Zach Brown

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EAGLES FANS! DON’T PANIC

Posted by The BEAST on 2019/10/15
Posted in: Coaching, Crazy Talk, Defense, Front Office (F.O.), NFC East, NFL, Offense, Rivals, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

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WILL DC Jim Schwartz be fired this week? Did we really cut LB Zach Brown over trash talk? Why can’t we get sacks? Why can’t we cover? Are the Eagles only marginally better than the rest of a crappy division?

I was going to release an article about what 12 Personnel is, and why it’s so effective. (It’s already written and waiting for me to publish it). However, given recent events that have some of our fan base in quasi-panic mode, I decided to delay that article, and go point by point to give NON-SPIN answers to these questions.

1) Will Schwartz be fired this week?

No. In fact, unless someone in the Front Office contracts mental retardation, Schwartz won’t be fired this season. Does he need to go? Hell yeah. Fuck yeah. We shouldn’t need to score 30 points to win a game. Giving up 25 points per game is not the mark for defensive competence.

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That being said, teams with legit playoff hopes, don’t invite upheaval in the middle of the season. Fact is, this is just one loss, following two wins. An Eagles win this coming Sunday, puts us firmly in command of the NFC East, and the Jim Schwartz problem gets the volume turned down on it.

2) Did they really cut Zach Brown over some trash talk?

On the surface it certainly looks like it. When I take a deeper look, it suggests that the trash talk may have just been a patsy for a move the team already wanted to make. Not just that, but it can also be used to give the appearance of a disciplinarian’s backhand.

It’s more likely because Brown was merely okay in underneath zone coverage, and didn’t make any splash plays. On the other hand, LB Nate Gerry who (ahem!) started the last two games, has flat-out, out-played Brown, over that span.

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That’s significant, because even last year, the Eagles used Gerry at the MLB spot when Jordan Hicks went down. Brown was here on a one year deal, and was never in the long-term plans. The Eagles just moved sooner, rather than later. This now clears the way for LB T.J. Edwards (whom coaches love) to get playing time.

The other part of this is, it sends the message that any shit talking, must be backed up. You don’t get to paint a target on the team, and then be invisible all afternoon. Also, we don’t know just how much Redskins cultural baggage may have followed Brown up here. There could very well (quite likely), be issues regarding his fit into the locker room.

3) Why can’t we get sacks?

QB’s are generally releasing the ball in fewer than three seconds vs the Eagles. The coverage is so loose that it allows for this. If we can get QB’s to hold the ball longer, then not only will sacks go up, but completion percentages will come down.

4) Why can’t any of our CB’s cover?

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This notion that ALL of our CB’s are trash is nonsense. The problem with our Corners isn’t a talent problem, it’s a system problem. Regardless of the CB, they are almost never allowed to play press coverage. Almost all of our man-to-man coverage involves giving up huge cushions that the WR settles into, to make quick, drive sustaining catches.

Making matters worse is the Single-high Safety coverage that this team has favored since the late Jim Johnson, used to keep S Quintin Mikell in since 2007. Yes! We’ve been rocking the same look for 12 years now. Sean McDermott? Single-high. Jim Washburn? Single-high. Juan Castillo? Single-high. Todd Bowles? Single-high. Bill Davis? Single-high.

There were times when we’d deviated here and there, but that was few and far in between. Complain all you like about FS Rod McLeod and SS Malcolm Jenkins, but answer this question, honestly. Prior to them, who was the best Safety duo for this team?

So yeah. The issue is systemic.

5) Are we a bad team that’s only slightly better than the rest of our division?

Hard to say that we’re the best, since we haven’t beaten Dallas yet. YET.

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As far as being a bad division. The Eagles are a couple of plays away from being 5 -1. We saw the giants make a game of it vs. the Patriots, without RB Saquon Barkley and a rookie making his 4th career start. The Redskins… Okay the ‘skins are legitimately awful. The Cowboys were 3 – 0, then ran out of zero win teams to crush, lost two games, took a deep breath, and then found a way to lose to a zero win team. So it’s hard to know how bad they might be.

That all being said, even if the NFC East is a bad division, that in no way means we have to be a bad team. Look at the aforementioned Patriots. Their division has been ass tar-tar, for two decades and yet we never hold it against New England. So who cares how bad our rivals are, if WE are truly good enough to win every week? Don’t sweat that shit.

So there you have it. Win or lose this week, understand: The sky is not falling. The Eagles need work, but as always the season is “work-in-progress” sort of thing every year. In five months, the Phillies will be reporting to Clearwater, and you’ll be pining for these days. So sit back and enjoy this ride while we have it.

And don’t panic.

WHAT’S REALLY THE MATTER?

Posted by The BEAST on 2019/08/11
Posted in: Conversations, Defense, NFL, Offense, Players, Rants, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

EVERYTHING matters. If that’s to be believed, then why didn’t our starters play at least a series on Thursday? Don’t hand me injuries. These are football players. They aren’t fine china. They need to be ready and up to speed for opening day, and from what we saw in this first game, at least the depth on this roster looks anything but ready.

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The coaching staff having so many players not even warm-up, speaks either to fear of injury, or a casual attitude towards the preseason. Neither is good for programming the mindset of rookie players. It’s hard to teach them that “everything matters” in practice, and with diet, and with study, and with training, when the staff regards some games as not mattering.

Instead, we were served up second stringers given the opportunity to impress, and push for more playing time during the season, (if not a re-order of the depth chart). However, few of those players did anything to catch an eye. There was an appalling lack of urgency and energy on their part. It didn’t really look as it much was at stake for them.

Some players showed up. TE Dallas Goedert made the most of his opportunity, looking downright uncoverable against starting level talent.

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QB Nate Sudfeld looked poised and polished, even after his injury. I was confident about him when I wrote my Pre-Draft Prediction in April, and he’s been everything I said he was. Rookie LT Andre Dillard already has me thinking he should be above OT Halapoulivaati Vaitai on the depth chart at LT. MLB Zach Brown looked like a seasoned pro, and LB L.J. Fort, looked like a roster must-have.

Some players who entered the game as second stringers, may have hurt their cases to make the final roster. DE Josh Sweat has yet to make his presence consistently felt. He seems incapable of stringing two good downs, back to back. LB Nate Gerry simply doesn’t the instincts for LB. The coaches want to see him as a fast, athletic LB; but really he’s a slow S, playing about 15 to 20 pounds too heavy. OL Matt Pryor is a guy I’ve been pulling for, but his mental errors are drive killers. Being a penalty magnet will have officials paying him more attention, and that alone could be enough to keep him off a roster. The fumble by RB Josh Adams held open the door for unremarkable RB Wendell Smallwood.

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Many people would include WR Marken Michel as a standout, but his 75 yard TD catch was just one catch, on one attempt, of a 50-50 ball. A larger sample size is needed. Conversely, SS Johnathan Cyprien blew an assignment and helped give up a TD pass. That’s from a relatively small sample of downs, from a player who just got here, with a year’s worth of rust to knock off.

As a fan I’m hoping that the Eagles pick it up, and look sharper in this next preseason game. I have my doubts about that however. RT Lane Johnson has already been shutdown for the remainder of the preseason, due to a knee issue that he’d play through during the season. Thus, he will not log a single down before he sees Redskin OLB Ryan Kerrigan, Week One. (Pretty cool, right Carson?)

There is no push from behind and no pull from ahead, so far. If the Eagles don’t start treating things like they truly matter, the derailment of this 2019-2020 season will be an inside job. That’s the everything. That’s what we have to understand. After that, nothing else matters.

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FOUR THINGS – PS WK 1 – EAGLES-TITANS

Posted by The BEAST on 2019/08/05
Posted in: Coaching, Defense, Four Things, NFL, Offense, Players, Roster. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , . 1 Comment

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EVERYTHING matters. That’s the theme of this season according to Eagles Head Coach Doug Pederson. Last year we had a number of injuries that held us back. There can be no disputing that. However, Doug also said, that at this time last year, the team (him included), let some of the little things slide. The result of letting things slide, was a 9-7 finish, and playoff games on the road. So the emphasis this year, is on the details.

This game here will allow us a chance to see what happens to player discipline and attention to detail, when the pressure gets turned on. Given that half the roster is about to watch their dreams of being an NFL player die in about a month, you had better believe that everyone is…

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The Titans finished last year at 9-7 for the third straight year in a row. Offensively they suck ass, but they have a top 10 defense, which they used to beat us (23 – 26 OT) last year. Time to get revenge right? RIGHT?!

Meh.

This game isn’t about winning it. The object here isn’t to win the game. The object is to use the game as a test of who has bought into what we’re doing. The object is to see who gives that all out effort, that ball out effort. To see who’s been studying their playbook. To see who is playing assignment sound football, and trusting his teammate to do the same.

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If we win, great. It would mean as much as a loss right now, but hey, we’ll take it. A win this week however, needs to be a mere byproduct of building this team.

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

1) Starters need to play a quarter: One quarter, that’s it. We need a few looks at how some of the new guys (DT Malik Jackson, WR DeSean Jackson, MLB Zach Brown) are meshing. While we don’t want to overwork those guys, we need a large enough sample size to be able to say “Okay, X has got this” or “X needs to work on such and such”.

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2) Go deep to Djax: Not too much this week. One shot over 30 yards should be good. The idea is to test the chemistry between Djax and QB Carson Wentz. If there are any bugs in their timing, now is the best time to throw interceptions. Also, the longer we wait to “unveil the weapon”, the more pressure there will be for it to work, when people first see it. Get the ‘Oooh Ahhh Ohhh’s’ out of the way early.

3) Look good running the ball: Despite all the buzz about rookie RB Miles Sanders, the guy we need to have a big year is RB Jordan Howard. Finishing with a stat-line of (5 – 20 – 4.0 – 0 – 0) with a 10 yard run somewhere in there, would be a solid indicator that we’re better off now, than we were during the playoffs.

4) Testing LB depth: The Eagles will likely keep six LB’s, and this game may tell you who they’ll be. OLB Nigel Bradham is still nursing a foot injury and OLB Kamu Grugier-Hill will miss months with a knee injury. So we should get a good look at Zach Brown. Brown can play the run in his sleep, but how well he executes our coverage concepts, could affect the number of Slant, TE Curl, and Crossing routes that teams try to run against us. LB’s Nate Gerry and L.J. Fort likely stick as Special Teams players, but KGH’s injury opens the door for rookie T.J. Edwards to close out Paul Worrilow’s career. Recent signee Johnathan Cyprien is an in the box S, who may be used in the Nickle LB role and used to also push Gerry.

If we do all these things, we’re just about guaranteed to win. Scratch that for now. If we do all these things, it will help us win a lot of games LATER. When they actually count.

Now that we’ve covered what should happen, let’s get into what likely will happen:

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Both teams will run pretty vanilla packages because that’s what happens in the preseason. Especially early in the preseason, which actually favors Tennessee. They’re a defensive team, with a pedestrian QB (Marcus Mariota), and a 247 pound RB (Derrick Henry), coached by a former LB (Mike Vrabel). The Titans would like to make every game, a fist-fight in a phone booth. Preseason suits that style.

While the Eagles are experts of 11-personnel (3WR, 1RB, 1TE), Doug has said he wants to use more 12-personnel (2WR, 1RB, 2TE). This game would be a great lab in which to conduct that experiment. So expect to see less “Air Coryell”, and more “modified Erhardt-Perkins”, from us. Expect to see us do less head-hunting, and more working the body.

Final score be damned, I want to see a lead after the first quarter. Something like10 – 6 would be fine. After that we can be outscored 3 – 21 for all I care. (QB Ryan Tannehill is their back-up, after all.) The Eagles will take some shots, but ultimately this game isn’t a contest, it’s a classroom.

PREDICTION: EAGLES 17 – Titans 24

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ATHLETES LOVE PHILADELPHIA

Posted by The BEAST on 2019/06/11
Posted in: Conversations, Fans, Players, Rivals, Uncategorized. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

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FORMER New York giant Safety Landon Collins recently said “I don’t feel like I bleed blue anymore. I feel like [the Redskins] know my value and how they’ll use me in their defense. I don’t feel like I was used correctly within the [giants] defense that I was playing in.“

You know, when Donovan McNabb was traded to the Redskins, when DeSean Jackson was released, when LeSean McCoy was traded to the Bills, when Connor Barwin was with the Rams, when LeGarrette Blount signed with Detroit, when Dawk went to Denver, none of these guys threw the team under the bus.

And they ALL spoke highly of the city. We got into their bones. Recently retired DE Chris Long referred to Philly as his favorite city. The aforementioned Barwin used to go to work riding the Broad Street Line. (For non-Philadelphians: That’s one of our “two” (really one) subway systems.) A multi-millionaire really has to dig the city to be willing to ride SEPTA.

Men who have traveled the country, have traveled the globe, and could afford to live anywhere in the world, come back HERE, to this place and regard it thus,

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LeSean McCoy’s first return to the Linc.

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Allen Iverson’s return as a Sixer

So you’ll understand my puzzlement, at the notion of people like Collins and Odell Beckham, taking shots at a storied franchise like the giants, and making no mention of missing a world-class city like New York.

We saw the same thing with new Eagle MLB Zach Brown in his unabashed dissing of the Redskins team, locker room and culture.

You never hear of players missing other places, but everyone misses being here. Well maybe not everyone. (Hall of Fame WR Chris Carter literally credits ^Buddy Ryan^ trading him from the Eagles, as what possibly saved his life.)

No. I didn’t go player by player for the last 10 years, and ask each man personally what he thinks, but you get the idea. Publicly, players put it right out there when they leave, that they don’t just miss the team they played for, they miss US. You and me. That connection.

There is something to be said for the capability to even BE unique. While a flower may be beautiful, they are generally sold in bunches where no single one stands out. However, that single, striking bulb set against the backdrop of all the sameness… There is a subtle bluntness to such beauty.

Logan Square was once used for public executions. Gallows stood in the square until 1823.

And that is apparently what Philly is. Athletes who’ve been the world over, still somehow manage to miss being here. My god. Let that sink in for a moment.