Howie balanced risk and return, obviously Fangio was lobbying for Hunt, but Howie didn't want to reach for a project, so he stockpiles assets then takes the kid.

At this point in the draft, if you want to land potential starters at premium positions, you have to gamble.

The safe moves are positions like C, G, S, RB, ILB, where you can find starters in the 3rd and 4th rd.

CB, pass rushers, DTs, OLBs, WRs, get 'em while they're hot.

Not sure if was posted

 

 

 

16 hours ago, Penn7980 said:

All the big WRs Howie collected, none seems to have produced much.  Either the evaluation fell short or the coaches could not coach or could not find ways to use them.  They need to rethink this approach and find ways to improve or take a different approach.  

The big WR in the latest draft may be turned into a TE for blocking.  

They probably will do some in line blocking.  But expect the big WR to be as much an offline blocker as target.   They aren’t looking for a #3 WR, I believe this is a WR that will block his fair share of runs and then some.  I do think the 4 WR (don’t misread this and think he only plays in 4 receiver sets) could see his snaps eaten by 12 personnel but then I do expect they prefer that second or third TE to be more productive than Stoll although blocking ability will greatly impact the playing time for both those TEs and the big receiver.  But when asked to run routes, they will be expected to be clean, crisp and in an expanding play group.  I also suspect a 60%+ catch rate from both positions.  They don’t want, "hey, JJAW is in so the Eagles are running the ball”.  I also suspect a taller WR opens more routes over the middle.   

Hunt may become a multi pro bowl edge for us…I’m not saying he’s going to fail.  But people are throwing around the term freak athlete way too liberally with him.  4.64 and 37.5 at 252 pounds isn’t bad, but it’s faaar from freak status.  And yes, you can get athletic profiles like that in the 3rd round.  Often.

13 minutes ago, eagle45 said:

Hunt may become a multi pro bowl edge for us…I’m not saying he’s going to fail.  But people are throwing around the term freak athlete way too liberally with him.  4.64 and 37.5 at 252 pounds isn’t bad, but it’s faaar from freak status.  And yes, you can get athletic profiles like that in the 3rd round.  Often.

My problem with this pick is he is a slightly bigger version of Nolan Smith.  I would have rather taken a shot on Payton Wilson, Troy Franklin or Cedric Gray.  

 

 

I believe Hunt is going to play a position no one else does. If I am correct, Fangio sees him as a combo robber/SAM/SS. The QB will have to find him every time he comes to the LOS. He is NOT an edge rusher, though Fangio may blitz him at times. He can cover the TE or RB as a SAM, given his speed, height, and weight. He can give run support. He can fill the short middle or deep middle. He can drop to safety, where he has played. Fangio plays a LOT of zone. Hunt can fill in so many ways.

This feels so much like a Fangio pick and I think this is why. Most of the "pundits" are calling Hunt an edge but they are wrong. Just wrong.

33 minutes ago, eagle45 said:

Hunt may become a multi pro bowl edge for us…I’m not saying he’s going to fail.  But people are throwing around the term freak athlete way too liberally with him.  4.64 and 37.5 at 252 pounds isn’t bad, but it’s faaar from freak status.  And yes, you can get athletic profiles like that in the 3rd round.  Often.

That is pretty freaky.

1 hour ago, Freshmilk said:

The Eagles defense was terrible, and that is being generous.  While the DBs help, a project at DE when we are already counting on a project at DE (Smith) is concerning to me.  Not because the player is a project, but because the team thinks it's good enough at DE right now to take or hit or miss prospect.

Nonetheless I hope for the best and if it doesn't work out we move on.

You don't draft for immediate impact.  That's how you end up with Jon Harris or Danny Watkins.   You draft to take the best players available.

For this season, at 'edge' we have:  Josh Sweat and Brandon Graham returning, along with Nolan Smith, and the newly acquired Josh Huff and Zach Baun (who I think could be used as both an edge and off-ball LB, plus ST).    As such, there's already at most 5 players, but at least 4 players that are in line for snaps.  I think for this year, they absolutely CAN afford to dedicate themselves to developing a guy like Hunt.   Besides, this was a very poor draft for edge players.  So, the only place you were going to get a player like you suggest in the draft would have been if they went in a completely different direction in Rounds 1 and 2.  In other words, getting those players AND an instant impact edge wasn't a viable option.

 

It's not a guarantee to work out, but for this season, any impact from the edge they might have gotten in Round 3 would have been lucky to make as much impact as Nolan Smith did last year.  Let's hope his year of practice and training pays off with a better player this year, and that's the place where the impact actually comes from.  But, player development is really where the improvement comes, not with ready to use players from the draft. 

3 minutes ago, just relax said:

I believe Hunt is going to play a position no one else does. If I am correct, Fangio sees him as a combo robber/SAM/SS. The QB will have to find him every time he comes to the LOS. He is NOT an edge rusher, though Fangio may blitz him at times. He can cover the TE or RB as a SAM, given his speed, height, and weight. He can give run support. He can fill the short middle or deep middle. He can drop to safety, where he has played. Fangio plays a LOT of zone. Hunt can fill in so many ways.

This feels so much like a Fangio pick and I think this is why. Most of the "pundits" are calling Hunt an edge but they are wrong. Just wrong.

Hunt is an edge LB :) What you described is pretty much the definition of one 

7 minutes ago, just relax said:

I believe Hunt is going to play a position no one else does. If I am correct, Fangio sees him as a combo robber/SAM/SS. The QB will have to find him every time he comes to the LOS. He is NOT an edge rusher, though Fangio may blitz him at times. He can cover the TE or RB as a SAM, given his speed, height, and weight. He can give run support. He can fill the short middle or deep middle. He can drop to safety, where he has played. Fangio plays a LOT of zone. Hunt can fill in so many ways.

This feels so much like a Fangio pick and I think this is why. Most of the "pundits" are calling Hunt an edge but they are wrong. Just wrong.

 

Hunt will hardly see the field at all this season.  Feels like a total project pick.

8 minutes ago, just relax said:

I believe Hunt is going to play a position no one else does. If I am correct, Fangio sees him as a combo robber/SAM/SS. The QB will have to find him every time he comes to the LOS. He is NOT an edge rusher, though Fangio may blitz him at times. He can cover the TE or RB as a SAM, given his speed, height, and weight. He can give run support. He can fill the short middle or deep middle. He can drop to safety, where he has played. Fangio plays a LOT of zone. Hunt can fill in so many ways.

This feels so much like a Fangio pick and I think this is why. Most of the "pundits" are calling Hunt an edge but they are wrong. Just wrong.

That's an interesting point of view.   I wonder if that's the role they have in mind this season with Zach Baun.  He played a lot of off-ball LB in New Orleans, but also did a nice job getting after the QB.   🤔

16 minutes ago, just relax said:

I believe Hunt is going to play a position no one else does. If I am correct, Fangio sees him as a combo robber/SAM/SS. The QB will have to find him every time he comes to the LOS. He is NOT an edge rusher, though Fangio may blitz him at times. He can cover the TE or RB as a SAM, given his speed, height, and weight. He can give run support. He can fill the short middle or deep middle. He can drop to safety, where he has played. Fangio plays a LOT of zone. Hunt can fill in so many ways.

This feels so much like a Fangio pick and I think this is why. Most of the "pundits" are calling Hunt an edge but they are wrong. Just wrong.

Yeah, they have plenty of edge rushers, they brought in Baun and Okwara for depth at that spot. And bringing back Johnson and Jackson.

But of this group, only Smith is a real LB, not just a pin your ears back guy.  Maybe Baun as IP points out above, though he was primarily a pass rusher.

So Hunt makes more sense if he can play SOLB as well as line up at the LOS in a 4-2-5 formation.

If you just want a stand up pass rusher, extend Sweat who's a proven commodity to go with Huff.

5 minutes ago, just relax said:

I believe Hunt is going to play a position no one else does. If I am correct, Fangio sees him as a combo robber/SAM/SS. The QB will have to find him every time he comes to the LOS. He is NOT an edge rusher, though Fangio may blitz him at times. He can cover the TE or RB as a SAM, given his speed, height, and weight. He can give run support. He can fill the short middle or deep middle. He can drop to safety, where he has played. Fangio plays a LOT of zone. Hunt can fill in so many ways.

This feels so much like a Fangio pick and I think this is why. Most of the "pundits" are calling Hunt an edge but they are wrong. Just wrong.

Hunt is probably one of the more interesting guys to watch,.  As an edge, he's probably not going to contribute much to the pass rush, but he could drop back into coverage and be decent there.  

His selection reminds me of Jalen Hurts in some ways.  Nobody quite knew what to do with him.  They knew they wanted him to get on the field, but just couldn't quite figure out how to do it.  

 

9 minutes ago, RememberTheKoy said:

 

Hunt will hardly see the field at all this season.  Feels like a total project pick.

He'll be one of our top special teams guys at the very least.  

3 hours ago, judunno said:

Hate this comp and I wish people stop posting it. Two totally different positions. Raw off ball LBs with no instincts or football IQ aren't a good idea I don't care how athletic they are. At least use a comp that plays the same position.

I’m not talking about their actual positions.  I’m talking just about how raw they were when they came out of college football and how it was going to take them 1-2 seasons. That was true with Taylor and it’s true for hunt. Neither were going to be ready year 1 to contribute (unlikely to contribute at an high level year 2) and they were considered high upside raw talent but projects that need at least a year and likely 2 to maximize the pick. I’m not comparing the two besides just how it was gonna take them multiple years to see the fruits of your labor due to their rawness and needing to be coached up due to their rawness. Thats nothing to do with either’s position or the players IQ. it has to do with when drafted they aren’t ready to contribute right off the bat and were considering more of projects coming into the league that needed likely multiple years to reach the long term upside

would rather me use Bryan smith? who frankly was less raw than hunt when he came out (still needed to add strengths and bulk along with more pass rushing moves as he was limited) but was still considered somewhat of a raw talent (that also played at a lower level football so more of a transition) that was going to need at least 1 year to transition if not 2 to begin to make his impact they envisioned in the nfl. Unfortunately he never really made it. The transition to the NFL for all 3 was expected to take at least 1 and likely 2 years of nfl Level coaching to fully see it. That’s the comparison, not what position they play or the players overall ability, just that all 3 were expected to take 1-2 years to be the player eagles envisioned and selected in round 3.

Heck we can throw Jordan mailata in this category as he was just pure raw talent that you knew wasn’t likely playing the first year or likely even the second year (he was way more raw than any of these 3) as he was a project that needed coaching to get him there. I think his is way more extremely than those 3 cause he never played. But all 4 you were banking on multiple years of not playing significant snaps and coaching to get the most out of their raw talent 

1 hour ago, Freshmilk said:

The Eagles defense was terrible, and that is being generous.  While the DBs help, a project at DE when we are already counting on a project at DE (Smith) is concerning to me.  Not because the player is a project, but because the team thinks it's good enough at DE right now to take or hit or miss prospect.

Nonetheless I hope for the best and if it doesn't work out we move on.

They are more than good enough at "DE", don't think in terms of a set starter, but who plays in packages:

3-4 base:  Carter - Davis - Williams/Ojomo, Huff/Baun - Dean/Trotter - White/Burks - Smith

2-4-5:  Carter - Williams at DT, Huff and Sweat as stand up pass rushers, rotate Graham inside, Baun outside

4-2-5:  Williams - Davis - Carter - Sweat/Huff

Carter will have the most snaps (think a young Cox), Davis will get 500-600 (not so much stamina but role).

You can see that they really don't have a true SOLB for a 3-4 base set, which explains why they wanted Hunt.

 

Seems like a good get especially if new too sport/hasn't played much and hopefully doesn't have a lot of bad habits.  Get him in weight room

18 minutes ago, austinfan said:

Yeah, they have plenty of edge rushers, they brought in Baun and Okwara for depth at that spot. And bringing back Johnson and Jackson.

But of this group, only Smith is a real LB, not just a pin your ears back guy.  Maybe Baun as IP points out above, though he was primarily a pass rusher.

So Hunt makes more sense if he can play SOLB as well as line up at the LOS in a 4-2-5 formation.

If you just want a stand up pass rusher, extend Sweat who's a proven commodity to go with Huff.

They already did.

1 hour ago, eagle45 said:

Hunt may become a multi pro bowl edge for us…I’m not saying he’s going to fail.  But people are throwing around the term freak athlete way too liberally with him.  4.64 and 37.5 at 252 pounds isn’t bad, but it’s faaar from freak status.  And yes, you can get athletic profiles like that in the 3rd round.  Often.

It's his movement skills. He has EDGE size with S speed .

Maryland offensive lineman Gottlieb Ayedze signed Saturday with the Philadelphia as an undrafted free agent.

Ayedze, a native of Germantown, Md., transferred to Maryland from Frostburg State (Division II) last offseason and made an instant impact. Despite battling injury early in the season, he played right tackle in 11 games, starting the team’s final 10. He was the sixth-highest rated pass blocking tackle in the Big Ten, earning an all-conference honorable mention.

Prior to his time in College Park, Ayedze was a star at the Division II level, starting every game with the Bobcats. He earned All-MEC first-team honors his final three years, elevating his game as a senior en route to all-America accolades. As a transfer, he chose Maryland over an invite to play in the Reese’s Senior Bowl and enter the 2023 NFL Draft.

After the 2024 season, Ayedze played in the East-West Shrine Bowl and was a participant in the NFL scouting combine. Listed as a guard, he measured 6-foot-4 and 308 pounds, with his performance earning the eighth-best NFL Next Gen Stats grade among guards.

36 minutes ago, Iggles_Phan said:

You don't draft for immediate impact.  That's how you end up with Jon Harris or Danny Watkins.   You draft to take the best players available.

For this season, at 'edge' we have:  Josh Sweat and Brandon Graham returning, along with Nolan Smith, and the newly acquired Josh Huff and Zach Baun (who I think could be used as both an edge and off-ball LB, plus ST).    As such, there's already at most 5 players, but at least 4 players that are in line for snaps.  I think for this year, they absolutely CAN afford to dedicate themselves to developing a guy like Hunt.   Besides, this was a very poor draft for edge players.  So, the only place you were going to get a player like you suggest in the draft would have been if they went in a completely different direction in Rounds 1 and 2.  In other words, getting those players AND an instant impact edge wasn't a viable option.

 

It's not a guarantee to work out, but for this season, any impact from the edge they might have gotten in Round 3 would have been lucky to make as much impact as Nolan Smith did last year.  Let's hope his year of practice and training pays off with a better player this year, and that's the place where the impact actually comes from.  But, player development is really where the improvement comes, not with ready to use players from the draft. 

I disagree.  You definitely draft for immediate impact. In baseball, hockey, sometimes basketball you don't draft for immediate impact.  In football, the top 100 draftees are drafted for immediate impact.  With the average career about 3 years immediate impact is imperative.  NFL players need to have impact quickly and develop simultaneously.   Very unique sport in that regard.  Careers are short, peak years are minimal.  

Reaching for immediate impact is another story.  

This is not a type-o

Wonder what Jalen Brunson would get for a RAS score

21 minutes ago, austinfan said:

They are more than good enough at "DE", don't think in terms of a set starter, but who plays in packages:

3-4 base:  Carter - Davis - Williams/Ojomo, Huff/Baun - Dean/Trotter - White/Burks - Smith

2-4-5:  Carter - Williams at DT, Huff and Sweat as stand up pass rushers, rotate Graham inside, Baun outside

4-2-5:  Williams - Davis - Carter - Sweat/Huff

Carter will have the most snaps (think a young Cox), Davis will get 500-600 (not so much stamina but role).

You can see that they really don't have a true SOLB for a 3-4 base set, which explains why they wanted Hunt.

 

We shall see. As much as I love our young dlinemen, the dline was atrocious last year.  Scheme certainly could be a contributer to poor play amongst other issues.  I watched a dline with poor technique and understanding of their roles. As a result, for about 2/3 of the season they were physically dominated.