12 minutes ago, mattwill said:

I'm not sure that I agree with you regarding being worthy of a top 16 pick.  The whole is the sum of its parts and he is a game changing part.  Stopping the run early forces the opposing team to become one dimensional.  The value of that is immeasurable.

Run stuffing NT are not a premier position in the NFL.  

5 minutes ago, Iggles_Phan said:

Run stuffing NT are not a premier position in the NFL.  

It is if you don't have one.  See Mazi Smith and the Dallas D.  

2 hours ago, Iggles_Phan said:

It is important in terms of evaluating Howie's drafting and the value he's brought in.  Davis is not a bust, but he's not worth the investment.  So, in evaluating Howie's defensive draft picks in the last 3 years, he'd be towards the bottom of the success list.   Meanwhile, Carter, Mitchell and DeJean would be high at the top, while Smith and Dean would be ascending.   If Davis were a 3rd round pick, he'd be an "A-/B+" for me.  But, as a top half of round 1 pick that they traded up to get, he's more like a "C".   

Just looking at the top 3 rounds:

2022 - Overall... B/B+
Davis - C
Jurgens - A
Dean - B (and rising)

2023 - Overall... A-/A.   Carter being such a game wrecker now elevates the entire thing.
Carter - A (finally living up to the potential and the hype from the pre-draft)
Smith - C (and ascending quickly.  Going into this season he was looking like a bust.  That has dramatically changed)
Steen - C+/B- (solid backup at this time, this could rise if he becomes a starter next year)
Brown - B (solid ST player, chance to become more, this grade could rise)

2024 - Overall... early returns look like an A/A+
Mitchell - A/A+.  It would be nice if he finished on one of these INTs.
DeJean - A/A+.  Inserting him into the lineup vastly improved the entire make up of the defense.
Hunt - I.    Too soon to know.

And in the span of about 8 months, my overall happiness with Howie's drafting has shifted dramatically.  He's finally added defensive talent!!! And our last Pro Bowler to be drafted by the Eagles won't be Fletcher Cox in the 2012 draft!  We might see 3 Pro Bowlers from these recent drafts in the very near future... 

When I look at Davis in terms of the 2020 Draft, I look at the players who were taken after him.  Which of those players would you prefer to have rather than Davis?

14	Kyle Hamilton	S	Notre Dame	Baltimore Ravens
15	Kenyon Green	OG	Texas A&M	Houston Texans
16	Jahan Dotson	WR	Penn State	Washington Commanders
17	Zion Johnson	OG	Boston College	Los Angeles Chargers
18	Treylon Burks	WR	Arkansas	Tennessee Titans
19	Trevor Penning	OT	Northern Iowa	New Orleans Saints
20	Kenny Pickett	QB	Pittsburgh	Pittsburgh Steelers
21	Trent McDuffie	CB	Washington	Kansas City Chiefs
22	Quay Walker	LB	Georgia	Green Bay Packers
23	Kaiir Elam	CB	Florida	Buffalo Bills
24	Tyler Smith	OT	Tulsa	Dallas Cowboys
25	Tyler Linderbaum	C	Iowa	Baltimore Ravens
26	Jermaine Johnson II	DE	Florida State	New York Jets
27	Devin Lloyd	LB	Utah	Jacksonville Jaguars
28	Devonte Wyatt	DT	Georgia	Green Bay Packers
29	Cole Strange	OG	Chattanooga	New England Patriots
30	George Karlaftis	DE	Purdue	Kansas City Chiefs
31	Daxton Hill	S	Michigan	Cincinnati Bengals
32	Lewis Cine	S	Georgia	Minnesota Vikings

Heading to the game in LA next week and looking forward to the Philadelphia crowd that goes with it...it always feels like a home game...

2 hours ago, Sack that QB said:

Someone's in denial.

Or he is trolling Giants fans.

2 hours ago, Iggles_Phan said:

I agreed it was valuable, I even called it "very" valuable.  But, that doesn't make it worthy of a premier pick.  He needs to play more than 30-40% of the snaps.  A top of the first round guy needs to play at least 2/3 if not nearly all the snaps to be worth it.   He needs to be logging Fletcher Cox level snap count, Vince Wilfork level snap counts.   Right now, he's not even close to that.

Valuable?  No doubt.  Not worthy of pick 16, however.  

I disagree.  Percentage of snaps is a "derrierre in the chair" approach to evaluating an employee.  That is a bureaucracy approach.  I'm much more of a fan of a meritocracy approach to employee evaluation.  And the merit to Davis' onfield play is that he forces the opposing team to change their game plan.

1 minute ago, mattwill said:

When I look at Davis in terms of the 2020 Draft, I look at the players who were taken after him.  Which of those players would you prefer to have rather than Davis?

14	Kyle Hamilton	S	Notre Dame	Baltimore Ravens
15	Kenyon Green	OG	Texas A&M	Houston Texans
16	Jahan Dotson	WR	Penn State	Washington Commanders
17	Zion Johnson	OG	Boston College	Los Angeles Chargers
18	Treylon Burks	WR	Arkansas	Tennessee Titans
19	Trevor Penning	OT	Northern Iowa	New Orleans Saints
20	Kenny Pickett	QB	Pittsburgh	Pittsburgh Steelers
21	Trent McDuffie	CB	Washington	Kansas City Chiefs
22	Quay Walker	LB	Georgia	Green Bay Packers
23	Kaiir Elam	CB	Florida	Buffalo Bills
24	Tyler Smith	OT	Tulsa	Dallas Cowboys
25	Tyler Linderbaum	C	Iowa	Baltimore Ravens
26	Jermaine Johnson II	DE	Florida State	New York Jets
27	Devin Lloyd	LB	Utah	Jacksonville Jaguars
28	Devonte Wyatt	DT	Georgia	Green Bay Packers
29	Cole Strange	OG	Chattanooga	New England Patriots
30	George Karlaftis	DE	Purdue	Kansas City Chiefs
31	Daxton Hill	S	Michigan	Cincinnati Bengals
32	Lewis Cine	S	Georgia	Minnesota Vikings

Probably Hamilton and karlaftis but a lot of people on here didn’t like him. I’d say Trent mcduffie but we don’t need him cause we got dejean and Mitchell. 

1 hour ago, jsb235 said:

Both those games had anomalies (blocked field goal returned for a touchdown, terrible blown call that led to a touchdown) that made the scores closer than they appeared.

And the fact that we are winning despite getting a lot of bad breaks is indicative that this team is legit.

 

I think the team is legit. But that doesn’t mean Baltimore is the only team on the schedule that can test us. We still do a lot of losing things. That’s the point. 

 I have to go to some Giants boards later and see if they've seen this:

 

 

 

35 minutes ago, vikas83 said:

Um...the Packers aren't decent?

Yea I did forget them. Not sure if they're a playoff contender like the others are though. We'll see how they finish out the year.

1 hour ago, mattwill said:

Losing BG will be unfortunate, but even good things must come to an end.  However, when you look forward to the 2025 Draft what positions other than Edge rusher need attention?

QB1 and QB2 are covered with Hurts and McKee
RB2 is a need, but certainly not before Edge
WR is solid
TE is solid
The O-Line has Fred Johnson and Steens as backups behind five very solid starters.  A Day 3 developmental Stoutland project is a possiblity
Edge is the clear #1 and probably #2 need.  Howie could use both Round 1 and Round 2 on Edge, just as he did for CB this Draft
DT is solid
ILB is solid if Howie extends Baun (who by the way zoomed up to 2nd in the NFL for tackles last night)
CB has Mitchell, Rogers, and DeJean (assuming Rogers gets extended) and probably one more year of Slay
Safety is solid

Howie's eyes are clearly on Edge ... without any distractions. And Parsons isn't out of the realm of possibility as a future Eagles Edge.
 

If Howie gets Parsons with Carter that defense would be insane 

1 hour ago, mattwill said:

Rodgers is a "must sign" for me.

Not sure.  I think they prefer bigger corners (despite the practice squad CBs).  I believe Ringo is close to being able to play.  He mirrors well and has great speed but was raw coming out.  

3 minutes ago, ManuManu said:

I think the team is legit. But that doesn’t mean Baltimore is the only team on the schedule that can test us. We still do a lot of losing things. That’s the point. 

Really would like to see us start games off better. The last three weeks they’ve scored two touchdowns in the three games. Credit for capitalizing on turnovers. But we also got fortunate that Cooper Rush stinks and just fumbled the snap inside the 20 and the Jaguars fumble the punt in the red zone. Granted last night Elliott blew a FG. To me they still look like it takes them a quarter to 1.5 quarters to get themselves into a rhythm. To me I would like to see them against the ravens and rams  come out cooking from the start. 

1 hour ago, austinfan said:

The most frustrating thing to me about the offense, outside of the mistakes in the first half, was the inside zone run/take a deep shot scheme. Hurts would hold the ball, then the pocket would collapse. They need to work the TEs and RBs into the passing game so that teams can't focus on shutting down the run and outside WRs. And become less predictable.

I expect more out of Moore, it seemed the Commies knew what was coming and stuffed everything between the tackles, and neither Brown or Smith got much separation on their vertical routes, kudos to the Commie CBs not biting on double moves.

Once they started running outside zone/off tackle the game was over.

And the underneath routes seem to be there every game, but Moore keeps trying to match up the WRs one on one outside. Brown on slants is deadly, because he's great at RAC - scheme him open underneath and let him truck DBs. Smith should have more routes out of the slot, not just as a target, but a decoy to clear out the middle. That short pass to Barkley went 40 yards b/c there was only a safety in space, get him one on one with a DB and good luck.

Where the creativity? Don't wait until the second half to get clever (and I don't mean slow developing trick plays, I mean scheme guys open for throws that take less than 3 seconds).

The quick slant to AJ in the first Half was a teaser of what could be in that regard, but it was the only pass of that kind IIRC.

Dan Graziano adding more smoke by saying Bryce Huff could be on the move next offseason 

Lions are definitely a threat. They had that stinker but we've had some as well

1 hour ago, paco said:

The name on the right is escaping me but the meme is definitely accurate

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

 

We also have a better Oline. Barkley isn't getting touched for 4yds. CMCs best year was only 3.1yds before getting touched

Barkley also hasn't been used as much in the passing game as CMC

6 minutes ago, ManuManu said:

I think the team is legit. But that doesn’t mean Baltimore is the only team on the schedule that can test us. We still do a lot of losing things. That’s the point. 

I think PIT can definitely put us in the same position as the ATL game - obviously I feel better about it as the defense has improved. But close games fueled by offensive mistakes are trouble.

1 hour ago, jsb235 said:

They will carry over around $10 million from this year. They will also save money from Sweat's contract, whether he walks or gets extended.

Around $50 million in cap space is what they will have.

Howie can use the $10 million to get Baun done now, so that Baun sees an immediate cash infusion to his bank account. 

1 hour ago, FranklinFldEBUpper said:

I didn't mind that. If you go for two and miss, you can actually LOSE the game in regulation. If you kick and go up sixteen, the absolute worst scenario is overtime.

They'd still be up 15.  I'd say the risk/reward would easily be worth it. 

It would have ended the game, and the only risk would be Wash potentially trying for a winning 2XP after scoring, getting a 2XP, getting an onside kick, and scoring again within 4:30.

1 minute ago, LeanMeanGM said:

Dan Graziano adding more smoke by saying Bryce Huff could be on the move next offseason 

I 100% expect them too. Frankly i expect Howie to be aggressive in getting another pass rusher in here. 

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

Probably Hamilton and karlaftis but a lot of people on here didn’t like him. I’d say Trent mcduffie but we don’t need him cause we got dejean and Mitchell. 

@mattwill   

At the time, Hamilton and McDuffie would fit.  McDuffie being a premier position might get the nod over Hamilton, though S is becoming more and more premier.

1 hour ago, we_gotta_believe said:

Carter seems to be doing just fine in the 50-60% of the defensive snaps where Davis isn't next to him. I'm not seeing some big drop off that you seem to be implying.

They are different kinds of snaps for the most part.  When Davis is in there the threat of the run is real.  Having Davis by his side allows Carter to be free to be Carter.  When the threat of a run is removed, then Carter is free to be Carter for a different reason.

 

6 minutes ago, Mike030270 said:

The name on the right is escaping me but the meme is definitely accurate

Bortles

4 hours ago, ToastJenkins said:

@just relax

what was the scheme change that opened up the run game in the second half?

they mentioned we trapped a few times. Seems like we went away from the zone runs and started pulling guys alot?

The only thing different in the second half is that we mixed in some outside zones. Both of Barkley's TDs were on the OZ. We pulled about the same amount in both halves. We ran some split zones, inside zones, a couple of powers - which the announcers called traps - and a few more snaps under center. The basic difference was we wore them down.