Players

I DIDN’T RECOGNIZE THE EAGLES

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/12/08
Posted in: Coaching, Defense, Offense, Players. Tagged: , , , , , . 5 Comments

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Seattle 24 – EAGLES 14

 

NOTHING I saw yesterday was familiar. Beyond the score and the results and the yards, I didn’t see the EAGLES out there yesterday. Particularly on Offense. Defensively, however I definitely saw my team. But let me talk about the Offense first.

It would be one thing to see us failing at what we’re good at, but we didn’t even seem to be trying. The biggest thing was the pace. When have you seen us look that slow under Chip Kelly? Not even the Green Bay game featured that snail’s pace. Don’t get me wrong, by normal NFL standards it was fine, but this Offense isn’t run by normal NFL standards; and last night it seemed like it took forever between plays. Worse still, there seemed to be no move to correct it after the half.

There didn’t seem to be a concerted effort to push the ball down the field either. QB Mark Sanchez (10/20 – 50% – 96 – 2 – 1) averaged fewer than 10 yards per completion, with his longest completion being a 35 yard catch and run touchdown by TE Zach Ertz (2 – 39 – 19.5 – 1). Unstack that and aside from that one completion, Sanchez was 9 for 19 (47%), while only throwing for 64 yards, with a completion average of 7.1 yards per. Not yards per pass mind you, but yards per completion.

Add to that all the east-west run plays we ran. RB LeSean McCoy (17 – 50 – 2.9 – 0) saw a decent number of carries as he quietly became the EAGLES all-time leading rusher. But even without his costly third quarter fumble, it was hardly an effective day by he or the Offensive Line.

Defensively we were who we are. We did a pretty decent job of handling RB Marshawn Lynch, but as is always the case, when we face a playoff caliber QB, everything wrong with our basic defensive concept gets lit up like Times Square. Seattle did nothing jaw dropping out there yesterday, but by playing common sense offense and not getting flustered when they made a mistake, they were able to shoulder past us.

I’ve said before that our problem on Defense is the guy who runs it. Until we replace him, we’ll be stuck with concepts that don’t work against playoff caliber teams. I said in the first article on this website, that as long as we stick with Bill Davis at Defensive Coordinator, we won’t be able to win a Super Bowl. Granted, maybe we’ll hit the playoffs, get hot and he’ll prove me wrong. However at the rate we’ve been going versus playoff caliber teams, both this season and last, it seems so far that I’m right on the money.

But again, I’m really kind of stunned by what I saw out there from our Offense yesterday.

LOCKING DOWN THE NFC EAST

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/12/03
Posted in: NFL, Players, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

bighurt

POOR Cowboys fans. 33-10 on our way to locking down the NFC East and it wasn’t even close. It was 33-10 in your HOME. 33-10 in front of a national audience. We humiliated you. Bullied you. Beat you.

BROKE YOU. And  it wasn’t even close.

Look at your QB. Look at him.

card-graham and curry

Giving up on the play to save his life. Feeling the heat. FEARING the hit. His nerve deserting him in front of the world. His back may have been injured, but his spine was missing entirely.

We took that from him.

We took HIM from you. We took Bryant from you. We took Murray from you. We took Witten. My god, we took it all. We just came and TOOK whatever we damned well pleased.

And in 2 weeks, we’re going to do it all over again. 

Prior to the last game some of your fans were saying how they hardly saw this as a rivalry. And I have to agree. Cats don’t consider mice rivals. You’ve become prey. The Cowboys are almost a food source now.

And in 2 weeks someone is going to lock you in our cage. Again, in front of a nation audience. Want to guess at how that will turn out? My prediction is-

First, we have this Seattle situation to handle. But you are on the menu. Don’t doubt that. Never doubt that.

See you in a bit.

TRADE NICK FOLES TO THE…

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/12/03
Posted in: Draft, Front Office (F.O.), Offense, Players, Roster, trade. Tagged: , , . 8 Comments

trade nick foles

IT’S time to trade Nick Foles.

This offseason I had hopes that Foles would show some traits of a franchise QB. That he’d rent a house for more space (since he lives in a condo not far from me), and call a few guys down to work on some concepts and get into each other’s heads a bit more. To learn to see what each other sees, like Peyton Manning and Demaryius Thomas; Tom Brady and Rob Gronkowski; Aaron Rodgers and Jordy Nelson. Like Donovan McNabb used to do at his home in Arizona.

I was hoping Foles would put in that kind of work, but he wasn’t interested. This season showed the results of that lack of commitment. The league caught up to him, because he was fine with standing still. And it’s that lack of inner fire that makes him expendable.

QB Mark Sanchez is 3-1 as an EAGLES starter. He also came to our rescue in relief against the Texans, after Foles had thrown the pick six that tied the game and was injured. Considering that Sanchez played ¾ of that game, and since it was essentially 0-0 when he came in, he’s basically a 4-1 starter.

Foles on the other hand has regressed badly this season. This was of course after Head Coach Chip Kelly declared him his QB for the next 1,000 years. That statement made Foles the franchise QB in name, but there was never the faintest hint of him living up to it prior to OTA’s.

He’s under contract for another year, so we could keep him in case of emergency.  However, to get value for him, it makes more sense to trade him. You won’t get much for him as he’s a 3rd round pick, with just one good year, which wasn’t enough to convince 50% of his own team’s fan base before he regressed. But if you can package him with a pick to a QB needy team, then it improves the value of whatever pick you put him with (Foles and a 4th is good for a 3rd. Foles and a 3rd is good for a 2nd …).

With teams like Dallas, Washington, Jacksonville, and Tampa Bay all looking for along-term answer at QB, Nick Foles is a better option than virtually any QB likely to be on those rosters in 2015. Or we could just sit pat and watch him got to one of them anyway after his contract expires after 2015. (If Foles is going to be a Cowboy or Redskin, I want something for him!)

TWO WORDS: FINISH STRONG

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/12/02
Posted in: Coaching, NFL, Players. Tagged: , , , , , , , . 5 Comments
players-lanejohnson.jasonpeters.andrewgardner.evanmathis..leseanmccoy.510.usatoday

Image courtesy USA Today

JUST four games left. Seems like only a week ago we were all screaming for the season to start. Everybody was knee deep in hope, ready to fight, holding two fistfuls of “I wish your fucking team would!” Today, already buried under the hope are the bodies of New York and Washington. It’s all but decided now. It’s ours for the taking. If we can just do one thing. Just two words: Finish strong.

As I type this while listening to Freeway’s verse in “Two Words”, I realize how close his native city is to being the last team standing in the NFC East. In one hand we hold the collar of the Dallas Cowboys. Their eyes rolled back in their head, mouth open, barely conscious. Our other hand raised in a fist, ready to be brought down strong to finish the job.

With the Cowboys being 8-4 to our 9-3 and one more meeting between us; a loss to our EAGLES leaves Dallas 11-5 at best if they win their other 3 games. Let me say that again. If we beat them, they can’t do any better than 11-5 this season.

For the EAGLES any win coupled with a win over the Cowboys and we sew up the division with an 11-5 record at worst. Again, that’s any win, plus beating Dallas. The numbers suggest that any 2 wins should do it; but if we go 2-2 while Dallas runs the table over their last 4, when the smoke settles on Week 17 we’d be 11-5 to their 12-4. With Detroit and Seattle out there, 11-5 may not guarantee a Wildcard. So we need to be all about following these two words: Finish strong.

 

BEATING GREEN BAY

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/11/12
Posted in: NFL, Players, Preview. Tagged: , , , , , . 4 Comments

card-vinnycurry

THIS game will say a lot about how far we can go in the playoffs. It doesn’t have to be a win, but it MUST be a good showing. Normally I don’t write about opponents before that week’s preview, but this game can either be a character building win or a character building loss. But it must at least be a fight. If we get shit canned the Bears did, it will invalidate much of what we’ve done so far.

If we get shelled by Green Bay, then it will signal that we (like last year) aren’t ready yet. Now when I say that, I’m fully aware that if we lose at all, Cowboys fans, Redskins fans, and Giants fans (quite a few of which now regularly visit my site since I added the NFC East page) will try to twist my last statement. So let me just repeat what I said for clarity: If we get shelled by Green Bay, then it will signal that we aren’t ready yet.

Do we have the parts necessary to beat the Packers? Yes. Have we shown the consistency necessary to do so? No. Will we? ….I won’t get into that until Friday when I release the Preview.

Here’s what I will say: Luck, Kaepernick, Manning, and Newton. Only ONE of them won against us and HE damned sure didn’t beat us. (Check it out HERE. ) Anyone banking on Aaron Rodgers beating us has not been paying attention to how this EAGLES team gets down.

Here’s what else I will say: Green Bay’s “Amoeba Defense” gives some teams fits. SOME teams. But they can’t play Chicago every week now can they?

I’ll say one more thing: Do NOT miss Friday’s preview.

 

OUR CORNERBACKS DO NOT SUCK.

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/11/12
Posted in: Defense, Fans, Players, Rants, Roster. Tagged: , , , . 5 Comments

card-fletcher and williams

 LOOK up Cary Williams and Bradley Fletcher. In fact if you go to the EAGLES website, and look up their profiles you’ll see that “physical” the first term used to describe Williams. It’s the second word in his profile . For Fletcher the second word is “tough”. “Physical” doesn’t appear in his profile  until word four.

First of all, when these guys were brought in they were brought in to play a style of ball that they excel at, but that NFL is trying to phase out. Across the board CB play in the NFL is “suffering”. When it’s not calls, it’s players trying not to draw calls. You’re now seeing WR’s (Brandon LaFell, Malcolm Floyd, and Julian Edelman for example) who once were disappointments, now posting respectable reception numbers and finding purpose in today’s game. That’s because the rules keep making it easier to play WR, while making it harder to play DB.

Secondly, I think fans here are just too damned hard on certain players. Think about how fans regarded our primary last 6 starting CB’s:

Cary Williams and Bradley Fletcher: “Suck”

Nnamdi Asomugha and Dominique Rogers-Cromartie: “Suck”

Asante Samuel and Sheldon Brown: “Suck”

Fans keep throwing the CB’s under the bus despite the fact that they knew the “Wide 9” system didn’t work. Despite the fact that Bill Davis’s “Multiple” or “4-3 Under” scheme has massive, obvious flaws in it. (Those are easy flaws to hide when an opposing head coach can’t tell that his own QB is injured (Looking at YOU Ron Rivera), but harder to disguise against a legitimate playoff caliber team.)

Look, the days of CB’s like Eric Allen and Ben Smith, Troy Vincent and Bobby Taylor, Sheldon Brown and Lito Sheppard, are gone. The NFL no longer allows for a CB to control his side of the field. It makes it easier to get those big highlights, to sell more tickets and garner larger TV contracts. I mean, do you honestly think Riley Cooper could have started 10 years ago; or that Jeff Maehl would even be on an NFL roster? Come on. WR is easier because CB is harder.

Our guys don’t suck. They’re just caught between old expectations and the new way things are.

FOLES IS GONE.

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/11/05
Posted in: Conspiracy Corner, Draft, NFL, Offense, Players. Tagged: , , , , . 20 Comments
Chip-Kelly-Marcus-Mariota

Chip Kelly and Marcus Mariota. Photo courtesy of the internet

 GIVE QB Nick Foles 15 or 16 starts in 2014 before pronouncing judgment on him.

That’s what I said I’d do.

Due to his broken collarbone, Foles won’t start 15 or 16 games this season. The injury will keep him out for 6-8 weeks, so it’s highly likely that his 2014 is over. Even if he comes back in 6, if we’re still playing for anything, he’ll likely be carrying a clipboard.

So to answer the question of whether or not Nick Foles is a franchise QB for the Eagles, the answer is: No.

If you disagree then you probably thought Michael Vick was also a franchise QB for the EAGLES. The knocks on Vick were that he couldn’t stay healthy and was a turnover machine.

Here are some cold hard facts:

  • Vick missed games every year with the EAGLES. But then so did Foles (broken wrist in 2012, concussion in ’13, collarbone in ’14.)
  • In 42 starts here, Vick turned the ball over 47 times, an average of 1.11 turnovers per game. Foles in 24 starts has 25, an average of 1.04 turnovers per game. (And he was clearly regressing).
  • In 54 games here Vick scored 72 TD’s for an average of 1.3 per game. In 28 games Foles scored 50 for an average of 1.7.

Foles has slightly better numbers in all areas, but none of those numbers say “Franchise”.

So no. Foles is not a Top 5 QB. Or a Top 10 QB. Or even a franchise QB. He will not see a huge pay day with this team, and he has likely started his last game in an EAGLES jersey. The “next 1,000 years” sure did go by fast!

Meanwhile Mark Sanchez is simply auditioning for his next team. We will be drafting a QB in 2015. Oh, and at least one Guard.

Hmmmmm. I wonder who’ll be our starting QB in 2015…

START JORDAN MATTHEWS NOW OR PAY FOR IT LATER.

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/10/30
Posted in: Coaching, Draft, NFL, Offense, Players. Tagged: , , , , . 16 Comments

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RIGHT now our 2014 Draft looks awful. DE/OLB/ILB/ Marcus Smith had played in 4 straight games before being held out of the Arizona game. That has all the earmarks of regression. At this point the EAGLES have to hope he was a 1st round reach, and not a 1st round bust.

Despite clear athletic talent, WR/KR Josh Huff has shown some really questionable instincts so far. This only adds weight to notion of him having been a reach in the 3rd round.

WR Jordan Matthews on the other hand has been a consistent contributor so far, but it’s clear that he’s underachieving and is somewhat trapped in his role as a slot receiver. When Chip Kelly said on Draft night that Jordan would start in the slot, I had visions of him working intermediate along and in between the hash marks. Keeping both opposing Safeties playing closer to the middle, and away from being able to help their corners against our WR’s on Fly routes and Fade routes. I didn’t expect him to be a deep threat, but I did expect a guy who allowed the deep threats room to roam.

Instead what we have is a guy who runs WR middle screens, and Bubble screens.  That’s mostly because it’s what he’s asked to do. Seems to me that a WR selected in the 2nd round should be given more rope by now. It would certainly help the run game. Let me show you something:

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That’s RB LeSean McCoy’s career. See that huge, across the board fall-off this year? That’s because up until this year he had 2 WR’s that could get vertical and be enough of a threat to open up room for him to create those long runs. Matthews and fellow WR Riley Cooper aren’t allowing for that. One on hand, routes called for Matthews keep him close to the line of scrimmage. On the other hand neither WR is doing much with yards after catch, as Matthews has 103 YAC, and Cooper has 75. So there is no room for McCoy to create long runs. Oh yeah! Then there’s the other thing. Let me show you something:

wrs

Combined Matthews and Cooper have fewer yards than WR Jeremy Maclin. Despite each having just 10 fewer catches than Maclin, neither man has even half his yards. Or TD’s. Maclin is also on a one year deal and will be an Unrestricted Free Agent after this season. He is clearly looking for a big contract and if someone offers him more money, he’s as good as gone. At that point our experienced WR’s are Cooper, Matthews and Huff.

It would be smart to sit Cooper and start developing (or trying to develop) Matthews into a starter ASAP. This offense was deadly with DeSean Jackson as our #1. It’s fallen to good with Maclin there. However if we lose Maclin too, we’re pretty much dead in the water.

Maclin settled for five million this just year (1.75 base, 3.5 signing bonus) , instead of signing for 5 per year on a longer deal. I’m guessing he’ll want the kind of money he saw DJax making, and will ask for something like 9 million per year. Odds are good there’ll be bidding and we’d have to overpay to keep him next year. Especially with what’s behind him, because as of right now the EAGLES have zero leverage. And oh, have I mentioned that there’s a salary cap crunch looming? Too much money paid for Maclin will, (not may) mean the difference between being able to afford someone and having to release or trade them.

If we don’t start developing Matthews soon, we’re going to be paying for the failings of this Draft through the nose.

 

 

TIME TO SHUT DOWN TODD HERREMANS

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/10/29
Posted in: Offense, Players, Roster. Tagged: , , . 1 Comment

players-o-line440px.philly

SCRATCH your nose. That simple movement has become decidedly more difficult for RG Todd Herremans. He suffered a torn bicep during in the loss against Arizona. Hard to say which arm he injured though. NJ.com  has it down as his right arm; CSN says it’s the left; and as usual the EAGLES (as of now, 3:39 a.m.) have yet to write a blessed word on the subject. In any case, he left the game, but came back and finished it basically with one arm. Now he’s going to attempt to continue playing despite the injury.

While it may only be a partial and not a complete tear, every medical professional worth their license, would say that continuing to play will likely only worsen his injury. If you have a desk job and you got this injury, your doctor would prescribe rest for it. Seriously. Don’t believe me? Call your doctor and ask. I’ll wait… The last things a doctor would prescribe for a torn bicep would be weightlifting or football. If it’s a complete tear, he needs to bag the year and get the surgery he needs. It all depends on which type of tear he has.

As a former O-lineman let me say that most of the job is pushing or re-directing, which involves you straightening your arms. That engages your tricep muscles. Herremans has no problem there. Unless you have a handful of jersey and are pulling on it; are “Hooking” a player (which is illegal anyway); or you’re pulling back to set up a hand punch, you don’t rely too much on your biceps. Which may be how Herremans got away with finishing the Cardinals game. (That and adrenaline.)

Here’s another one. Extend your arm out where you can see the back of your hand. Now turn it where you can see your palm. Feel that in your bicep? Herremans now has problems with a move that simple. With a just a partial tear he can do it, but not as quickly, or as strongly as he normally can. Now imagine that he has to block someone like oh, I don’t know…J.J. Watt on a stunt. Right behind Herremans sits a guy named Nick Foles. Am I being too direct?

Todd Herremans needs to take a few weeks off and let his arm heal. He’s no spring chicken, but if he’s smart (and if it is only a partial tear) he should heal fast enough, and we should get him back well before the playoffs.

GIANTS RB LESEAN MCCOY?

Posted by The BEAST on 2014/10/28
Posted in: Front Office (F.O.), NFL, Offense, Players. Tagged: , , , . 3 Comments
Image courtesy of newyork.cbslocal.com

Image courtesy of newyork.cbslocal.com

 

NEXT season you may be treated to the sight of our all-time leading rusher, LeSean McCoy, playing in a Giants jersey. I hope the EAGLES do a better job of replacing him than they did of replacing DeSean Jackson. That’s of course if there’s any fire to all this smoke, and the rumors of the EAGLES wanting to move him are true.

In any case, unless Darren Sproles is set to carry the load for us in 2015, or unless we draft someone, odds are we’ll be getting a Free Agent. Let’s get a look at who’ll be out there!

Jacquizz Rodgers                                                       

Stevan Ridley                                                             

Bilal Powell                                                   

Cedric Peerman                                                                     

Chris Ogbonnaya                                                                  

DeMarco Murray                                                                  

Leon Washington                                                                   

Shane Vereen                                                             

Daniel Thomas                                                                      

Joe McKnight                                                            

Darren McFadden                                                                 

Knowshon Moreno                                                                

Antone Smith                                                             

Ryan Mathews                                                                       

Mark Ingram                                                             

Kendall Hunter                                                                      

DuJuan Harris                                                                       

Frank Gore                                                                

Roy Helu                                                                    

Justin Forsett                                                            

Jonathan Dwyer                                                                    

Shaun Draughn                                                                      

Ronnie Brown                                                            

Ahmad Bradshaw       

 

According to Spotrac.com this is the list of UFA (Unrestricted Free Agent) RB’s that will be available after this season. You can all but assume that guys like Murray and Forsett will re-sign with their current teams; but even if they don’t, do you see any names that you’d be happy to replace McCoy with? If we ran a different system and depending on what it was, sure I could pick a couple of those names. But for what we do, it’s almost like McCoy was cooked up in a lab just to play in this offense. Why fuck with what works?

You’re probably waiting for the part where I show you what hard evidence I have that McCoy is leaving.  Well I don’t have any. Right now all I have is a teaspoon of speculation, and a ton of history on how our Front Office operates. Here’s what I mean.

I’ve been making the rounds on-line, collecting and sifting news about the EAGLES to write about and share with you. Since last week I keep seeing stories about the EAGLES trading McCoy to Oakland. If you look it up you’ll find different versions of it, but they all have roots in this story here.

I found it interesting because I told my readers months ago (in June) that McCoy might be leaving after this season. I’m still hoping that it doesn’t happen, but anyone who’s been an EAGLES fan for at least the last quarter century can tell you, none of our greats finish as EAGLES. We don’t get to see our own go smiling into the sunset. And that’s been regardless of coach, GM, or owner. It’s part of what robs me of any optimism that there’s a happy ending to the coming crisis my other article mentioned.

I just hope that we at least get somebody good, because we’re almost certainly going to part with somebody great.