3 minutes ago, RememberTheKoy said:

 

Problem with the defense is organizational.   Hollywood Lurie wants and demands this awful style defense.  We have to hope his son ends up being better and Jeff passes the reins soon and takes more of a fan role as his son runs the team.

Can you substantiate this statement with more than it's your opinion or it must be true because the defense isn't good?  We've had various defensive philosophies during his ownership.  

29 minutes ago, Freshmilk said:

Can you substantiate this statement with more than it's your opinion or it must be true because the defense isn't good?  We've had various defensive philosophies during his ownership.  

I think maybe he confused the names here. He put Lurie instead of Jones😆 

I wonder how everyone else feels about this… So James Seltzer made a point this week about the offense. He said the offense this year isn’t functioning at a high level and the eye test shows that. He said the offense isn’t scheming guys open and everything seems like hard work.

I have to agree there! Nothing seems to come easy to this offense. Every play is graft. There never seems to be an easy pass or an easy play. 

1 hour ago, UK Eagle said:

I was wondering the other day whether the fact that someone like Reich or Daniels not coaching anywhere else is part of their severance agreement, or is they are effectively on gardening leave until the Super Bowl has finished.

Staley has finally been fired though, if reports are true.  Should have been done 12 months; dude was way past his level of incompetence.

I don’t think so. Most have offset language so the team firing them would want them to get another job so they don’t have to pay out the contract.

Which is also the answer as to why they likely aren’t eager to rush into a new job. They had a hell of a last few months and are probably burnt out. And they will make the same money if they work or sit at home with their family. 

4 minutes ago, UK_EaglesFan89 said:

I wonder how everyone else feels about this… So James Seltzer made a point this week about the offense. He said the offense this year isn’t functioning at a high level and the eye test shows that. He said the offense isn’t scheming guys open and everything seems like hard work.

I have to agree there! Nothing seems to come easy to this offense. Every play is graft. There never seems to be an easy pass or an easy play. 

They actually did a much better job last week after watching some of the All-22 footage. There seemed to be a lot more pre-snap movement. The turnovers were the problem. Few drops. Correcting that would at least have made the game closer. I do think they can do more to scheme some guys open but hopefully they're holding on to those looks for the playoffs. They just need to get hot man and then they have a shot. Still hoping for that first round bye. Need that Ravens or LA upset (Rams actually played them pretty tough Week 1). What sucks is they're playing both of them at home. 

1 hour ago, eagle45 said:

I put the chances of the Eagles making a coordinator change, even in the offseason, at 0.5%.

If they do not win the Super Bowl, I think the changes will come at the position coach level. I think they will be on both sides of the ball. I wouldn't be surprised if Duce isn't brought in as a RB coach again.  One thing is certain.  Howie isn't going to take the blame.  I don't think there is a talent issue.  This is an underperforming defense at this point. Heads will roll if it doesn't get fixed through the playoffs.  

Quick musing on speed…

I like objective speed in pass catchers and pass rushers.  It doesn’t mean they’ll be good.  But it’s an objective explosive trait that sets them up for success.  And if you have someone who pathologically lacks it (Barnett, JJAW, etc), then it limits their success.  Those are downhill positions where superior explosion helps get the job done.

In the secondary and at LB, players read and react.  A 4.3 speedster can get torched if they are consistently making wrong reads and false steps.  It’s still nice when they have great speed, but you have more unspectacular athletes turn into spectacular players at these positions than at others.  

But a deficit is a deficit.  Our back 7 is S-L-O-W.  There is an extremely high level of experience and there should be very few missteps and broken coverages.  They just can’t hang with anyone.  And with the exception of Brown and Ringo, the young guys don’t move well either.

21 minutes ago, UK_EaglesFan89 said:

I wonder how everyone else feels about this… So James Seltzer made a point this week about the offense. He said the offense this year isn’t functioning at a high level and the eye test shows that. He said the offense isn’t scheming guys open and everything seems like hard work.

I have to agree there! Nothing seems to come easy to this offense. Every play is graft. There never seems to be an easy pass or an easy play. 

I don't agree that it's been hard.  I think it's probably harder than it should be and part of that is the lack of motion.  

2 minutes ago, NCiggles said:

I don't agree that it's been hard.  I think it's probably harder than it should be and part of that is the lack of motion.  

I think they’ve produced but they’ve never felt in a rhythm and it all seems to be hard going.

1 minute ago, eagle45 said:

Quick musing on speed…

I like objective speed in pass catchers and pass rushers.  It doesn’t mean they’ll be good.  But it’s an objective explosive trait that sets them up for success.  And if you have someone who pathologically lacks it (Barnett, JJAW, etc), then it limits their success.  Those are downhill positions where superior explosion helps get the job done.

In the secondary and at LB, players read and react.  A 4.3 speedster can get torched if they are consistently making wrong reads and false steps.  It’s still nice when they have great speed, but you have more unspectacular athletes turn into spectacular players at these positions than at others.  

But a deficit is a deficit.  Our back 7 is S-L-O-W.  There is an extremely high level of experience and there should be very few missteps and broken coverages.  They just can’t hang with anyone.  And with the exception of Brown and Ringo, the young guys don’t move well either.

TJ Edwards was slower than anyone playing LB this season.  He looked much better than what we have put out this season.  I think the bigger problem has been tackling.  Slay is still fast.  Brown and Blankenship have decent speed.  I think they are both a little too stiff to man to man coverage in underneath routes.  I think the biggest issue is positioning and knowing their assignments.  We are not getting beat by speed demon receivers.  We are getting beat in trip sets because the db's can't switch or fight through contact.  We are getting beat through the middle because our LB's don't get enough depth in coverage or the Safeties are too small to cover the TE.  It's not about speed.  It's about positioning and being able to bring down a receiver after they make a catch.  

2 minutes ago, NCiggles said:

If they do not win the Super Bowl, I think the changes will come at the position coach level. I think they will be on both sides of the ball. I wouldn't be surprised if Duce isn't brought in as a RB coach again.  One thing is certain.  Howie isn't going to take the blame.  I don't think there is a talent issue.  This is an underperforming defense at this point. Heads will roll if it doesn't get fixed through the playoffs.  

I think there is absolutely a talent issue on defense.  

On offense, I think there is a talent/depth issue at WR/TE.  And Siri is either dumb, falling on the sword for Howie, or just playing right into that trap by saying the offense is designed to ONLY get the ball to Brown, Smith, and Goedert.  That’s a laughable comment from him.  I am 100% in support of having a couple unstoppable, elite weapons.  But you can’t abandon all window dressing of at least using other players in other parts of the field.  

Dallas Goedert, contrary to popular Philly belief, is not an elite receiving TE.  Very good? Sure.  We have Brown (outstanding), Smith (outstanding), and Goedert and no one after that who even gets or deserves a target.  OZ has done a nice job on 2 plays this year on scramble drills, but that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t suck.  They need more targetable weapons.  

3 minutes ago, UK_EaglesFan89 said:

I think they’ve produced but they’ve never felt in a rhythm and it all seems to be hard going.

When they get a first down, they usually have a good drive.  There are too many drives that end in a 3 and out.  

25 minutes ago, LeanMeanGM said:

I don’t think so. Most have offset language so the team firing them would want them to get another job so they don’t have to pay out the contract.

Which is also the answer as to why they likely aren’t eager to rush into a new job. They had a hell of a last few months and are probably burnt out. And they will make the same money if they work or sit at home with their family. 

Josh McDaniles not going back to Papa Bill is one I thought would happen.  It's not a good look getting fired twice in a season, but makes sense for him to go back home. 

One I thought would maybe want to work in Reich.  Seems the sort of person who wouldn't want to stay home. 

1 minute ago, eagle45 said:

I think there is absolutely a talent issue on defense.  

On offense, I think there is a talent/depth issue at WR/TE.  And Siri is either dumb, falling on the sword for Howie, or just playing right into that trap by saying the offense is designed to ONLY get the ball to Brown, Smith, and Goedert.  That’s a laughable comment from him.  I am 100% in support of having a couple unstoppable, elite weapons.  But you can’t abandon all window dressing of at least using other players in other parts of the field.  

Dallas Goedert, contrary to popular Philly belief, is not an elite receiving TE.  Very good? Sure.  We have Brown (outstanding), Smith (outstanding), and Goedert and no one after that who even gets or deserves a target.  OZ has done a nice job on 2 plays this year on scramble drills, but that doesn’t mean that he doesn’t suck.  They need more targetable weapons.  

Objectively, talent in the back 7 is an issue.  My argument is that Howie is going to push the narrative that the defense underperformed relative to their talent.  I am inclined to agree that the talent isn't as bottom of the barrel as their performance.  

I think Sirianni's comments were to protect Hurts. He did not make throws to targets that were clearly open on some of the scrambles and sacks he took.  Sirianni was blaming it on the reads rather than Hurts.  Getting more targetable weapons doesn't fix the problem if Hurts doesn't look for them. 

6 minutes ago, UK Eagle said:

Josh McDaniles not going back to Papa Bill is one I thought would happen.  It's not a good look getting fired twice in a season, but makes sense for him to go back home. 

One I thought would maybe want to work in Reich.  Seems the sort of person who wouldn't want to stay home. 

I can see them eventually going somewhere to coach again, I just meant specifically this last month or two of the NFL season. I imagine most would just want to unwind and recharge and get back to it when everything resets. 

Reich is pretty old. He said the Panthers job was likely going to be his last coaching job, although I’m sure he wasn’t thinking he’d be fired in his first year. We’ll see. 

7 minutes ago, NCiggles said:

Objectively, talent in the back 7 is an issue.  My argument is that Howie is going to push the narrative that the defense underperformed relative to their talent.  I am inclined to agree that the talent isn't as bottom of the barrel as their performance.  

I think Sirianni's comments were to protect Hurts. He did not make throws to targets that were clearly open on some of the scrambles and sacks he took.  Sirianni was blaming it on the reads rather than Hurts.  Getting more targetable weapons doesn't fix the problem if Hurts doesn't look for them. 

That part is unknowable, but is the $50m per year question.  In the early AR years, I used to get so frustrated with having a solid depth of weapons, but no really good ones that could take over a game when it matters most.  "This is a spread the ball offense, we couldn’t make one star WR happy, so it’s not a fit.”  I HATED that rationale.

But you can’t play with 10 men on the field with 2-3 targets in the passing game either.  The defense can’t completely sell out to stop 2 players and know they’ll be fine if they succeed in shutting down 2 reads.

I don’t know if Hurts has been that limited in his reads this year and Siri is protecting him…or if their offense is that limited in its design.  Getting deep into reads has always been a known problem for Hurts, but the coaches can still diversify the first read.  They are free to target Julio, Watkins, OZ, Stoll with some minimum level of volume to force defenses to semi respect them.  And they refuse to do that, so I don’t think it can be all misreads from Hurts.

I agree with Acho here in that the offensive approach relies too much on the talent of the receivers. When they run up against the better defenders where it's a challenge the Eagles don't do enough to make it easier for those guys. The expectation is for them is to just win their battles every week. Although they are capable the damn designs and plans need to give them a break every now and then and scheme them open. Especially when they are playing so many snaps.

 

Defensively, I really do think they have an insurmountable talent problem.  

They have an exceptionally talented DL, but even the DL talent is asymmetric.  On any given play, there are 2-3 first round picks and tens of millions of dollars on the sidelines for this DL.  Yet…the talented edge rushers, Reddick and Sweat…are getting brutally worn down with too many snaps.

And we have replacement level players scattered across the back 7.  That’s a Howie problem.  I’m all for stacking the DL, but this is an excess.

 

2 minutes ago, judunno said:

I agree with Acho here in that the offensive approach relies too much on the talent of the receivers. When they run up against the better defenders where it's a challenge the Eagles don't do enough to make it easier for those guys. The expectation is for them is to just when there battles every week. Although they are capable the damn designs and plans need to give them a break every now and then and scheme them open. Especially when they are playing so many snaps.

 

If the Eagles want to get more out of Smith and Brown, they need to get defenses to respect the possibility that they might not actually throw to them on every single play.

Maybe Watkins just can’t be that guy, but if he pops off a 60 yard go route TD…or if Stoll can barrel 20 yards downfield on a screen…or if by some miracle Julio comes to life and can combine with Watkins for 100 yards in a game…it will actually free up the big 2.

32 minutes ago, NCiggles said:

Objectively, talent in the back 7 is an issue.  My argument is that Howie is going to push the narrative that the defense underperformed relative to their talent.  I am inclined to agree that the talent isn't as bottom of the barrel as their performance.  

I think Sirianni's comments were to protect Hurts. He did not make throws to targets that were clearly open on some of the scrambles and sacks he took.  Sirianni was blaming it on the reads rather than Hurts.  Getting more targetable weapons doesn't fix the problem if Hurts doesn't look for them. 

I don't think so. 

Sirriani has been saying since training camp that the passing offense will go through the 3 guys. I remember seeing him tell this to the team in a meeting before the season even started.

Apparently this is Drake’s clothing brand. Who’s spending $80 on a T-Shirt? 

20 minutes ago, eagle45 said:

If the Eagles want to get more out of Smith and Brown, they need to get defenses to respect the possibility that they might not actually throw to them on every single play.

Maybe Watkins just can’t be that guy, but if he pops off a 60 yard go route TD…or if Stoll can barrel 20 yards downfield on a screen…or if by some miracle Julio comes to life and can combine with Watkins for 100 yards in a game…it will actually free up the big 2.

First looks should be Brown, Smitty, Goedert, Swift. Use those guys to scheme everyone else open on occasion I agree. The big three are expected to do too much. They are special enough to get the other  guys wide open. Oh and RUN the damn ball with the backs more. Gives the receivers a breather from running routes.

10 minutes ago, Parrot Head said:

I don't think so. 

Sirriani has been saying since training camp that the passing offense will go through the 3 guys. I remember seeing him tell this to the team in a meeting before the season even started.

The rest of the league heard that and it's been tough treading ever since.

6 minutes ago, BDawk_ASamuel said:

Apparently this is Drake’s clothing brand. Who’s spending $80 on a T-Shirt? 

What's with the owl?

 

1 minute ago, EricAllenPick6 said:

What's with the owl?

 

DAL and SF whipped us so bad we've been downgraded