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.

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.

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.

Where to start?

Wow...Its been so long I don't know where to start. Since the last time I posted the Sixers made the playoffs, and exited shortly after. The Flyers did more then anybody could have imagined. If you say you predicted them making the Eastern Conference Finals, well, you're a liar. Liar. The Eagles drama has continued. McNabb has shoulder problems, oh my god. This couldn't be more blown out of proportion. Desean Jackson is very confident for someone who hardly saw the field during the recent mini camp. I just pray he's not another Freddie Mitchell. "I'm a special player, I wanna thank my hands for being so great." To bad his mouth was writing checks his hands couldn't cash. Apparently he's still bitter about the 2004 season and has been trashing McNabb and Hugh Douglas. Lito Sheppard is still an Eagle. Which is a little surprising. I do like it though. What else, what else. Oh yea the Phillies. Wow. What a start. Utley has been killing it. The bullpen is the best in baseball. Never thought I'd live to utter those words. But as I write this the Phillies are getting their doors blown off by the Angels. Adam Eaton has returned to earth giving up 12 hits and 3 walks. Very nice. Oh, and Chase Utley is battling through a bad slump right now. 0-22. I think that covers everything. I'm going to try to write more. Don't know if it matters cause I really don't know how many people actually check out this blog. But I'm going to write anyway cause I like to do it. I'm pissed at myself for not writing for the last 3 months. Oh well. Is anybody out there? HEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLOOOO?? No. Okay.

The Best Draft Picks in the Andy Reid Era.

Originally posted on March 15, 2007: I have to say after looking at the drafts from 99-06, it was harder to narrow the best draft picks then the worst draft picks. I had a hard time picking 5 bad picks. Could of I put Na Brown or some other 5th round draft pick on the worst list, sure. But making those 5th round draft picks into really good NFL players is not easy. The Eagles have been able to do that on a few occasions. The best picks include 3 players that are already solid Pro Bowl caliber players and 2 that are on their way to being very good NFL players and look like they have a great future with the franchise.

Top 5 Best Picks

5) Lito Sheppard, Florida, DB, 1st Round(26th Overall) Sheldon Brown, South Carolina, DB, 2nd Round (59th Overall): Remember 3 or 4 years ago when the Eagles decided to let Bobby Taylor and Troy Vincent go at the same time. What the hell were they thinking? That they had Lito Sheppard and Sheldon Brown to replace them. Well, they were right. The Eagles DB's didn't flinch. Out of the two I'd have to go with Lito as the better. He's a solid DB. He made it to the Pro Bowl in 2004 and would have made his second trip to Hawaii had he not gotten injured in the Playoffs.

3/10/08: That was then, this is now. I still think Lito was a great pick. He is currently sixth on my list. In 2007 it was just the same old thing with Lito. He got injured in the first game of the season, and missed key games vs. the Redskins and Giants, both of which the Eagles lost. He played from week 7-15 and only had 2 picks. So this year it came down to Sheldon and Lito again. So I looked closely at both guys career stats and ended up going with Sheldon. Sheldon Brown is a good corner who doesn't get as much credit as he should cause he doesn't get a lot of picks. The thing that sticks out most to me is that he has played in every game since his rookie season in 2002. 96 straight games he's played in. He has started every game since taking over the starting RCB in 2004. That's impressive. Lito on the other hand has played in 77 games since 2002, 19 less then Sheldon. Now Lito has more picks than Sheldon with 17 for his career. Compared to Sheldon who has just 13. But again that's not what Sheldon does well. Sheldon is a great tackler and has good coverage skills. He breaks up a lot of passes but again, doesn't get a lot of picks. Sheldon's biggest problem is the fact that he can not cover Plaxico Burress. Now to his credit, Sheldon has one of the best hits ever in the history of the NFL. Of course you remember the playoff game vs. the Saints when Sheldon almost killed Reggie Bush. So this year I moved Sheldon up. Could Lito be here, sure.

4) Trent Cole, Cincinnati, DE, 5th Round(191st Overall): The fifth was hard to choose. You have guys like Sheldon Brown, Corey Simon, and Derrick Burgess. You could make a case for any of those guys to be in this spot, but I went with Trent Cole. It is still a little early to gauge how good Trent Cole will be, but as of right now, he is looking like he could be the Eagles future starting DE. Is there anyone who doesn't think he should be starting over Darren Howard. Cole had 5 sacks his rookie year and 8 sacks last year. He had 8 sacks basically splitting time with 3 guys. Not bad. Right now, I can say that for 191st pick in the draft, Cole is pretty good. The Eagles have locked up Cole up for pretty much the rest of his career barring a trade of some kind.

3/10/08: Trent Cole is slowing climbing up the board. I don't ever expect him to crack the top two, cause with McNabb and Westbrook there, it would take a lot. But if continues doing what he has been doing he could pass Shawn Andrews. Trent Cole had another stellar season in 2007 posting 12.5 sacks, 70 tackles and 4 forced fumbles. Cole also made the Pro Bowl. In his first three seasons Cole has seen action in 47 out of 48 games. Very impressive for the 191st pick.

3) Shawn Andrews, Arkansas, G, 1st Round(16th Overall): The 2004 Draft. I remember it like it was yesterday. The Eagles had traded up to the 16th pick. They were finally were going do it. Draft a RB or LB in the first round. Sitting there were, DJ Williams and Steven Jackson. Which one do I like better? I like both so much, which would I like to be Eagle more. Then with the 16th pick, the Philadelphia Eagles select: Shawn Andrews, G, Arkansas. Shawn Andrews, what the hell? Well in hindsight, it turned out to be a good pick. Would've Jackson or Williams be great for the Birds, sure, but we have a offensive lineman that could be one the best in the NFL in the near future. Made the All-Pro team this past season. His first season as a starter. Great Pick. Start 15 games in 2008.

3/10/08: Nothing more to add still a great pick.

2) Donovan McNabb, Syracuse, 1st Round(2nd Overall): I really don't think I have to go into great detail on why McNabb was a great pick. Looking back, the 1999 draft had some stars in the rough, but also had a lot of land mines that the Eagles could have easily tripped over. Um, Ricky Williams, Akili Smith, and David Boston to name a few. Overall the Eagles made the right decision and I don't think there would be much argument that Donovan is in the top 3 players to come out of that draft class.

3/10/08: Donovan had a rough year in 2007. He struggled after coming back from his torn ACL a couple of months early. I will McNabb a mulligan for last season, but even without it he still deserves to be here.

1) Brian Westbrook, Villanova, 3rd round(91st Overall): Going into the 2002 draft, if someone told you Brian Westbrook was going to be in the top ten best RB's in the league, you would have said they were crazy. Well, they weren't. The Eagles had high hopes for Westbrook and so far so good. He has had an injury here or there, but he is the key to the Eagles offense as it stands today. 91st overall, best pick Andy Reid has ever made. RB's taken before Westbrook: William Green, TJ Duckett, Clinton Portis, DeShaun Foster, Maurice Morris, and Ladell Betts. Clinton Portis is the only one worth mentioning in the same breath as Westbrook.

3/10/08: Ummmm, Westbrook is a top 5 Running Back if not top 3. There isn't much more to say then he continues to perform on a higher level year in and year out. One of the best draft picks in the NFL in the last 9 years.

The Five Worst Draft Picks of the Andy Reid Era.

It's almost a year to the day that I wrote up the Best and Worst picks made by Andy Reid. A lot of things have changed obviously, but most of the picks I will keep the same. I remember when I made this, I posted it on a bunch message boards. You wouldn't think, but I caught hell. Mostly for having Matt McCoy on the worst list. People were saying that it was way to early to tell with McCoy. That I didn't have a clue what I was talking about, and the funnest one, that McCoy would be a starter in 2007. But I had seen enough and knew there was not a chance in hell that he would ever amount to anything. The Eagles don't normally don't cut players for making a mistake. But Matt McCoy made so many mistakes in such a short period of time that they just had to cut their loses. He will be moving up a slot in this years worst. But pretty much, I will keep everything the same.

So what were the worst picks that Andy Reid has ever made since coming to the Eagles in 1999. He has made some interestingly bad choices and some very good choices over the past 7 seasons. For obvious reasons I'm not going to include last years draft picks in this list cause its just to early to tell how Bunkley and Justice will turn out. The Eagles best draft by far has to be the 2002 draft. In this draft they were able to get their 2 current starting corners Lito Sheppard & Sheldon Brown (probably in the top ten of CB duos in the league), Michael Lewis (who up til last year was a excellent safety for the Birds), Brian Westbrook (no need to say much there), and in the 7th round they picked up Raheem Brock out of Temple (who never did much for the Eagles, but was the starting DE for the Colts last season). Their worst draft could be 2005 were they had 11 picks and managed to only hit on maybe 3 players. Time will only tell for the 2005 draft picks. Some of those players are still developing, McCoy, Patterson, Considine. Yes I did cringe when I wrote McCoy as still developing, but in the Eagles eyes, he still is competing for a starting spot at LB. Now the 2000 draft was pretty bad but I really think the 2001 draft takes the crown for the worst. Freddie Mitchell, Quinton Caver, Derrick Burgess, Correll Buckhalter, AJ Feeley, and Tony Stewart. Now Burgess is a good find. But some how they managed to let him go and now hes a top ten DE. Buckhalter has been injured almost his whole career. AJ Feeley is an okay pick. Actually the biggest thing Feeley's done to help the Eagles is when he was traded to Miami for a 2nd round pick, which turned out to be Reggie Brown. That's not so bad. Its how they used their first two picks that gets me. First, the peoples champ himself Freddie Mitchell. I have one good thing to about FredEx. 4th and 26th. That's it. Oh yea, they could have picked Chad Johnson. That always stings a little. With their second round pick, Quinton Caver. Terrible. The Eagles have to be one of the worst teams when it comes to scouting LB's and WR's. They need to hand that job over to someone else. With that here's who I believe were the worst picks by the Eagles in the Reid era(99-05). Now I'm not really gonna harp on 3rd to 7th round picks cause those are some hard picks to choose, but mostly 1st and 2nd round picks that they missed on.

Top 5 Worst Picks

5) Barry Gardner, Northwestern, LB, 2nd round(35th Overall): I have a hard time putting BG here cause I actually met him and had the opportunity to play basketball with him a couple of times. Very nice guy, not the best linebacker. He had some good games here and there, but never was an impact on defense. Was always second fiddle to Trotter. Was not worth the 35th pick in the draft.

4) Quinton Caver, Arkansas, LB, 2nd Round(55th Overall): Played like 15 games for the Birds. Big, strong, fast, and had the football IQ of a 9 year old. Never made the adjustment coming out of college. Never made any kind of impact on defense. Lifetime special teams player. That's what you look for in your 2nd round draft pick. Yes some how I managed to find a picture of Caver.

3) Matt McCoy, San Diego St., LB, 2nd round(63rd Overall): I know I said, give the 2005 draft picks time to develop, but if you watched any of the Colts game last season, I think you would agree, you've seen enough. Route 51 was consistently on his back the entire game. And really it wasn't just that game. He plays out of position and can't shed a block to save his life. I'm sorry, bust. It took two seasons, but McCoy was cut after making multiple mistakes on special teams. The final straw was his roughing the kicker penalty which took the Eagles out of Vikings territory. After the play, McCoy was seen getting ripped by Brian Dawkins.

2) Freddie Mitchell, UCLA, WR, 1st Round(25th Overall): Ah yes the peoples champ. Yup the nick name given to him by none other than, himself. His top skills, charisma and personality, about 8th & 9th on the list of skills needed to be a great football player. Remember the days he would catch a 3 yard pass on 3rd and 8, then slap that belt on. Man he sure loved himself. Now Freddie had some good hands. But his attitude, and lack of speed are what killed him in the end. He always thought he was going to be an elite WR. He could talk the best game in town, but rarely backed it up. One time, he managed to step up to the plate, and yes I'll say it again. 4th and 26th. It deserves to be in bold every time its written. Other WR's the Eagles could have chosen. Steve Smith,Car (74th pick), Chad Johnson, Cin (36th pick), Reggie Wayne, Ind (30th pick), and Chris Chambers, SD (52nd pick). The Eagles would pay a hefty price right now to have pretty much any of those WR's with the exception of Chambers. If they had any ability to pick a WR, we would probably be in a lot better shape.

1) Jerome McDougle, Miami, DE, 1st Round(15th Overall): Where to start with McDougle. Well first things first, I really can't believe he is still on the Eagles at this point. I understand second chances, and the guy had some unfortunate things (getting shot right before training camp was about to be begin) happen to him. But enough is enough. This is a sport/business, and it is time to cut your losses with this guy. How long is upside going to carry you on the roster. With the Eagles, about 4 years. Every year its, McDougle is going to have a chance to start this year, next thing you know hes buried on the injury report or on the inactive list. Time for the permanent inactive list for Jerome. As of March 6th, 2008, McDougle is still on the Eagles active roster. Will this be the year he gets the boot. My money is on him getting injured the day before he's supposed to be cut, and the Eagles end up throwing more money in the toilet aka Jerome McDougle. McDougle's career statistics look like this: 35 total tackles, 3 sacks, and thats about it. To put that in some perspective. In his first three seasons DE Trent Cole a fifth round draft choice, has 178 total tackles, 25.5 sacks, and 1 touchdown. McDougle is due to make $1.9M this season and to date the Eagles have paid McDougle over $9M.

There are some honorable mentions. Corey Simon, Todd Pinkston, Bobbie Williams, Matt Ware. Bobbie Williams? Exactly, a 2nd round pick wasted away. Simon and Pinkston could be debatable depending on who you talk to.

Best draft picks in the Andy Reid Era tomorrow.

Takeo Spikes out, Stewart Bradley in.

As you probably have heard, the Philadelphia Eagles released LB Takeo Spikes. Takeo is on the Howard Eskin Show as I write this and he has said some interesting things. He said the Eagles came to him last Friday when free agency started and asked if he would be willing to take pay cut. He was due to make $5M, and he was asked to take a $3M pay cut. Takeo said he slept on it and got back to Andy Reid on Saturday and told him that he wasn't going to take a pay cut. That's interesting cause Saturday was when the whole debacle with the depth chart happened. I actually took a screenshot of the Eagles Website depth chart early Saturday morning cause I knew it didn't look right. The depth chart, pictured to the right, has Akeem Jordan at WLB and Omar Gaither at MLB. But Takeo said when he talked with Andy Reid, he was told that Stewart Bradley will likely take over as MLB and Omar will be shifted to WLB. Takeo went on to say that he has no hard feelings and he appreciates the way that Andy Reid handled the situation. Andy first tried to trade Takeo but when they couldn't unload him they released him less then one week from the start of free agency. Takeo was glad that he was released now and not during training camp like Jeremiah Trotter, cause there are a number of teams thought to be interested. He said during this whole process he was really surprised at how much Andy Reid kept in contact with him and is happy with the way the Eagles handled it. It was probably best for all parties involved to part ways. This will give the Eagles some more cap room for if they make a trade, and its still early into free agency, to were Takeo can still find a place to play and make the money he deserves. Eskin is reporting that there are three teams that have been in contact with Takeo's agent, the Patriots, Browns, and Jaguars. With that, Stewart Bradley looks to be the Eagles new starting MLB. That means Omar Gaither will shift back to his old position at WLB. Bradley would be an upgrade from Gaither at the MLB spot. Bradley is listed at 6-3/255, compared to Gaither who is listed at 6-1/235. This will be better for Gaither. Akeem Jordan will be the back up to both Gaither and Bradley. I think the Eagles young LB core could be very good next season. If Stewart Bradley can perform like he did at the end last season, they should be a fun group to watch.