THE OTHER 52 EAGLES

Posted by The BEAST on 2016/05/06
Posted in: Defense, Offense, Players, Preview, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , . 2 Comments

Cheer-GOTEAGLES

BEFORE the Draft I said the Eagles would win the NFC East this year. Since I said that, the Redskins added Free Agent CB Josh Norman to help shore up their leaky secondary. We also had the weakest Draft of any team in this division. So you may wonder why I still pick the Eagles to win the East.

I’m not saying the Eagles will win it because I’m an Eagles fan. Last year I initially said that the Redskins would win the East. I did however change my position when Robert Griffin was shutdown in favor of Kirk Cousins. I ended up being wrong, but only due to the legendary awfulness of the division last year.

The reason I’m still saying the Eagles win the division is two-fold.

One, no one really helped themselves that much in this Draft.

  • Though the Cowboys got RB Ezekiel Elliott (whom I wanted), last year even with QB problems, RB Darren McFragile posted over 1,000 yards on the ground, so it’s not like Elliott is rescuing the Cowboys and giving them a dynamic they lacked. In truth they didn’t get a lot better.
  • The giants grabbed another Buckeye in CB Eli Apple, but the NFL comes with a steep learning curve for CB’s and the supporting veterans in that secondary are shaky themselves. If WR Sterling Shepard can be more than a slot guy, the giants may leapfrog the Redskins this year.
  • The ‘skins added a WR to an already deep group and of course there’s also their TE Jordan Reed. But that’s all more dangerous on paper than it will ever be on the field. The fact is, regardless of how great your receivers are, the game is still played with only one ball at a time. (Though I’m sure Bill Belichik is working on that.)

So no one really changed the complexion of their team through the Draft this year. Which brings me to my second point.

The Eagles Defense this year is likely to look like nothing you’ve seen since the early 1990’s. The Secondary won’t be as top-notch, but if Philadelphia’s Front Seven doesn’t make you sit up and take notice, then you don’t know the first god-damned thing about football.

The interior triangle of Fletcher Cox, Bennie Logan and Jordan Hicks is going make running inside extremely difficult. Cox demanding a double-team basically will allow Hicks to run free, read plays and make early stops. That’s a lot of third and longs for a Vinny Curry who shreds one-on-one blocks for breakfast, and who opponents can’t double without taking away a blocker from the Cox double-team. Or opponents could keep a TE in and double both, but that makes it easier for our Secondary to cover fewer receivers.

And when was the last time we had two OLB’s as good as Mychal Kendricks and Nigel Bradham? That would be 1991 through 1993, when we had Seth Joyner and William Thomas. Yes, fellow Eagles fans. That’s where we are again. FINALLY!

Cheer-joyner

Offensively we won’t be great. In fact, I think our Defense and Special Teams winning field position battles will artificially inflate our offensive stats. That having been said, the West Coast Offense is a stable platform to work from. Our Offensive Line is more than good enough to handle the scheme. Our TE’s are made for this system, and I expect WR Jordan Matthews to open some eyes, after years of nearly criminal misuse by the guy that Jeff Lurie shit-canned with a game left on the schedule last year. We still need depth at RB, but that shouldn’t be hard to manufacture.

The bottom line is we were the most dangerous team in the division BEFORE the Draft. With no team really adding much first year firepower this year, the balance of power hasn’t changed. Eagles win at least 9 games this year on our way to claiming the NFC East.

 

EAGLES 2016 DRAFT REPORT (Full)

Posted by The BEAST on 2016/05/01
Posted in: Draft, Front Office (F.O.), NFL, Players, Roster, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

retro

WE looked at the first three rounds in Part One. This here is the FULL report.

ROUND ONE: Carson Wentz (QB) – I see Eagles fans everywhere talking themselves into this guy. Don’t get me wrong, he seems like an okay guy, and gives a pretty good interview. But hey! He’s still a #2 overall who’s supposed to sit on a shelf for a year or so. Why would you sit a rookie QB? So he can watch and learn. Learn from who? GOOD QUESTION! People point to Aaron Rodgers sitting behind Brett Favre as an example, but last time I checked, Sam Bradford was no Favre. And neither is Chase Daniel. The bottom line here is that we traded the farm to draft a kid who won’t help us improve on last years 7-9 mark. Conversely he also won’t improve while contributing to a worse record this year. Grade: C-

ROUND TWO: I’d love to discuss this pick but, well…ya know… (sigh)

ROUND THREE: Isaac Seumalo (G) – I watched some game tape of this guy vs Arizona and was blown away by how poor his hand usage is. Add to that just 19 bench presses at his pro day (not the Combine). I’m left worrying about the longevity of a 303 pound Guard who has poor hand instincts and little upper body strength. Grade: D

ROUND FOUR: Let’s play everyone’s favorite game! Waiting for Round Five!!!

ROUND FIVE (A): Wendell Smallwood (RB) – Having read the tweets he put out badmouthing Philly and calling 75% of the men here gay, I wanted to be able to say that this guy sucks, is just a camp body, and that he’ll never make it in the NFL. After watching some game tape (not a highlight reel), I have to say that he’s a pretty ordinary RB. He can get you some good gains if the holes are there, but he’s not a creator in the LeSean McCoy mold, despite having a similar build. He also gets run down from behind with open space still in front him. He has the look of a camp body, but considering our lack of depth, he may give Kenjon Barner a real run for his money. Grade: C-

ROUND FIVE (B): Halapoulivaati Vaitai (T) – I know I’ve been giving these picks some pretty unexciting grades, and this one is no different. Seriously watch the tape and tell me why I should be enthusiastic. This isn’t me being mean. Look, Carson Wentz will pay the price if we don’t get him good protectors. This kid here watches too much football when he should be playing. He’s sluggish off the line, and doesn’t believe in finishing his blocks. Seriously, watch the tape and see how often he takes halfhearted swipes at his man, fails to latch on, or maintain control of his assignment or area. Grade: D-

ROUND SIX: Blake Countess (CB) – There are some highlight tapes of him, but I need a game tape to really evaluate a player’s habits. Since I couldn’t find any on him, I can’t form a solid opinion. What I can do is give my general impression of his situation with the Eagles. He’s a 5’9” Nickel CB, on a team with veteran depth. Even if he sticks he adds nothing we don’t already have. This is a wasted pick. Grade: F

ROUND SEVEN (A): Jalen Mills (FS) – Tackles with an exaggerated looping motion to his arms that may get him killed in the NFL. Stops his feet way too much when diagnosing from the Nickel spot. As a FS doesn’t hit his run fits and is hardly a factor in coverage. As a Safety you have to make your name either being able to cover really well or being known to take guys heads off. This player does neither. Grade: D

ROUND SEVEN (B): Alex McCalister (DE) – At 6’6” 239 he’s too thin to play DE at the pro level, as he already could be manhandled by blockers in college. That said, the guy is explosive and seems to prioritize setting the edge over rushing the QB. He also turns his hips and runs pretty well. If he can translate that to OLB, we could have a steal here. Even if he only develops into a situational player. Grade: B

ROUND SEVEN (C): Joe Walker (ILB) – No game film. We need players at this position. Grade: C

TEACHING CARSON WENTZ

Posted by The BEAST on 2016/04/30
Posted in: Conversations, Offense, Players, Roster, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , . 8 Comments

NFL/

BUILDING a franchise QB.

Even before QB Sam Bradford threw a bitch-fit and ran away from the offseason training program crying, falling, screaming for his mommy and blowing snot bubbles; using Bradford to be a teacher for Carson Wentz was a bad idea. Using Bradford as a positive model to teach any young QB is a bad idea. For Bradford fans who demand proof: As the starting QB you should never bail on any team activity you already showed up for. Leaders know this. Clearly Bradford is not a leader and therefore cannot instruct a youngin in this.

For a moment we’ll set aside Captain Checkdown‘s bland and uninteresting style of play. We’ll set aside his dismal record as a starter (25 – 37 – 1). We’ll look past his playoff performances. Oh that’s right, he’s never led a team to the playoffs. We’ll overlook the fact that his knees are as sturdy as the knees on a Dollar Store toy. We’ll look past the creepy eyes, and the sleeves, the hesitancy to fall on fumbles or throw a block. We’ll look past the nerve it took for him to ask for 25M$ per year. We’ll look past all of that.

What we cannot overlook is the childishly selfish and entitled behavior he has shown. What we cannot overlook is how his teammates will respond to him after simply walking away from them, over something that eventually happens to every starter to ever play this game. The lack of character. The lack of maturity. The galling lack of decency and situational awareness for such an overpaid underachiever. These things cannot be ignored. And they are why Bradford cannot be a model of success for Wentz. And we know because we’ve had better examples than Bradford.

QB

Word now is that Bradford won’t report to the team. This is bull. Unless he’s willing to retire and wave sayonara to the 35 million he just signed for, at some point he has to report to the team. Failing that, he’s risking a lawsuit and nothing he’s done in the last week would cause any judge or jury to take his side. So he’ll be here no later than Week One, but likely for Training Camp. (And he could always show up at OTA’s and blame it on the media as them making a story out of nothing.)

I’d trade Bradford. For pretty much anything I could get for him. I’d ship him to Arizona, so he could sit behind a guy named Carson. Or to Houston where their horrible offensive line just got a little worse after we raided it for G Brandon Brooks. Or to San Francisco where he would find love among his own kind. Even if it meant eating some of his 2016 cap figure it A) Is less than eating all of his cap figure; and B) Gets rid of a locker room cancer.

If Head Coach Doug Pederson still wants to develop Wentz behind a veteran, we still have Chase Daniel. Not that I think that Daniel has a lot of wisdom to impart either, but at this point Sam Bradford has invalidated himself both as a professional and as a man. That is not the sort of person we want leaving any fingerprints on our next franchise QB.

EAGLES 2016 DRAFT REPORT (Pt. I)

Posted by The BEAST on 2016/04/30
Posted in: Draft, NFL, Offense, Players, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

 

 

fans 2

ROUND ONE: Carson Wentz (QB) – I see Eagles fans everywhere talking themselves into this guy. Don’t get me wrong, he seems like an okay guy, and gives a pretty good interview. But hey! He’s still a #2 overall who’s supposed to sit on a shelf for a year or so. Why would you sit a rookie QB? So he can watch and learn. Learn from who? GOOD QUESTION! People point to Aaron Rodgers sitting behind Brett Favre as an example, but last time I checked, Sam Bradford was no Favre. And neither is Chase Daniel. The bottom line here is that we traded the farm to draft a kid who won’t help us improve on last years 7-9 mark. Conversely he also won’t improve while contributing to a worse record this year. Grade: C-

ROUND TWO: I’d love to discuss this pick but, well…ya know…

ROUND THREE: Isaac Seumalo (G) – I watched some game tape of this guy vs Arizona and was blown away by how poor his hand usage is.

Added to that is just 19 bench presses at his pro day (not the Combine). I’m left worrying about the longevity of a 303 pound Guard who has poor hand instincts and little upper body strength. Grade: D

ROUND FOUR: (PRESUMPTIVE) This round hasn’t happened yet, but I sense a repeat of Round Two coming on. Trading a player to get in on this round might not be a bad idea.

WILL BRADFORD SABOTAGE WENTZ?

Posted by The BEAST on 2016/04/29
Posted in: Conspiracy Corner, NFL, Offense, Players, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , . 2 Comments

usa-today-8640283.0

CAN you trust Sam Bradford not to sabotage Carson Wentz? You have a rookie QB who is about to be mentored by the guy who was alienated by the drafting of said rookie. Knowing full well that Bradford doesn’t want the kid to unseat him, how do you trust Bradford to help mold Wentz into a successful NFL QB?

How can the Eagles expect Bradford to not try to hold Wentz back? You’d have to be a fool to see that this will not be a case of a veteran happily taking a kid under his wing. Knowing this, can you really call Bradford a leader on the team, if he won’t even lead his position?

Odds are that Bradford will be looking to sandbag Wentz every chance he gets. The sooner Wentz is game-ready, the sooner the Eagles will sit Bradford. Bradford knows that. Wentz knows that. We know that. There is no secret here. Bradford had genuine animosity for an idea. Now that the idea has a name and a face, do you think Bradford will suddenly like it better?

Bradford pulled out of voluntary camp and demanded a trade on the suspicion that the Eagles would draft a QB #2 overall. Now that it’s been done, Bradford has no choice but to stick to the guns that he abandoned when he checked it down, and decided to not test the Free Agent market. His options to be a long-term starter are A) be traded; or B) hold this rookie’s career underwater and drown it before it really starts. Understand, it’s the Eagles who are endangering Wentz’s career just by having Bradford around.

I made clear my stance that Sam Bradford shouldn’t be coming back. I even went as far as to say that he wouldn’t be coming back. But GM Howie Roseman apparently knows more than I do, so Bradford is back, on a contract he was never worth. There was no logical reason to bring him back here, and now it seems as if he is in a position to hurt the Eagles in the long-term.

Meanwhile, word is that the Eagles want more than 2 second round picks for Bradford. Since no team seems dumb enough to part with that, we’re ostensibly stuck with him until at least next year. Ask yourself how much damage Bradford could do to Wentz in a year. Think about everything we gave up to get Wentz. Think about the Browns getting better based on our foolishness.

Can you trust Sam Bradford? Can you really?

SAM BRADFORD CAN HELP US.

Posted by The BEAST on 2016/04/25
Posted in: Coaching, Conversations, Draft, Offense, Players, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , . 4 Comments

supergreen

BUTTHURT. That is the way I felt when the Eagles decided to go against all common sense and re-sign “quarterback” Sam Bradford. I’d predicted all the while that Bradford wouldn’t be our QB in 2016. I was so sure. There wasn’t a single reason to bring Bradford back. Not one. So when it was announced that we’d done it anyway, I was mad enough to shit myself two new assholes.

His contract had expired! We had been freed! Logic had already applied a thick layer of grease to the streets of Philadelphia. All anyone had to do was give Bradford the slightest shove, and he’d have slid all the way from his locker to the airport. But General Manager Howie Roseman chose to re-sign him. And then gave away the farm to to get the number two pick in the Draft to try to replace him. This left us all saying “Wait. What??”

My thinking is that Roseman could have moved up to that number two pick without tying up so much guaranteed money in a guy he didn’t want to keep anyway. Then again I’m not an NFL GM. What the hell do I know, right? And don’t even get me started on Chase Daniel. Remember him? Well if you do, that probably means you’re somehow related to him, because to this point in his “career” he’s been utterly forgettable.

The idea here was to draft a QB and let him sit behind Bradford and learn for bit before taking over, like Donovan McNabb did behind now Head Coach Doug Pederson. Like Bradford, Pederson was a lackluster NFL QB, but it worked out for McNabb. Then again McNabb’s Head Coach (Andy Reid) was (and still is) an offensive mastermind. Whoever sits behind Bradford would be sitting behind a mediocre QB without an Andy Reid on the staff. So be prepared for this time around to work out somewhat differently. (If indeed the Eagles do select a QB with that pick. There’s some back-channel chatter.)

The way I see it, we can trade Bradford, and let the rookie QB sit behind Daniel. I mean mediocrity is mediocrity, right? Why split hairs over which of two piles of dog shit tastes worse? It’s all dog shit, and they shouldn’t be making the fans eat any of it!

I still think Bradford can help the Eagles for years to come. If the Eagles trade him to Dallas, he can become Tony Romo’s successor, and throw checkdown after checkdown, effectively neutering Dez Bryant for the remainder of the contract he held the Cowboys hostage to get from them.

I don’t care what we get for him. As my friend King Danny from NFC EAST IMPERIAL said “I don’t care if we get a ham sandwich for him”. I have to agree with that. I don’t care what we get for him. So long as we can shoehorn him onto a rival’s roster. But the bottom line is fuck that whiny bitch. If Bradford wants to go, I hope Roseman makes him and Eagles fans everywhere happy, by granting Bradford his wish.

ARE THE EAGLES VICTIMS OF THEIR SUCCESS?

Posted by The BEAST on 2016/04/22
Posted in: Conspiracy Corner, Draft, Front Office (F.O.), NFL, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , . 7 Comments

Doc Brown Time Lord

RETURNING GM Howie Roseman reclaimed his throne in grand fashion. He ridded the team of a number of players added by the former head coach. He also took the Eagles from the 13th spot in the draft to the 8th and then to the 2nd. On paper that second part looks damned impressive until you look at what he had to give up to get there.

The part that keeps eating at me as I replay his Q&A explanation for this trade over and over in my head, is not WHAT he had to give up, it’s WHY he felt compelled to do so. He mentioned that the team’s Draft position is rarely in the top ten. So when he managed to get from 13th to 8th, the organization felt that getting to 2nd was a must. They were concerned with how rarely they get this opportunity.

Therein lies the rub. The reason for not being in the top ten is generally because your record was too good the prior season. The Eagles simply aren’t bad enough, often enough, to need serious help. Or so the thinking goes. So the franchise operates with a sort of “Time to re-stock the shelves” mentality.

Under Owner Jeff Lurie there haven’t been many years where (like the Browns do) we have to take a hard look in the mirror, scrap everything and change the entire formula. Even after we went 4-12 under Andy Reid, we hired a new coach and went 10-6 the following season. We didn’t fire our “Dream Team” GM. Even the prior season’s starting QB Michael Vick didn’t change. We went 4-12 and said there was no need for a rebuild. And though I’ve been saying we’ve needed one since 2009, the Eagles going 10-6 the next year, made most people think a rebuild wasn’t needed. The following two seasons however, have increased the number of people who agree with my 2013 assessment.

It begs the question, are the Eagles victims of their own success? Roseman said in the same Q&A session “for us we want to get into a position where in the near future we have an opportunity to compete every year”. An opportunity to compete every year is what Lurie said he wanted his team to have back in 1994. And we’ve been VERY competitive since then. But we have at no point been stripped down and reformatted with the singular focus of winning it all. We’ve been trapped in this Twilight Zone of “good not great” for two decades now.

And now?

You can’t debate that picking QB Donovan McNabb #2 overall in 1999, led to the most successful stretch in this franchise’s 83 year history. That’s fact. So it’s no wonder that Lurie thinks that he can duplicate that swell of success, by picking another QB #2 overall. Also like 1999 there is a Head Coach in Doug Pederson who has experience in developing QB’s. In fact, Pederson was the QB who as a player mentored rookie McNabb in 1999! It’s practically kismet.

The “Competitive” model produced the greatest Head Coach (Reid) and the greatest QB (McNabb) in franchise history. However we’re now repeating a model that has also only produced 1 Super Bowl appearance in 22 years (since Lurie made the ‘competitive’ statement.) And the spot on the shelf where that Lombardi trophy should be, now has a pile of dust on it as tall as the trophy itself.

I’m hoping that after Doc Brown selects our QB, that the Front Office has some new tricks up their sleeves for this go ’round. This is Andy and Donovan 2.0 and we’ve already seen how version 1.0 ended. This time around “good enough” cannot be good enough.

NOT HERE TO WHINE

Posted by The BEAST on 2016/04/21
Posted in: Draft, Fans, Front Office (F.O.), NFL, Offense, trade, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , . 8 Comments

Dinosaur-fucking-Robot

LET the record show that I hate the trade the Eagles just made with the Browns. Basically we get to move up 6 spots in exchange for the #8 pick, one of our third rounders, a fourth rounder, next year’s first rounder, 2018’s second rounder, one of Lurie’s balls, my youngest cat, and six fans to be named later.

Decades ago Malcom X saw this trade coming and described it this way: “I say and I say it again, ya been had! Ya been took! Ya been hoodwinked! Bamboozled! Led astray! Run amok!”

But I’m not here to whine. What’s done is done. This is now all about how we move forward with our starting rookie QB. Of course we have to start a guy that we drafted number t… What was that? Howie Roseman said that who is our what now? …Yeah but that’s a quote from 2015 right? …The fuck you mean it’s from yesterday? These motherf- No. I’m going to relax and breathe. Just relax…and breathe.

internal scream

I’m not here to whine! What Howie has done, is done. Right? Now our rookie can sit and learn at the feet of a master like Sam Bradford. Because Bradford has clearly done what few other’s have been able to manage. So much mediocrity. So much guaranteed money. I mean how many other grossly overpaid QB’s can you name who have managed to…Chase Daniel you say? 12M in guarantees, you say? Oh wow… Well I guess with so much money tied up in QB’s, it’s a good thing we won’t have any early draft picks who’d eat up some of that salary cap. Oh look! My nose is bleeding now.

So am I to understand that we don’t need Offensive Line help and we’re going ahead with Ryan Mathews as our starting RB? That’s happening? Oh wow… Do you realize that even if the Eagles go 0-16, we still won’t pick until the second round next year? DO you realize that?

How do I feel about it? How do I feel about it?!!

But I’m not here to whine!! (Dear God just fucking shoot me.) What Howie has fucked up is already ruined, right? RIGHT? Que sera sera, right?! Mi casa, su casa! Kama Sutra!

I’ll just go find a nice quiet corner to hyperventilate in, until I pass out. BUT YOU WON’T CATCH ME WHINING!

LOVE HIM OR HATE HIM, HE’S OURS

Posted by The BEAST on 2016/04/16
Posted in: Draft, Front Office (F.O.), NFL, Offense, Players, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , . 4 Comments

donkeyburger

SUCK it up! Sam Bradford is likely the Eagles starting QB for the 2016 season. Yeah, yeah. I don’t like it either, but unless something stupendous happens in the next two weeks, we’ll spend Sundays this season rooting for Bradford. Again.

Consider the realistic alternatives:

The Back-up: Chase Daniel is going to get a shot at unseating Bradford. If this idea makes you happy, hey, go ahead and hope that it happens. Realistically speaking though, nothing Daniel has ever done should inspire more (or even as much) confidence from fans than is generated by Bradford.

A Trade: Okay. For who? Last time I checked, no team in 32 was dangling a starting caliber QB for trade. Not one. In fact, even Brandon Weeden was snatched back up off the pavement by Houston. This was also after they publicly made a bunch of noise about moving on from the QB’s on their roster. But pickings were slim, so they quickly added Weeden back to their roster before someone else could capitalize on their mistake.

Signing Private Ryan: So many reasons not to do that. Age. An undistinguished career. A demand for too much damned money. The guaranteed money we’re already on the hook for to Bradford and Daniel. There are too many reasons not to sign, or even want to sign Ryan Fitzpatrick.

The Draft: The QB the Eagles wanted [Carson Wentz] won’t be on the board now that the Rams have moved up to the #1 spot; and if the Cowboys have an ounce of sense, then [Jared Goff] will be off the board a couple picks later. There are other QB’s, but aside from one or two guys this year, everyone else is a developmental project. That means a rookie likely wouldn’t lead us to a winning record this year, which is what everyone says is the knock on Bradford.

I myself wouldn’t mind the idea of writing off 2016 to give a rookie QB the necessary on the job training. However, that’s not likely to happen. Eagles brass wants a winner every year, so they aren’t likely to give new Head Coach Doug Pederson a “free season”. This means a veteran QB will open our season, and right now there isn’t a better veteran QB out there for us. Sure there are different QB’s out there, but is the idea to get a better QB than Bradford, or is it to make another lateral move, like we did when we traded Nick Foles for Bradford?

You don’t have to like who our QB is. Hell, I’m sure you remember how much I hated The Idiot Kelly (TIK) from Day One. But unless you have plans on taking a year off as a fan, I expect your ass front and center with me, backing your Eagles, and giving hell to any ass-hat who badmouths them. I hated TIK, but I stuck it out for our Eagles. Surely we can hate Bradford and still show our love.

 

THE EAGLES 2016 SCHEDULE

Posted by The BEAST on 2016/04/15
Posted in: Conversations, NFL, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , . 3 Comments

 

THERE is so much to hate about this schedule that I hardly know where to start. It seems almost as if it was designed to trip the team up, regardless of how well we’re doing at any point in the year. I have to say the schedule makers showed true artistry and absolute mastery in subtly, yet thoroughly, fucking us over this year. I almost have to stand back and admire the job they’ve done.

2016 article schedule

Right at the top of the schedule is a home game on 9/11. Granted, most teams are playing on that day as well, but we open at home that day. So basically you can throw out the purely celebratory vibe that would normally accompany a home opener. Nothing throws an air of triviality onto watching sports like a national day of mourning. Thanks NFL!!

After three games (two non-conference), we get a Bye Week for some reason. I hate early Bye Weeks. They occur before the real wear and tear sets in enough for that week off to mean something. Also it means that in the event that we do win the division, we have to do it on a 12 week dead-run, with no chance to get a breath along the way.

Even more fun is not getting to play back to back home games until the last two weeks of the season. The traveling we do during weeks 5 through 9 would be enough to fatigue some teams. Add to that that 3 of those 5 games are road games against division opponents, and you get an idea of how a simple thing like scheduling can de-rail a season, or at least put it in jeopardy early on. See what I mean by subtle artistry?

Since half of our division games are in the last 4 weeks, there is no way for us to run away with the NFC East unless we head into Week 14 undefeated; and with a Seattle, Green Bay, Cincinnati sandwich (Weeks 11-13), that’s not at all likely to happen. So even if the Eagles are 8 – 4 heading into Week 14, the division will still likely be very much up in the air. That means that Head Coach Doug Pederson likely has to run the team into the ground in order to secure a playoff spot.

Look, I expected that the schedule makers wouldn’t do us any favors, but this is almost like they put a contract out on us. That’s not to say that we can’t win the division. We can, we should and we likely will. Especially since our opponents themselves (excepting our recent history vs Seattle and Green Bay) all look very beatable. But gall dang! This year’s schedule is of no help to us whatsoever.

SCHEDULE