Ronald Darby

All posts tagged Ronald Darby

WE’RE COVERED AT CORNERBACK

Posted by The BEAST on 2019/06/14
Posted in: Defense, free agents, Players, Reviews, Roster, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

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SILVER linings, right? Last year in 2018, our Secondary was decimated by a vicious injury bug that resulted in having to start 13 different players over the course of 16 regular season games. While that wasn’t a good thing, it worked itself into a very long-lasting positive. It forced our young Secondary players to grow up fast. Especially at CB.

The seeds of last year’s efforts are already producing fruit. It’s great that we get back CB Ronald Darby from a mid-season blown ACL, CB Jalen Mills from a mid-season foot injury, and CB Sidney Jones from late season hamstring strain. Even better however, is the fact that CB Rasul Douglas and CB Avonte Maddox are openly challenging for the spots that they effectively manned last year.

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Rasul Douglas

Let’s not forget about reserve CB’s Cre’Von LeBlanc, and free agent signee Blake Countess. LeBlanc has proven dangerous, and quick study as a Nickel here. Countess has a few starts for the Rams, but not in our system. So it remains to be seen if he takes well to it.

Still, that puts us six CB’s deep, with a seventh possible. Four of whom (Darby, Mills, Douglas and Maddox) can be referred to as big game tested, legit starters in this league. Name another team that can boast that.

That’s not to say that 2019 doesn’t bring a few question marks with it.

Sidney Jones has struggled to stay healthy since before we drafted him. He has yet to be 100% since becoming a pro. A lot of his struggles can clearly be traced back to him not yet trusting his body’s recovery. The hope is that it doesn’t permanently damage his confidence. Can he finally justify the second round pick the Eagles bestowed upon him?

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Jalen Mills is a better Nickle than outside Corner because he has trouble with true speed. Also his tackling degenerated to that of an ankle-biter, when he plays on the edge. He’s an emotional spark plug though, and every good Secondary has to have one or two of those. Mills was the Starter when he went down. Will Mills start on the outside in 2019?

Ronald Darby’s stock in trade is his ability to turn and run with true speed. However, coming off a second serious injury in two years (2017 broken leg, 2018 torn ACL), you have to wonder how much of his ability to accelerate and gear down RELIABLY, still remains.

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This is football. You don’t have it back, until you prove that you do. Does Darby still have the speed that sets him apart, or he just average now?

The odds on favorites at starter are Darby and Jones, right now. However, Rasul Douglas and Avonte Maddox have been turning heads in Mini-Camp. True, it’s shorts and no real contact. It’s just glorified catch, meant to wake the body up, introduce new concepts, and integrate new players. Still, when given the opportunity to show out, you should show up, and these young guys are.

Again, if Countess pans out we could end up with seven bonafide players here. The Eagles will likely only keep six, possibly squirreling Maddox away under the FS position (since it’s what he played before last year forced him to change that). In any case, we are COVERED at Cornerback.

FOUR THINGS REVIEWED: DOLPHINS (PS)

Posted by The BEAST on 2017/08/25
Posted in: Coaching, Defense, Four Things, NFL, Offense, Players, Reviews. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

THE expectation was that this game would largely be boring, since both teams spent a week facing each other in scrimmages. Logic says that each team would know what to protect against, and how. Instead, due to some sloppiness on our part, the Dolphins were able to hang around in the game. Still, it was a pretty ho-hum event to say that 69 total points were scored in it.

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Eagles 38 – Dolphins 31

The good news is that the passing game seems like it could be a force this year. That however, is largely dependent on whether or not QB Carson Wentz (10 – 6 – 60% – 129 – 2 – 1) takes as much punishment every week, as he took in just one quarter (that’s all the starters played) tonight. RB Corey Clement (9 – 42 – 4.6 – 1 – 0) looked very good leading the ground attack. OLB Mychal Kendricks (0 – 0 – 1 – 0) grabbed his third interception in as many games, bringing it back 31 yards to pay dirt.

I hear you asking, “What about all the stuff that stats don’t reveal?” Well, that’s the reason for these “Four Things” articles. We introduce an idea of what needs addressing BEFORE the game, so that fans have to honestly answer questions about those things, AFTER the game. This helps to get us, and keep us, all on the same page.

So, of the Four Things we were looking for in this last game, what exactly did we see? (Keep in mind, I talk about the starters in the Four Things section. I’ll address the back-ups, later. If at all.)

1) Impact from WR Alshon Jeffery: While I did notice one play with a Safety in the box, most of the time the Safety played deep. Jeffery did his part by catching 2 passes, one of which was a TD off of an inside release into the Safety’s area. That preseason play will have teams not wanting to get beat like that and, so open up room to run inside. This part, I loved. (DONE)

2) Man up: While I came into this game worrying about the Offensive Line’s ability to move men in the run game, I saw a line that also couldn’t keep players from hitting Wentz. (The batted ball that became an interception, had no business being caught. I could do an entire article on that play alone.) (NOT DONE)

3) Establish the Danger Zone: If you had told me that QB Jay Cutler would pick on CB Ronald Darby, I’d have laughed until I ruptured something. But he did, and it worked. Because the Dolphins decided to pick on Darby, there wasn’t nearly as much throwing over the middle as I anticipated. So while this wasn’t done, there really wasn’t much of a chance to do it. Sometimes I have to mark things “done” on a technicality. This time it goes the other way. (NOT DONE)

4) Back to basics: Our O-line didn’t drive men off the line, but they did block well enough for our RB’s to find holes. Tackling was effective enough, but we really weren’t great at getting off of blocks vs the run this week. (DONE)

The weekly score is 2 of 4, bringing our preseason total to 5 of 12. Next week we travel to the giants house, to take on their mentally challenged roommates, the New York Jets.

On The Whole:

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The Eagles had 16 penalties for 147 yards. That’s a football field and a half worth of penalties. They had trouble with their run block synchronization early on. They also failed to keep pass rushers from touching Wentz, even at times when they saw and picked up the blitz. The starters looked undisciplined and rusty. It’s the sort of thing that happens when you don’t get enough “live” action during the preseason. With all the starters sitting next week, we run the risk of going into a VERY winnable Week One game against the Redskins and being too raggedy to beat a bad team.

FOUR THINGS REVIEWED: BILLS (PS)

Posted by The BEAST on 2017/08/18
Posted in: Defense, Four Things, NFL, Offense, Players, Reviews. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

YAY we won! Then again there was never any doubt in my mind that we would. Aside from RB LeSean McCoy, the Bills don’t exactly have a ton of offensive weapons with which to scare anyone. For god’s sake, they were forced to start slow-footed WR Anquan Boldin on the outside tonight. That said, at least we didn’t lose to a lesser opponent. That’s an important building block in a successful season.

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The 20 – 16 win gave us a chance to look at some new starters. Given that the passing game didn’t click with the same rhythm it did a week ago, you have to wonder if it was adversely affected by the trade that brought us a key player in the Secondary.

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? (Keep in mind, I talk about the starters in the Four Things section. I’ll address the back-ups, later. If at all.)

1) Being in sync: QB Carson Wentz and WR Alshon Jeffery didn’t seem to be on the same page mentally tonight. That however was exactly what I expected would be the case. Live action is different from practice, and with Jeffery already taking it easy do to a shoulder strain, even working in practice was going to be turned down in intensity. It’s going to be a process. That said, BOTH of these guys need to play at least a half next week. (NOT DONE)

2) Push must come to shove: At no point did the Eagles attempt to establish an inside attack with RB LeGarrette Blount. They just kept running him outside. He did have a nice 8 yard gain on one carry, but other than that, the Eagles punked out at fighting in between the Tackles. (NOT DONE)

3) Slow the inside release: Many will tell you their favorite play was the pick by CB Ronald Darby. For me it was the interception he didn’t get, that I liked most. He closed a shallow cushion, forced his man outside, then closed on the ball like he was shot out of a cannon.  It was perfect technique. Totally without flaw. 9 times out of 10 that would be six points. On the pick however, Darby’s technique initially took him out of position. But when QB Tyrod Taylor underthrew Boldin, it gave Darby time to adjust. Not to take anything away from Darby, but he won’t see an assignment that easy in the NFC East. True, he’s a work in progress, but he truly has done really well for just getting here. (DONE)

4) Control the middle: The defensive interior was sort of up and down vs the run tonight. That was kind of to be expected by a team that runs the ball as well as the Bills do. (They were the number one rushing team in the NFL last year.) While we didn’t control the middle in an overall sense, we did manage the situations well. Situational ball, wins games. Winning games, wins divisions. Admittedly we didn’t control the middle, but with the big picture in mind, I’ll take it. (NOT DONE)

That puts this weeks score at 1 out of 4 things done. Our cumulative score after two weeks, is a less than stellar 3 out of 8.

On The Whole:

It was a penalty laden mess rehearsal, but there were some good things to take away from it. OLB Mychal Kendricks continued to prove his doubters wrong with his second interception in as many games, adding a sack to boot. QB Dane Evans has me wanting to see him get a look with the second unit next week. The guy plays his heart out and we should get a look at him against stiffer competition, to see if we have something in him. (Even if it just means we have a QB we can trade.)

ICYMI: RB Corey Clement got some early reps this week. Meanwhile RB Wendell Smallwood watched in street clothes.

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FOUR THINGS: EAGLES/BILLS (PS)

Posted by The BEAST on 2017/08/16
Posted in: Coaching, Defense, Four Things, NFL, Offense, Players, Preview. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . 1 Comment

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SO much is new coming into this game. In all honesty, some of it probably shouldn’t be new, but that’s spilled milk at this point. Generally in preseason game 2, you want to build on your strong points from preseason game 1. That however is hard to do when new starters get added suddenly, or others got the first week off.

Barring a surprise, new Eagles WR Alshon Jeffery and CB Ronald Darby will make their Philly debuts in this game. We’ll also get to see how WR Nelson Agholor looks as a regular in the slot. So it’ll be almost like we’re playing in our first preseason game.

Again.

So let’s talk about the Four Things we need to focus on for this week versus the Bills:

1) Being in sync: QB Carson Wentz has to demonstrate solid chemistry with WR Alshon Jeffery. The window for getting them on the same page is rapidly shrinking, and the trading of WR Jordan Matthews removes a security blanket for Wentz, that would have allowed for a certain margin of error. Nothing less than precision is acceptable here.

2) Push must come to shove: Last week, it looked as if the interior Offensive Line was incapable of generating a new line of scrimmage in the run game. That has to get fixed this week or a hard look has to be taken at whether starting LG Isaac Seumalo is really the right move.

3) Slow the inside release: It’ll be interesting to see how much success CB Ronald Darby has when he allows an unsupported inside release, vs when he plays an outside technique. Even if the receiver’s route is an inside route, Darby needs to at least make him fight to get inside. Five yard cushions and quick inside releases will make Darby the equivalent of every CB we already had on the roster before he got here. Keep your eyes peeled. Tape don’t lie.

4) Control the middle: Last week the Defensive Line did a great job of stymieing the Packers ground game, but the Bills are far better at running the rock than they are. This week if we see our line give RB LeSean McCoy a hard time between the Tackles, we’ll know our front is legit, and didn’t just beat up on a mediocre running team.

If we do all these things, we’re just about guaranteed to win. Now that we’ve covered what should happen, let’s get into what likely will happen:

Jeffery is no rookie. He knows his craft. He can read a defense, get open and make grabs. The issue here is timing. Practice speed and game speed are very different things. So hooking up with Wentz may not look as smooth as some people are expecting. Unlike last week, you can look for shots to be taken down the field. If the Eagles are going to open up the run game and work the bugs out of the passing game, they’re going to have to air the ball out on Thursday.

For years, I’ve called C Jason Kelce a soft player who benefited from the play of savvy, scrappy LG’s (Evan Mathis, Allen Barbre, Stefen Wisniewski) beside him. (This is why Kelce’s play can seem solid one week and soft the next.) Suemalo isn’t scrappy and he isn’t very experienced. The result is that now Kelce has to carry a guy, instead of being carried. In any case I wouldn’t expect a big night on runs inside vs the Bills interior of (DT’s) Marcell Darius, Kyle Williams and (MLB) Preston Brown.

The D-Line will get pressure but will get sold-out by spotty coverage. People will want to blame the athletes, but the real problem is the technique we play. But be patient. It’ll get addressed soon enough. Just not this week.

PREDICTION: EAGLES 17 – Bills 10

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THE EAGLES CORNERBACK PROBLEM

Posted by The BEAST on 2017/08/11
Posted in: Coaching, Conspiracy Corner, Conversations, Crazy Talk, Defense, Players, Rants, Roster, trade. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

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DEFENSIVE Coordinator Jim Schwartz brought with him a version of the Wide Nine defense, that was leveraged (smarter) differently, than the version that Eagles fans saw run under Jim Washburn/Juan Castillo, toward the end of Andy Reid’s tenure here. Schwartz’s system does a better job of getting pressure with our front four, than we have at any time since 1992. What Schwartz doesn’t seem to be able to do, is find a CB.

Oh, we’ve run the gamut in our search! We’ve kept veterans from the prior regime (Nolan Carroll). We’ve brought in guys who played in a Schwartz system before (Ron Brooks, and Leodis McKelvin, both former Bills). We brought in re-treads (Patrick Robinson). Drafted talent early (Sidney Jones). Reached on a project (Rasul Douglas). Promoted a gritty underdog (Jalen Mills). Now we even traded away Jordan Matthews, the WR with the best proven chemistry with our QB, in exchange for a third Bills CB (Ronald Darby).

We’ve swapped out physical guys like Dwayne Gratz, and cut then brought back finesse guys like Aaron Grymes. In the last two years, we’ve had a ton of CB’s and DB’s come and go in Philly. So many different kinds of athletes. So many varied gifts. So why can’t we find a decent starting pair of CB’s?

The answer is that we probably already found a pair of starting Corners. Fact is, the athletes aren’t the problem. The system isn’t the problem. The DC isn’t the problem. All of those are great. The problem is the coverage technique that Defensive Backs coach Cory Undlin is teaching the Corners (likely at the behest of Schwartz).

If Darby grabs 5 picks this year, most folks will say that I’m just a crank for talking about this. On the other hand, if he ends up on the pile like all the others have, we will have given up a valuable piece for something we already have plenty of.

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