Monday, June 15, 2009
Saturday, April 25, 2009
All thoughts about the Draft.
2:37 pm:
With the draft less than 2 hours away I want to throw out m predictions and thoughts about what should happen. This has the possibility of being the Eagles best day since Andy Reid took over in '99.
The Eagles off season which people have bitched about relentlessly, my self included to a point, has not been bad. Actually, come Sunday night it could rival the off season of 2004, when the Eagles got Jevon Kearse and Terrell Owens.
Already they've signed Stacy Andrews to take over a RT and traded one of their first round picks for Pro Bowl LT Jason Peters. This move was great. The Eagles were planning on moving into the top 10 to get Andre Smith. Instead they were handed a Pro Bowl LT, and still have their original first round pick. Not bad.
Here are my thoughts about what could happen. The Eagles have made an offer in the last 2 days for Anquan Boldin. It was a 3rd and a 5th and Winston Justice. They are low balling cardinals at the moment cause their first need is a RB. It will be either, Moreno, Brown, or McCoy. Brown and McCoy are not worth the 21st pick. If the Eagles draft Knowshon Moreno with 21st pick or trade up to get him. They will absolutely give up their 2nd round pick for Boldin. They can't do that until they get a RB. If they have to trade down or use their 2nd round pick on a RB then , no Boldin.
If the Eagles walked away with, Peters, Moreno, and Boldin at Midnight tonight. They will be by far the favorite to win the Super Bowl.
With the draft less than 2 hours away I want to throw out m predictions and thoughts about what should happen. This has the possibility of being the Eagles best day since Andy Reid took over in '99.
The Eagles off season which people have bitched about relentlessly, my self included to a point, has not been bad. Actually, come Sunday night it could rival the off season of 2004, when the Eagles got Jevon Kearse and Terrell Owens.
Already they've signed Stacy Andrews to take over a RT and traded one of their first round picks for Pro Bowl LT Jason Peters. This move was great. The Eagles were planning on moving into the top 10 to get Andre Smith. Instead they were handed a Pro Bowl LT, and still have their original first round pick. Not bad.
Here are my thoughts about what could happen. The Eagles have made an offer in the last 2 days for Anquan Boldin. It was a 3rd and a 5th and Winston Justice. They are low balling cardinals at the moment cause their first need is a RB. It will be either, Moreno, Brown, or McCoy. Brown and McCoy are not worth the 21st pick. If the Eagles draft Knowshon Moreno with 21st pick or trade up to get him. They will absolutely give up their 2nd round pick for Boldin. They can't do that until they get a RB. If they have to trade down or use their 2nd round pick on a RB then , no Boldin.
If the Eagles walked away with, Peters, Moreno, and Boldin at Midnight tonight. They will be by far the favorite to win the Super Bowl.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Here We Go, Joe! Here We Go, Joe! So What, So What, So What’s the Scenaro?
With the Eagles turning the page on old players who have been with the team since the Ray Rhodes era, what's next? Where the hell do we go from here? Drafts of the past that were supposed to cement replacements for when this day came, have yet to pan out. The plans that the Eagles used when trading away first round picks, and using later round picks to get mediocre talent, are just not working. Using that fluke at the end of last season, and the fall ass backwards way of getting into NFC Championship game as the platform to say that this team is among the best in the league, isn't cutting it. We fell for the banana in the tailpipe trick far to many times to know how this is going to turn out. So what is next? What do the gold standard capologist's do to get this team in a position to win the big game. The answer, more of the same.
Well let's start with, who else, Brian Dawkins. I fall into the I'm sad to see him go, the Eagles should have tried harder or just TRY to get him back, but I understand to a point why he isn't here. Lets face it, he is older, but he still brought something to the defense that you can't measure with a stop watch or look at on film. He was the soul of that defense, bottom line. When you have guys almost coming to tears over the loss of Dawkins, that says something. But to Banner, it does't mean shit. To Banner, Dawkins is a walking, talking, headhunting, 35 year old cap number. Its a business, as Dawkins, Runyan, and Tra have all said in the last week. It is what it is, expect nothing more and nothing less.
So where is the soul now. Will Sheldon Brown or Stewart Bradley or Sean Jones step into that role? I don't know, you don't know. But what we do know, is that if the Eagles did sign or franchise tag Dawkins, you wouldn't be hoping that someone will be there to fill that void. The Eagles secondary is still a good secondary, but the defense as a whole lost something when Dawkins signed with Denver, and more importantly, the people who pay good money year in and year out for this product lost something.
When Tra Thomas first heard that Dawkins signed with Denver his response to his wife was, "Honey, pack your bags, we're movin' up outta here." Not in the sense that he was mad that Dawkins was shown the door but because he knew if they didn't sign Dawkins, they weren't going to sign any of them (Runyon, Dawkins, Thomas). That should tell you something about the disconnect between an Eagles player and the front office. The Eagles like to throw Banner on the radio and have the Burger King throw him softballs, and have Joe remind everybody how smart the Eagles are with using the cap. Guess what? It doesn't mean shit if you don't win a Super Bowl. You can be the most consistent team that always makes the playoffs and is always competitive but in the end, that means absolutely nothing if you never win a championship, nothing. Also don't think that there isn't a bigger motive to them not signing more free agents this season. Banner is always scheming, and he knows that losing Runyon, Dawkins, Tra, LJ, Buckhalter and then not signing more players, will in turn give the Eagles more, better compensatory draft picks in the 2010 draft. Its them scheming and planning to stay consitantly mediocre for as long as possible. So keep pinching pennies, and trading away first round picks so you don't have to pay first round salaries on players and eventually it will bite you in the ass.
Just look at the offensive line. This is a great example of how they've managed the salary cap and the draft right into a disaster. You have guys like Winston Justice and Max Jean Giles, who both were picked to be the future of this o-line. Not so much anymore. Justice was a high second round pick and after 3 season hasn't developed into anything more than a blocking dummy for others to practice on. You have an average center who disappears in games like the invisible man. You have Nick Cole who is currently listed as the second string guy in 3 out of the 5 offensive line positions. And then you have the biggest headache of them all. A Pro Bowl Guard who can't decide whether or not he really is committed to his job as an NFL player and turns a back spasm into a potential career ending injury, a year after getting his big payday. So now you need to coddle a 25 year old kid, and in turn sign his big brother, who is coming off a broken leg, to baby sit him. The writers from Armageddon couldn't write a bigger disaster. This is a 4-12 season waiting to happen. And you know where it starts, the Draft.
The Eagles could be the worst when it comes draft day. Not that they draft horribly. They are batting around 40% which is very good in the NFL. But the way they mismanage picks and draft high on some players is astonishing ,and their long term planning abilities are very suspect. Not to mention the long contracts they give these guys before they are proven.
This whole mess with the offensive line could have been fixed starting in the 2007 draft. The Eagles were sitting with the 26th pick in the first round. Now the year before, the Eagles drafted Winston Justice in the early second round. By 2007, it was known by people who saw Justice practice and play that there was little chance he would live up to his second round billing. One former Eagle, *cough* Hugh Douglas, said that he is a puppy and that he doesn't have the bite of a dog in him. Add to that, Justice has been heard in the past saying he doesn't really like football and this is just a job for him. Right there, I've heard enough. So knowing this with the 26th pick in '07, what do you do. What you should do, is draft the best available player, maybe Anthony Gonzalez or Greg Olsen. Or you could draft a position that you regard at the highest, offensive line. You had Joe Staley, Tony Ugoh, Ben Grubbs, Justin Blalock, maybe Ryan Kalil out of USC, regarded as one of the best centers to come out in the last 5 years. So what do the Eagles do. The Eagles trade the pick to Dallas and drop down to the 36th pick. Christ almighty, whats next? Trying to be optimistic I'm thinking: Okay, still a good position, you gained some picks, what now? Oh and look, Ugoh is still out there, so is Blalock and Kalil too. Nope the Eagles draft Kevin Kolb, QB, University of friggin Houston. He comes from the same mold as, David Klingler and Andre Ware. Now that's great company. Add Kolb to the short list of QB's from UH, who couldn't read a defense to save their lives. Honestly it's pathetic. You have Donovan McNabb, like him or not he is a good QB, and you draft a QB in the second round. Dumb as they come. So here is the long term strategy as of '07. McNabb is gone by '09 at the latest. Now me, being from the future, I have the ability to tell you that in 2009, McNabb is still HERE, and you wasted the 36th pick on a back up, bravo. "Good draft picks? Where were going, you won't need good draft picks."
So the '06 and '07 draft didn't go well for those in the business of planning a long term future for the Philadelphia Eagles. After all this is a business. With Lurie and company, they just happen to being running a team in one of most starved for a championship cities in the last 25 years, till now. Time is running out for them. But luckily, every year like clockwork, the Eagles get another chance to make a brighter future only to dim the hopes of 99% of their fans.
So what do you do this year. It's '08, you have just witnessed the Giants win a Super Bowl with the help of....are you ready........rookies. Look at that, a team who actually plays rookies succeeded. And to think we sat around this whole time making rookies sit for two years to "develop" and "learn the system", again, pathetic. Here it comes, the 19th overall pick, the Eagles select.....there has been a trade. See, I forgot that the Eagles had just won the 2007 Super Bowl and were in no rush to get an immediate impact player. Silly me, I slept through last winter, my fault. With the 19th pick the Carolina Panthers select, what do you know, a offensive tackle, Jeff Otah. It turns out, Jeff Otah had a Pro Bowl caliber season in '08 and was an instant starter. Isn't that friggin peachy. Now the Eagles could have taken Otah or maybe, since they were so secure with Tra, Jon, and the rest of the bunch, maybe draft, the best available player. Maybe someone like, Sam Baker, another stud offensive tackle, or Felix Jones or Rashard Mendenhall or Chris Johnson or Dustin Keller or Kenny Phillips or Eddie Royal or Matt Forte. You know, any of those random players. But no, they ended up having their first pick be, Trevor Laws. Specfriggintacular. Now they hit right on with DeSean Jackson, I will give them that. But they could have had any one of the players above instead of Trevor Laws and still ended up with DeSean.
So they also got Carolina's first round pick in'09, but they were banking on the Panthers having a rebuilding season and that being a high pick. Turns out the Panthers were very good all along and now that maybe 9th overall pick or 15th overall pick, is just an okay 28th overall pick. The value of that pick plummeted over the course of the '08 season. It back fired bad. So instead of getting immediate help in '08 or maybe future tackle like Baker or Otah. You get Trevor Laws and hopefully something good with the 28th pick. Good luck with that. Knowing your history I'm sure well end up with something wonderful.
Well let's start with, who else, Brian Dawkins. I fall into the I'm sad to see him go, the Eagles should have tried harder or just TRY to get him back, but I understand to a point why he isn't here. Lets face it, he is older, but he still brought something to the defense that you can't measure with a stop watch or look at on film. He was the soul of that defense, bottom line. When you have guys almost coming to tears over the loss of Dawkins, that says something. But to Banner, it does't mean shit. To Banner, Dawkins is a walking, talking, headhunting, 35 year old cap number. Its a business, as Dawkins, Runyan, and Tra have all said in the last week. It is what it is, expect nothing more and nothing less.
So where is the soul now. Will Sheldon Brown or Stewart Bradley or Sean Jones step into that role? I don't know, you don't know. But what we do know, is that if the Eagles did sign or franchise tag Dawkins, you wouldn't be hoping that someone will be there to fill that void. The Eagles secondary is still a good secondary, but the defense as a whole lost something when Dawkins signed with Denver, and more importantly, the people who pay good money year in and year out for this product lost something.
When Tra Thomas first heard that Dawkins signed with Denver his response to his wife was, "Honey, pack your bags, we're movin' up outta here." Not in the sense that he was mad that Dawkins was shown the door but because he knew if they didn't sign Dawkins, they weren't going to sign any of them (Runyon, Dawkins, Thomas). That should tell you something about the disconnect between an Eagles player and the front office. The Eagles like to throw Banner on the radio and have the Burger King throw him softballs, and have Joe remind everybody how smart the Eagles are with using the cap. Guess what? It doesn't mean shit if you don't win a Super Bowl. You can be the most consistent team that always makes the playoffs and is always competitive but in the end, that means absolutely nothing if you never win a championship, nothing. Also don't think that there isn't a bigger motive to them not signing more free agents this season. Banner is always scheming, and he knows that losing Runyon, Dawkins, Tra, LJ, Buckhalter and then not signing more players, will in turn give the Eagles more, better compensatory draft picks in the 2010 draft. Its them scheming and planning to stay consitantly mediocre for as long as possible. So keep pinching pennies, and trading away first round picks so you don't have to pay first round salaries on players and eventually it will bite you in the ass.
Just look at the offensive line. This is a great example of how they've managed the salary cap and the draft right into a disaster. You have guys like Winston Justice and Max Jean Giles, who both were picked to be the future of this o-line. Not so much anymore. Justice was a high second round pick and after 3 season hasn't developed into anything more than a blocking dummy for others to practice on. You have an average center who disappears in games like the invisible man. You have Nick Cole who is currently listed as the second string guy in 3 out of the 5 offensive line positions. And then you have the biggest headache of them all. A Pro Bowl Guard who can't decide whether or not he really is committed to his job as an NFL player and turns a back spasm into a potential career ending injury, a year after getting his big payday. So now you need to coddle a 25 year old kid, and in turn sign his big brother, who is coming off a broken leg, to baby sit him. The writers from Armageddon couldn't write a bigger disaster. This is a 4-12 season waiting to happen. And you know where it starts, the Draft.
The Eagles could be the worst when it comes draft day. Not that they draft horribly. They are batting around 40% which is very good in the NFL. But the way they mismanage picks and draft high on some players is astonishing ,and their long term planning abilities are very suspect. Not to mention the long contracts they give these guys before they are proven.
This whole mess with the offensive line could have been fixed starting in the 2007 draft. The Eagles were sitting with the 26th pick in the first round. Now the year before, the Eagles drafted Winston Justice in the early second round. By 2007, it was known by people who saw Justice practice and play that there was little chance he would live up to his second round billing. One former Eagle, *cough* Hugh Douglas, said that he is a puppy and that he doesn't have the bite of a dog in him. Add to that, Justice has been heard in the past saying he doesn't really like football and this is just a job for him. Right there, I've heard enough. So knowing this with the 26th pick in '07, what do you do. What you should do, is draft the best available player, maybe Anthony Gonzalez or Greg Olsen. Or you could draft a position that you regard at the highest, offensive line. You had Joe Staley, Tony Ugoh, Ben Grubbs, Justin Blalock, maybe Ryan Kalil out of USC, regarded as one of the best centers to come out in the last 5 years. So what do the Eagles do. The Eagles trade the pick to Dallas and drop down to the 36th pick. Christ almighty, whats next? Trying to be optimistic I'm thinking: Okay, still a good position, you gained some picks, what now? Oh and look, Ugoh is still out there, so is Blalock and Kalil too. Nope the Eagles draft Kevin Kolb, QB, University of friggin Houston. He comes from the same mold as, David Klingler and Andre Ware. Now that's great company. Add Kolb to the short list of QB's from UH, who couldn't read a defense to save their lives. Honestly it's pathetic. You have Donovan McNabb, like him or not he is a good QB, and you draft a QB in the second round. Dumb as they come. So here is the long term strategy as of '07. McNabb is gone by '09 at the latest. Now me, being from the future, I have the ability to tell you that in 2009, McNabb is still HERE, and you wasted the 36th pick on a back up, bravo. "Good draft picks? Where were going, you won't need good draft picks."
So the '06 and '07 draft didn't go well for those in the business of planning a long term future for the Philadelphia Eagles. After all this is a business. With Lurie and company, they just happen to being running a team in one of most starved for a championship cities in the last 25 years, till now. Time is running out for them. But luckily, every year like clockwork, the Eagles get another chance to make a brighter future only to dim the hopes of 99% of their fans.
So what do you do this year. It's '08, you have just witnessed the Giants win a Super Bowl with the help of....are you ready........rookies. Look at that, a team who actually plays rookies succeeded. And to think we sat around this whole time making rookies sit for two years to "develop" and "learn the system", again, pathetic. Here it comes, the 19th overall pick, the Eagles select.....there has been a trade. See, I forgot that the Eagles had just won the 2007 Super Bowl and were in no rush to get an immediate impact player. Silly me, I slept through last winter, my fault. With the 19th pick the Carolina Panthers select, what do you know, a offensive tackle, Jeff Otah. It turns out, Jeff Otah had a Pro Bowl caliber season in '08 and was an instant starter. Isn't that friggin peachy. Now the Eagles could have taken Otah or maybe, since they were so secure with Tra, Jon, and the rest of the bunch, maybe draft, the best available player. Maybe someone like, Sam Baker, another stud offensive tackle, or Felix Jones or Rashard Mendenhall or Chris Johnson or Dustin Keller or Kenny Phillips or Eddie Royal or Matt Forte. You know, any of those random players. But no, they ended up having their first pick be, Trevor Laws. Specfriggintacular. Now they hit right on with DeSean Jackson, I will give them that. But they could have had any one of the players above instead of Trevor Laws and still ended up with DeSean.
So they also got Carolina's first round pick in'09, but they were banking on the Panthers having a rebuilding season and that being a high pick. Turns out the Panthers were very good all along and now that maybe 9th overall pick or 15th overall pick, is just an okay 28th overall pick. The value of that pick plummeted over the course of the '08 season. It back fired bad. So instead of getting immediate help in '08 or maybe future tackle like Baker or Otah. You get Trevor Laws and hopefully something good with the 28th pick. Good luck with that. Knowing your history I'm sure well end up with something wonderful.
Monday, March 9, 2009
Check me out on Twitter.
I will now be talking Eagles on Twitter. Its an easier faster way to talk about the Philadelphia Eagles.
Check me out: http://twitter.com/EaglesTalk
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Wednesday, January 14, 2009
2009 Philadelphia Eagles Draft Preview.
The Eagles aren't even out of the Playoffs yet and my mind is already wandering to what moves need to be made this off season. It doesn't help that the NFL draft is my single favorite sporting event of the year. I've always loved the draft since I was kid, and to this day when January/February rolls around I start getting hype.So with that said, over the next couple of weeks I'm going to highlight 10 Players I would love the Eagles to target, even knowing that they probably won't draft one of them.
First on my list,
RB Knowshon Moreno,Georgia - 5-10 / 210.
Brian Westbrook isn't getting any younger and his durability is becoming an issue week in and week out. It's to the point where he isn't even practicing during the week. Correll Buckhalter has been a good back up when healthy, but also has had multiple serious knee injuries during his career and is pushing 31 this year. Lorenzo Booker is well, mediocre at best. When picked up this year we were led to believe that Booker and Westbrook would see a lot of playing time together. Not the case. Barring a significant change in Booker's ability, he won't be on the roster come next season.
The Eagles need to draft their RB of the future and Moreno fits the mold of what Andy Reid loves in a RB. In the '05 draft the Eagles used a 3rd round pick on a player some called a "Westbrook clone(Sports Illustrated)" , Ryan Moats. They couldn't have been more wrong. But with Moreno, you are getting a guy is very similar to Westbrook and could be a better inside runner making him even more valuable. With his speed, vision, and natural play making ability, he is the "Westbrook clone" that the Eagles have been seeking since '05.
Moreno is currently projected by most "experts" and mock draft websites to go some where in the mid 1st round. The 2009 Draft Class is not deep at RB so a team with a serious need at RB might take a reach on Moreno around picks 14-22, a'la the Cowboys with Felix Jones in last years draft. It also doesn't help the Eagles that a couple of high profile underclassmen that were projected to be drafted in the 1st round have decided to return school. Moreno's stock seems to be rising with each passing day. With a stellar combine, Moreno could crack the top 10 but is more then likely to be a mid 1st rounder. So the Eagles have to either pray that he falls to 28th or trade up. Time will tell.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
NFC Championship Preview.
The Eagles have been able to do the unthinkable in a very short amount of time. After the horrible performance versus the Bengals and then the Ravens McNabb debacle, Nostradomus himself couldn't have predicted what the Eagles were able to do in the last two months. The Eagles now have a serious shot at going to the Super Bowl, and possibly winning the Super Bowl. I know, slow down. One game at a time. With that I truly believe that the Eagles are the only team that can beat the Eagles this week. The recipe is pretty simple to beat Arizona, put pressure on Kurt Warner and you might as well put an Eagles jersey on him. It's that simple. The popular thing to say this week is that Larry Fitzgerald is going to be the key and he can't be stopped. Again its simple. You can stop Larry Fitzgerald, by putting pressure on Warner. If Warner isn't given the time, you could have my grandmother covering Fitzgerald, it won't matter. I'm going to go more in depth about what needs to be done exactly to get the win, but my main point will be, put pressure on Warner and he will hand you the win gift wrapped. With that, lets get into some more things that will make the Eagles day a little easier.
1) Control the clock: Slow the game down.
The one thing you absolutely can not do with the Cardinals, is let them get out to a fast start. What the Cardinals do a lot is stretch the field quickly and score quickly. When they do that, they sometimes force you to get away from your game plan. If they are up 14-0 or 17-0 in the second quarter, you might start to press a little and start getting away from what you do best. When this happens, mistakes are made, which leads to my next point.
2) Do not turn the ball over.
This is the biggest key to the Cardinals recent success. In the Panther first 7 possessions, they scored a TD, they punted 3 times, and they had 3 turnovers. If any team has that bad of a start, you will never stand a chance to win that game. The Cardinals scored 17 points in the first half off of turnovers. That's the game right there. You either have to be Tom Brady or a miracle worker to come back from that. And Jake Delhomme is far from being either of those two. Now with the score being so lopsided, instead of running the ball which they do well, they had to rely on Jake Delhomme to get into a shootout with Kurt Warner. Ten times out of ten Delhomme loses that battle. So either credit the Cardinals defense for stopping the run and forcing turnovers or give credit to the Panthers for making it easy for the Cardinals. In the first half, the Panthers ran 25 plays in 7 possessions, 8 were runs. The first 2 possessions of the game each had 3 running plays. One of the possessions led to a TD. So for the next 5 possessions they ran the ball just 2 times. They deserved to lose.
3) You can't play a zone, and only rush four men against Kurt Warner.
I don't have to worry about this with Jim Johnson being defesive cordinator. He's going to have guys on Warner all day. I just got done watching the replay of the Panthers/Cardinals game on NFL Replay. And you could see why Warner was carving up the Panthers defense. They were rushing their defensive linemen and thats it pretty much the whole game. They had the occasonal blitz but for the most part Kurt Warner could have been bagging groceries and he still would have had time throw against that defense. It was pathetic. The Panthers sacked Warner 1 time last Saturday, thats it. Again, you deserved to lose. Moral of the story, if get pressure on Warner you will win the game, end of story.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Questions, Questions, Questions.
Will Brian Westbrook holdout? No.
Is Westbrook crazy for asking for $10M a year? Yes.
Will Lito Sheppard be traded? No.
Will McNabb get injured? Yes.
Is this McNabb's last season with the Eagles? Yes.
Will Kevin Kolb see any playing time this season? Yes.
Will Greg Lewis be on the roster come September? No.
Will Lorenzo Booker be Westbrook's back up? Yes.
How will the LB's perform? Above Average.
Will Asante Samuel be worth the money? Yes.
Who will start, Lito or Sheldon? Sheldon.
Can Stewart Bradley live up to the hype? Yes.
Will Trent Cole be better then he was last season? No.
Will Brian Dawkins break down again? No.
Will Desean Jackson help the offense? Yes.
How many TD's will Jackson score? 9
Who keeps a spot on the roster by getting hurt, McDougle or Moats? Neither.
Will the Eagles make the playoffs? Yes.
Many, many questions going into this season.
Is Westbrook crazy for asking for $10M a year? Yes.
Will Lito Sheppard be traded? No.
Will McNabb get injured? Yes.
Is this McNabb's last season with the Eagles? Yes.
Will Kevin Kolb see any playing time this season? Yes.
Will Greg Lewis be on the roster come September? No.
Will Lorenzo Booker be Westbrook's back up? Yes.
How will the LB's perform? Above Average.
Will Asante Samuel be worth the money? Yes.
Who will start, Lito or Sheldon? Sheldon.
Can Stewart Bradley live up to the hype? Yes.
Will Trent Cole be better then he was last season? No.
Will Brian Dawkins break down again? No.
Will Desean Jackson help the offense? Yes.
How many TD's will Jackson score? 9
Who keeps a spot on the roster by getting hurt, McDougle or Moats? Neither.
Will the Eagles make the playoffs? Yes.
Many, many questions going into this season.
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