This is a post for @eagle45

10 minutes ago, Alphagrand said:

To me it's not a question of "is Nolan Smith a good player right now?", it's a question of resource management.  Roster management, cap management, draft management.  

Nolan Smith is a first round pick #30 overall.  His comp leading up to the draft was Haason Reddick; it was obvious (to me) the pick was made for the purpose of being an heir-apparent to Reddick.  Having Nolan Smith ready to start is a huge component in the decision whether to retain Reddick for big money or let him go.  

This is a similar discussion to the Tyler Steen one yesterday.  What does it say about the Nolan Smith pick if you have to pay Reddick $18-20M for multiple years when he'll already be 30 in September?

He may have been, but they love to rotate linemen and invest in the position a lot. So he may have just been value there. Whether they trade Reddick or Sweat or even neither, they're going to add an edge during the offseason. But what they can't do is go into a season of contention at such an important position relying on a guy who in his rookie season, let's be real, was super disappointing. He looked flat out bad most of the year. He'd have one play every few games where he shoots off the edge, but that's a far cry from being an NFL player. Most of the time he was getting engulfed by blockers and totally stymied. Frankly, I think it's unfair to him to ask him to be a starter. But regardless of what anyone wants, there's zero chance he's a starter next season. If they get rid of Sweat or Reddick I believe edge rusher suddenly becomes a top 2 position they look to add this year. They value the position way too much.

I still have some hope for Nolan, but I'd be lying if I said my hopes are much lower than they were a year ago, and if I could go back in time I'd probably take Branch or Porter Jr over him. Nolan looked so tiny out there, even the difference between him and Reddick was pretty drastic in body type. Between Nolan and Dean that's two really small guys they drafted out of Georgia who have not shown what we hoped they would.

10 minutes ago, Aerolithe_Lion said:

You don’t remove Dan Fouts from the hall of fame because he happened to play in Montana/Elway/Marino’s era. 

Rough count there are 7 guys who had more sacks at the DT position. So he’s 8th in DT sacks. However, there are a few guys who have less DT sacks, but more sacks overall from playing some DE but are widely viewed as DT’s: Bryant Young, Cameron Heyward, Ndamukong Suh.

Fletch was technically DE when we played 3-4 under Chip and if you include guys who played DE / DT mix there's a lot of players with more than 70 sacks who haven't got in.

 

A lot of people falling for the Howie Roseman "Nolan Smith was great against the Bucs" Kool-Aid

9 minutes ago, RLC said:

This is a post for @eagle45

Jesus how soft were the Pac 12 corners those two JJAW years? Were they playing co-ed football?

9 minutes ago, LeanMeanGM said:

A lot of people falling for the Howie Roseman "Nolan Smith was great against the Bucs" Kool-Aid

Agreed with the others that Nolan needs to start

Young players need to play. They won't get that much better not practicing with today's training camp and practices.

30 minutes ago, LeanMeanGM said:

A lot of people falling for the Howie Roseman "Nolan Smith was great against the Bucs" Kool-Aid

I said the same thing earlier this off-season. So we ignore the other 17 games he played, couldn’t really get on the field and didn’t do very much but because one game out of 18 he played well. Add on he didn’t stay healthy at Georgia. So you’re potentially dealing with the availability issue the more he plays on top of that. If the Eagles were doing a complete rebuild of the defense and didn’t view themselves as Super Bowl contenders, then I would be 100% backing the fact that he should start. But I guarantee the Eagles don’t view themselves as having a complete rebuild to the point where they’re not Super Bowl contenders. Also they aren’t going to just hand him the job cause 1 out of 18 games he played well as a rookie  

This is the reason why I think Hassan Reddick comes back and plays on his last year of his contract. And they give him a small pay increase like the Cardinals did with Buddha Baker to smooth it over. I think smith is gonna get more snaps this year then in 2025 eagles move on from reddick and go with smith 

Nolan Smith will play. Just not starter snaps.

It's going to be a weird dynamic. I'm sure Howie will want Smith to start or play more, among other players as well. But will Nick want to? He can't afford to take the lumps of playing young, inexperienced guys prominently. 

1 minute ago, Sack that QB said:

Nolan Smith will play. Just not starter snaps.

I don't think Sweat/Reddick should be playing 70% of the snaps moving forward, there should be another starter-level workload there that Nolan can work into with BG pitching in.

1 hour ago, Swoop said:

If I'm Howie I try to flip Sweat for whatever, extend Reddick and go after Josh Allen

Gonna have to give up a lot for Allen, easily pick 22

6 minutes ago, LeanMeanGM said:

It's going to be a weird dynamic. I'm sure Howie will want Smith to start or play more, among other players as well. But will Nick want to? He can't afford to take the lumps of playing young, inexperienced guys prominently. 

Really is. And i believe the presser howie and nick had didn’t exactly help that dynamic. Their best option is likely keep Reddick make him play this last year (give him some more money to smooth it over for a year) and incorporate smith more while reducing some of reddick’s snaps so that in 2025 you can make the transition 

1 hour ago, NCiggles said:

The cap isn't real anyway. 

Lions sitting pretty with that amount considering where their team is currently 

If a coach can't get young guys to play, he's not a good coach. 

11 minutes ago, RLC said:

If a coach can't get young guys to play, he's not a good coach. 

Part on coach and part on player. Player is also partially responsible for not playing if he’s not very good or not showing much. Like i don’t think it was strictly coaching as to why Jalen Reagor and JJAW failed 

32 minutes ago, RLC said:

Young players need to play. They won't get that much better not practicing with today's training camp and practices.

One of the many reasons that the NFLPA undercut their own members in pushing for these restrictions.   Sounds good on the surface, but actually hurts VETS AND YOUNG PLAYERS.  Why?  Because if you invested in a young player, you don't want to waste them on the bench, because as you point out, they won't get better without being on the field, and truly the only time they get on the field is during real games.   So, they can't justify paying a vet big money to sit on the bench, so they get cut.   Meanwhile, young players have a limited amount of time to show that they deserve to be on the field... so mid- to late- round draft picks don't get many reps to really get better and improve, so they don't look significantly better than incoming draftees.  

And then there's the fact that the overall quality of the game is decreasing as a result.  Tackling has never been worse.   Execution and pre-snap penalties are at an all time high.  Just a bad flow to the game, and while we blame the refs for a lot of this (and there is definitely blame to be levied at them, and they should be full-time to really focus their efforts on their craft)... but a lot of it is that teams can't devote enough time to the nuances to eliminate some of these penalties.

 

1 hour ago, Aerolithe_Lion said:

Calais Campbell has played his entire career at the edge. Hes a huge edge, but PFR has no seasons where he was primarily an interior Dlineman

He played both and often in the same series. However, I accept the point that he probably got more sacks off the edge.

Realistically, Fangio mixes 3/4 lineups with some 4/3.  At this point, the only "DE” on the roster is Sweat.  I don’t include Tarron Jackson nor BG.  Lewis and Okwara are listed as LBs as is Patrick Johnson.  I think realistically that Sweat (and BG if signed) can play DE in both 4/3 and 3/4 alignments. Sweat, with his athleticism, is attractive in the one and a half gap responsibility that Fangio favors. Lewis strikes me as a decent backup in that role.  Sort of how he played at Alabama.

I imagine in 3/4 alignments that Smith and Reddick fill the OLB spots.  I doubt Reddick is traded.  Howie wants him for two years at affordable price, Reddick wants a raise and three years.  But Reddick has tested the market and nothing has really surfaced to suggest a significant offer was made.  

He's a free agent and can play where he wants but this still feels a little gross.

6 minutes ago, metal said:

He's a free agent and can play where he wants but this still feels a little gross.

Forever a Lion

38 minutes ago, greendestiny27 said:

Lions sitting pretty with that amount considering where their team is currently 

They have so many contract extensions needed, Goff, St. Brown are going to be like 50mm per year plus combined.

It’s called style!