No brainer to keep Baun over Becton if we have to choose. I trust Stoutland to get whomever up to speed at guard.

For years fans have been begging for elite LB play. We finally have it for the first time in years and people are okay with letting him just walk out the door? Not me.

Trust in Stout.

9 minutes ago, Alphagrand said:

Baun is a tough call because I think his market is somewhere in the $11-12M AAV and Howie’s ceiling for ILB is about $9M.  It will depend on Baun and how much he’s willing to leave on the table from someone else to come back, IMO.

The only way Milton Williams comes back is if the Eagles see him as a longer term asset than Jordan Davis.  If the Eagles are still committed to a second contract with Davis then Milton is the odd man out.  As much as the Eagles value DT, I don’t think they’ll tie up $65-70M AAV at the position.  They will draft and recycle.

As far as Becton goes, I think Howie will make him an offer and tell him to bring back a higher offer if it’s out there so that the Eagles have ability to match or say goodbye.  He knows how much $$ he’s willing to commit and what the walk away number is.

Sweat will likely get an offer in free agency that Howie won’t even give serious consideration to matching.  Huff busting doesn’t make life easy, but Jalyx Hunt has developed faster than I expected, so it’s likely Howie sees the compensatory pick as the better asset.

That's really not a tough call at all.  Baun provided more value to this team than Milton Williams or Becton or Sweat.  Just like RB, LB is misvalued market for impact players.  It's an easy decision

6 minutes ago, Swoop said:

No brainer to keep Baun over Becton if we have to choose. I trust Stoutland to get whomever up to speed at guard.

For years fans have been begging for elite LB play. We finally have it for the first time in years and people are okay with letting him just walk out the door? Not me.

Trust in Stout.

Our OL is right to left: first round draft choice, first round draft choice, second round draft choice, second round draft choice, and seventh round draft choice. Obviously Mailata is an outlier. The rest are all high picks. Stoutland has made so-so talents into competent linemen but he has made this group into one of two or three best OLs of all time. Why? Because he was given talent to work with. Give him mediocre players and the product will be worse. Trust in him all you want but give him talent to work with. This is the engine that drives the offense and is why Barkley came here despite higher offers elsewhere.

21 minutes ago, Alphagrand said:

Baun is a tough call because I think his market is somewhere in the $11-12M AAV and Howie’s ceiling for ILB is about $9M.  It will depend on Baun and how much he’s willing to leave on the table from someone else to come back, IMO.

 

If Baun wanted that the deal would be done already. Howie allocated a higher % of the cap to Nigel Bradham who, as good as he was, was not in Baun’s league.

Just now, just relax said:

Our OL is right to left: first round draft choice, first round draft choice, second round draft choice, second round draft choice, and seventh round draft choice. Obviously Mailata is an outlier. The rest are all high picks. Stoutland has made so-so talents into competent linemen but he has made this group into one of two or three best OLs of all time. Why? Because he was given talent to work with. Give him mediocre players and the product will be worse. Trust in him all you want but give him talent to work with. This is the engine that drives the offense and is why Barkley came here despite higher offers elsewhere.

Well, he turned 6th rd into HOF center, Mathis into allpro LG, Seumalo (3rd rd) into solid starting RG, Vaetai (5th rd) into solid swing OT.

If someone gives Baun some absurd contract, and they can’t match ok. Like 20m per season which I don’t see happening. But Baun is a type of player you go above what you’re usually comfortable with at the position. He made that much of a difference in 2024. Sometimes you gotta make exceptions.

Baun over Becton all day

49 minutes ago, just relax said:

Really a bad take.

Well that was kinda the point. Its an equivalent take to TEWs on Baun

7 hours ago, HazletonEagle said:

Im wearing my super bowl champions shirt today for the first time. And its another example of Fanatics just slapping a Nike logo on a fanatics crap product.

The shirt fits very awkwardly. And what Ive found to be the problem is the right sleeve is much shorter than the left. It seems to be maybe sown on bit twisted or crooked or something. And it creates a tightness extending from the armpit down across the right chest with a noticeable line of stretch. It also seems to fit tighter up top across the shoulders, and has extra room around the belly.

Just an odd looking shirt on the body. I probably will only ever wear it under a jersey or hoodie.

I'm happy with the shirts and hoodies I bought. No complaints. Fits great

1 hour ago, ToastJenkins said:

How likely is an injury prone bust like Becton to repeat or improve? Its a nonsense argument

the fit is perfect and he is smart enough to qb fangios scheme. Just pay the man

Becton not a bust. I don’t know where this idea came from. He was one of the best young lineman in the NFL, then hurt his knee.

Now he’s a guy who gets all-pro votes. And what he did as an Eagle in the run game is exactly what he did with the Jets.

How likely is he to repeat his performance? Barring injury, close to 100%.

33 minutes ago, Sack that QB said:

If someone gives Baun some absurd contract, and they can’t match ok. Like 20m per season which I don’t see happening. But Baun is a type of player you go above what you’re usually comfortable with at the position. He made that much of a difference in 2024. Sometimes you gotta make exceptions.

Average LB salary for the top 20 linebackers is somewhere around 6-7 mil per year.  As you get into the top 10 it’s 9-11.  Top 5 (1 at 20) is 13-15

He’s a niche market.  He hasn’t had success at Edge like a Micah Parsons but has done very well in this system.
 

I’m thinking somewhere in the 11-13 is on the higher end of what the Eagles would pay an elite LB - and if they offer him anywhere near that, I think it’s a win - win.
 

 If Baun thinks he will do better (and maybe he will) then it is what it is.  

They’re not paying a (non-Edge) linebacker 15–20 mil per year - even if he’s the best they’ve had recently.  (We’ve seen both Dean and Burks thrive in this system - and Trotter Jr has looked good too.).  Let’s not forget that Baun was a JAG before the start of this season.  His success was and is a two-way street. 

1 minute ago, TEW said:

Becton not a bust. I don’t know where this idea came from. He was one of the best young lineman in the NFL, then hurt his knee.

Now he’s a guy who gets all-pro votes. And what he did as an Eagle in the run game is exactly what he did with the Jets.

How likely is he to repeat his performance? Barring injury, close to 100%.

He was a bust with the Jets

26 minutes ago, just relax said:

Our OL is right to left: first round draft choice, first round draft choice, second round draft choice, second round draft choice, and seventh round draft choice. Obviously Mailata is an outlier. The rest are all high picks. Stoutland has made so-so talents into competent linemen but he has made this group into one of two or three best OLs of all time. Why? Because he was given talent to work with. Give him mediocre players and the product will be worse. Trust in him all you want but give him talent to work with. This is the engine that drives the offense and is why Barkley came here despite higher offers elsewhere.

Yeah. I don’t think people appreciate just how good this OL is. The NFL hasn’t seen anything like it in the salary cap era.

You’d have to go back 30 years to the Cowboys with Larry Allen and company to find a legitimate comparison. And frankly this OL is more talented if we are talking physical traits.

Who do you put above them? Cowboys, maybe the Washington hogs? I’m not old enough to go farther back than that.

This is our entire identity as a team. 4/5 of the players are young. You don’t let one of those youngsters walk.

7 minutes ago, Godfather said:

He was a bust with the Jets

Nope. Good player with them until his knee injury.

Just now, TEW said:

Yeah. I don’t think people appreciate just how good this OL is. The NFL hasn’t seen anything like it in the salary cap era.

You’d have to go back 30 years to the Cowboys with Larry Allen and company to find a legitimate comparison. And frankly this OL is more talented if we are talking physical traits.

Who do you put above them? Cowboys, maybe the Washington hogs? I’m not old enough to go farther back than that.

This is our entire identity as a team. 4/5 of the players are young. You don’t let one of those youngsters walk.

I'm pretty sure everyone on this board and every eagles fan knows how good this oline is and has been

17 minutes ago, ToastJenkins said:

Well that was kinda the point. Its an equivalent take to TEWs on Baun

No, it’s not. Turnovers have much higher variance than blocking.

2 minutes ago, TEW said:

Nope. Good player with them until his knee injury.

If he was such a good player the Jets would've kept him

1 minute ago, Godfather said:

I'm pretty sure everyone on this board and every eagles fan knows how good this oline is and has been

I don’t.

The fact that people think they can just swap Steen in for Becton shows this.

Just now, TEW said:

I don’t.

The fact that people think they can just swap Steen in for Becton shows this.

Steen played well when he was thrown in there to take over after an injury

10 minutes ago, hukdonfoniks said:

As long as Saquon is here, we're gonna be every bit the run-heavy team we were. 

We have an offensive line that just helped their RB have probably the single best season in NFL history.  You invest in keeping that in tact all day long. 

I think they will still be a run heavy team compared to the rest of the league, but I don't think they will be AS run heavy as they were this year.   I think they will need to back off the workload for Barkley a bit to ensure he's around for the playoffs.  I'd love to see them invest in a legit RB2 that they could lean on a bit of some of the carries through out the game.   I'd like to see Saquon's touches come down to 15-18 a game.  He could still be very effective with that number of touches, and be fresh for the playoffs where they could lean more heavily on him again.  He got 345 carries in the regular season, plus another 91 in the playoffs.   Add to that 33 receptions in the regular season and another 13 in the playoffs and we are talking about well over 450 touches... and that doesn't count his blitz pickups or his lead blocks.   He was used a ton this year.   They will need to back off that for next year, unless....

 

they have no interest in having him stick around more than 2 years.  In which case they can use him like crazy and move on.  I really hope that's not the plan though.

6 hours ago, hukdonfoniks said:

As long as Saquon is here, we're gonna be every bit the run-heavy team we were. 

We have an offensive line that just helped their RB have probably the single best season in NFL history.  You invest in keeping that in tact all day long. 

They should draft Judkins to pair with him

57 minutes ago, jojodancer said:

I know who the better lineman is. It's a matter of Baun or Becton here? Because of cap space. Baun loss is more damaging to overall defense than a Becton loss to the overall offense.

Hard to compare apples and oranges…

Becton was a vital part of a record setting rush offense.  

Baun was a vital part of one of the best modern day defenses.  I’d argue gave LOB a run for their money, but they weren’t 2000 Ravens, 91 Birds or 85 Bears good.

Just now, Wentz_Era said:

Hard to compare apples and oranges…

Becton was a vital part of a record setting rush offense.  

Baun was a vital part of one of the best modern day defenses.  I’d argue gave LOB a run for their money, but they weren’t 2000 Ravens, 91 Birds or 85 Bears good.

That 91 defense

3 minutes ago, Godfather said:

Steen played well when he was thrown in there to take over after an injury

He played OK.  Stout started a guy at RG that had never played guard in college or pros over Steen who has been coached by Stout at guard for two years.

Draft Jihaad Campbell. Problem solved