9 minutes ago, Arsenal79 said:

Looks like Howie isn't gonna pay Becton.

I think it’s interesting that the focus seems to be at non-guard positions. I wouldn’t read into anything about Becton. We’ve been looking mostly at tackles and even the interior players are either outright centers or guards who can play center. 

3 minutes ago, TEW said:

I think it’s interesting that the focus seems to be at non-guard positions. I wouldn’t read into anything about Becton. We’ve been looking mostly at tackles and even the interior players are either outright centers or guards who can play center. 

Well, we do have a habit of drafting tackles and moving them inside.

Just now, Arsenal79 said:

Well, we do have a habit of drafting tackles and moving them inside.

@just relax mentioned the other day that our depth at OL is poor, and he’s right. We have Steen, a guy we are hopeful about in Keegan… and that’s about it.

We really don’t have anyone you’d be comfortable with at tackle for a prolonged period, and we all saw what happened at center last year.

Most of the guys we’re looking at are pure tackles. Tall and long. The interior players are all guys who play, have played, or are looked at as potential centers.

I think the goal is to get a dependable #3 tackle who could hold down the fort if Lwne or Jordan got injured for 5+ games. And then grab a guy who can play center so you don’t need to move Dickerson.

Steen is perfect for the game day active spot, but we need to beef up the quality behind him and allow us to not play musical chairs if we have multiple injuries.

9 minutes ago, Arsenal79 said:

Well, we do have a habit of drafting tackles and moving them inside.

Very true, but that’s only was in a previous regime - Reid and Castillo. Those lines were for pass blocking with running as an unpleasant afterthought. Now, we look for tackles with long arms, a quick kick step, and length; guards with mass and mobility; centers with speed a decent size. Players under 310 need not apply. If you have the size and mobility and a mean streak, Stoutland can give you technique, but you need all those attributes before he even looks at you. Until Becton fell out of the sky we were figuring on Dickerson and Steen at guard. Great fits there; outside? Not so much.

Believe there are going to be some unexpected moves coming here in the next couple of weeks. I can see at least 3 of these happening.

1) Milton Williams extension or franchise tag

2) Jordan Davis trade

3) Jalen Hurts Extension

4) Dallas Goedert cut or traded

5) No extension for Jurgens til back is healed up and he plays a few games

Howie is gonna have to be on top of his game to keep this Superbowl defense at the top. Feel like the offense is still near the top, regardless of any moves like a Becton loss or a Goedert loss. The draft would probably address those spots if they do happen.

2 hours ago, e-a-g-l-e-s eagles! said:

Off topic, but that was an epic ending.

4 hours ago, just relax said:

Completely different snap for starters. A shotgun snap goes about six yards and it’s a flip more than a hard snap. It’s done one-handed because you’ve got a big ugly a few inches away primed to hit you. It’s a blind snap too. You don’t see your target because you’re occupied with the guy in front of you. You take a look before the snap, of course. A long snap goes about 14 yards on punts and you really have to whip it. On FGs and EPs you have to whip it about seven yards and your error tolerance is no more than a couple of inches. Long snappers use two hands and the rotation on the snap is critical on place kicks. The holder has to catch and set in a smooth motion because the kicker has already started his approach and will aim to strike the ball right where the holder pointed when they were setting up. The holder can adjust laces out if the rotation is a little off but only a little. Long snappers are protected these days but that’s only a very recent rule change. 
I would ask @FranklinFldEBUpper to step in here because he’s forgotten more about this than I’ll ever know and it’s been many decades since I did it and not particularly well. 

Long snapping is such an art that when i did the combine back in the day…when they called in the LS to start, they said you get one pass.  More than 1 bad snap and we’ll send you home regardless of any other position you’re here for.

4 hours ago, just relax said:

Completely different snap for starters. A shotgun snap goes about six yards and it’s a flip more than a hard snap. It’s done one-handed because you’ve got a big ugly a few inches away primed to hit you. It’s a blind snap too. You don’t see your target because you’re occupied with the guy in front of you. You take a look before the snap, of course. A long snap goes about 14 yards on punts and you really have to whip it. On FGs and EPs you have to whip it about seven yards and your error tolerance is no more than a couple of inches. Long snappers use two hands and the rotation on the snap is critical on place kicks. The holder has to catch and set in a smooth motion because the kicker has already started his approach and will aim to strike the ball right where the holder pointed when they were setting up. The holder can adjust laces out if the rotation is a little off but only a little. Long snappers are protected these days but that’s only a very recent rule change. 
I would ask @FranklinFldEBUpper to step in here because he’s forgotten more about this than I’ll ever know and it’s been many decades since I did it and not particularly well. 

I snapped in high school and college and loved every minute of it. You're basically throwing it as hard as you can. That's why warming up you just play catch. Then you gradually moved to the over the head snap with both hands. Then the extra twist with your off hand helps guide and add more spin and accuracy. The rules have definitely made it easier by giving snappers a free release on punts now, but there's a lot of pressure for sure. The Eagles have been one of the luckier teams with snappers. 

Pretty much went from Bartrum to Dorenbos to Lovato over the last 30 years.

All 4 divisional teams going to be even next year.

 

 

 

4 hours ago, Sack that QB said:

It is interesting that the Eagles are meeting with a lot of OL in this draft because Howie has a knack for going away from the strengths of drafts. His logic has always been if you're picking late, it's better to take the best or second best at another position than the 7th best at the position of strength.

Quinyon in an OL heavy draft.

Dillard in a DL heavy draft.

Some loaded RB classes where they passed on RB and went elsewhere.

I wonder if Howie will try to get a top 3 tackle or top IOL in this class instead of a DL that will be like 6th or 7th on their board at DL. I'd hope not. They really need DL especially if both Sweat and Milton leave and I think this class is deep enough, plus the OL draft isn't nearly as good as last year. Would be kind of annoying to not get one last year and then take one this year.

The DL prospects/players are rather varied in their characteristics.  So I personally don’t see the value/meaning in a term like "6th or 7th at DL”. For instance Carter and Davis and Smith are all DLs, but are they comparable?  I say no.

37 minutes ago, jojodancer said:

Believe there are going to be some unexpected moves coming here in the next couple of weeks. I can see at least 3 of these happening.

1) Milton Williams extension or franchise tag

2) Jordan Davis trade

3) Jalen Hurts Extension

4) Dallas Goedert cut or traded

5) No extension for Jurgens til back is healed up and he plays a few games

Howie is gonna have to be on top of his game to keep this Superbowl defense at the top. Feel like the offense is still near the top, regardless of any moves like a Becton loss or a Goedert loss. The draft would probably address those spots if they do happen.

 

Milton is gone, Davis is staying and Jurgens will be extended before the season.

 

Makes no sense to cut Goedert as it wouldn't give them any cap savings.

38 minutes ago, jojodancer said:

Believe there are going to be some unexpected moves coming here in the next couple of weeks. I can see at least 3 of these happening.

1) Milton Williams extension or franchise tag

2) Jordan Davis trade

3) Jalen Hurts Extension

4) Dallas Goedert cut or traded

5) No extension for Jurgens til back is healed up and he plays a few games

Howie is gonna have to be on top of his game to keep this Superbowl defense at the top. Feel like the offense is still near the top, regardless of any moves like a Becton loss or a Goedert loss. The draft would probably address those spots if they do happen.

1) No

2) No

3) Why?

4) Unlikely 

5) No.  Given Howie’s use of insurance to mitigate injury risk, he can extend with little  risk, and right now Jurgens would be negotiating from a position of weakness … and would welcome the personal financial security.

1 hour ago, TEW said:

I think it’s interesting that the focus seems to be at non-guard positions. I wouldn’t read into anything about Becton. We’ve been looking mostly at tackles and even the interior players are either outright centers or guards who can play center. 

Yup.  Easy for folks to forget not very long ago the Eagles had Lane and Peters starting, with Mailata and Dillard as depth at OT.

 

1 hour ago, just relax said:

Very true, but that’s only was in a previous regime - Reid and Castillo. Those lines were for pass blocking with running as an unpleasant afterthought. Now, we look for tackles with long arms, a quick kick step, and length; guards with mass and mobility; centers with speed a decent size. Players under 310 need not apply. If you have the size and mobility and a mean streak, Stoutland can give you technique, but you need all those attributes before he even looks at you. Until Becton fell out of the sky we were figuring on Dickerson and Steen at guard. Great fits there; outside? Not so much.

Outside of Andrew’s who did they really kick inside though?  We’ve had 25 years of very good to elite OT play pretty much straight.  

Tra -> JP (Shawn Andrew’s was the succession plan at first, but was too good to sit and Tra played till 2008).  Runyan got replaced by ToddFather, who got kicked inside after a few years since we drafted a player that might possibly be a HoF’r in Lane.  The Reid/Castillo MO was mid rounds look for athletic versatile diamonds in the rough from small school, and then late rounds look for big road graders IIRC.  

Did they ever try Justice inside?  Watkins was drafted to play OG.  MJG was a slug who projected to guard.  Trying to remember other names that got some to significant play time.

I respect a lot of the opinions here but it’s just odd to me to base anything off of interviews. I bet they interview the same number of OL, DL and DBs each year. They bring the position coaches to Indy to do interviews and each group has specific time slots allocated 

30 minutes ago, bpac55 said:

I snapped in high school and college and loved every minute of it. You're basically throwing it as hard as you can. That's why warming up you just play catch. Then you gradually moved to the over the head snap with both hands. Then the extra twist with your off hand helps guide and add more spin and accuracy. The rules have definitely made it easier by giving snappers a free release on punts now, but there's a lot of pressure for sure. The Eagles have been one of the luckier teams with snappers. 

Pretty much went from Bartrum to Dorenbos to Lovato over the last 30 years.

@FranklinFldEBUpper will be the one to tell me I’m wrong or right here, but Lovato really struggled the back half of the season.  Mann made some absolutely ridiculous snags and snap downs.  Not that Jake wasn’t in his own head, but part of the kicking issue seemed to be Lovato. Thankfully we didn’t need to punt much in the playoffs either, but he seemed to really be struggling with his placement.  I’d expect some competition for him this off season.

13 minutes ago, RememberTheKoy said:

 

Milton is gone, Davis is staying and Jurgens will be extended before the season.

 

Makes no sense to cut Goedert as it wouldn't give them any cap savings.

Post June 1 on Goedert saves them 6 million

1 minute ago, Wentz_Era said:

@FranklinFldEBUpper will be the one to tell me I’m wrong or right here, but Lovato really struggled the back half of the season.  Mann made some absolutely ridiculous snags and snap downs.  Not that Jake wasn’t in his own head, but part of the kicking issue seemed to be Lovato. Thankfully we didn’t need to punt much in the playoffs either, but he seemed to really be struggling with his placement.  I’d expect some competition for him this off season.

He did. Mann against the Rams was unbelievable. He was snagging those bad snaps with bare hands in the blizzard. His snap catches were a big reason they won that game.

I would be more worried about Washington if they went and got Tee Higgins to pair with McLaurin. 

Deebo.....meh, not so much.

B

6 minutes ago, bpac55 said:

He did. Mann against the Rams was unbelievable. He was snagging those bad snaps with bare hands in the blizzard. His snap catches were a big reason they won that game.

I gave him a pass for the Rams game.  That was a total ST unit thing IMO.  From clearing spots and lining up quick so that ball didn’t have to spend an unnecessary second in the snow.  I think it was the GB game where I commented post game on how off he seemed to be.

14 minutes ago, Wentz_Era said:

Outside of Andrew’s who did they really kick inside though?  We’ve had 25 years of very good to elite OT play pretty much straight.  

Tra -> JP (Shawn Andrew’s was the succession plan at first, but was too good to sit and Tra played till 2008).  Runyan got replaced by ToddFather, who got kicked inside after a few years since we drafted a player that might possibly be a HoF’r in Lane.  The Reid/Castillo MO was mid rounds look for athletic versatile diamonds in the rough from small school, and then late rounds look for big road graders IIRC.  

Did they ever try Justice inside?  Watkins was drafted to play OG.  MJG was a slug who projected to guard.  Trying to remember other names that got some to significant play time.

Mayberry and Herremans were long term starters who played inside.

5 hours ago, Cheesteakitis said:

Post June 1 on Goedert saves them 6 million

There is a whole lot more to decision making than money 

1 minute ago, TEW said:

Mayberry and Herremans were long term starters who played inside.

Todd started inside though.  I personally look at him as an outlier, in that he was just too good to sit on the bench.

Mayberry, honestly don’t remember much of that period…but IIRC he was moved inside well before Andy.

1 minute ago, mattwill said:

There is a whole e more to decision making than money 

I don’t think you can let Goedert go without a suitable replacement; Calcaterra is more a TE-by-committee guy.

18 minutes ago, Wentz_Era said:

Outside of Andrew’s who did they really kick inside though?  We’ve had 25 years of very good to elite OT play pretty much straight.  

Jamaal Jackson was a college OT, turned C.  Hank Fraley, same story.

Artis Hicks, Todd Herremanns, John Welbourn, Bobbie Williams, several others if I dig through my brain a little more.