Fans

FUCK ROOB. KEEP ALSHON.

Posted by The BEAST on 2020/02/24
Posted in: Conspiracy Corner, Conversations, Fans, free agents, Front Office (F.O.), NFL, Offense, Players, Rants, Roster, The 12. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

NBC’S Reuben Frank put out a steaming pile of bullshit, that called Alshon Jeffery a James Thrash clone. In it, he compares some “average season” stats, and delivers it with absolutely no context. When I see this from professional journalists, I want to just…

.Bernie bitchslap

On one hand, it assumes the reader is smart, because it attempts to persuade with statistics. On the other hand, it assumes we’re stupid, because it talks as if We The Fans haven’t watched both men play, and don’t get what’s going on here. (I’ll get into that in a minute.)

I’m guessing “Roob” either knows he’s full of shit, or he doesn’t do his homework:
1) Over the three seasons Thrash was here, he was QB Donovan McNabb‘s #1 targeted receiver.
2) Over the three seasons Jeffery has been here, he’s been QB Carson Wentz’s #2 targeted receiver.
3) As you can clearly see below, Jeffery has outproduced Thrash despite being fed the ball less:

Roob shut up

Here’s what’s going down. This is the Eagles using a beat writer to drive the opinions of pinheads, who’ll call into WIP, and parrot whatever they read that morning. The idea is to promote the perception that “the public” wants to cut Jeffery, so the Eagles then can do it with less backlash, even if they don’t already have a suitable replacement.

Kind of like the dumb shit they did with cutting LB Nigel Bradham. Even I was surprised by the level of public backlash on that one. I figured Eagles fans would scarcely notice it, but nope. Boy did you! So this is likely the Front Office telegraphing the move, and trying to manipulate the perception that we fans want this. Some do. Most don’t. 

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I already said in THE 12, that we should keep Jeffery, letting he and DeSean Jackson help groom the kid we draft this year. Developing youth is the way to go here. Let me go on record now, and say that our options for moving Jeffery are likely worse than what we have already.

The flavor of the week is Minnesota’s WR Stephon Diggs. I find it hilarious that the idea is to replace Alshon’s attitude, with Diggs’ history of attitude issues, publicly criticizing his QB, and requesting to be traded. Here’s a link for those who didn’t know.

Some of you want to hamstring our salary cap, by paying Cowboys WR Amari Cooper 20 million or more per year. Amari has a terrible habit of losing interest during games, and whole chunks of the season. Remember our last game against them, where the Cowboys coaching staff benched him on he last play of the game (a CB Sidney Jones deflection in the end zone).

2019 Sidney Jones

But we need to swap Jeffery out for this guy, right? 

Someone also mentioned WR Breshad Perriman. In 5 seasons he’s played in just 51 games out of a possible 80, with just 10 career starts, while never starting more than 4 games in any year. While he’d be nice to have in camp, and maybe keep as a 4th, he’s by no means a 16 week starter.

Free agent WR Robby Anderson? Former Temple player. I could kind of see this one. But odds are, the Jets would overpay Anderson to keep him and provide consistency for their young franchise QB. 

There are other names: A.J. Green, Emmanuel Sanders, both older. Reclamation projects like Josh Gordon and Devin Funchess. Or scratch-off tickets like DeMarcus Robinson, Tajae Sharpe, or Laquon Treadwell. 

lottery loser

Instead of Jeffery? Really? These guys are who we hand to Wentz, and then expect more from him? That dog don’t even hunt. 

No. Don’t let these beat writers tell you different. Alshon Jeffery is no James Thrash, and will be harder to replace than you think. Much harder. Especially given that WR Nelson Agholor won’t be back. (Forgot about that, huh?) That would force Wentz into learning an entirely new WR corp.

Nah. Keep Jeffery and let him help train the pup we draft. 

Eagles wings

MORONIC EAGLES FANS

Posted by The BEAST on 2020/01/22
Posted in: Conversations, Fans, Offense, Players, Rants, stats. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

Alshon City2

“TRADE, extend or restructure”. This was the subject of a Facebook post that I weighed in on Monday morning, regarding WR Alshon Jeffery. While all of those options are the wrong one, some are more wrong than others. What really bothered me though, were the moronic reasons behind some people’s answers. Before we go any further, let’s take a quick look at Jeffery’s current deal, according to Spotrac.

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We have Jeffery for 2 more years, at a fully guaranteed 26.75M  . That’s a 9.9M base in 2020, and a 12.7M base in 2021. Cutting him in 2020 leaves us with a dead cap figure of 26.1M. Cutting him in 2021 leaves us eating 10.6M. So anyone who mentions cutting him…just tune that idiot out. Don’t even argue.

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I won’t keep you in suspense. The actual thing we should do with Jeffery, is draft his replacement, and spend two years grooming the guy. Let Jeffery play out the last two years of his current deal, and then let him walk. Cleanly, as a free agent. Acknowledge the past, solidify the present, secure the future.

One more time: The Eagles already have Jeffery under contract. Even with him at 9.9M, we still have 42M in salary cap space. We can already afford him. Easily. There is no need to do something stupid. But let’s look at those other options, anyway.

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TRADE: Trading a player doesn’t necessarily remove them entirely from a teams books. The team we trade Jeffery to, would pay his base salary. However, the remaining 10.5M in bonus money (2.5M signing, 3.45M option, 500K roster, 4.1M restructure) would stay on the Eagles books for two years. That’s 5.25M per year that the Eagles would lift for some other team. All so that instead of building on a foundation, we can re-create a hole that we already suffered through in 2019. Like idiots.

2019 Alshon Jeffery scores

EXTEND: Why? Understand, Jeffery has good speed, runs decent routes, and has good hands. On 50/50 balls he’s more of an 85/15 guy. He’s at the low end of the top-tier WR’s. However, all indications are that he’s slowing down physically, with maybe two years left before his skills drop him from being an 85/15 guy to an actual 50/50 guy. He has never been a crisp route runner, and isn’t a blazing fast guy either. So what would we be paying for beyond two years? Play him. Pay him. Shake his hand. Part ways amicably.

Vikings Eagles Football

RESTRUCTURE: What? WHY? All a restructure does is take the current contract and stretch out the money over a longer period of time. In exchange for re-doing a contract, a team usually guarantees the years of the new deal. So we’d basically stretch 26.75M over three or more years, (instead of just these two), likely keeping Jeffery past his useful years, and stealing a spot from some other player. Or we could cut Jeffery, eat the remaining dead money, and get zero bang for those bucks. Stupid right?

card.alshon.jeffery

This is why I say, just let him play his deal out. For what the Eagles are paying, he’s not overly expensive, and will likely be well worth the money (or close to it), for the remainder of the deal.

Many of the people who want him removed, like to bring up those unverified rumors that he’s the guy who criticized QB Carson Wentz. Fans were saying that Jeffery is a “cancer”, isn’t “bought-in”, and was trying to “sabotage” Wentz this year.

2019 Alshon Jeffery scores miami

All of those statements are nonsense. The locker room didn’t come apart, and Jeffery led all Eagles WR’s in catches, receiving yards, and touchdowns. He even produced a 100 yard game while playing hurt. Hard to buy the “cancer and sabotage” nonsense, in light of those FACTS.

alshon

As far as the unsubstantiated rumors… Hey, in my gut I believe it was Jeffery who said those things. I do. But even so, since when is a guy not allowed to speak his mind? I’m a native Philadelphian who was born at Episcopal hospital, in 19125 where I still live. I went to high school (Parkway Center City), six blocks from Independence Hall. I was a Communications major with a minor in Philadelphia History. I’m all about free speech, so I won’t knock Jeffery for using it. I just wish he stood behind it.

While we’re on the subject of him talking, lets take a look at the substance of what [he] said. Here’s a direct quote: ‘We need to make shit simpler. Sometimes we just need to handle what is manageable. Even Peyton Manning knew when to check it down.’

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Quick question. Didn’t Wentz start doing exactly these things after the Miami game? He threw a lot more checkdowns (Perkins/Sanders/Goedert), RB Screens (Scott), and he stopped holding the ball so long. The routes were simplified for incoming players. The result was a 4 – 0 record, 7 TD’s, no INT’s, only 7 sacks surrendered, and a 67.6 completion percentage. Prior to those four games, Wentz had a completion percentage of 62.4% on the season.

The evidence strongly suggests that we may have benefited from Wentz taking that advice sooner. (Still wouldn’t have changed the outcome of the playoff game though.)

While the Eagles may move on from Jeffery, let’s be clear about something. Every indicator says that it would be a stupid thing to do while we can afford him, while we don’t have better than him, and while he clearly knows what he’s talking about.

APTOPIX Vikings Eagles Football

EAGLES FANS! QUIT WHINING!

Posted by The BEAST on 2019/12/04
Posted in: Conversations, Fans, NFC East, playoffs, Rants, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , . 2 Comments

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TOUGH guys don’t whine. If you’re one of these jersey burning types, who declared the season over well before it is, then listen up: Stop talking about how tough you are, how bleed green you are, and how you love your team regardless. Honestly, some of you pussies are downright fucking embarrassing.

The media feeds on negativity and so they pump it. They promote it. Controversy sells papers and generates clicks, and some of you just feed right into it. Our team is struggling as it is. Do we REALLY need to kick them when they’re down? Is that how you learned how to be fan. Bail when it’s not rosy? Quit because the road isn’t smooth. 

Is that the sort of blood that you come from?

I’m going to slam some truth down, hard enough to break your fucking dining room table. If the Redskins fans can talk about still having a chance, YOU bailing now is a direct indicator of how yellow your spine is. The only quitter I see, is in your mirror. The Eagles aren’t done until they’re actually, MATHEMATICALLY, done.

As for now, we aren’t done. 

Whole season

The Eagles still need our cheers and positive reinforcement. Athletes lie and say that they don’t read articles, or listen to call-in shows, or things of that nature. And the second that the shit hits the fan, those same athletes say that they have to block all that out. How can they block out what they were already ignoring? Simple. They were never ignoring it.

My point is that they hear us. They hear us on WIP radio. They hear us on Twitter. They hear us when we catch babies at the scene of a fire. They overhear you when they’re out shopping, or eating. They see what gets said about them on shows like ‘Quick Slants’ (Right, Brandon Graham?) They hear me when they come to this blog. (And they do.)

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So if they hear us, then how about we say some shit to INSPIRE them? When you inspire people you get more out of them, than when you shit on their name. Why spend 7 months missing football, only to quit on the season early? Who does that?? Don’t reserve being a fan for game-time only. Quit whining and get to barking. Get to howling.

Remember those dog masks and how much I hated them, because we weren’t really underdogs in 2017? Well NOW we’re honest to god underdogs. Care to buy a mask? Do you have it in you to root for a REAL underdog? If you feel like I’m calling you out, it’s because I am.

Let’s see who the tough, bleed green fans REALLY are.

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ARE YOU IN OR OUT?

Posted by The BEAST on 2019/10/22
Posted in: Defense, Fans, NFC East, NFL, Offense, playoffs, Rants, Rivals, Roster. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . 1 Comment

A-smooth-sea

FELLOW Eagles fans! We’re 7 games into a 16 game season. That’s not even halfway through. We’re a game out of 1st place, with a rematch IN OUR HOUSE coming up at the end of the season. So the question is, are you gearing up for the Sixers season opener, or are you locked in for Sunday in Buffalo?

Don’t answer me. Answer your mirror. As for me…

em12

I’m always locked in. They’ll NEVER clean my cage!

I want to make two things plain right now.

First, I’m picking the Eagles over Buffalo. Not for homerism, or for bullshit “fan support”. The numbers clearly indicate that if the Eagles don’t beat the Eagles, then Buffalo won’t be able to. A couple of bad losses, will never get me to ignore raw data. That would be a sign of panic, and I cannot in 44 years of life, point to a single instance where I have panicked. Football won’t be where I start.

Second, the Cowboys didn’t beat us. We beat us. Nothing about the box score says that they dominated us. QB Dak Prescott, RB Ezekiel Elliott, and WR Amari Cooper all were productive, but none of them had a career day or some shit.

For those of us who watched, it was clear that no one hurt us as badly as we did. So don’t get it into your head that the final score indicates a gulf between how good they are, vs how good we are. It does not. It’s just a lil’ choppy water.

And I’ll say again,

Popeye

The Eagles made a move on Monday that I really really liked. We added DT Anthony Rush to our active roster. Back in June I was still rooting for us to find a way to keep the guy. We’ve long been a team that favored smaller DT’s, and Rush is a horse of a different color.

When we signed the 6’5, 350 pound Rush, after the 2019 Draft, I was all about that move. A big body to bull rush the “A” gap, and not let the Center get out on combo-blocks? All while having the length to possibly bat down passes, and affect field goal attempts?! I was excited about the idea of having someone who exceeds the prototypical 6’4, 320 mold, which the Eagles frequently fall short of.

When DT Malik Jackson went down, I actually thought of Rush, but I was lazy, and didn’t do the the leg-work to find out that he was unavailable anyway. When we later added DT Akeem Spence it seemed like a very mid-season Eagles (aka meh) sort of signing.

Rush however, seems like just the sort of move we need, now that we’re going with smaller LB’s who can’t get off of blocks. At least until OLB Nigel Bradham gets back. Once Bradham gets back, we should get some physicality back in the LB corps. And with Rush eating up space and blockers, those two things alone should go a long way, to changing what we’ve seen over these last two weeks.

It’s been a rough two weeks, but this is nothing we can’t handle. We’re making moves to right the ship. First place in Week 8 was never Step One. It never was. First place in Week 17 was Step One.

The storm be damned! Even at 3 – 4, we’re still on course. 

Popeye EM MAX

I’m all about the “get down”. Let’s chop it up!

FOUR THINGS – WK 6 – EAGLES – VIKINGS

Posted by The BEAST on 2019/10/11
Posted in: Coaching, Conversations, Defense, Fans, Four Things, NFC East, Offense, Preview, Uncategorized, X's and O's. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , . 1 Comment

WK6-MIN

THIS is the beginning of an absolutely wicked road trip! I swear, it’s like one of the Eagles slept with the schedule maker’s wife. Hey, speaking of DT Fletcher Cox, QB Kirk Cousins might want to dust off his track shoes. His o-line isn’t the stoutest group of pass blockers, and Homewrecker was the only guy who didn’t eat last week.

This is probably the best team we’ll face until our Bye. That said, after a few days of peeking under their hood, this feels like a “W”. Not like we could win, but like we should win. Look, if I can come up with a game plan to beat Minny, then the Eagles coaching staff has surely already done so.

Unless I’m smarter than they are…

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The Eagles have a statement to make. We need to build up some conference cred, after a couple of early stumbles. A win this week, and we guarantee ourselves another week atop the NFC East.

Also, a loss this week practically invalidates last week’s annihilation of New York. Especially since the division rival right behind us, gets to rag-doll whatever we left of the Jets, this Sunday.

So let’s talk about the Four Things we need to focus on this week versus the Vikings:

2019 Eagles D

1) Stop the run: The idea isn’t to stuff every run. We just need to make it so unreliable that it becomes a liability, and they abandon any real commitment to it. At that point we’ll have taken them out of their wheelhouse, and put them someplace uncomfortable. But how do we do that? What are the nuts and bolts?

Minny likes to give their backs a choice of a high-speed lane, and cutback lane. They do this by getting an extra blocker outside of their Tackles, which triggers defenses to over-pursue. The RB hangs back, reads it and, just picks a hole. The result is every RB on their roster, averaging 5.6 yards per carry or better.

So how do we bring down a charging bull?? We do it with two small, quick tweaks.

Step 1: Staying within our Wide Nine, we use a 4 – 3 Under front with our LB’s. Weakside, Middle and Strongside (WIL, MIKE, SAM).

WIDE NINE 4-3 UNDER

If that Slot WR is worrying you, don’t let it. FB C.J. Ham (yes, Fullback) has 3 starts, and TE Irv Smith has the other 2 so far. So our base Defense may be out there quite a bit until the Vikings scrap the run.

Step 2: Play contain outside of the Tackles, avoid engaging them, and take on the outside blockers, to either force runs back inside, or string them to the sideline.

4-3 UNDER VS MINNY

Again, Minnesota relies on their RB’s to read. That means they can’t hit holes immediately. That will help us trap them in the backfield, and force passing situations. Thus the game will be put in Kirk Cousins’s hands.

2) Protect the ball: Obvious right? For the Vikings this one has more meaning. In their 3 wins, they have forced at least one turnover. In their 2 losses, they don’t have a single one between them. This team needs their opponent to help them. So let’s not do that.

3) Go BIG:

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Three quarters of their secondary is the same one that WR Alshon Jeffery tormented in 2017. They have some tall DB’s, but they’re just tall. They lack the athleticism to play vs size. This would be a nice game to see rookie WR J.J. Arcega-Whiteside emerge as a factor. If not, we still have this guy…

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4) Show fear: That is not a typo. We need to jump on this team, from coin toss to hand shake. We make them play from behind, and then we just keep hitting them.

Early on, we need to be a lioness, desperate to defend her cubs. Later, we need to be a lion ending the next generation of a rival male. At no point should we seem relaxed. Our fear. Our urgency, should be on open display.

If we do all these things, we’re just about guaranteed to win. Now that we’ve covered what should happen, let’s get into what likely will happen:

The Vikings are as desperate as we are. Their only two losses are divisional, so they are 3-2 and STILL in 4th place. They need this win. Probably more than we do. That means they will come out in their Sunday best, giving 110%, leaving it all out on the hackneyed cliché, yadda blah, and so forth.

Philly Hulk

Would now be a shitty time to mention that all of their wins are against teams that have trouble scoring? The highest ranked offense they’ve beaten so far is 18th. We are not Atlanta, Oakland, or the giants. The Eagles are 7th in scoring. And that’s with a run game that we couldn’t count on half the time, and our top receivers injured.

The Vikings are a run reliant team, not a quick-strike team. They’ll make a ton of catches, because our CB’s play 20 yard cushions. Their QB will complete 700% of his passes, and he’ll roll up a lot of pointless yardage to pad his stats. However, once we take the run away, all they will have left, will be Kirk Cousins. And yes, Kirk. We DO like that.

PREDICTION: EAGLES 28 – Vikings 17

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FOUR THINGS REVIEWED – WK PS4 – JETS

Posted by The BEAST on 2019/08/30
Posted in: Conversations, Defense, Fans, Four Things, NFL, Offense, Players, Roster, Special Teams, trade. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

flooded

TOLD you not to watch that game, didn’t I? While watching two episodes of American Dad and channel surfing during commercials, I saw probably 45 to 55 seconds combined, of the entire game, before leaving for work. Meanwhile, many of you ignored my warning, and suffered through that debacle.

EAGLES 0 – Jets 6

I bought a Daily News, an iced mocha, and I took the train from the airport this morning. It gave me time to digest what was reported about the game. When I got home, I looked up the box score for the player stats.

HOLY SHIT! I knew it was going to be a boring shit-show, but c’mon! They just Deebo’d you, for three hours of your life!

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They didn’t even try to be worth your time. How do you lose 0 – 6 in a game where the winner the team that didn’t lose, misses 3 field goals?

The big thing in this game was supposed to be that it would help decide who made the 53 man roster. That’s garbage. I told you in Four Things that the roster was already set.

1) DE: Defensive Coordinator Jim Schwartz like to have five DE’s. The Starters are Brandon Graham and Derek Barnett. Vinny Curry is the third end who can slide inside to DT in the NASCAR package. That means we need two more. Joe Ostman was lost with an injury, leaving Josh Sweat, Daeshon Hall and rookie Shareef Miller.

Hall has outplayed every pass rusher in the NFL this preseason. He made this team weeks ago. That’s four. Miller has out-competed, out-produced, and out-played Sweat, in every single regard this preseason. Unless we make a trade, if we keep five (like we did last year), Miller has to be fifth, with Hall being an automatic fourth.

2) RB: Wendell Smallwood or Josh Adams? Smallwood isn’t explosive and brings nothing to the table that our other backs don’t. Adams at least has the advantages of size, youth, and the possibility of a hidden upside. We’ve already seen Smallwood’s ceiling. If Smallwood makes the team, he has pictures of someone doing something with a dead girl, or a live boy. We don’t keep Adams if the staff decides to go with six receivers.

3) WR: Everyone wants to say we’re keeping five here. I like six. If Smallwood is cut then Special Teams needs a guy. Mack Hollins was injured last year, but he’s back now. Greg Ward is a slot guy we need to keep around, if Nelson Agholor is going to be trade bait. It’s easier to keep Ward and then elevate him, rather than cut him, hope no one grabs him, and then have a hole if Aggie is traded.

4) QB: Are we keeping three or four? Who is the back-up? Has the depth chart changed? Nobody cares. Carson Wentz will play until our season ends, and render his back-ups irrelevant.

On The Whole:

I’m just glad this travesty of a preseason is over.

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Better still, with the 8 – 4:30 hours at my new job, I’ll be able to catch ALL the games, without watching on a shitty tablet, with a shitty wifi signal that keeps dropping. And no more cramming these articles between the end of work, and desperately needed sleep. (Like I’m doing right now!)