Why are people so down on Josh Sweat?

[brkmsn]

5 minutes ago, UK_EaglesFan89 said:

I hope you are right. I don’t think they are as bad as it all looked. They weren’t helped by coaching and scheme. That said they also lost talent and that defense just isn’t that good right now.

Our offense was a lot better in the first half of games in 2022 and we pretty much put teams in come-from-behind mode, which benefitted the defense as well. There's reason to be hopeful that with the addition of Barkley, our offense can do a lot more to help the defense in 2024 compared to 2023. 

[EmeraldArcher7154]

5 hours ago, brkmsn said:

Our offense was a lot better in the first half of games in 2022 and we pretty much put teams in come-from-behind mode, which benefitted the defense as well. There's reason to be hopeful that with the addition of Barkley, our offense can do a lot more to help the defense in 2024 compared to 2023. 

100% but the defense is still going to have to make stops early. hopefully they can otherwise every week will be a shootout.

[UK_EaglesFan89]

13 hours ago, brkmsn said:

Our offense was a lot better in the first half of games in 2022 and we pretty much put teams in come-from-behind mode, which benefitted the defense as well. There's reason to be hopeful that with the addition of Barkley, our offense can do a lot more to help the defense in 2024 compared to 2023. 

I don’t disagree with that bud I really don’t. But our defense is not very good and our secondary is a major concern.

[brkmsn]

3 hours ago, UK_EaglesFan89 said:

I don’t disagree with that bud I really don’t. But our defense is not very good and our secondary is a major concern.

Last season our defense was actually helping us win games while our offense struggled, until late in the year. 

 

I disagree about the secondary being a major concern. We have two good safeties in Blankenship and CJGJ. I know Bradberry had a bad year last year and can't promise he'll bounce back. Slay, on the other hand, was still solid. Maddox, when healthy is better than anybody we had filling in for him last season. Injuries last season gave us opportunities to get a lot of young guys some work. That's something that will help them prepare this season. Ringo actually looked competent when he did play. Riggs showed some flashes as well. I still believe we'll use an early pick on a DB this year, but IMO, at worst, we only need to replace Bradberry if he continues to struggle ... and Ringo may already be up to the task. 

As for the defense as a whole, we can't say right now that they are not very good. They haven't played a down in 2024. You can choose to be pessimistic or optimistic, based on your personality, but they have yet to take the field and prove anything. We have some young guys that need to step up and some vets that need to rebound. Those things are within the realms of possibility.

[UK_EaglesFan89]

3 hours ago, brkmsn said:

Last season our defense was actually helping us win games while our offense struggled, until late in the year. 

 

I disagree about the secondary being a major concern. We have two good safeties in Blankenship and CJGJ. I know Bradberry had a bad year last year and can't promise he'll bounce back. Slay, on the other hand, was still solid. Maddox, when healthy is better than anybody we had filling in for him last season. Injuries last season gave us opportunities to get a lot of young guys some work. That's something that will help them prepare this season. Ringo actually looked competent when he did play. Riggs showed some flashes as well. I still believe we'll use an early pick on a DB this year, but IMO, at worst, we only need to replace Bradberry if he continues to struggle ... and Ringo may already be up to the task. 

As for the defense as a whole, we can't say right now that they are not very good. They haven't played a down in 2024. You can choose to be pessimistic or optimistic, based on your personality, but they have yet to take the field and prove anything. We have some young guys that need to step up and some vets that need to rebound. Those things are within the realms of possibility.

I think we view Blankenship differently. I think he’s fine. I think he’s about average. You think he’s pretty good. But at CB we have Bradberry who sucked last year and will be even older this year. And we have Slay who is possibly closer to that age drop off. CB is a major concern and I don’t think there’s enough at S to cover for the deficiencies.

On the DL we just lost our best player (arguably our best defensive player) and we lost Cox who was good last year. So whilst no we haven’t played a down I don’t think it’s unreasonable (or even pessimistic) to say we are worse. On paper which is all we can do on right now we are worse.

[brkmsn]

6 hours ago, UK_EaglesFan89 said:

I think we view Blankenship differently. I think he’s fine. I think he’s about average. You think he’s pretty good. But at CB we have Bradberry who sucked last year and will be even older this year. And we have Slay who is possibly closer to that age drop off. CB is a major concern and I don’t think there’s enough at S to cover for the deficiencies.

On the DL we just lost our best player (arguably our best defensive player) and we lost Cox who was good last year. So whilst no we haven’t played a down I don’t think it’s unreasonable (or even pessimistic) to say we are worse. On paper which is all we can do on right now we are worse.

As I pointed out in the Justin Simmons thread, Blankenship out produced Simmons statistically last season and was graded slightly higher by PFF. The differences both statistically and analytically were slight, so in fairness I feel that both players were at the same level last season. Simmons still made 2nd team All Pro, largely due to reputation and partially due to a league-wide mediocre year by safeties. But what has me optimistic about Blankenship is he's still a young player gaining experience and improving his game. Simmons, on the other hand is a costly vet that is no longer getting better. Blankenship had the 2nd most (and most by a defensive player) performance based pay awarded by the NFL last season for outproducing his contract. The only explanation I can come up with for why he's so underappreciated by Eagles fans is that people must be caught up in "the grass is greener" crap. 

I'm a little concerned about Bradberry based on last season. I don't believe age was behind his decline. I feel it's one of two things: Either after securing guaranteed money in the extension, he mentally checked out or the combined loss of Gannon (DB coaching background) and D. Wilson caused the coaching to fail him in 2023. I hope it was the latter. It's kind of funny to blame it simply on age as if 30 years old is insurmountable. Regardless, as much as I am concerned about his play last season, I have no problem believing he can rebound if he sets that as a goal. 

With Slay, I think the worst we will get from him is solid. But with both Bradberry and Slay, we do need to make sure we are looking for their eventual replacements. If we draft a guy that is an immediate replacement for one of them --- even better. Then there is the Isaiah Rodgers wildcard. Since he has yet to be reinstated, I won't count on him, but if it does happen, I expect him to find his way onto the field. 

The 3 inexperienced DBs  returning that I am confident in (continuing to improve) are Ringo, Ricks, and McCollum. They all had an opportunity to get into games last season and they all flashed in small samples. Ricks had some bad moments, but that's how you learn and he seems to have the mentality to put the past in the past quickly. 

 

It's not great to lose a good player like Cox, but it's kind of funny reading the general pessimistic responses about how will we replace him when virtually all the same people questioned even keeping him around the last 2-3 seasons because he was supposedly "cooked" and just a sentimental Howie pet. Now all of a sudden after drafting DTs in the 1st round two straight years, people think we haven't been preparing to go young at DT. How many DTs did we keep last year on the 53? Seven? The reason was because they like those other 6 guys and knew Cox had been considering retirement the last couple years. Like Howie said in his latest PC, it was valuable for all those young guys to get to watch captains like Cox prepare for the season and for games. Now it's time for Carter, Davis, Williams and those below them on the depth chart to step up and fill the void. 

 

Back to not having played a down yet. It's pessimistic to say we are worse and optimistic to say we are better. Neither is true at this point. What's different as of right now?

• Nakobe Dean is healthy. 
• Maddox is healthy.
• CJGJ is back and he is healthy. 
• Slay is fully recovered from his late season surgery. 
• Cox is retired.
• We have an experienced DC whose system all our returning players are familiar with.
• Reddick is gone and likely replaced with Huff. 

Upcoming, we have the draft, and cuts. Players will get a chance to show if they have improved or declined. 

 

[UK_EaglesFan89]

7 hours ago, brkmsn said:

As I pointed out in the Justin Simmons thread, Blankenship out produced Simmons statistically last season and was graded slightly higher by PFF. The differences both statistically and analytically were slight, so in fairness I feel that both players were at the same level last season. Simmons still made 2nd team All Pro, largely due to reputation and partially due to a league-wide mediocre year by safeties. But what has me optimistic about Blankenship is he's still a young player gaining experience and improving his game. Simmons, on the other hand is a costly vet that is no longer getting better. Blankenship had the 2nd most (and most by a defensive player) performance based pay awarded by the NFL last season for outproducing his contract. The only explanation I can come up with for why he's so underappreciated by Eagles fans is that people must be caught up in "the grass is greener" crap. 

I'm a little concerned about Bradberry based on last season. I don't believe age was behind his decline. I feel it's one of two things: Either after securing guaranteed money in the extension, he mentally checked out or the combined loss of Gannon (DB coaching background) and D. Wilson caused the coaching to fail him in 2023. I hope it was the latter. It's kind of funny to blame it simply on age as if 30 years old is insurmountable. Regardless, as much as I am concerned about his play last season, I have no problem believing he can rebound if he sets that as a goal. 

With Slay, I think the worst we will get from him is solid. But with both Bradberry and Slay, we do need to make sure we are looking for their eventual replacements. If we draft a guy that is an immediate replacement for one of them --- even better. Then there is the Isaiah Rodgers wildcard. Since he has yet to be reinstated, I won't count on him, but if it does happen, I expect him to find his way onto the field. 

The 3 inexperienced DBs  returning that I am confident in (continuing to improve) are Ringo, Ricks, and McCollum. They all had an opportunity to get into games last season and they all flashed in small samples. Ricks had some bad moments, but that's how you learn and he seems to have the mentality to put the past in the past quickly. 

 

It's not great to lose a good player like Cox, but it's kind of funny reading the general pessimistic responses about how will we replace him when virtually all the same people questioned even keeping him around the last 2-3 seasons because he was supposedly "cooked" and just a sentimental Howie pet. Now all of a sudden after drafting DTs in the 1st round two straight years, people think we haven't been preparing to go young at DT. How many DTs did we keep last year on the 53? Seven? The reason was because they like those other 6 guys and knew Cox had been considering retirement the last couple years. Like Howie said in his latest PC, it was valuable for all those young guys to get to watch captains like Cox prepare for the season and for games. Now it's time for Carter, Davis, Williams and those below them on the depth chart to step up and fill the void. 

 

Back to not having played a down yet. It's pessimistic to say we are worse and optimistic to say we are better. Neither is true at this point. What's different as of right now?

• Nakobe Dean is healthy. 
• Maddox is healthy.
• CJGJ is back and he is healthy. 
• Slay is fully recovered from his late season surgery. 
• Cox is retired.
• We have an experienced DC whose system all our returning players are familiar with.
• Reddick is gone and likely replaced with Huff. 

Upcoming, we have the draft, and cuts. Players will get a chance to show if they have improved or declined. 

 

Look… Have I said I’d like them to bring in Simmons? Yes. He’d be a starter and he’d bring experience and depth to the position. But the way you bring Simmons up is as if he’s the only option. Or that you have to bring in a Safety to be able to suggest Blankenship isn’t enough. That isn’t the case. They probably won’t add a Safety that can start (either via FA, a trade or the draft) so we have what we have. Doesn’t mean we have enough.

Regarding Bradberry… Yeah you are right maybe he was impacted by coaching changes. Maybe he did mentally switch off after getting that new contract. But he looked washed and there’s no getting away from that. In the play off game he put in one of the worst post season performances any Eagles player ever has.

With Slay I’d agree I think the worst we get is solid play. I also think he will drop even just a little from last year and that then puts the CBs in a worse position than last year. But you are right the focus has to be on getting long term replacements for both guys. Who knows maybe Ringo is able to step up and they draft a guy using a high pick? That would change things here.

Then we come to Cox and the overall DL. Regardless of what people said about Cox (and let’s me honest they did give him a lot of money really especially 2 years ago) he still played well and last year he played very well. And they also lost Reddick so overall they are worse off. Carter looked like a stud so you’d think next year he’ll be even better. But Davis? At this point I think he’s a solid enough starter but the upside isn’t showing through.

Dean isn’t yet healthy but he says he’s getting there and should be a full go. But he’s struggled to stay healthy in the NFL. Maddox is healthy right now because he’s not playing but his history shows he can’t stay healthy. The big hope is that we use high draft picks on defense.