it’s staring you in the face.
This team’s biggest need right now is a top shelf pass rusher, so I wouldn’t put my money on drafting a Safety high. Unless he falls into the 2nd Round, I’d rule out Pryor.
Nate Allen is here on a 1-year deal. That indicates that he’s not seen (at least right now) as a long-term solution. He’s still young enough to have a breakout season and rake in some cake in 2015; but with the Eagles already cash strapped for 2015, I wouldn’t bank on seeing Allen here past 2014. If he’s really blowing it up this season, they could always sign him to an extension during the season and trade him prior to any 2015 salary obligation. (At least I’d do it that way.)
The Birds already had Earl Wolff when they brought back Allen. If they wanted to start Wolff on Day One, there was no need to re-sign Allen.
The handwriting on the wall says that barring a kick-ass Training Camp, Wolff opens the season behind Allen, and is slowly moved into a starting role somewhere around Week 7-9.
I think Allen finishes 2014 as the starter if Wolff doesn’t look ready by Week 9. By that point we’re talking playoff push. If it’s a tight division and the Safety play is solid, you don’t rock the boat, you “dance with the girl who brung ya”.
But I’m interested to hear who you would start and why? Poll and comments right below.
NATE Allen got a 1-year extension today, and at first it pissed me off a little. Then I gave it some thought.
At which point it pissed me off a lot.
Keeping around a guy who’s been a sub-par NFL Safety for the last few years now, is bad enough; but what message does it send to young players like Earl Wolffor free agents who don’t know the team culture? How do you tell THEM that that they have to elevate their play, if you keep shelling out for what you brought them in to replace?
Did Allen get an extension to sit the bench? Likely not. If he starts and we still suck vs. the pass, worse still if it costs us games, many fans will blame Allen for that. Not me.
This one is squarely on the narrow little shoulders of Howie Roseman. He talked a big game about getting a player at that position this off-season, and to be fair he got us a decent cover Safety in Malcolm Jenkins, but when the moment came to do something big, he bitched out. Now we have this crap load of back-up Safeties. These Special Teamers with “upside”. Man fuck outta here! MAKE AN EFFORT!
Special Teams hurt us in the game against New Orleans, no doubt. But you know what hurt us more? Getting the ball run down our throats, by a PASSING TEAM! Having the league’s leading rusher fairly bottled up by a defensive front that pushed our Offensive Line around. Having the NFL’s Most Over-paid Player blanketed by a 3rd round draft pickalready on his second team. THAT’S what hurt us.
We need some NEW STARTERS. Notice the capitalization of the words “new” and “starters”? That was not a mistake.
EARLIER this year on my Wishlist, I wrote that if we can’t get Jairus Byrd I’d settle for Malcolm Jenkins. Well we ended up with Jenkins instead of Byrd, and I for one ain’t cryin’about it.
Some of you may be less familiar, or completely unfamiliar with Jenkins. So let me hip you to what we have here.
While Jenkins has not been a Pro Bowler, since he became a starter the Saints defense has been one of the top units in the game (with the exception of 2012 and the suspension of the Head Coach and Defensive Coordinator).
Jenkins was a very good college CB who was seen as a tweener in the NFL. Due to his willingness to stick his nose in there against the run at CB, New Orleans decided to roll the dice with him at FS.
Though he’s willing to hit and play physical, the strength of his game is in his ability to match-up well with WR’s that aren’t burners. He can run better than anything we have at FS, but his discipline is I think his best attribute. He is the last line of defense and he plays like he understands that. He doesn’t gamble. He doesn’t freelance.
I read recently that he’s also a “film rat”. That explains so much of his game. He’s a vet who believes in independent mental prep. What we have back there my fellow fans, is a pro.
With the Saints as one of my fantasy defenses over the last 3 years, I watched a good number of Saints games. Based on what I’ve seen, Eagles fans should be pleased by the improvement in our deep coverage, even if some still want to look at N.O. and envision that any play Byrd makes should have been a play he was making for us.
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.
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