IS JORDAN MATTHEWS MILES AWAY FROM STARTING?

Posted by The BEAST on 2015/03/31
Posted in: Draft, Front Office (F.O.), NFL, Offense, Players, Roster. Tagged: , , , , . 4 Comments

miles

SIGNING WR Miles Austin to this team for any amount of money is bad enough. But how about if you’re Jordan Matthews or Josh Huff? What message does spending millions on yet another fragile athlete, send to them about where they stand? Particularly Matthews, of whom a great deal is expected .

Consider that last year the Eagles spent a 2nd round pick on Matthews and reached to grab Huff with the teams very next pick in the 3rd. So we invested heavily in these guys, and now when Jeremy Maclin is allowed to walk, we replace him with a brittle, 30 year old, who was told “thanks, but no thanks” by the Browns. I don’t get it.

In January (thinking that Maclin was as good as gone), I wrote an article saying that Matthews could be a monster, but  I also pointed out some flaws in his game that are not being addressed by the WR coach here. We’re all familiar with Josh Huff’s ability to generate mistakes.

To me this comes down to an issue of not developing your own youth. If we did, Miles Austin would be unnecessary. Instead the head coach thinks he’s 2.3 million dollars’ worth of necessary.

Yayyyyy!!! Ex-Cowboys and blown ACL’s all around. Gotta LOVE this offseason so far.

WISHING HTTR (HELL TO THE REDSKINS)

Posted by The BEAST on 2015/03/15
Posted in: Draft, NFL, Players, Roster. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

mariota confetti

RUMOR has it that the Washington Redskins will take Draft Prospect QB Marcus Mariota if he’s available at number 5. That would be AWESOME! It would be the biggest joke in sports history next to the Buffalo Bills “4-peat of Shame”. Quite frankly, I wish there were something I could do to help this happen.

First, I don’t want Marcus Mariota to be an Eagle. I feel like he’d be pretty good under Charles Kelly’s system, but the second Kelly packs up and heads back to coaching college, we’ll be stuck with a QB who doesn’t really play NFL QB. My guess is that we’d be stuck with Mariota well beyond Kelly’s tenure as head coach

Second, Washington traded away their 1st round picks in 2012, 2013, and 2014. If they select Mariota in 2015, they will have spent 4 straight years, spending 4 straight 1st round picks, on just TWO quarterbacks, while never patching their other obvious holes.

After watching how brilliantly former Spread system QB Robert Griffin performed in the offense they ran there last year, of course the thing the ‘skins need the most in the world is another Spread QB. I would consider it a personal favor to me if the ‘skins could show that level of stupidity on April 30th. I’m even willing to write a check for $100, to chip in towards Mariota’s signing bonus. Anything that contributes to the continued mediocrity of a division rival is fine by me, because there are three ways the Eagles could win the East this year:

  1. Being better than our rival
  2. Being not as bad as our rivals
  3. Some combination of the previous two

I’d be happy with any one of those. And I think Mariota becoming a Redskin is a step in the right direction for our franchise.

IS MARCUS MARIOTA THROWING THE DRAFT

Posted by The BEAST on 2015/03/13
Posted in: Coaching, Conspiracy Corner, Draft, Front Office (F.O.), NFL, Offense, Players. Tagged: , , . 3 Comments

Chip-Kelly-Marcus-Mariota

EITHER Draft Prospect QB Marcus Mariota really isn’t the real deal, or he’s deliberately dropping his own Draft stock. Yes, I said deliberately, meaning “on purpose”.

Now usually when I say this to someone, the general comeback is something like: “Dude are you crazy? Why would he do that and cost himself millions of dollars? You’re nuts if you think that.”

Okay. But I was also called nuts when I said that the Eagles would cut DeSean Jackson. And when I said that, after just one year that the Offense would change. And when I said that we would trade LeSean McCoy. And when I suggested that the Chiefs could grab Jeremy Maclin from us.

See a pattern?

So WHY would he do it? Why would Mariota tank his own stock? You know what, before we go forward, let’s take a step back. Even after the loss in the college championship game Mariota was the best QB draft prospect in most expert’s minds. While the other guy played in pro-style offense, he has character issues that will make teams question if he can be The Franchise. Mariota on the other hand is a choirboy. An athletic, choirboy. An athletic, choirboy with a live arm. An athletic, tall choirboy, with a live arm. An athl— You get the  point. Critics went frothy over him. Full-on sploosh.

Then came the scouting combine and Mariota looked good. He put up a 4.52 time in the 40 and showed he could throw all the routes while throwing to strangers. Suddenly Charles Kelly says in  press conference that the Eagles aren’t going mortgage the future to Draft Mariota, and Mariota puts up a pedestrian Pro Day while throwing to people he knows? (Funny that Kelly didn’t simply say that we wouldn’t Draft him, merely that we won’t mortgage the future to do so. Gotta watch how language gets used.)

If that doesn’t ring any bells for you, I guess that’s okay, but if suddenly after he meets with other teams there are more questions about how much fire is in his belly or how competitive he is, those bells better start clanging like crazy for you.

Back to the question of WHY.

Last years #1 pick Jadeveon Clowney pulled a 4 year/22M$ deal, while the #20 pick Brandin Cooks managed 4years/8M$. So yeah, if Mariota’s drafted 20th instead of 1st, he’s definitely leaving some money on the table as far as the NFL goes. But the serious money isn’t to be made on your rookie deal. To make the serious money you need to show years of success as an NFL QB. (Some of you already see where this is going.)

There are plenty of questions about whether or not Mariota’s game can be adapted to the NFL. However, here in Philadelphia there doesn’t need to be any adapting of his skills to the system. He already THINKS in terms of the system. In fact it’s pretty much all he knows. HE already knows that it’s gotten him this far. He has every reason to believe it’ll take him farther. All he has to do is juke a couple of teams hungry for young promise. Sidestep them and he’s got HIS coach, in HIS system, and even the practices are run the way he’s used to, with his favorite smoothie just waiting for him.

Once you realize that he’ll make enough uncapped endorsement money as the Franchise QB of an NFL team; if you look at this from Mariota’s perspective the question isn’t why would he throw the Draft, the question becomes, shit, why wouldn’t he?

 

CHANGING OF THE GUARD

Posted by The BEAST on 2015/03/13
Posted in: Coaching, Conversations, Offense, Players, Roster. Tagged: , , . 7 Comments

changing of the guard

OFFENSIVE Line has to stop being an afterthought. It’s the engine of every offense, on any team, in any football league. Earlier this year we released RG Todd Herremans, and now we’re looking to trade LG Evan Mathis. This is literally a changing of the guard.  Change however, needn’t be a bad thing; but when you get rid of players of a high caliber, it’s important that you can replace them with someone of a similar caliber. If you fail to do that, then change IS a bad thing.

As of right now I can’t see the end game in terms of who we’d bring in. Names like Will Rackley, Jeffrey Linkenbach may be possible replacements at Guard. Former Packer and Dolphin Daryn Colledge has been linked to us in the past, and though he’s got some miles on him, he might be seen as a mentor for someone we draft. (Though it would make more sense to keep Mathis to do that since he’s played well in this system.)

As for the Draft, I’d be lying if I said anybody was on my Wishlist yet, but I know whoever we get should be a mauler in the run game. (Which I’ve said in the past  )That seemed less necessary when we had cutback runner LeSean McCoy, but now that we have north-south runner DeMarco Murray, nothing would fit the bill better. It would also help QB Sam Bradford, if the guys trying to get to him are tired from being rag-dolled on running plays.

It’s possible that the Eagles figure that players like Allen Barbre and Andrew Gardener will step up in 2015. Seeing as how neither player has much of a track record, it would seem like a hell of a risk to attempt this without a net. I think the smarter play would be to keep Mathis, let him play and let him teach. It certainly wouldn’t hurt morale.

This is the Offensive Line. It’s the engine of the Offense. While it’s true that over time you have to retool or replace parts in your engine, you certainly don’t gut it when it’s running smoothly.

THE EAGLES REBUILD: AN EARLY LOOK

Posted by The BEAST on 2015/03/09
Posted in: Conspiracy Corner, Draft, Fans, Front Office (F.O.), Players, Rants, Roster, trade. Tagged: , , . 9 Comments

flooded

LET’S get an early look at the Eagles rebuilding effort. Getting rid of talented players has so far proven easy for head coach Charles Kelly. WR DeSean Jackson was outright cut last year. This year RB LeSean McCoy was traded, and then they cheaped out on WR Jeremy Maclin as well. (Since fans are 50/50 on it, I won’t officially add CB Cary Williams to this pile, but for my money, they’re giving away talent again.)

Look, why do teams sign Free Agents? To add the most talent, right? They try to move up earlier in the Draft for the same reason, right? It would seem that NFL teams place a premium on amassing the most or the best talent.

So if they’re going to shed talent at this rate, shouldn’t they be replacing it just as fast? If not faster? Wouldn’t it be a shame if Kelly was less and less successful, the farther he got away from having Andy Reid’s roster? Especially now that all of the personnel decisions require him to sign off on them.

In this league when you shed a bunch of key veterans it’s called “rebuilding”. Problem is, rebuilding requires draft picks. High ones if you’re going to do it right. However if they trade away multiple high picks to draft a single QB, it’ll be years before they can get that QB any significant help. Unless of course we get lucky and they suddenly start drafting better than they have been.

If they’re rebuilding around Nick Foles (haha NOPE!) or some other QB that they DIDN’T trade the farm to pick, then we’re not in such a bad spot, right? Seems simple, but not so fast.

To make a rebuild work, we’d have to start sucking really soon, because a rebuilding team who’s drafting 20th – 24th in every round, every year is doing itself no favors. The problem is now the “In Chip I Trust” gang is dependent on those 10 win seasons. Those wins are their proof that he knows what he’s doing. Sliding back now would just make it seem like he needed the players he jettisoned. So he HAS TO keep winning now, just to save face.

Kelly no longer has the luxury of a fallback position. He had that when he first got the job, but he wanted to prove that “his way” worked. Blessed in 2013 with a last place schedule and a system no one was used to, also run in a way no one was used to, Kelly certainly “showed them”. The 2014 season was sort of the same thing, where he got fat on bottom feeders, and fell to contenders. Except in 2014 the locker room grumbled early, and as the team collapsed down the stretch, Kelly himself seemed without answers.

Now we’re a decidedly less talented team that trumpets things like signing 32 year old Frank Gore and his ailing hip. Under Kelly we draft poorly, trade stupid, and cheap out on our last resort, while signing racists to extensions that even their Madden characters could never rightfully earn.

Hey, don’t get mad at me! That’s what happened. I’m just the guy with the balls to say it. At present this is a 4 win team again. I don’t mean a team that underachieves to 4 wins, like under Reid. This is a team that even if the engine were gunned into the red, would max out at 4 wins. (Let me ask you, how do you think Gore’s hip will respond to Kelly’s practices?) We’ll see what else happens with moves this offseason, but my gut say that fans may want to temper their expectations.

If they don’t trade the farm to move up in this Draft, and then we tank in 2015, the team still has the picks to rebuild over the years and the position to do it. All it would cost is Kelly eating a little crow. But if he continues to be a smug, chubby, little bastard and blows a bushel of our picks on his pet project, then we’re dead in the water for years to come.

DON’T GET YOUR HOPES TOO HIGH.

Posted by The BEAST on 2015/03/09
Posted in: Conspiracy Corner, Front Office (F.O.), NFL, Players. Tagged: , , , . 4 Comments

hive 

TOLD you it would “Be interesting to see which Free Agents want to sign here this year. And which ones we lose.” Eagles fans will find this interesting, while fans of Charles Kelly won’t like it at all. Don’t get your hopes to high Eagles fans. It’s okay to dream, but don’t set yourself up to be disappointed.

Remember Trent Coles exit tweet?

trent

How about the way Cary Williams has been handled? I can’t say for sure, but I think I saw evidence of DeSean Jackson being a gang member hanging out in a Jacuzzi with the Dez Bryant tape, the Loch Ness Monster, and a Black senator from Philadelphia.

Fact is, Kelly doesn’t respect his veterans. Right Evan Mathis?

z-one off-bonus check

Knowing that why would a lot of guys pick coming here over other places? No respect AND practices that are harder than games? All that for a coach with zero playoffs wins?

Look, I’m not saying that the Eagles won’t get anybody. They have too much money available for some poor schlub not to say “Meh. How bad could it really be in Philly?” Somebody is going to take this money.

What’s funny is that last week many fans were so sure that WR Jeremy Maclin and New England Safety Devin McCourty would be Eagles in 2015. While Maclin left Kelly for a coach he’d last gone 4-12 with, McCourty took less money than the Eagles were offering, and we’re giving 10M$ a year to a guy (CB Byron Maxwell) with 17 career starts.

Keep in mind that FA “OLB” Brandon Graham is still waiting in the wings and Trent Cole’s release makes that huge at the moment. Fans think they want Jason Worilds, but Graham is the better player of the two. Signing Worilds instead would be a step down, not up.

The same can be said about FA DE Cedric Thornton. Neither Taylor Hart nor (NT) Beau Allen is the player that Thornton is. And Vinny Curry plays better as a 4-3 DE. If we’re smart we re-sign Thornton.

BYRON MAXWELL AS AN EAGLE

Posted by The BEAST on 2015/03/06
Posted in: Defense, Fans, Front Office (F.O.), NFL, Players, Roster. Tagged: , , . 8 Comments

seattle-seahawks-cornerback-byron-maxwell

THERE is no way I could say the Eagles shouldn’t pursue Free Agent CB Byron Maxwell, without being shouted down. He’s got the size teams covet, and having played in the “Legion of Boom” he has a reputation that teams will at least show respect to at first.

He says he likes the Man-Press/Cover Three scheme that we play, because it’s similar to Seattle’s. Perhaps it is as far as the way the Secondary players are utilized. However because of the fact that Seattle plays a 4-3 and rushes their 4 down linemen as a rule, the result is that they play their OLB’s very different from how we play ours.

Then again maybe it’s too much to ask to expect a 6th round draft pick with just 17 career starts to look at such “subtleties”. Oh you didn’t know about the 17 starts? Or the 6th round selection? Or WHY he fell so far? But you DO think the Eagles should pay this guy 12-13M$ a year.

Fine. I won’t argue with that. What I will say though, is that if we sign him and Bill Davis doesn’t change his coverage scheme; the same fans who clamored for him will be calling Maxwell overpriced by Thanksgiving, and for his head by Christmas.

COACH KELLY IS IN VIOLATION OF THE RULES.

Posted by The BEAST on 2015/03/04
Posted in: Coaching, Conspiracy Corner, Conversations, Front Office (F.O.), NFL, Offense, Players, Rants. Tagged: , , , , . 15 Comments

roseman

OUR head coach is about to make us into the Redskins. Like their owner Dan Snyder, he doesn’t seem to grasp that there are rules to this game. There are rules for conducting one’s self as the face of an NFL franchise. Since he was hired here, Charles Kelly has been in steady violation of those rules.

All throughout Kelly’s tenure as Eagles Head Coach, something about him has rubbed me the wrong way. While it’s true that I didn’t want him hired in the first place, the same was true of Andy Reid. Reid however won me over by the end of his first year and I’m still a fan.

Yesterday I was listening to one of my playlists while I wrote my last article, since music is part of my writing process. Usually I have an eclectic group of songs on, but yesterday I went straight rap and I threw on my ‘BOOM BAP’ playlist. Between DMX and Jurassic 5, was 1-900-Hustler. When Freeway’s part came on, my eyes lit up. Suddenly I knew what wrong with the Eagles. By the end of this article you’ll know it too. Sit back, get comfortable, and get ready have your mind blown. If you can’t do that now, bookmark this and read it later.

I’ll start  by showing you the lyrics, and then I’ll break it down. Trust me, even if you don’t follow rap, you’ll understand my explanation.

Freeway:

First things first, watch what you say out your mouth

When you talkin on the phone to hustlers

Never play the house, think drought, keep heat in the couch

When you sittin in the presence of customers

Never hold out, pull out, throw heat and be out

If a n***a ever think that he touchin ya

Lay low, get cake, whip all over the state

Stash dough, whip yay with, right amount of bake

 

Now I’ll explain:

First things first, watch what you say out your mouth

When you talkin on the phone to hustlers

When the season ended Kelly made it PUBLIC that he wanted a couple players to redo their deals. Jeff Lurie made it PUBLIC that he didn’t see Nick Foles as a top tier QB and Kelly never weighed in. Other NFL teams (hustlers), can see that, and it lowers any trade value those players may have.

Never play the house,

Kelly came in and butted heads with Howie Roseman. While many fans figured that Kelly won that power struggle, I made it plain that it was Kelly who lost. Take a look at this McCoy trade as an example. If it blows up, Roseman doesn’t have a single fingerprint on it. He gets the cap space to work with regardless, but no blame could ever be laid at his feet.

think drought, keep heat in the couch,

When you sittin in the presence of customers

Last year we only kept 9 offensive linemen. We added no young talent. We lacked both talent and depth when those injuries (drought) hit. The same lack of depth and talent was true of our pass rush. Mostly because more emphasis is put on Special Teams players than on back-ups who could legitimately start. That lack of firepower (heat) made it easier for opponents (customers) to rob us of wins, when we should have profited by serving them a loss. 

Never hold out, pull out, throw heat and be out

If a n***a ever think that he touchin  ya

Despite our troubles as the team collapsed last year, you pretty much NEVER saw McCoy and Darren Sproles on the field together. The short screen passes to Jordan Matthews practically disappeared. Losses piled up, yet we left our some of our best weapons unfired and even uncocked.

Lay low

Kelly has built himself up as the guy who’s going to change how everyone does everything. He’s come to the Eagles with the attitude of a man who’s won championships everywhere he’s gone, and so far his solution to those who aren’t in love with those changes is to ship them out. Be interesting to see which Free Agents want to sign here this year. And which ones we lose.

get cake, whip all over the state

So far Kelly has gone not only all over the state, but the country, talking to teams and trying put together a deal that would let us move up to get Oregon QB Marcus Mariota. Fact is, if we do move up it will cost us draft picks for years to come. And that’s if Mariota pans out. If he doesn’t, that’s all loss. I fail to see the profit (cake) in that.

Stash dough, whip yay with, right amount of bake

While the team has put money aside, it’s been done at the expense of talent. Right now he’s mixed more filler (bake) on this team than he has top talent (yay). Right now we have it backwards, but the hope/idea is that some of our cap space (stash) will attract more top talent.

 

Kelly is being reckless right now. And the guys who have to sell his product are being put in situation that gets harder to maintain every year. When a general makes it a habit of making things harder on his soldiers, he is in straight up violation.

 

 

 

REAL TALK: THAT BRIGHT LIGHT

Posted by The BEAST on 2015/03/03
Posted in: Coaching, Conspiracy Corner, Fans, Front Office (F.O.), Offense, Players, Rants, Roster, trade. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

bright light

THE offseason is a marathon, not a sprint. The season is a marathon, not a sprint. REAL TALK? If you go around knee-capping your own roster, you won’t win any marathons OR sprints. Anyone waiting for that bright light at the end of the tunnel, is going to be interesting to talk to when they find out that it’s a train.

Understand, I’m not shocked about RB LeSean McCoy being traded. I was the first person anywhere saying that he might be last year, because I see what coach Charles Kelly is doing. In his mind he can win in the NFL by treating it like it’s the Oregon program he coached. So he’s going about making that transformation.

Fans who say they’re  “Gonna wait to see how this turns out” amuse the hell out of me. If the Cowboys lost Dez Bryant or DeMarco Murray we would say they were in trouble. When the Giants lost Ahmad Bradshaw and Victor Cruz, we were quick to point out that they were in trouble. When RG3 went down for the Redskins, same thing. So these folks CAN see that you need talent to win in this league.

I’m not sure where the bright spot in giving away talent is supposed to be; but in MY experience when you’re the least talented team in your division, you end up at the bottom of the division. But for everyone who was thrilled that Kelly gets the final say now, you’re seeing the birth of who the Eagles are going to be under that regime. In Kelly’s first major move we’re a team that trades a Pro Bowl RB for a some guy rehabbing his SECOND ACL injury. Yes. Second.

In any case we have to make the best of it now.

So now the discussion shifts to who we replace McCoy with. No one on our roster fits the bill. Technically yes, we could line anyone up back there, but I mean who else will give you 1,300 yards in an off year? We have 50M$ in cap space, but every RB out there now is either a bad scheme fit, a huge question mark, or a poor man’s version of what we just gave away. Meanwhile McCoy and Bryce Brown are both in Buffalo. LOL.

Anyone care to discuss the QB situation? You know what. We’ll let that rest until Kelly actually makes a move. No need to borrow trouble, right? Who knows, the next move could be pure genius! We could end up with Darron Thomas at QB next year.

DT

BTW: If Thomas is an Eagle next year, remember who had it before anyone else on Earth.

 

 

 

 

FANS STRICKEN WITH FOLESEOSIS

Posted by The BEAST on 2015/03/02
Posted in: Conspiracy Corner, Crazy Talk, Fans, Offense, Rants. Tagged: , , . 1 Comment

card-nickfoles

 

DO you have Foleseosis (Foles-EE-Oh-sis)?

  • Do you find yourself screaming “But Foles is 14 – 4 under Kelly!” almost daily?
  • Are you exhausted from screeching “7 touchdowns against the Raiders!” as if that mattered?
  • When Foles 2014 season sends you mail, do you leave it in a drawer, unopened?

If you answered YES to any of these questions, you my friend may have a mild case of Foleseosis. It’s a condition that manifests when a fan is 120% behind a player that the Head Coach won’t publicly back, and the Owner has already thrown under the bus.

Unfortunately it can and it does get worse. Full-blown symptoms include:

  • An inability to notice that Foles is hampering the run game
  • Inventing excuses for pass after pass thrown off his back foot
  • Making excuses for why he plays poorly vs good teams
  • Conveniently forgetting performances like oh, I don’t know…Jacksonville maybe?

With full-blown Foleseosis, it’s not that you can’t stand up, it’s that you keep standing up for the wrong thing. Namely Nick Foles being the Eagles starter.

But there is HOPE my friends! Wait…No there isn’t. If Foles as the starter is your ideal situation, then your heart is about to be shattered. That possibility exploded when Foles broke his shoulder against Houston. That popping, snapping, breaking noise Foles heard, was his chance to make 12M$ or better per year. He is a journeyman QB in waiting now. All he’s waiting for is the day the Eagles shake his hand and carry his shit outside in a Hefty bag. And it could come sooner than you care to think.