EAGLES FREE AGENCY PRIORITY

Posted by The BEAST on 2015/03/02
Posted in: Draft, Front Office (F.O.), NFL, Offense, Roster. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

MikeIupati

REMEMBER last year, when it was clear that our biggest Free Agency need was to find a Free Safety? That clear first priority had us fans debating which Safety to take. T.J. Ward, Jairus Byrd, Malcolm Jenkins… It was a well-defined target area.

This year the big offseason need is what?

  • Re-signing WR Jeremy Maclin?
  • Re-signing DE Brandon Graham to prevent opening up a hole in our roster?
  • Getting a new CB to play an old, flawed concept?
  • Getting a player to replace a guy we may trade away, as part of package to move up and select a question mark?

I mean really, which of those is the biggest priority this year? Which one is the correct answer? What if I told you it’s none of those things?

Right now the biggest priority is getting a Right Guard to replace Todd Herremans. YES. It is.

While I still think drafting a mauler would be a wise move for this franchise, we could also add a guy like Guard Mike Iupati. No wait, let me restate that, WE SHOULD SIGN MIKE IUPATI HIMSELF.

Regardless of whether the statue named Nick Foles is our starter, or if we trade the farm for a shiny new rookie with all the bells and whistles, the QB will need protecting. Maclin is useless if the QB is on the ground. If LeSean McCoy comes back in 2015 he’ll need better blocking than he got for half of 2014. If McCoy doesn’t return, then a lesser RB may require better blocking than he’ll get from (I’m guessing) Andrew Gardner.

Look, our Defense is a shithole already because we play a bogus coverage concept, that isolates and exposes our DB’s. So whether we sign a Free Agent stud or lose our own, chances are good that our defense will be about the same until DC Bill Davis is fired. So I’m not even going to get my hopes up for that side of the ball.

On the other hand, this is an offensive team, and any way you slice it we need a RG, right now. Chip Kelly said his system is primarily run based. Okay, so what did Iupati do in San Fran? He blocked for RB Frank Gore. Can he adapt to aspects of the Spread Option that Kelly runs? Well they ran a Read Option in SF, which borrowed quite a bit from the Oregon version of Kelly’s system. Sounds like a fairly simple transition to me.

All things considered, the 27 year old, 3 time Pro Bowler (2012, 2013,2014), could be a better fit for this system than Herremans ever was. The O-line is the engine of any offense, and with the race car the Eagles drive, we need to be sure we’re firing on all cylinders.

A QB NOT NAMED MARIOTA

Posted by The BEAST on 2015/02/19
Posted in: Draft, Offense, Players. Tagged: , , . 4 Comments
sims

Alabama QB Blake Sims

BLAKE SIMS. Someone brought his name up today and I decided to take a long look at him, before the circus that is the NFL Scouting Combine kicks off. While I still believe that Chip Kelly will try to move mountains to grab Marcus Mariota, there are things about this Sims guy that really caught my eye today.

My source was Youtube. I wasn’t looking for highlights, I was looking for mechanics and what sort of decisions he makes. Basically I wanted to see what he’d be bringing with him besides his suitcase on Day One of rookie minicamp in May.

Keeping in mind that he had WR Amari Cooper as a primary weapon, I choose to omit any throws that Sims made to him, and instead looked for passes to everyone who wasn’t wearing #9. Once again let me repeat, what I was looking for was whether or not his skills offered anything to an NFL club on Day One.

I mostly liked what I saw. For one thing he doesn’t dance in the pocket, and his general delivery is NOT off of his back foot. He has good arm strength and has nice touch on his deep ball. While I didn’t see him throwing the ball into any tight windows, I did see him throw a couple of receivers open. Oh yeah, and the guy can hurt you with his legs.

He isn’t without fault though. His release point is a little low, and being “only” 6 feet tall, teams will hold that against him. Also (as you can see in the picture), his wind-up is too long, and far away from his body. But those are habits that coaching can usually clean up. Aside from that, I read he only has 12 starts under his belt. While there is the obvious statement about a lack of experience, there’s also the old coaching axiom about not having a chance to reinforce any bad habits.

His lack of experience makes him more of a blank slate, and his game will have few if any mental crutches that he relies on. Considering how different the Eagles Offense is from most NFL systems, a lot of experience in a standard system won’t be much help anyway.

The guy right now has a round 6 or 7 grade on him. He looks to me right now like a poor man’s Russell Wilson. But let’s see how he holds up at the Combine. If he even looks good (not great) I say reach and grab him in the 4th. In that case we stick with Nick Foles for 8 games, and use that top pick on a CB.

LESEAN MCCOY’S NEXT CONTRACT

Posted by The BEAST on 2015/01/30
Posted in: Front Office (F.O.), Offense, Players, Roster. Tagged: , , . 7 Comments

card-leseanmccoy

LESEAN McCoy’s next contract could be one of the smartest moves this team could make for the next decade. He doesn’t want to make less money, and that is totally understandable. Raise your hand if you’re eager to do what you did last year, again this year, for less money than you were promised…  

I didn’t think so. It’s just not who we are. And surprise, surprise, McCoy seems to be a lot like the rest of us in that regard.

Considering that McCoy’s 312 rushes in 2014 were 3 times more than the combined 103 by back-ups Darren Sproles and Chris Polk, it’s hard to say he doesn’t deserve what he was promised. He held up his end of the deal, why fuck him over now? Especially given the Eagles options to replace him with either what’s on the roster, what’s in Free Agency, or what’s in the Draft (provided that Kelly doesn’t chip this Draft up as well).

If your boss worked you three times harder than your next 2 co-workers, you probably wouldn’t want to give anything back either. For his part he’s willing to restructure, but not take less money. However, that term “less money” has a lot of room for interpretation.

Currently McCoy is only guaranteed 1M$ of his 9.75M$ 2015 salary, and 3.4M$ in a prorated signing bonus. He could get cut and walk away from football for 2015 and the Eagles would still be on the hook to him for 4.4M.  So the market for his services is between 4.4M (to sit on his couch and eat Cheerios from a large Tupperware bowl) and 11.9M (to remain an Eagle and finish in the top 5 in rushing again). If we cut him, other teams could steal him for something between those two figures. Remember in October when I mentioned him being a giant in 2015? People laughed when I said that. Not so much laughter out there now. Here’s another one: How do you think we’d do if we had to cover Dez Bryant AND load the box for Shady?

His contract calls for about 28M$ over the next three years. My guess is he’ll want some of that non-guaranteed money converted into guaranteed money. This is almost too easy to do. For example: A deal worth 25M$ over 4years, with say…17M guaranteed. (In 2005 Brian Westbrook got 25 over 5, so adjusted for inflation this deal would be almost stealing, and both sides would get a substantial win.) McCoy would be much more affordable for the Eagles over the long term, and there would be about 5M$ in cap space made, with a stabilized cap figure to boot. Similar to what happened with Jason Peters last year.

It would mean that the Eagles would be assume the risk of being stuck with him if he became less effective due to his 208 pound body being damaged from being over-practiced and then over-worked in games. It would also mean that McCoy wouldn’t get to test the open market and maybe score a bigger deal from a more desperate team. Both sides would get something, but both sides would have to give something up to do the deal.

Of course if both sides can’t work something out, expect to see stories start to surface about how Shady isn’t a “team guy”. Stories of how he’s only out for himself, and how we need to remove this cancer from the locker room. All of course built on information from sources who will never be named. There’ll be quotes from Kelly about how no one player is bigger than the system. Then we’ll hear about how the next man has to step up. Jerseys will be burned and the word ‘traitor’ will be thrown around. You know the drill.

So it’s simple, 25M$ over 4 years with 17M$ guaranteed. That deal would work for everybody. For my part, I’m thinking this should be LeSean McCoy’s next contract.

THE EAGLES SECOND LOMBARDI TROPHY

Posted by The BEAST on 2015/01/23
Posted in: Coaching, Conspiracy Corner, Conversations, NFL, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , . 17 Comments

Cheer - EAGLES SUPER BOWL

THE year was 1960. The place was Franklin Field in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Our Philadelphia Eagles defeated the visiting Green Bay Packers 17-13 to win the NFL Championship title in what would become the only playoff loss in the career of head coach Vince Lombardi.

It was the only time Lombardi would ever face us in the playoffs. He would die 0-1 and be (by some accounts) forever scarred by it.

Our rivals like to make sport of the fact that we don’t own a copy of the annual replica that bears Vince Lombardi’s name. They attempt to invalidate all that we have done by saying that we don’t own a Lombardi Trophy.

This is incorrect. We don’t own a Lombardi Trophy, we own THE Lombardi Trophy.

As in the man himself.

Better still, our ownership doesn’t have to be renewed year to year. We own him forever. Or least until he beats us in a playoff game. Like it or not it’s the truth.

At some point we’ll get around to winning one of those copies, and we’ll of course have a parade over it. Because on that day, we’ll own BOTH kinds of Lombardi, the one that passes from hand to hand, and the one that belongs to us and us alone.

JORDAN MATTHEWS COULD BE A MONSTER

Posted by The BEAST on 2015/01/17
Posted in: Coaching, Offense, Players. Tagged: , , , . 12 Comments
(Photo by Rich Schultz/Getty Images)

(Photo by Rich Schultz/Getty Images)

JORDAN Matthews is not the fastest WR, but he has other tools that should make him a monster. However, look at the pictures below and you may notice some big holes in his game.

player-jordanmatthews

 

player-jordanmatthews2

Now these are just a couple of stills and they can’t, won’t, and don’t tell the whole story of what many fans noticed all year long. (Mostly because published pictures of incompletions are outnumbered something like 35:1 by photos of completed passes.) However, all season two things about Matthews kept jumping out. He doesn’t consistently fight for position or attack/high-point the ball when it’s in the air. And it wasn’t just Matthews failing to do those things consistently.

High-pointing and fighting for the jump balls are two things that coaches teach starting in Youth Football. I know this because my friend Joe Frazier coaches Youth Football, and he says that he teaches it. We both belong to a Facebook group called BirdGang Bangers, and it was not rare this season to see Joe posting (ranting) about the lack of fundamentals displayed by our own professionals.

I was content to tag the athletes with the blame for this until during the Ohio State/Oregon game I saw this:

dwayne stanford

During a “gotta have it” possession, on a “gotta have it” down, late in the game and behind in the score, Ducks WR Dwayne Stanford dropped a WIDE open pass. He dropped it simply because instead of attacking the ball, he was falling away as he caught it. Not falling. Falling away. As in, fading back in preparation to turn and run. Not quite running before the catch, but in there.

It occurred to me that Ducks WR’s had been doing that all game long. Then my stomach knotted up with a horrible question. What if they’re being coached that way? Not just the Oregon Ducks, but the Philly Ducks, I mean Eagles. What if this is a feature of our system, just to make it easier for refs to award full forward progress? It would be good for most moments in games, but it won’t make players fundamentally sound for moments when the system fails and athlete has to make a play.

I spent years hating (and writing about) our former WR coach Dave Culley, for the way he never seemed to be able to maximize WR talent here. (Terrell Owens mostly wouldn’t even work with him). Now I’m seeing that Culley’s successor, Bob Bicknell, doesn’t seem to know how to get the most of his charges either. I have to say that makes me concerned for the development of players like Matthews and Josh Huff. Matthews has the tools to be a monster, but I wonder if he’ll get the coaching he needs to fully develop those tools.

Perhaps the Eagles would do well to give Coach Frazier a call.

CAN EAGLES AFFORD (TO LOSE) JEREMY MACLIN?

Posted by The BEAST on 2015/01/15
Posted in: Conspiracy Corner, Front Office (F.O.), NFL, Offense, Players, Roster. Tagged: , , , , , . 6 Comments
Credit: Eric Hartline-US PRESSWIRE

Credit: Eric Hartline-US PRESSWIRE

UNLESS some other team backs a truckload of money up to his house, our #1 WR is coming back next year. The Eagles simply can’t afford to lose Jeremy Maclin. Despite delusional fans who say we didn’t miss DeSean Jackson in 2014, anybody who actually knows this sport knows that we did, and they also know why we did.

NFL.com flat out said in these exact words “the Eagles can’t expect Riley Cooper to lead the way at wideout”. That’s a fact that even Cooper’s parents would have to agree with. Despite some young talent behind Maclin, NOBODY is under the illusion that the Eagles can afford to lose him. This is why I said in October that we should have been developing Jordan Matthews. You have to ask yourself, how much extra leverage did Maclin gain, simply because Riley Cooper kept starting? Then again the real question is, how hot of a bidding war can we endure to keep him, since we didn’t develop any other starters?

One possible hot suitor for Maclin is Kansas City. Maclin is a Missouri native, and he has a positive history with Chiefs Head Coach Andy Reid. In fact, Maclin wrote at length about Reid’s genius. With KC needing a WR as bad as Dez Bryant needed Stickum on Sunday, it makes sense that KC would try to land Maclin.

However considering that KC will be strapped for cash in a year when Maclin is looking to break the bank, the union seems far-fetched. That is, unless the rumblings of mass ejections rumored to happen in KC actually take place. Word is that WR’s Dwayne Bowe, Donnie Avery and a few other heretofore sacred cows, will all be sacrificed on the Altar of Cap Savings, in a ritual known as the Cutting of the Dead Weight.

Even with some of the cuts we’re set to make (Cary Williams), and some of the possible restructures (Trent Cole), when you consider how many players we’ll need to re-sign or replace, the salary cap doesn’t allow for much in the way of overpaying. So a bidding war for Maclin would be bad, though the Chiefs we can probably handle with that. However, if other teams get involved, it could get out of hand as well as out of our price range.

There is one scenario where we keep Maclin, but to our own disadvantage. If a division rival were to initially bid just beyond the Eagles “comfort threshold” for Maclin, our counteroffer would start out on the uncomfortable side. Even without a protracted bidding war, we would already be in a situation where we’d have to part with someone we expected to have back. In that way our rivals could sabotage us just by making Maclin an offer.

I’m guessing that March will be anything but boring.

FOR FANS OF THE PHILADELPHIA EAGLES

Posted by The BEAST on 2015/01/14
Posted in: Fans, Players, Rants. Tagged: , . 10 Comments

fans

IS Nick Foles a franchise QB? This time last year, some fans of the Philadelphia Eagles said “YES!” while others said “NO!”. For my part, I said I’d let the evidence of at least 15 starts in 2014 make the case. Foles did not start 15 games. Instead he was injured for a 3rd straight year. That has to be a knock against either Foles’ durability or our Offensive Line’s ability to keep him healthy. 

Personally I’ll take either since I’m not as high on our O-line or our QB situation, as some are. Last year I wanted us to draft a Guard. We didn’t. How’d that work out? Here’s how it worked out: We lost studs and had to replace them “just some guys”. Some upper level talent on the interior line would have been great. But what can you do?

And THAT fellow Eagles fans, is pretty much what we’ve been reduced to. Step back for a second and look at what’s going on with us:

Today we argue about whether or not a 3rd round QB (drafted as a project), who’s been up and down his whole career, is our long-term answer. Used to be a time when we would have demanded consistent high level performance from year to year. Now we’re arguing over, and willing to settle for, mere glimpses of intangibles while trying to ignore massive faults.

Those who aren’t arguing for Foles, are arguing for Mark Sanchez. Once upon a time either one of these guys as OUR guy would have been unacceptable. Sanchez played great for a back-up, but hitching our wagon to him would be an act of desperation.  

We have back-up O-linemen who can’t even run block, yet nobody (except me) made any noise on the subject. Once upon a time Eagles fans demanded toughness from our players. Today the idea of linemen who can be pushed around, barely raises an eyebrow among fans.

After being stuck with Jeremy Maclin and Riley Cooper, instead of DeSean Jackson and Maclin, people are actually applauding Chip Kelly getting more say. (Somewhere in my head the words “All he does is catch touchdowns” is echoing.)

Our best pass rushing Defensive Lineman is a back-up. Yet for all the ire it raises, he may as well play for another team.

In an off year, our starting RB LeSean McCoy still put up 1,319 yards, logged 314 carries and played every game for a second year in a row. This despite the enormous workload he’s had over that period. But the Eagles won’t commit to bringing him back, even though he’s willing to restructure his contract. I’ve been being largely mum on this point to see how many of fans would SPEAK UP on this subject. The only thing I’ve heard on it so far have been crickets. Meanwhile all signs point to second year in a row of  losing an All-Pro talent with no one to fill his shoes when he goes.

How many times do we get slapped in the face before speaking up again? It’s YOUR money that fuels that organization. It’s YOUR passion. It should be YOUR standards that they have to meet. Instead you’re settling for theirs.

We used to have higher standards. What happened to us? What happened??

FELLOW FANS:

YOU pushed Andy Reid into getting us a WR. The result of listening to us was a Super Bowl appearance. Then management fucked that up. Probably because we were quiet.

YOU pushed Jeffery Lurie into finally firing Reid. The result was a division win and a playoff berth.

Here is something that you all need to understand: THEY NEED TO HEAR FROM US! Not just me. US! When we shut up, they fuck up.

Make your voices heard. In Philadelphia of all places, the words “We The People” should mean as much as they can anywhere on face of God’s Earth.

We aren’t just the audience for the Philadelphia Eagles, we’re the FANS of the Philadelphia Eagles. And it’s high time that we remembered what that means.

REPLACING LESEAN MCCOY

Posted by The BEAST on 2015/01/09
Posted in: Front Office (F.O.), NFL, Offense, Players. Tagged: , . 4 Comments

card-chrispolk

THE idea of trading away RB LeSean McCoy is just speculation at this point. In all truth, there’s been more talk of cutting him (because of his salary) than there’s been of trading him. For his part, McCoy has said he’d like to be back but “I can’t control it”. Whether he’s traded or simply released, it’s important to have a plan to replace him.

Keep in mind, the idea of replacing McCoy is just about getting a guy who can create problems for a defense. It not about getting a clone of the guy we lost. We didn’t replace Brian Westbrook with a Westbrook, or Duce Staley with a Staley. Yet both times we were in good hands, as players already on the roster stepped up. So let’s see what we already have on the shelves!

RB Darren Sproles is a nifty player, but he’s 190 pounds and will be 32 when next season rolls around. Last season McCoy carried 312 times, and in 2013 he carried 314 times. Sproles’ career high is 93 carries. In 2009. And his game logs from that year show that he was less effective when given more carries.

RB Chris Polk is intriguing. While he’s played 29 of 32 games in the last two years, and has looked good when he touches the ball, he carries the knock of being fragile due to a mysterious shoulder condition. I say mysterious because running down clear information about Polk’s shoulder was annoying and repetitive. But I DID IT. It’s DONE.

Let me nutshell it for you: (In 2011 while in college, Polk had labrum surgery. NFL teams were concerned about his shoulder having a degenerative or chronic problem, so Polk had it looked at by renowned sports surgeon, James Andrews. The good doctor said that there was some scarring (meaning tissue not skin) from the surgery, but that there was nothing chronic or degenerative. Many teams said “Yeah. Right.”  and Polk went undrafted and signed here.)

Polk had major shoulder surgery in January 2014, and while nowhere can I confirm if it’s the same shoulder, it would be somehow worse to find out that it isn’t. In the event that it is the same shoulder he had labrum surgery on in 2011, it would lend credence to teams worrying about his durability, and would raise questions about whether or not he could be the guy to replace McCoy.

Recently the team re-signed RB’s Matt Tucker and Kenjon Barner (I shit you not)  to the reserve list, but it’s a long way from off-the-street, to 300 carry a year starter.

Then of course there are various RB prospects in the Draft, but I’m going to save that until after Free Agency (March 10th). Right now I’m mostly going to pay attention to what we already have in the cupboard and Unrestricted Free Agents.

TRADING LESEAN MCCOY TO TAMPA BAY

Posted by The BEAST on 2015/01/07
Posted in: Conversations, Draft, Front Office (F.O.), trade. Tagged: , . 42 Comments

pressie

TAMPA Bay needs a QB, and the smart money is on them taking Oregon QB [Marcus Mariota]. With this not being a great draft for QB’s, and with one of the top two options electing to stay in college, Chip Kelly won’t be able to land Mariota unless he can swing a trade with Tampa Bay. But what could we offer Tampa Bay that would get them to part with that pick? This is where McCoy comes in.

Now before anybody starts crying about how stupid that would be, let me tell you I don’t like the idea either. However I look at ALL of the angles and the more I consider it, the more likely this scenario seems.

I’m thinking the Eagles could decide to package RB LeSean McCoy, QB Nick Foles, and our first round pick (20th overall) in exchange for Tampa’s 1st rounder (1st overall), and maybe a 3rd rounder or RB Bobby Rainey instead.

Seems like a lot at first, but let’s take a closer look shall we?

There is no way Tampa trades that pick without satisfying their QB need. This is where Foles comes in. Remember the glowing votes of confidence (Exhibit A and Exhibit B) that Kelly and Jeff Lurie gave Foles about being the starter in 2015? No you don’t because neither man would even say he’d be back for OTA’s. If the decision has been made to move on from Foles, then moving him to help get his replacement is no big deal at all.

So why would Tampa Bay want Foles if we don’t? He and Mariota would be coming out of similar versions of one system. The difference is, Foles has shown he can be an NFL QB, while Mariota has yet to. While the point of Kelly drafting Mariota would be to have QB better suited to Kelly’s system, Tampa Bay wouldn’t be running that system, and therefore would just need a QB who could be a viable NFL starter.

Tampa needs a pass rusher, but we don’t have one we can spare that would help trigger this trade. However, they also could use a RB. Doug Martin had a great rookie season, but since then has missed 15 of 32 games with injuries and has been inconsistent when he has played. Generally he’s been less effective than his back-up, the aforementioned Rainey. Dangling McCoy would seriously sweeten that pot, and it would also save us some serious cap space.

I’m not crazy about trading McCoy, but I first mentioned that it might happen, back in June. Most fans dismissed it and said I was nuts, only to find themselves back here asking me about it again by November, because of all the rumors swirling by late October. By the way: If we did pull the trigger, replacing McCoy wouldn’t be as hard as most may think. (I won’t get into that now though.)

Now here is why Tampa might want to do this deal: They still get a 1st round pick and could then use it on a pass rusher. One trade and they address three needs in a way they couldn’t with that pick or by trading with any other team in the NFL. It’s an offer they almost couldn’t refuse.

If this is going to happen I think it should happen sooner rather than later. If we drag our feet Tampa could address their pass rusher need by signing FA DE Brandon Graham away from our OLB spot in March, since he wants to play in a 4-3 anyway.

The more you look at it as a business decision, the smarter this seems for both sides.

So who could we replace McCoy with: How about one of these guys ?