Practice Squad

All posts tagged Practice Squad

EAGLES ARE BETTER ALREADY

Posted by The BEAST on 2020/11/22
Posted in: Coaching, Conversations, Draft, free agents, Front Office (F.O.), NFL, Offense, Players, Roster, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

DO you see? Just like that, the Eagles are already getting better.

NOTE: I wanted to get this one in before we play the Browns today.

I wrote last week in EASILY FIXING THE EAGLES that the team’s issues stemmed from a culture without enough competition built into it. I also wrote a week prior to that, in HOW TO HELP CARSON WENTZ that he is at his best, with a hard-nosed running game, not a finesse one.

So what moves did the Eagles make?

Move The First: We signed RB Jordan Howard to the Practice Squad. For casual Eagles fans there’s a lot in that move that’s easy to miss. For someone like me, it’s all the subtle things that jump out at me. It’s all the “down the line” implications that I’m excited by. It likely won’t impact THIS game, but that’s beside the point.

Howard should have never been cut in the first place. Despite RB Miles Sanders’s obvious talent, he still could benefit from the presence of a veteran RB, to bounce things off of. RB Corey Clement fits the bill, but the Eagles spotty commitment to him, gives his voice less weight when talking to younger players.

With their treatment of Clement and cutting of Howard, the Eagles created a situation where there was no player to mentor Sanders. Thus, he’s still making small mental mistakes, that have huge impacts. Like on his blitz pick-ups, and pass route landmarks. Signing Howard, and letting Sanders see a vet do it, will help with that.

Move El Dos: Elevating RB Elijah Holyfield from the Practice Squad to the Active Roster. The advertisement on Holyfield is that he will be a tough, between the Tackles runner. The film on him says different. It says that once he gets past the line of scrimmage, there’s been too much East-West running in his very short football history. At least for my taste.

That being said, he was young and playing in Carolina. The Panthers had a playbook developed for a WR small RB trying to prove a point. So coming here, may help fix some bad habits that Holyfield may have picked up there.

*****

Those two moves by themselves are solid personnel moves. Add a veteran mentor, who has a skill that you clearly lack. Then elevate a guy from the Practice Squad, so you can get enough tape to evaluate him at season’s end, to determine pressing Draft needs. Solid GM-ing.

Now for the parts that are easy to miss.

Last week the giants made forcing-feeding us the run, look like Bluto force-feeding spinach to Popeye.

Popeye (1980) starring Robin Williams. My Uncle Michael took my brother and I to see this. Then we went to the Zoo. Huge lollipop and punch balloon on a rubber band. Great day.

But how was the Eagles Defense supposed to practice stopping that kind of downhill run game, without selling out to stop it? Practicing against which RB? Sanders? Clement? RB Boston Scott? Holyfield was on the PS, but he isn’t the downhill runner that Howard has proven to be.

There is a role for a short yardage/back-up RB on this team. The elevation of Holyfield and signing of Howard (who mostly still knows the playbook), is a competitive situation. Two players making Practice Squad money, who want real contracts. Real careers. Suddenly the Eagles are going to be practicing better. Do you see?

For a RB to impress in practice, he has to embarrass defensive players. If a defensive player is embarrassed too often, he may lose starts. That means our LB’s and Safeties are officially on notice. If they don’t get it now, they will the first time one of them gets run over by a teammate. Do you see?

I wrote just four days ago that THIS was the way to fix the team, and it is already underway! I doubted that the Eagles could/would do it during the season. Yet here are two subtle moves, that will spur culture change in the team’s practice habits. On both sides of the ball! Practice habits are work habits. They become game habits.

Do you see?

THE 2020 ROSTER (FIRST EDITION)

Posted by The BEAST on 2020/09/06
Posted in: Conversations, Defense, Draft, free agents, Front Office (F.O.), NFL, Offense, Players, Roster, Special Teams. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . 1 Comment

THERE were a few names among the cuts that I was not happy with: DT Anthony Rush, CB Rasul Douglas, and DE Shareef Miller specifically. That said, I wouldn’t rule out seeing one or two of those guys added to the Practice Squad in the next couple of days.

The key to this roster is not to over-react to it. With no preseason there may be a guy or two who made the team, simply because the coaching staff felt that they needed a look at him during live fire, before shipping him out. Cutting “just a guy” in order to make sure that you don’t pass on a diamond in the rough, is a hard thing to argue against.

Here’s my take on the Eagles roster as it stands now. We’ll keep it simple: GREEN (Ready to roll) / YELLOW (Serviceable, but needs bolstering) / RED (This can’t be the best we can do)

QB: Carson Wentz, Nate Sudfeld, Jalen Hurts – I have no worries here. Wentz is a top ten starter, Sudfeld has never been “WOW!”, but he’s never sucked either. Hurts is a rookie with a lot of talent, but he’s 100% untested at this level. GREEN

RB: Miles Sanders, Corey Clement, Boston Scott – This is a good group. Good. Not great. Everyone here can catch the ball and is dangerous as hell in the Screen game. What’s missing is a 3rd and 2 banger. A back to wear down the defense, eat clock, and quiet the crowd for road games like Week 10 (giants), Week 11 (Browns), and Week 13 (Packers). (YES! We drew away games at Lambeau TWO years in a row! Total bullshit.) GREEN

WR: Alshon Jeffery, DeSean Jackson, Greg Ward, J.J. Arcega-Whiteside, Jalen Reagor, John Hightower, Quez Watkins – Seven. I thought the team might keep six, but I guess with Jeffery not being back from injury yet, Watkins is getting an opportunity. Numbers aside, I’ve been an Eagles fan since 1989, and I have never seen our team assemble a receiver corps this dangerous. Jackson, Hightower and Watkins can all fly. Jeffery is open even when he’s covered. (And here’s a link for those who forgot that.) Greg Ward has a knack for uncovering early in his route, which gives the QB an almost instant place to go with the ball. Reagor and Whiteside have reportedly looked very promising in camp. This group is very fast, and diverse, so they can be schemed to exploit a new weakness every week. GREEN

TE: Zach Ertz, Dallas Goedert – This is likely the best TE 1-2 punch in football. The problem is that there is no depth here. While on most teams, a second TE would be depth, our team plays them both so much, that an injury to one totally disrupts our base offensive concept. This is one of the positions that either requires and add, or for a lineman to switch position. (Now who might be athletic enough to handle such a switch…?) However, as long as these two are healthy, opposing defensive coordinators can kiss a week of sleep, goodbye. GREEN

C: Jason Kelce – Good solid player. GREEN

G: Isaac Seumalo, Jason Peters, Nate Herbig – This is a solid bunch, though I still think that if Peters is playing the position, he should be on the Left, not the Right. YELLOW

T: Lane Johnson, Matt Pryor, Jordan Mailata, Jack Driscoll – Johnson is a perennial Pro-Bowl type of player at RT. Everyone else is a a crapshoot. With the season ending injury to Andre Dillard, Jason Peters should be at LT. Instead, we’re out here holding tryouts a week before the season starts. RED

DE: Brandon Graham, Vinny Curry, Derek Barnett, Josh Sweat, Genard Avery, Casey Toohill – Both Graham and Curry play the run well and get plenty of heat on the QB. (Though neither is a sack machine.) Barnett has yet to put it all together, and has been average at best to this point in his career. Sweat showed flashes last year, and may be nipping at Barnett’s heels for his starting spot in 2021. Avery is an OLB/DE tweener who relies on explosive brute force to get to the passer. We saw a tiny sample of that in 2019, but there’s a lot of buzz about him from coaches this year. Toohill is still here because a 250 pound DE, who runs a 4.62 forty, is a nice thing to have on Special Teams. This isn’t a flashy position, but there are at least 4 players here who are NFL caliber starters. GREEN

DT: Fletcher Cox, Malik Jackson, Hasaan Ridgeway, Javon Hargrave – Three of these four demand frequent double-teams. That alone will to open up many, many one-on-one opportunities for edge rushers this season. And what’s scarier: All the players at this position are all finishers. GREEN

OLB: Nate Gerry, Duke Riley, Alex Singleton, Davion Taylor, Shaun Bradley – Gerry is going to start. Beyond that, everything is a question or just speculation. As if to further fuel that very thing, the Eagles have taken down the depth chart section of their website. There’s a lot of speed here, but Gerry is the only one with significant experience playing NFL defense. Bradley and Taylor are both rookies. Singleton and Riley are career Special Teamers. Communication breakdowns are going to be a regular occurrence here. RED

MLB: T.J. Edwards – The Eagles don’t make a distinction between OLB and MLB. At least on paper they don’t. Fact is, with Edwards’s limited speed and range, he has to play the MIKE if he wants to play in this league. YELLOW

S: Rodney McLeod, Jalen Mills, Rudy Ford, Marcus Epps, Will Parks, K’Von Wallace – While I’m still peeved over letting Malcolm Jenkins walk, Mills will provide a little more speed. That means it won’t require McLeod to over-extend himself in deep coverage. Ford and Epps were here in 2019 and they combined for 17 games and 11 tackles. No passes defensed or nothing. Parks was brought in and moved into third on the depth chart, but he’s injured, and it remains to be seen how he bounces back. Wallace is a rookie. YELLOW

CB: Avonte Maddox, Cre’Von LeBlanc, Craig James, Darius Slay, Nickell Robey-Coleman – Slay isn’t quite “shutdown” level, but he’s the next best thing. Or at least he has been so far in his career. Maddox seems to be the second starter. He’s feisty and will gamble for the ball, but his stature (5’9”, 183) could become an issue. With Robey-Coleman being brought in to play the Nickle, it raises some serious questions about the role (and future) of LeBlanc. James just got a one year contract extension. YELLOW

 

K: Jake Elliott – Has been on a two year slide since 2017, and no one was brought in to challenge him. YELLOW

P: Cam Johnston – Needs to give his coverage time to get to the returner. YELLOW

LS: Rick Lovato – Must be awesome. You never hear his name. GREEN

 

Again, this is just the first edition of the roster. So there’s no need to freak out, and no reason to reserve Super Bowl tick- oh right. Covid.

WHAT ABOUT GREG WARD?

Posted by The BEAST on 2020/05/18
Posted in: Coaching, Conversations, Front Office (F.O.), Offense, Players, Roster, stats. Tagged: , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

2019 Greg Ward

BEFORE we go nuts talking about how fast the Eagles have gotten at the WR position, can we talk about how consistent the Eagles are, in regards to how they motivate as coaches? Given how WR Greg Ward stepped up last year, it seems almost a slap in the face that so many say that he may not even have a roster spot when the Eagles next play meaningful game.

Ward served three stints on the Practice Squad, before he finally was given a chance to play in a real NFL game. He played in seven games, starting the final three. In those starts he caught 17 of 21 targets for a catch rate of 80.9%, for 175 yards, as well as chalking CB Josh Norman in his home:

card.WR greg.ward

Overall in those seven games, Ward posted 28 grabs, for 254 yards and that score. Not killer stats, but given that he was essentially tossed into a meat-grinder, where he became the #1 wide receiver by default, Ward responded beautifully.

Hey, look, more speed is great. And unlike other years, not only do we have up-front speed, but we also have speed in reserve. That said, how do the Eagles send the message that stepping up matters, if they leave Ward on the upcoming cutting-room floor?

The answer is: They can’t. Especially if WR J.J. Arcega-Whiteside gets to stay on the roster. 

In a universe that makes sense, the Eagles would keep 6 WR’s instead of our customary 5. Those 6 should be: Alshon Jeffery, DeSean Jackson, Jalen Reagor, Greg Ward, Marquis Goodwin, and Whiteside. The Eagles however, will likely keep just 5, which could make that last spot a toss-up between Ward and Whiteside.

Outside of Jeffery, the Eagles don’t have another big receiver besides Whiteside, so that could be his edge. On the other hand, if the Eagles want a better route runner who uncovers quickly, and gives his QB a place to go with the football, then Ward is the no-brainer, hands-down, pound-the-table choice.

Greg Ward dallas

Odds are that Jeffery will start the season on the Physically Unable to Perform list, so rookie Jalen Reagor will start opposite Djax. When Jeffery gets back, Reagor may end up sliding into the Slot. Until that happens, the Slot will likely be a question mark.

With Goodwin being speed insurance against an injury, don’t expect the Eagles to feature him too much. So in a six receiver group, the Slot role would be in play. In a five receiver group (in that universe that makes sense), it should belong to Ward for at least a few weeks.

Over the last couple of years, I’ve written a couple of articles about Ward. With a little bit of imagination Article 1, Article 2, he could be a reason for opposing coaching staffs to lose plenty of sleep. I just hope that the Eagles coaching staff doesn’t end up being the ones who get caught snoring.

#5 KEEP THE RUSH ACTIVE

Posted by The BEAST on 2020/02/14
Posted in: Coaching, Conversations, Defense, NFL, Players, Roster, The 12. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

THE 12 2020.5

DEFENSIVE Tackle Anthony Rush is a name that likely escapes most Eagles fans, but it shouldn’t. When I bring him up in conversation, people’s eyebrows knit together and you can see them mentally searching for the name. That’s sort of a travesty in a city THIS knowledgeable about football.

In 2019, The Eagles got a ton of press about our Practice Squad players stepping up and contributing towards us winning the NFC East. The names that always came up however, were WR Greg Ward, RB Boston Scott, and to a lesser extent TE Josh Perkins. DT Anthony Rush? That name always seemed to be written in invisible ink.

Once we lost DT Malik Jackson and DT Hassan Ridgeway, we started shuttling in bodies like DT’s Albert Huggins and Akeem Spence. Spence didn’t hold the point of attack worth a damn, and soon found himself off the team. Huggins came later, played a few games and then went back to the Practice Squad.

Anthony Rush stacks it

Rush was signed to our Practice Squad on October 21st. He was on the active roster and in a game on October 27th. Rush’s 9 tackles in 9 games didn’t tear up the stat page, but he was about as statistically productive as DT Timmy Jernigan, while possibly being better at stacking blockers vs the run.

Most importantly, Rush gave the Eagles a legit rotational player, which allowed DT Fletcher Cox to focus on his own area, and maximize his own effectiveness. Until that point Fletch had been over-extending himself, trying to help out guys like Ridgeway, Spence and Huggins. You could actually see him starting to wear down.

Rush however, doesn’t need a babysitter. He proved to be able to stack blockers, play on the other side of the line of scrimmage, and make solo tackles even when engaged. Rush allows Cox to be the guy we saw in the Seattle playoff game, because even when Jernigan steps out, there is a level of consistent play at the other DT spot.

Said plainly: Rush helps us maximize Fletcher Cox. ALL. THE. TIME.

Fletcher Cox and Anthony Rush

Will we have that from Malik Jackson when he gets back? Can’t say for sure, but we have Rush already. Will Ridgeway be better at holding the point when he gets back? Dunno, but we already have Rush.

The combo of Cox, Jernigan, and Rush already works. If we can add to that, awesome! Just don’t dismantle it. Keep Rush on the active roster, and see if we can turn up the heat when get Jackson and Ridgeway back.