THE 12: #10 ROTATE THE LINEBACKERS

Posted by The BEAST on 2018/03/10
Posted in: Coaching, Defense, Players, Rants, Roster. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . 7 Comments

THE122018#10

Any idiot can say “Hey let’s sign every high-priced Free Agent on the market”. The 12 focuses on what we can do with what we already have, to fix or improve our team.

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WHEN we lost MLB Jordan Hicks last year, it was just “Next man up“, right?

No. Not really.

The next few men (as it turned out), sort of sucked. Hick’s injury exposed a severe, almost crippling, lack of development in our reserve/young LB’s. That said, Defensive Coordinator Jim Schwartz, did manage to compensate for it, but odds are good that we can’t get away with that again.

Instead of tempting fate and being reckless with the middle of our Defense, we should rotate our back-up LB’s this year. That way they can get some defensive snaps under their belts. I don’t mean rotate them as a package, like we do with the Defensive Line. I mean just drop one guy in at a time, so he can learn the reads, calls and signals.

Nate Gerry and Kamu Grugier-Hill

Linebacker/Safety tweeners Nate Gerry (47) and Kamu Grugier-Hill (54), need to see some defensive snaps in 2018.

This way we develop guys, and can be confident when they’re needed, instead of what happened with Joe Walker,  Najee Goode and Dannell Ellerbee. The guy who knew the calls (Walker) couldn’t play. The guy who could play (Ellerbee), didn’t know the calls. And the guy who shouldn’t play regular downs (Goode), got beat for Minnesota’s only score, due to a miscommunication during the first drive of the NFC Championship game.

doors

In 2017 at back-up MLB, there was a tiger behind every door.

We need to make a point of developing young LB’s this year. That way, when we need one to step up, we’ll run the risk of actually having one (or more), that we can feel confident about. (That way SS Malcolm Jenkins won’t ever end up having to play LB again. All 204 pounds of him.)

THE 12: #9 GET ALSHON 1-ON-1

Posted by The BEAST on 2018/03/09
Posted in: Coaching, Offense, Players, X's and O's. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . 4 Comments

THE122018#9

THIS was already on the list BEFORE I learned that WR Alshon Jeffery had played 19 games, caught 69 balls, for 1,008 yards, and 12 tuds, all with a rotator cuff torn since Training Camp. Now, after learning that, this is not only on the list, but it’s probably the most important part of it.

We need to find a way to get Jeffery isolated, and in space against any CB who isn’t 6’3”. Then he can use his height and wingspan to make those 50/50 balls more like 85/15 balls.

Vikings Eagles Football

The best way to get him that space, is to get teams to load the box, (which I covered in #7 of this series). If we can do that, then teams will have to telegraph which poison they’re picking. That will make life easier on the Offense, which will make it easier on the Defense, and therefore improve our chances of a second parade in a row.

I’ll say this now: I expect 80 catches and 13 REGULAR SEASON touchdowns out of Jeffery this season. I drafted him in Fantasy last year and he was a big part of my Championship run. (With Nick Foles as my QB. No joke. Check it out.)

BAD TOUCH FAP FAP 2017fb

THE 12: #8 BLOW UP THE CENTER

Posted by The BEAST on 2018/03/08
Posted in: Coaching, Defense, Players, X's and O's. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . 2 Comments

THE122018#8.jpg

Any idiot can say “Hey let’s sign every high-priced Free Agent on the market”. The 12 focuses on what we can do with what we already have, to fix or improve our team.

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WHEN we traded for DT Timmy Jernigan to put next to DT Fletcher Cox, it seemed like we were going to have an interior D-line for the ages. It certainly started that way during the regular season as well. However, as the year went on, our interior seemed to run out of gas.

card.timmy.jernigan

Some of the slow-down can be attributed to the mid-season loss of MLB Jordan Hicks. As a result, DC Jim Schwartz had to compensate to cover for it. That meant asking for the DT’s to occupy blockers more, instead of giving them full reign to attack gaps aggressively. That part we can let slide.

What was alarming was how often our DT’s seemed to be locked up with a G, while pass rushing. There seemed like a lot of three-technique being played (directly in front of the G) and not much two-technique (in the gap between the C and G).

No C can block both of our DT’s. It can’t happen. So why didn’t we ever see both DT’s pinch the C, force him backward, and invert the pocket? Not on every down, (since there are ways to exploit that, if you use it too much) but why not a few times? Would have come in handy against the Rams run game. IJS.

We need to add that to our 2018 arsenal. We need to break that weapon out on 3rd downs, and even throw it in on a few 1st downs. Something that hits that fast, would convince opponents that they have limited options against us, and make them less dynamic. It would render them less imaginative and easier to predict.

Let’s blow this shit up.

WHAT MICHAEL BENNETT MEANS

Posted by The BEAST on 2018/03/08
Posted in: Conversations, Defense, Front Office (F.O.), Players, Roster, trade. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , . 4 Comments

(2a.m., coffee bathes the lower halves of my pupils, fingers flying, ‘No Church In the Wild’ on repeat, on repeat, on repeat.)

(Whispering) Run with me.

TRADING away a 5th round pick and WR Marcus Johnson, to get DE Michael Bennett and a 7th round pick, seems like a steal on the surface. A fiery, veteran pass rusher, who’s used to winning? That sounds like a guy any defense would be happy to have in their starting line-up. Clearly we crushed the fuck out of this trade.

Whoa now. Pump the brakes. While there’s no knocking the addition of Bennett, his being added to the roster signals two things.

curry cam

The first thing is that, the Eagles are about to release DE Vinny Curry, in move that’s designed to save the team $5M of the $11M he’s scheduled to be paid in 2018. (Initially I’d put my feelings about that in this article, but it hijacked the article’s tone. So, I decided to relocate those paragraphs. They’re still part of the original draft, they just weren’t added to what you can see here.)

barnett sack

The second thing it signals is, Derek Barnett will now become our starting RDE. No surprise there. That was the plan from the moment he was drafted on the steps to the Art Museum’s East Door last Spring. However, Curry’s contract still had guaranteed money on it, and that didn’t facilitate Curry being a back-up in 2017. So Barnett sat lat year.

That was last year.

It remains to be seen how this will affect our run defense however, since Curry was our best DE against the run in 2017. Curry did an excellent job of setting the edge of the defense last season, and keeping runs from successfully bouncing wide, on his side. It remains to be seen if Barnett can hold it down the same way.

For his part, Bennett is here to be the 2018 version of Chris Long. A veteran player who probably isn’t as good as he used to be over 16 full games, but might be awesome over 16 half games. There can be no doubt that he will put heat on QB’s, and probably make our four man pass rush even more effective than it was in 2017.

bennett v prescott

While Bennett can be moved around pretty much anywhere on the Defensive Line, he’s likely to mainly line up at RDE. I love that. A QB who sees Bennett lined up on his blind-side, is already thinking of quickly dumping the ball. Even before the ball is snapped. That’s already a rushed pass.

Basically Bennett means we can intimidate opposing passers, just because of where we line him up. Not bad Howie Roseman. Not bad at all.

Oh yeah, just because I put this out, doesn’t mean I skipped out on today’s THE 12 article.  You can find that right HERE

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THE 12: #7 RUN THE BALL HARDER

Posted by The BEAST on 2018/03/07
Posted in: Coaching, Offense, Players, Roster, X's and O's. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . 4 Comments

THE122018#7

Any idiot can say “Hey let’s sign every high-priced Free Agent on the market”. The 12 focuses on what we can do with what we already have, to fix or improve our team.

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LAST season we ran a lot from the Shotgun, behind blocking schemes that focused more on movement and isolation, than on simply overpowering a man. This isn’t a complaint about that. I mean, it worked, right?

Foles holds the trophy aloft approaching LOVE Park

During the 2017 season, 8 of our 16 opponents were either leading us, or still withing striking distance in the 4th quarter. Physically wearing them out early, would take care of that in 2018. It also sends the message that tackling our hard-charging RB’s is the “easiest part” of stopping our run game. That’s the sort of thing that breaks an opponent’s spirit.

We all know the expression “Why work harder, when you can work smarter?” In most cases, I’m all about that. But not here. In this case there’s a huge pay-off for “giving an opponent chicken” as former Eagle RG Shawn Andrews used to call it. Put bluntly, there is no cute or clever way to rag-doll an opponent. There is also no substitute for it.

A more power-oriented rushing attack, (with the QB under Center more often), suites the current make-up of our roster (RB’s Jay Ajayi and Corey Clement). It also means teams would have to roll out 8 and 9 man fronts, as much to cope with the blockers as the backs.

Three Headed Monster

The Eagles 2017’s Three Headed RB Monster showed the NFL how to share the rock: (l to r) Corey Clement,  LeGarrette Blount, and Jay Ajayi 

That’s kind of the situation that Dallas would have, if they had a single wide receiver worth worrying about. The Eagles on the other hand have a few guys who’ve proven that they can find holes vs Cover One and Cover Two. Even Atlanta’s Cover Three, in the playoffs.

If our receivers can get more than a few looks per game against Cover Zero… It would be a string of massacres. We’d break scoreboards. Every record we set would be written in pencil, because we’d probably break it the following week. Defensive Coordinators wouldn’t sleep for days before they faced us. Head coaches already on the hot seat, would quit so they wouldn’t end up with that beating on their resumes. Opponents would talk about us like facing a firing squad.

That could all be set up, off of the run game.

We gotta run the ball harder this year. We gotta. We won it all last year, so we’re the hunted this year. We’re the team to beat now. We have to act like it.

THE 12: #6 BRING MORE BLITZES

Posted by The BEAST on 2018/03/06
Posted in: Coaching, Defense, Reviews, X's and O's. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . 2 Comments

THE122018#6

Any idiot can say “Hey let’s sign every high-priced Free Agent on the market”. The 12 focuses on what we can do with what we already have, to fix or improve our team.

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PASS rush is literally that. The idea is to force the QB to rush his process, so that he makes a costly mistake when he passes the ball. Right or wrong, defenses now seem to make hurries the point of their pass rush.

Last year the Eagles led the NFL in hurries. The unofficial number is 271. (I think.) As a result, we were 4th in the NFL with 19 interceptions. Those seem like nice numbers, but there’s tons of room for improvement. Fact is, we left a lot on the table last season. We need better production in 2018.

While I can’t find an official stat anywhere, word around the campfire says that the Eagles blitzed less than most NFL teams in 2017. We were also 15th in sacks, with just 38 through 16 games. Seems like we were more thunder than lighting last year, and teams are bound to notice that.

We got a lot of pressure from rotating in fresh pass rushers last season, but teams are going to be ready to handle that better in 2018. So we need a new wrinkle. That new wrinkle should be that we don’t just show blitzes anymore. Now we bring them.

Better than hurries, are sacks or sack/fumbles. Those result in downs that the defense wins clearly. Either because they either end drives, or make the next down harder than the one before it. (When we make 2nd and 4 become 3rd and 11, it feels great right?)

philly philly

I won’t speak for you, but that parade made me hungry for another one. The cost for that is staying ahead of all the teams that will be coming for us in 2018. We aren’t underdogs now. We’re the hunted. We have a target on our backs.

So we need to strike back with more ferocity than last year. Don’t just hurry a QB. Don’t just hit him. Sack him. Take the ball. Put the other 31 teams on their heels, and keep them there. Stop faking the blitz so much, and just bring that bitch.

THE 12: #5 TE SEAM ATTACK

Posted by The BEAST on 2018/03/05
Posted in: Coaching, Offense. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

THE122018#5.jpg

Any idiot can say “Hey let’s sign every high-priced Free Agent on the market”. The 12 focuses on what we can do with what we already have, to fix or improve our team.

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IF QB Carson Wentz is going to continue his running ways, then keeping him as safe as possible is a must. By safe, I don’t mean his knee. He’s a football player. Some risks just come with the job.

By safe, I mean from concussions, shots to his back, or anything that could have him landing on his throwing arm and breaking his shoulder.

By the way when QB Nick Foles had his shoulder broken in 2014,

he was in the pocket.

When Michael Vick got a concussion in 2011,

he was in the pocket.

The ugly fact is, QB’s suffer more serious injuries in the pocket, than anywhere else. Four words: Randall Cunningham’s broken leg. (Four more words: Fuck you Bryce Paup.) So being afraid of Wentz running,actually makes very little sense. (Besides, he’s going to anyway.)

The best way to keep the big hits off of Wentz when he runs, is to keep ILB’s, MLB’s and Safeties, back deep. That way he can scramble for a cheap and easy 4 yards here, 7 yards there, and so forth. The best way to do that, with is a TE going deep between the hash marks.

Giving a defense a choice between giving up a 17 yard completion, or a 4 to 7 yard scramble, is my idea of a high percentage play! Either a cheap and easy short gain, or a fairly easy big gain, if opponents don’t pay tribute? How do you not love that?! We need to do that.

THE 12: #4 PLEASE PLAY SOME PRESS

Posted by The BEAST on 2018/03/04
Posted in: Defense, Rants, X's and O's. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

122018#4.jpg

Any idiot can say “Hey let’s sign every high-priced Free Agent on the market”. The 12 focuses on what we can do with what we already have, to fix or improve our team.

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WEEK 15 against the giants. Our Defense was beaten for one uncontested Slant route after another. It looked almost like Eli Manning was out there playing catch with his receivers. Oh yeah, it also looked that way Week 2 vs the Chiefs.

The rest of the season didn’t look nearly as bad as those two weeks, but during the season two things became clear. 1) That the Slant was 7-11, if an opponent wanted it, and 2) That they could use the Slant, to set up the inside-out double-move on Go routes.

Our inside-out/double-move weakness, became glaringly, unsettlingly apparent in Week 15. It got to the point where we kept seeing teams try to exploit it, (especially against CB Jalen Mills) in the playoffs. Expect teams (especially division rivals) to write plays designed to attack that very Achilles Heel, in 2018. If we can’t take away the Slant, we’ll be setting our Secondary up for failure this year.

The best way to stop the Slant is to (PLEASE, DEAR GOD!!!!!!) play some man-press at the line. Yes, after a couple moments of press, the receiver will get into his route. That’s true. The Slant however, is a timing route. If the receiver is late to the spot, the QB is already on the next read in his progression. Pass rushers are closing in. The pressed route is defended.

sidney.jones.jpg

Rookie CB Sidney Jones presses WR Dez Bryant, keeping him pinned outside, despite Bryant’s clear desire to run inside. This is near-perfect coverage.

The other way to defend the Slant is with a LB with no brakes, arriving just as the ball does. The message gets clearly sent, and receivers look for other ways to make money. Also opposing coaches would be less reckless with health of their QB’s favorite targets.

However, since the NFL likes handing out fines and suspensions, The smarter option is to focus on option one. Play some press. Disrupt opponent’s timing. Force opponents to learn the Eagles Defense all over again, then exploit their ignorance.

THE 12: #3 RUN CARSON, RUN!

Posted by The BEAST on 2018/03/03
Posted in: Coaching, Offense, Players, X's and O's. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

THE122018#3.jpg

Any idiot can say “Hey let’s sign every high-priced Free Agent on the market”. The 12 focuses on what we can do with what we already have, to fix or improve our team.

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LAST year I said that QB Carson Wentz should stop trying to beat defenders around the edge, and run for cheap and easy 5 yard gains here and there. I guess he reads these articles, because that’s more or less exactly what he did.

Instead of being cute and trying to sprint out, he mostly took yards that were presented to him when players receded into coverage. For a guy without 4.4 speed, he certainly turned into a dangerous runner as QB and as a result, teams had to adjust how they played us, which made it easier for receivers to get open. It was clockwork.

Due to his ACL/LCL injury during the season, fans who really don’t understand his injury, think he should stop running, or slide more. Both of which are idiotic notions. His running helps get receivers open, and he wasn’t injured as result of not sliding. He was diving for a short yardage touchdown that he’d have had, if not for a penalty. Sliding applied nowhere in that scenario. 

Thankfully, Wentz has said that he’s not going to change how he plays (in regards to when he chooses to run). That statement right there will continue to force opponents to defend against him running, and make things easier on the entire Offense.

For his part he should do just what he did in 2017. Don’t get cute. Just run for cheap, easy yards right in front of him. Due to his injury, it’ll be a year or so before he gets full explosiveness back in his takeoff. That’s fine. No one needs him to win foot races to the sideline. Just get what’s in front of him and get down.

Like he’d been doing in 2017.

wentz fireworks.jpg

THE 12: #2 GROOM A SUCCESSOR

Posted by The BEAST on 2018/03/02
Posted in: Coaching, Defense, Front Office (F.O.), NFL, Players. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

THE122018#2

Any idiot can say “Hey let’s sign every high-priced Free Agent on the market”. The 12 focuses on what we can do with what we already have, to fix or improve our team.

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DEFENSIVE Coordinator Jim Schwartz’s has already been an NFL head coach. It wasn’t a good showing, but it was only Detroit, so folks will be willing to grant him a pass. With that in mind, you can expect that any time his unit finishes in the top 12 in points allowed, some team or another will to try and steal him at the end of the year. Get comfy with that reality.

So it would be nice to have a successor, right? That way we don’t end up in the situation we ended up in, when DC Jim Johnson* passed (from melanoma) in 2009. At that point we got stuck with his assistant, Sean McDermott, who tried to run a version of Johnson’s blitz-heavy system. Johnson’s real expertise lay in being able to make tiny adjustments to his scheme.

McDermott lacked that touch. He lasted one season and was fired. A mess ensued after that, Jim Washburn, Juan Castillo… (be nice if we could forget about that one, right?)

Eagles 2017 LB's.jpg

SO! We need to be ready for the day that Schwartz goes all Frank Reich on us. I personally like LB’s Coach Ken Flajole. He was a DC under Steve Spagnulo for three years, and that unit performed solidly, given that they were saddled with (just about) the NFL’s worst offense.

This is provided we want to promote from within, and hit the ground running with a DC who already knows the players.

*Jim Johnson’s name appears in green, bold, italics like current Eagles, because he was an Eagle when he passed. This is also why Jerome Brown’s name is bolded, but Reggie White’s and Andre Waters names, usually are not.