13 hours ago, HazletonEagle said:

yeah. seems like fools gold. They pretty much kept the same team so hard to believe they are suddenly the best team in baseball and the same weaknesses wont creep up and bite them again.

Maybe record-wise they should have been here last year too. No reason they should have had such a slow start last year. 

But itll be the same end in the post-season most likely regardless of record. Very 6ers-like.

Not having Harper for the first few months was a big blow to the team... and then not having him be Harper when he returned.  

 

But, yes... they have a lot of the same issues, but a lot of the same strengths.   I'm hoping for a bat to be picked up at the trade deadline... and a reliable bullpen arm.   And, maybe, just maybe, Thomson won't get stupid again and throw a guy like Kimbrel in again when it was obvious he was cooked.  

13 hours ago, LeanMeanGM said:

Most are probably way smarter about baseball than me. The Phillies are a fun team to root for and when they are playing good, it’s fun to watch. But the bats have been just so inexplicably hot and cold I’m not even sure what you do to fix that. Just gotta hope they get hot at the right time and somehow sustain that throughout October. 

Yes.   Castellanos is the big culprit.  If they can replace him in the playoffs when the inevitable cold spell hits with Merrifield, then maybe there's a chance that the entire lineup can sustain enough offense to get it done.

3 minutes ago, Iggles_Phan said:

Yes.   Castellanos is the big culprit.  If they can replace him in the playoffs when the inevitable cold spell hits with Merrifield, then maybe there's a chance that the entire lineup can sustain enough offense to get it done.

Plenty of offense with an outstanding starting 5.  The pitching in the majors is mediocre at best.  Beat up on the bottom feeders and play .500 against the upper echelon like themselves.  Two issues for me that I hope the trade deadline addresses: closer and back up catcher.

1 minute ago, Freshmilk said:

Plenty of offense with an outstanding starting 5.  The pitching in the majors is mediocre at best.  Beat up on the bottom feeders and play .500 against the upper echelon like themselves.  Two issues for me that I hope the trade deadline addresses: closer and back up catcher.

Don't count on the catcher.   For whatever reason, they love Stubbs.  The price is right with him, but he can't hit to save his life... and he's not a good receiver.  

13 hours ago, Utebird said:

Yup me too, would really suck if the defense sucked because the eagles ignored ILB again ...☹️

Ignored?

White added as free agent. Trotter jr. drafted.

Plus three edge guys in Hunt (FA), Huff, and Baun (drafted).

Or would you rather we had not drafted Mitchell and DeJean and picked an LB instead? The first ILB drafted was Cooper at #45. Better to have him or DeJean?

15 minutes ago, Aerolithe_Lion said:

1. Slay

2. Bradberry

3. Maddox

4. Mitchell

5. Rodgers

6. Dejean

7. Ringo

8. Jobe

9. Ricks

 

We’ve had a history of a really balanced CB tandem with a fast guy and a physical guy (Vincent/Taylor, Sheppard/Brown, Samuel/Brown, Darby/Mills), and I was hoping Mitchell/Dejean would be the next iteration of that.

But man I don’t want to lose any of these young CBs. Dejean almost needs to move to S to keep Ricks and Ringo and Rodgers. 

What about last season makes you want to keep Ricks and Ringo? I would like Ringo to get a chance to play outside.  I thought he looked ok in the pre-season.  I don't think he's a superstar in the making.  Rodgers is an unknown at this point.  

43 minutes ago, BigEFly said:

Accumulating draft choices?  By draft day, he had two of the Eagles original choices. #22 and #53.  By the end the of the draft, he had used only #22, trading every other original pick.  But for the comp picks, it would have been a mighty small draft. And basically what he did with trading into next year was mostly recouping what he had previously traded away.  

The comp picks weren't accidents, he planned on letting a bunch of veterans leave.

And he's always used later round picks (same with accumulated cap room) to patch holes in the fall if the team is competitive. I expect the same this year, probable target would be a NT, though I think he'd target under 30 players with draft picks (5th, 7th) and sign older veterans off the street.

7 minutes ago, just relax said:

Ignored?

White added as free agent. Trotter jr. drafted.

Plus three edge guys in Hunt (FA), Huff, and Baun (drafted).

Or would you rather we had not drafted Mitchell and DeJean and picked an LB instead? The first ILB drafted was Cooper at #45. Better to have him or DeJean?

And Burks.

I think they like VanSumeran, but might want another season to work with him (ST, backup this year).

It would have been nice to add a stud ILB, but the two DBs were far more important. With Mitchell and DeJean and bringing back CJGJ, Eagles no longer have to ask their young DBs to make a big step up to starter quality, if they're cheap, solid backups that's more than sufficient.

18 minutes ago, Iggles_Phan said:

Don't count on the catcher.   For whatever reason, they love Stubbs.  The price is right with him, but he can't hit to save his life... and he's not a good receiver.  

I know. Just wishful thinking on my part.

1 hour ago, BigEFly said:

Accumulating draft choices?  By draft day, he had two of the Eagles original choices. #22 and #53.  By the end the of the draft, he had used only #22, trading every other original pick.  But for the comp picks, it would have been a mighty small draft. And basically what he did with trading into next year was mostly recouping what he had previously traded away.  

Draft choices are like money. Worthless until spent. Howie spends a lot.

27 minutes ago, just relax said:

The first ILB drafted was Cooper at #45. Better to have him or DeJean?

I wonder if the Eagles will play a lot of dime considering guys like DeJean, CJGJ and Mitchell are all pretty big. From a talent standpoint, our sixth db is probably better than lb2, and we aren't really giving away that much size. 

1 hour ago, BigEFly said:

Accumulating draft choices?  By draft day, he had two of the Eagles original choices. #22 and #53.  By the end the of the draft, he had used only #22, trading every other original pick.  But for the comp picks, it would have been a mighty small draft. And basically what he did with trading into next year was mostly recouping what he had previously traded away.  

I'm as critical of Howie as anyone, but yes... he accumulated draft choices in this draft.   While he didn't ultimately end up with any of the Eagles' original picks by the end of the draft other than 22, that's irrelevant to the discussion.  As it turned out he selected NINE players and rolled 3 extra picks to 2025.  They had few picks for next year, because he did trade them away, but by recouping them, he's eliminated that as an issue... and the Eagles still hold their original picks in the top 3 rounds.  So, he only traded away Day 3 picks... which is a lesser concern for me as the talent pool is pretty well picked over by then and then you are targeting specific players and IMO, it is more valuable in Day 3 to grab the one or two players you identified as potential contributors than to have 4 selections.    And it looks like the Eagles really only traded away 2 of their own picks.  The 7th round pick will likely be retained as the swap for Pickett will send the higher two picks in the 7th round to Pittsburgh.  And it is a pretty safe bet to assume the Eagles will finish with a better record than at least two of the Falcons, Saints and Broncos, if not all 3.  

And yes, comp picks were part of the calculation of making some of these other trades in the past.    I've been highly critical of Howie's trades in the past, but it doesn't make sense to select more than 8 or 9 selections in any given draft, especially if you are at the top of the league in terms of overall talent.   There's just only so many roster spots that can be made available.  

 

8 minutes ago, jsb235 said:

I wonder if the Eagles will play a lot of dime considering guys like DeJean, CJGJ and Mitchell are all pretty big. From a talent standpoint, our sixth db is probably better than lb2, and we aren't really giving away that much size. 

Depressing yet accurate.  

 

41 minutes ago, NCiggles said:

What about last season makes you want to keep Ricks and Ringo? I would like Ringo to get a chance to play outside.  I thought he looked ok in the pre-season.  I don't think he's a superstar in the making.  Rodgers is an unknown at this point.  

They were rookies; IMO CB is the most difficult position to transition from college to the NFL. There have been more than twice as many rookie pro bowl QBs as there have been CBs since 2000. So good or bad last year, I like those players based on their potential for the future.

The last time the Eagles had a below average Oline in terms of roster talent was in the 90’s

33(!) Oline pro bowl appearances since 2000, only 5 out of 24 seasons with no one making the pro bowl.

With 32 teams, in the 24 years since 2000 we should have averaged 3/4ths of a first team all-pro nod. We had 12 between 5 different players.

For comparison’s sake, the most successful team in that span who’s always seemed to have a good line, the NE Patriots, had 12 pro bowlers and 2 first teamers.

7 minutes ago, e-a-g-l-e-s eagles! said:

 

Says... John Frascella of bleacher report? 

25 minutes ago, e-a-g-l-e-s eagles! said:

 

Does the first line mean his wrist is already BREAKING?

Just now, Alphagrand said:

Does the first line mean his wrist is already BREAKING?

There’s a doctor on Twitter that discussed this a couple months back that explained it much better. I’m trying to find his account to post it. 

 

21 minutes ago, we_gotta_believe said:

Says... John Frascella of bleacher report? 

Take it for what it is but he also tweeted this 

 

1 hour ago, BigEFly said:

Accumulating draft choices?  By draft day, he had two of the Eagles original choices. #22 and #53.  By the end the of the draft, he had used only #22, trading every other original pick.  But for the comp picks, it would have been a mighty small draft. And basically what he did with trading into next year was mostly recouping what he had previously traded away.  

He started with 7 picks.  Ended up picking 8 players, two with first-round grades, and acquiring three picks in 2025. 

Turning 7 into 11 is a form of accumulating.

 

6 minutes ago, e-a-g-l-e-s eagles! said:

Take it for what it is but he also tweeted this 

 

Same surgeon that did Burrow's wrist surgery also did Bryce Harper's Tommy John surgery.  Time will tell.  

The secret weapon takes his talents to Carolina.

15 minutes ago, Alphagrand said:

Same surgeon that did Burrow's wrist surgery also did Bryce Harper's Tommy John surgery.  Time will tell.  

Im guessing John’s source his referring to some of his info from this doctor who went into more detail about the wrist and potential issues going forward