Josh Huff

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#7 DUELING RETURNERS

Posted by The BEAST on 2019/04/08
Posted in: Coaching, Players, Rants, Special Teams, The 12, Uncategorized, X's and O's. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

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SPECIAL Teams has really fallen off here in Philadelphia over these last couple years. Some of it is player loss. Some of it is rule changes. Regardless, something needs to be done to make this unit’s presence felt again.

I still have faith in Special Teams Coordinator Dave Fipp. However, over the years he’s lost some key coverage specialists (LB Bryan Braman, S Chris Maragos, TE Trey Burton),

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and has either missed out on the availability of our primary return specialist (2017, 2018 PR Darren Sproles) with injury, or lost them completely (2015 KR Josh Huff, 2018 KR Kenjon Barner).

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A major part of the problem has been trying to give the Punt Returner job to one guy, and the Kickoff Returner job to one guy. When that player gets hurt (or cut for driving through Jersey with hollow-points and weed in his car), then other players get pressed into the duty. At that point the fill-ins are never as good.

Also with the new kickoff rules, KR’s are encouraged to take touchbacks rather than try to make something happen. How does the Offense begin an aggressive drive with kneeling? It’s psychologically counter-intuitive. Where is the spirit of competition?

It’s that very problem which gives rise to my solution. These jobs need to be split. Two PR’s and two KR’s.

BOOM! Right away the competition comes back. While I could end this article right there, and claim Supreme Victory, I have an even better idea…

To make things sweeter, Starters on the team could put money into a pot (maybe each Starter puts in 300$ per week, for a weekly pot of 6,600$, which can roll over.) When a returner breaks one for a touchdown, they get the whole pot. If a coverage guy forces a fumble, he splits the pot with whomever recovers the fumble. If more than one of these things happen in a game, then all of those players split the pot.

The coaches could give Special Teamers who commit no penalties, or who down balls inside the 5, an extra day off during the week. Holds and blocks in the back, would practically disappear. Near fanatical hustle would be evident on every play. From every player!

All throughout each aspect of Special Teams there would be improvement. Players would be competing with each other, and playing for short-term bragging rights. (After all, these weekly pots wouldn’t really make that big of difference to these guys financially.)

Our Special Teams is merely fine today. However, if we adopt and and adapt the Seahawks practice of encouraging competition among teammates, we will be ensuring ourselves of a unit that pushes themselves, and also each other. When teammates do that, excellence is sure to follow.

CAN’T CATCH A BREAK.

Posted by The BEAST on 2016/10/26
Posted in: Coaching, Conversations, NFL, Offense, Players, Rants, Roster, trade. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . 6 Comments

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CARSON Wentz will be a wasted pick if we can’t get him a Wide Receiver to rely on. Most of the great Quarterbacks you can think of, had a go-to WR that also comes quickly to mind. Wentz doesn’t have anything remotely like that, and it’s starting to stunt his growth.

I’m seeing ball after ball forced in the direction of Nelson Agholor.

I’m seeing Jordan Matthews (still being employed poorly in the slot, and taken off the field in too many sub-packages) become all but invisible during most of the game.

I’m seeing Dorian Green-Beckham make short catches in traffic, and then get all but ignored in the red zone. (Though he did just catch a 6 yard touchdown on Sunday.)

I’m seeing back-up WR Josh Huff lead the team with 39 yards receiving in a whole game.

I’m seeing the Eagles trying to trade for a second WR in just over 3 months.

The easy answer is to say that the WR’s aren’t good enough. That was fine to say before the DGB trade. However, the whole idea of trading for him was though he had off the field/maturity issues, he has plenty of talent. That means we can’t say it’s a talent issue anymore.

Fact is, our 4 guys top WR’s all have very different styles from each other. Yet we’re to buy that none of them can play at all. One or two guys? Sure, I can buy a bum or two on a roster. But FOUR at one position? One that you traded for! I can’t be made to buy that. My I.Q. is just too damned high, my eyesight is too good, and I know too much football to quietly swallow that B.S.

The real problem is that Offensive Coordinator Frank Reich and Head Coach Doug Pederson don’t really know where they want to hang the team’s hat. We were billed as running a hybrid West Coast Offense, that included elements of the Spread, and utilized the TE more. The thing can’t be smooth, because they built-in too many wrinkles.

Week to week, the focal point of our Offense seems to be making sure that everybody plays, and gets a chance to hold the ball. On most teams, the staff will draw up specific plays designed to get the ball into a specific players hands? Do you EVER feel like we do that here? I sure as fuckall, don’t.

Our coaching staff seems incapable of putting ANY of our WR’s in “a better position to succeed”. Our receivers are used as interchangeable parts, instead of maxing out their built-in advantages and individual talents. We have three WR’s (Matthews, DGB, and Huff) who could each be a match-up headache, but instead are looked upon as mediocre at best.

Like I said, one or two guys sucking, I can buy. One or two guys with no talent? Sure, okay. One or two guys with bad work ethic. I could even spot you that. But FOUR guys? Four guys? Meanwhile Paul Turner (remember him?) just sits at home inactive?

Look, we drafted talent high, traded for talent, and have talent sitting at home. The issue isn’t player talent, it’s coaching. The coaching staff needs to decide who we are on Offense, and figure out how to get the most from each player to help define that identity.

FOUR THINGS REVIEWED: VIKINGS

Posted by The BEAST on 2016/10/25
Posted in: Coaching, Conversations, Defense, Four Things, Offense, Players, Reviews. Tagged: , , , , , , , . 4 Comments

DIDN’T I tell you that the Vikings were beatable? So many people saw our two game slide, looked at the Vikings 5-0 record, and then just wrote us off. I told you in April that this team has 9 wins in it. Most fans only saw 6 at the most. Still only see 6 wins?

Don’t get me wrong, this game was loaded with turnovers and miscues, and we hardly looked like a deep playoff contender. We did look like a team that you can never count out. Even in the two losses prior to this win, we never let the other team get to a point where they felt they could go on cruise control.

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We took this game 21 – 10, and though it was by no means a pretty win, it still counts as a win. It also moved us from 3rd place in the NFC East, to 2nd place, with the possibility of taking over 1st place in just 5 days. I say “possibility” because if we we play next week, like we have over these last two, we will likely get blown out.

This week however, we collected 6 sacks from six different players, which in a sense, is far scarier than getting half of them from one guy. We also only gave up a touchdown in garbage time, when the game was hella out of reach.

But what about the stuff that the stats don’t reveal? That’s the reason for these “Four Things” articles. To have an idea of what needs addressing BEFORE the game, so that we’re forced to honestly answer questions AFTER the game.

So, of the Four Things we were looking for in this last game, what exactly did we see?

1) Use less 12 personnel and more 21. This didn’t happen really. The Eagles got all cute about it and put a guy in motion quite a bit, snapping the ball when he was crossing from Tackle to Tackle, but as far as committing two RB’s, nah, it didn’t happen. Funny thing though, a RB was often lined up behind the RT Halapoulivaati Vaitai‘s inside arm, as compensation for Vaitai’s inability to recover. Though the spirit was there, this was still technically NOT DONE

2) Shorten the strong-side read time. I have no idea what the Eagles were trying to do with the passing game this week. There didn’t seem to be a theme or any rhyme or reason to it. As a teen I’ve played in “sandlot” games that were better coordinated. (Then again I also coached those games. We went 7-0 and YES I’m bragging.) Simply establishing the TE would have done wonders for QB Carson Wentz in this game. Instead it was like the coaching staff hung him out to dry. NOT DONE

3) Get QB Sam Bradford running.We did a good job of flushing Bradford from the pocket a few times, and the few times when he should have ran, he was rewarded for staying in the pocket with sacks and forced fumbles. DONE

4) Don’t fall into the trap, and run the damned ball! 26 rushes to 28 pass attempts. Unlike most of the Vikings opponents, we stuck with running the ball and it didn’t allow their pass rush to get any traction. The result was ZERO sacks of Wentz, and ZERO torn jerseys. DONE

So that’s 2 of 4 things done in a week in which we struggled. Seems like we struggle less in weeks where 3 or more things get done, but “I ain’t one to gossip. So you ain’t heard that from me.” Next on the schedule we travel to Dall-ass to beat on “dat ass” while beating Dak-ass. Should be fun.

WK7: VIKINGS

Posted by The BEAST on 2016/10/24
Posted in: Coaching, Defense, NFL, Offense, Players, Reviews, Special Teams. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

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EAGLES 21 – Vikings 10

YET again the Eagles defended the nest and took down another so-called top tier team. The two teams combined for 8 turnovers in the game (Eagles 2 interceptions, 2 fumbles lost/Vikings 1 interception, 3 fumbles lost), and neither offense was exactly “en fuego”.

QB Carson Wentz (16/28 – 57.1% – 138 – 1 – 2) struggled mightily as no aspect of the passing game seemed designed to help him. Some questionable Shotgun snapping from C Jason Kelce didn’t help the matter. RT Halapoulivaati Vaitai received enough help to keep him from getting Wentz killed, but still needed more assistance than any legitimate starter should. RB Ryan Matthews (14 – 56 – 4.0 – 0 – 1) was the games leading rusher, but put the ball on the ground for the second time in three weeks. WR Josh Huff (4 – 39 – 9.7 – 0) led the Eagles in receiving yardage. Huff also scored what turned out to be the go-ahead touchdown in the second quarter with a 98 yard kickoff return.

We got six sacks from six different players, but the guy who managed to fill the stat sheet was FS Rod McLeod (7 – 1 – 1 – 1) While little will jump off the page statistically, the Birds played a very solid team concept yesterday. Our DE’s kept contain, and elected to force the Vikings into bad situations and poor decisions instead of freelancing to make the play. The result wasn’t flashy, but it was on the whole a suffocation performance.

Did you notice?

Wentz yelling at Kelce after the second bad snap, and the camaraderie blooming between MLB Jordan Hicks and OLB Nigel Bradham.

FOUR THINGS REVIEWED: STEELERS

Posted by The BEAST on 2016/09/26
Posted in: Coaching, Defense, Four Things, Offense, Players, Reviews, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

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YOUR Philadelphia Eagles and the home crowd didn’t merely win the game yesterday. We destroyed, dismantled and broke the will of what was supposed to be one of the NFL’s better teams. By the end of the third quarter you could see that all the Steelers wanted to do, was get on the bus and go home.

On the Steelers sideline, players and coaches were so shell-shocked that they weren’t even angry. Thousand yard stares dotted the sideline, as player after player sought out, and then curled into, his happy place until it was over. It was a thing of beauty.

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On our way to the 34 – 3 pummeling that was meted out, we took a team that came into the game averaging 135 rushing yards per game, and limited them to just 29. We hung 34 points on a team that had only allowed 32 in their first two games.

But what about the stuff that the final score doesn’t reveal? That’s the reason for these “Four Things” articles. To have an idea of what needs addressing BEFORE the game, so that we’re forced to honestly answer questions AFTER the game.

So, of the Four Things we were looking for in this last game, what exactly did we see?

1) Loosen up the Steelers front seven. I specifically said use passes to RB Darren Sproles and WR Josh Huff on routes to the outside (Outs, Flags, and Hitches) to get those OLB’s out of the box and into coverage. The Eagles did a less aggressive version of that, throwing Naked Screens and Flat routes to Sproles (6 catches) and Huff (4 catches). The two men came into yesterday’s game with a total of 5 catches. Yesterday they totaled 10. The box was unloaded and later there was room to run inside. DONE

2) Huddle. The idea here was that scoring and taking time off the clock would cause the Steelers to abandon their run game. They’d be forced out of their comfort zone, and put everything on their QB’s shoulders. The result was the Steelers attempted 10 runs all day long, as they fell further and further back. The game was put on the QB’s shoulders and we harassed him all day long. DONE

3) Intimidate the Steelers coaching staff. We got pressure early, but we never actually punked their coaching staff into a max-protect mindset. As a result they didn’t limit their QB’s options and had a numbers of opportunities. Good thing for Eagles fans that Steelers WR Mark Wheaton is apparently paid to drop passes. His 1 catch for 2 yards only looks worse next to his 3 drops. One of which was in the end zone. NOT DONE

4) Work the body. Once we ‘d spread the Steelers out with passes to Sproles and Huff on the edges, in came rookie RB Wendell Smallwood to finish the game with 14 second half carries. Smallwood didn’t wow anybody, but his fresh legs were effective enough to close out the game. DONE

So that gives us a score of 3 out of 4, which goes to show that when you attack an opponent fundamentally, you don’t need to do a billion things to bring them down. Our next match-up is in two weeks vs the hapless Detroit Lions, on the other side of our Bye week.

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EAGLES/COLTS: FOUR THINGS REVIEWED

Posted by The BEAST on 2016/08/29
Posted in: Coaching, Defense, Offense, Players, Reviews. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

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SOME people dismiss our 33 – 23 win over the Colts, because a number of their starters didn’t play due to injury. It makes me wonder: Would they rather we’d have lost? This was a game for sending a message, and since 13 of the Colts 23 points came in the 4th quarter, this game was never as close as the final score indicates. This was a game for sending a message and our starters dominated theirs. We didn’t play down to the opponent. We handled business. As Keenan Ivory Wayans would say:

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But what about the stuff that the final score doesn’t reveal? That’s the reason for these “Four Things” articles. To have an idea of what needs addressing BEFORE the game, so that we’re forced to honestly answer questions AFTER the game.

So, of the four things we were looking for in this last game, what exactly did we see?

1) RB Wendell Smallwood has to play more than a series. He sort of did, getting 3 touches before he was hit and taken out of the game, per concussion protocol. By and large he looked like a third version of RB’s we already have (Kenjon Barner, Byron Marshall, and himself). What he didn’t look like was a guy who could step in for Ryan Mathews. Especially if he’s going to be less durable than Mathews. We need a veteran here.

2) A starting receiver catching at least 3 balls for 40 yards. This didn’t happen, but it’s hard to write it off as a bad thing. In fact, what we got might be better than what I asked for. WR Josh Huff had 2 grabs for 60 yards, and both TE’s Trey Burton and Zach Ertz, (neither of whom started but both were in the game early) had 5 catches each for 35 and 25 yards respectively. Burton scored on a 3 yard pass.

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3) The deep ball must make a few appearances. This flat out didn’t happen and I think this will haunt us early in the season. Thinking that spreading out a defense is the same as unloading the box, is what caused the Offense to cave in after we lost DeSean Jackson. Right now we’re back to being a team that doesn’t legitimately scare anyone vertically. The plan is that Dorian Green-Beckham will add that dimension, but so far that looks like a miscalculation.

4) Andrew Luck must be sacked early. We all kinds of did this! He was sacked, hit, hurried and harassed on almost every dropback. It was a thing of beauty. The ball was at times thrown too early, hit the dirt… He was 13 of 18 but that’s not at all how it looked in the game or on the scoreboard.

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This week was a mixed bag, but I’ll call it 2 out of 4. We did #4 clearly. We did #1 technically, but not well enough to say that it counts. We didn’t do #2 statistically, but again, what we did got in it’s place is at least as good and more likely, better. We didn’t do #3 AT ALL, and it will be a problem when teams start to game plan for us. For those keeping score, that brings us to 7 of 12 for these three weeks.

As far as sending a message to the other 31 teams, this was the first glimpse of what the team will be, or what the team is trying to be, under Head Coach Doug Pederson. We were tough, methodical, and quietly efficient. Even when we had trouble, no one lost composure and we were in control the entire time. To quote the Stone Temple Pilots, “I got the message and the message stood…” If the rest of the NFL has not yet gotten the message, don’t worry, Keenan. They will.

EAGLES 33 – COLTS 23

Posted by The BEAST on 2016/08/28
Posted in: Defense, Offense, Players, Roster. Tagged: , , , , , , , . 2 Comments

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ALL the crying about the Eagles Offense will now be put on hold for at least two more weeks. Last night the Eagles tossed 33 points on the scoreboard. Only 6 of which came from FG’s, and 6 more from the Reserves. That means 21 points (1 rushing TD and 2 receiving) came from the starting Offensive unit, in 3 quarters of football.

Offensively the Eagles looked in control and composed despite some early miscues, including an interception caused by WR Nelson Agholor (0 – 0 – 0.0 – 0) bobbling a pass (that hit him in his hands). QB Sam Bradford (17 – 20 – 167 – 2 – 1) looked extremely comfortable out there.

Bradford drew blood in the second quarter with an uncontested, 4 yard, jump-ball to new Eagle WR Dorian Green-Beckham (2 – 15 – 7.5 – 1). Bradford wounded the Colts again, on a 3 yard, walk-in pass, to TE Trey Burton (5 – 35 – 7.0 – 1) in the third quarter. RB Ryan Mathews (3 – 31 – 10.3 – 0 – 0) looked ready for the season to start, but again only had three touches.

WR Josh Huff (2 – 60 – 30.0 – 0 / 2 – 10 – 5.0 – 1 – 0) once again flashed the play-making ability that frustrates so many fans. huff colts2He scored the first TD of the game on a 9 yard run (jet-sweep), and helped set up another score with a 38 yard catch and run over the middle of the Colts defense. Already a dangerous KR, the Eagles are still trying to identify a role for Huff, who is more like a RB than WR, but not quite a RB either.

Defensively, there was never a doubt about who was in control of this game. The stats don’t accurately tell the story of how much duress QB Andrew Luck (13 – 18 – 134 – 0 – 0) spent the night under, and just how dominant we were yet again.

Once again the Eagles shut down the run, allowing the Colts all of 39 yards on 18 attempts (2.2 yards per crack). The Defensive Line collected 3 sacks (all on Luck), and CB Nolan Carroll (1 – 0 – 1 – 0) killed a drive by picking off an intended touchdown pass, in the end zone.

Last week I said one of the big stories of that game were the 12 penalties for 96 yards. This week the Eagles committed 8 for 64 yards. This is still a high number, but it shows improvement. Next week will be bubble players trying hard to impress. Expect a messy game.

FIXING THIS OFFENSE QUICKLY.

Posted by The BEAST on 2016/08/20
Posted in: Coaching, Offense, Players, Roster. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

 

Pederson coaching Bradford

THERE is nothing seriously wrong with the Eagles Offense. Stop laughing. Schematically, its concepts work just fine. While I wish we worked out of the Shotgun less, it doesn’t appear to be impeding the run game, regardless of whether the starting O-line is on the field or the back-ups are. The biggest problem this Offense faces is a lack of discipline.

Penalties, dropped passes, routes run wrong, failing to recognize stunts…these are all lapses in focus that come down to player discipline. When a man’s head isn’t into what he’s doing, he is much more likely to be sloppy in how he does whatever task he is performing. He is more likely to miss details. He is more likely to be unaware of what is going on around him.

This team needs discipline, but at this point, discipline is going to be a hard sell coming from Head Coach Doug Pederson, because of the start his regime has gotten off to:

1) QB Sam Bradford was allowed to come back to his starting role after throwing a tantrum and walking out on his team.

2) WR Nelson Agholor spent no time in the doghouse after drawing negative attention to the Eagles, when he was accused of rape by a stripper who felt she hadn’t been paid enough for sex.

3) We just traded for WR Dorial Green-Beckham, who at worst is a malcontent, or at best is simply misunderstood and lazy.

It would seem the ship has sailed on Pederson’s ability to rule with an iron fist. So then how does a coach instill discipline when he is perceived by his players to be a softie? Simple. He does it by being a softie.

Let me give you an example of how this can work. WR Josh Huff has fumbled and had a couple drops these last two games. However, he has also started these last couple games, so everyone on the team knows he has some value. This is PERFECT. Couldn’t be a better set-up for an example.

Rookie WR Paul Turner has been making the most of his opportunity. Granted, he’s been playing against second and third stringers, but he himself is a third stringer. He doesn’t get to decide who he takes on, he only gets to decide how to beat them.

Pederson could spend a week lauding Turner’s focus and individual discipline, to the media. Then he could reward Turner in this next game, by playing him in Huff’s place. Meanwhile Huff can watch (in full uniform) from the sideline. Let Huff see how fleeting it can all be.

If Turner looks overwhelmed, then it’s still a wake-up call to Huff, who’d have to spend a week answering the same embarrassing questions. If Turner responds well, then we can move Huff (for a 6th or 7th round pick to say…Denver, where every pro knows he’d be buried on the depth chart) as away to open up a roster spot, save some cap space and add another Draft pick. Either way, it would send a loud and clear message to every Eagle on the roster, about what happens when Pederson does and does not, get what he wants.

And all the while, Pederson would never have to raise his voice, or utter one word in anger. He could smile the smile of a man who knows that he will win, no matter how it turns out.

When each player here gets his own head back into what he is doing, the focus will return and with that the discipline. THEN you will see this Offense in its full bloom.

Belgrade St. outside of P.A.L. 4.15.15

Belgrade Street, outside of P.A.L. 4/15/15

CAN OUR WIDE RECEIVERS BE SAVED?

Posted by The BEAST on 2016/08/19
Posted in: Coaching, Offense, Players, Roster. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . 1 Comment

WHILE we haven’t seen WR Jordan Matthews in action yet, we have seen WR’s Josh Huff, Nelson Agholor and TE Zach Ertz in two preseason games each. None of them has looked at all sharp out there, but I’m here to tell you that the problem is simple and is correctable. But it will take time to do so.

All of those players cut their NFL teeth under this team’s last head coach. They played in a system that asked them to do some pretty simple, awfully repetitive things. The downside of that was that they didn’t learn the in’s and out’s of being an NFL receiver. The job of WR is much more than “run to there and catch the ball.” If it were that simple then every WR ever to lace up cleats would have been an All-Pro.

The problem is that they have been developmentally stunted. They were taught to run a system, not taught to play football at this level. They learned to look at the sideline for Rocky or the Cheese Steak. As a result, all of the last regime’s best players were inherited, not developed. Andy Reid developed players. His successor has no idea of how to do such a thing.

The best indicator is WR Josh Huff. Until this year he’d been in the same system since 2010. He was drafted into a role that should have fit him like a glove. Instead, he struggled immediately. Couldn’t be because he was unfamiliar with the playbook or the core concepts. The role was the same, the system was the same. The only difference was the level he was playing at.

Knee-jerk reaction is to say that Huff is a bust. Okay, so what about Nelson Agholor? Remember when he was being hailed as a Jeremy Maclin clone? If not, just look at almost any publication about him around when he was drafted. In fact, here are a couple examples.

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…more metrics…

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Agholor played against top comp in college and has all the tools a pro needs. So why’d he fizzle in the pro’s so far? Matthews, Huff, Agholor and Ertz. There have been a bunch of articles predicting, waiting for, hoping for, praying for a breakout year from these players, but not one of them has had that year yet. Why not?

The answer is that they don’t know how. The good news is that WR coach Greg Lewis is a former pro who’s played in a similar version of this system. In fact, much of this coaching staff is built out of former players. There is enough insight here to help along any student willing to apply themselves. However, it will take time to learn new things, and to UNLEARN some bad habits.

That all having been said, we still may have to spill a little blood to get things on track sooner rather than later. In the next article, I’ll tell you who’s blood, and why the Offense isn’t as bad as it’s made out to be.

THE MOST TO PROVE

Posted by The BEAST on 2016/07/15
Posted in: Conversations, Players, Roster, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

 

SOMEONE posted an article in my Facebook group (Eagles Maniacs) talking about which five Eagles players have the most to prove. I won’t pick the list apart but I will say, that with the exception of one player, I disagreed with the players selected in article.

Of the five guys mentioned, not one of them is a starter. This irritated me because A) it ignores the players you’ll actually be watching, and B) it’s a safe place for a writer to plant a flag. It’s pretty hard for a player to prove or try to prove anything, while standing on the sideline as an apparent back-up.

So instead of bringing you weak shit, let me present to you the five Eagles STARTERS with the most prove in 2016.

1) WR Nelson Agholor: As a 1st rounder from last year with more deep speed than Jordan Matthews, Agholor is going into camp with first shot at a job on the outside. Considering that his rookie season reads like an autopsy, he has to catch 56 or so balls or he risks having the word “bust” begin to appear in sentences with his name.

2) LG Allen Barbre: The coach staff has made it clear that they expect rookie G Issac Seumalo to push Barbre for the starting spot. If you play Blackjack you know that the House wins a Push (tie). In this case the coaching staff is the House and the rookie is who they have their money on. Barbre needs to win this position battle outright, or he will be finished as an NFL first stringer.

3) FS Rodney McLeod: If you read local press about our new FS, you’d think he was a perennial All-Pro, who played on a unit with a nickname. In truth he’s played on a Rams defense that hemorrhaged points in each of the four years he was in St. Louis. I am by no means blaming him, I’m just saying that the expectations heaped on this guy are almost silly. YET, if he doesn’t live up to them this year, fans will crucify him.

4) QB Sam Bradford: The arc of his career will be decided this year, as 2016 is an audition for his next team. He is a playoff win away from going to Dallas, Chicago and/or Arizona next year. Oh, or the Jets. A 26 TD, 12 Int season combined with a newly minted playoff win, would be enough to get someone to offer us something for him. However, since we already tipped our hand about our plans with Carson Wentz, expect no more than cap relief and a 5th rounder for Bradford.

5) WR Josh Huff: While Huff hasn’t been a regular starter, if the Eagles go with a 3-WR base instead of a 2-TE base, then Huff has a chance to push for a starting spot on the outside vs speedy WR Chris Givens. He’s proven to be an asset as a return man, but if he gets a chance to play WR in a system predicated on yards after the catch, then Huff has a chance to make some serious noise.

These aren’t the only starters with something to prove. DE Connor Barwin, CB Eric Rowe, and C Jason Kelce also spring to mind. And lets be real, the pressure just isn’t there at the same level for these guys. Similarly, back-ups like LB/DE Marcus Smith, and RB Kenjon Barner, who enter Training Camp already knowing that they’re on the bubble.

Look, every player is under pressure to perform in a league that never stops asking:

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However, unlike back-ups, starters go into it with the pressure that if they don’t perform, they let not just themselves down, but also their entire team. So that’s my reason for picking these five players.

Which five players do YOU THINK have the most to prove?