30 minutes ago, mattwill said:

Big men are able to see the error of their ways. 😱🫣🫢

Bigly lol

Its the growth mindset. Howie grasped it. I try to. Even professionally, there comes a time to Unlearn what you have learned…

My current job demanded that and we have have been wildly succesful

1 hour ago, eagle45 said:

The Eagles have entered the rarified air where no one is going to feel particularly comfortable criticizing there draft class at this point, not that there is much to criticize.

Mukuba value bashing is totally fair. Just feels like his upside is league average starting FS. I do like the more fluid, instincty, center field types...which he is. But I also think we have two young safeties on the roster who are very unpopular with the fans and media...but are far more explosive, athletic, and may be more well liked than the coaches than we all think. So we'll see what happens there.

They are so well liked that they invested the 64th overall pick in another Safety 🤣

Also the value bashing isn't fair at all. Howie has earned the benefit of the doubt with the last few years of drafting and so has Vic and there is no way they are drafting defensive players early without Vic's approval. I was a little down on the pick as well but then I did research and a lot of people had him as the 3rd or 4th best Safety in the class, most had him top 5, and he was clearly the best fit in Vic's scheme which is just as if not more important with the draft process as simply looking at the rankings.

2 minutes ago, T-1000 said:

They are so well liked that they invested the 64th overall pick in another Safety 🤣

Also the value bashing isn't fair at all. Howie has earned the benefit of the doubt with the last few years of drafting and so has Vic and there is no way they are drafting defensive players early without Vic's approval. I was a little down on the pick as well but then I did research and a lot of people had him as the 3rd or 4th best Safety in the class, most had him top 5, and he was clearly the best fit in Vic's scheme which is just as if not more important with the draft process as simply looking at the rankings.

Yup

If you want a FS that can play the deep half, he was your guy

Fit matters. Alot.

5 minutes ago, T-1000 said:

They are so well liked that they invested the 64th overall pick in another Safety 🤣

Also the value bashing isn't fair at all. Howie has earned the benefit of the doubt with the last few years of drafting and so has Vic and there is no way they are drafting defensive players early without Vic's approval. I was a little down on the pick as well but then I did research and a lot of people had him as the 3rd or 4th best Safety in the class, most had him top 5, and he was clearly the best fit in Vic's scheme which is just as if not more important with the draft process as simply looking at the rankings.

Like you I’ve been sold more on him and I liked him going in for rd 3 anyway and we picked 64.

Ultimately people can criticize if they want. At this point we’ll see what we see soon

Just now, ToastJenkins said:

Yup

If you want a FS that can play the deep half, he was your guy

Fit matters. Alot.

Great post.

It drives me nuts how people just assume it's all about talent as to why guys do or do not succeed in the NFL. All of these kids that get drafted are talented and certainly the kids drafted in the early rounds are all very talented. What often separates success or failure is scheme fit and being put in a situation to succeed. This is why players so often sign big money deals in free agency and don't work out because the scheme and culture fit isn't right for them. I saw people clamoring for Kevin Winston Jr. over Makuba and Winston is a box safety who we don't need and isn't a fit in Vic's scheme. We will see if Mukuba works out or not but he was clearly the best fit of ANY safety in this draft other than Starks.

Just now, pgcd3 said:

Like you I’ve been sold more on him and I liked him going in for rd 3 anyway and we picked 64.

Ultimately people can criticize if they want. At this point we’ll see what see soon

I liked the player, not the value initially. As was discussed above fit matters a lot and Mukuba was the best fit of any safety in this draft for Vic's defense other than Starks. Also, just because Watts made it to 96 doesn't mean Mukuba would have made it there or anywhere close for that matter. People seemed to forget that drafting 32nd versus 23rd in every round makes a big difference and the board didn't exactly break their way for 64 at other positions like edge rusher, DT, OL, etc. I'm not in love with the pick but I think it made sense and I like the player, and I have said since early on in free agency that Sydney Brown isn't the answer and is more of a box safety anyway and we needed a pure coverage safety which is exactly what Mukuba is. If Mukuba was 2 inches taller and 10 pounds heavier he would have been an early 2nd round pick and people would be comparing him to Brian Branch.

11 minutes ago, T-1000 said:

I liked the player, not the value initially. As was discussed above fit matters a lot and Mukuba was the best fit of any safety in this draft for Vic's defense other than Starks. Also, just because Watts made it to 96 doesn't mean Mukuba would have made it there or anywhere close for that matter. People seemed to forget that drafting 32nd versus 23rd in every round makes a big difference and the board didn't exactly break their way for 64 at other positions like edge rusher, DT, OL, etc. I'm not in love with the pick but I think it made sense and I like the player, and I have said since early on in free agency that Sydney Brown isn't the answer and is more of a box safety anyway and we needed a pure coverage safety which is exactly what Mukuba is. If Mukuba was 2 inches taller and 10 pounds heavier he would have been an early 2nd round pick and people would be comparing him to Brian Branch.

Yep, the board didn't fall well to them in the 2nd. Teams saw the Eagles coming and there was a run on DL. The Ravens and Bills screwed them in multiple rounds as well along with teams jumping just ahead of them. I do think there was also an element of I'm not trading with Howie unless he overpays or it's in our interest to move up.

He was the best fit for their defense you are right. Hopefully, he ends up being a good player. I think he will surprise people.

It also just hit me how people were saying Hunt was drafted too early last year. If they like a guy that much just take him.

10 minutes ago, Diehardfan said:

Yep, the board didn't fall well to them in the 2nd. Teams saw the Eagles coming and there was a run on DL. The Ravens and Bills screwed them in multiple rounds as well along with teams jumping just ahead of them. I do think there was also an element of I'm not trading with Howie unless he overpays or it's in our interest to move up.

He was the best fit for their defense you are right. Hopefully, he ends up being a good player. I think he will surprise people.

It also just hit me how people were saying Hunt was drafted too early last year. If they like a guy that much just take him.

Yep there's a fine line between just drafting your guy or moving back to get some value. Neither is definitely correct. The Eagles moved back a few times and they wound up adding Williams & APR etc. If either of those guys turns out the risk to move back paid off. If the guy they would have taken gets picked and he turns out while the players they net aren't good then it's obviously bad. In the end people only remember the players picked and whether enough of them are good

46 minutes ago, ToastJenkins said:

Lets leave george out of it…

But the concept is sound. Use the LBs to disrupt the popular underneath quick passing game. Let the safties play the deep half. Almost dare the offense to run the ball

George is living proof that reasonable people can agree to disagree reasonably. Some day you and I will have a beer together.

7 minutes ago, mattwill said:

George is living proof that reasonable people can agree to disagree reasonably. Some day you and I will have a beer together.

2 minutes ago, pgcd3 said:

Yep there's a fine line between just drafting your guy or moving back to get some value. Neither is definitely correct. The Eagles moved back a few times and they wound up adding Williams & APR etc. If either of those guys turns out the risk to move back paid off. If the guy they would have taken gets picked and he turns out while the players they net aren't good then it's obviously bad. In the end people only remember the players picked and whether enough of them are good

In this case it is a reasonably easy comparison to track. Charles Grant on the one hand and Williams and Hinton on the other hand.

The one factor that can’t be considered is what Grant’s development would be like if he were in Stoutland University.

Something to keep in mind regarding Mukuba vs the other safeties. We had our pick of any safety after Starks and the South Carolina guy I won’t bother to learn to spell. Howie himself said he considered trading down and thought better. Considering there were so many safeties with comparable or better rankings on consensus boards, Howie sticking at 64 and taking Mukuba speaks volumes. We know that he is more than happy to trade down and collect assets if players are in a big tier. Maybe the only offers were large moves back and that made him uncomfortable. Either way, it tells me that Mukuba was the clear best safety on the board or they simply didn’t value many of the best remaining safeties like others do when not accounting for scheme.

As I said pre-draft and now post draft, everything about his play style and football intelligence scream Fangio safety.

I’ll let the OL gurus in here tell me what they see.

4 minutes ago, brkmsn said:

Different George, but you made me smile. In our case the two reasonable people were toast and me talking about and differing substantially about George. It was a lively and spirited conversation.

33 minutes ago, Diehardfan said:

Yep, the board didn't fall well to them in the 2nd. Teams saw the Eagles coming and there was a run on DL. The Ravens and Bills screwed them in multiple rounds as well along with teams jumping just ahead of them. I do think there was also an element of I'm not trading with Howie unless he overpays or it's in our interest to move up.

He was the best fit for their defense you are right. Hopefully, he ends up being a good player. I think he will surprise people.

It also just hit me how people were saying Hunt was drafted too early last year. If they like a guy that much just take him.

Ravens in Round 2 = Mike Green

Bills in Round 2 = trade out to Bears who took Shemar Turner

Ravens in Round 3 = Emery Jones

Bills again traded out to Browns who took the Oregon QB

Ravens in Round 4 = Teddye Buchanan

Bills again traded out to Bears who took a LB

Other than in Round 2 how did either the Ravens or Bills screw the Eagles?

14 minutes ago, ManuManu said:

Something to keep in mind regarding Mukuba vs the other safeties. We had our pick of any safety after Starks and the South Carolina guy I won’t bother to learn to spell. Howie himself said he considered trading down and thought better. Considering there were so many safeties with comparable or better rankings on consensus boards, Howie sticking at 64 and taking Mukuba speaks volumes. We know that he is more than happy to trade down and collect assets if players are in a big tier. Maybe the only offers were large moves back and that made him uncomfortable. Either way, it tells me that Mukuba was the clear best safety on the board or they simply didn’t value many of the best remaining safeties like others do when not accounting for scheme.

As I said pre-draft and now post draft, everything about his play style and football intelligence scream Fangio safety.

Yep I was also encouraged when Lurie said they waited an hour for him. That means after that last run of players we speculated that went over 10 picks before them they really did like Mukuba a lot.

If anyone has The Athletic, Michael Silver wrote an incredible in-depth story from the Jags’ war room. Incredible access and honesty.

Count me in the group who sees much more value in using Jihaad Campbell as an off-ball LB with the versatility to pressure the QB. His best attributes are closing speed, tackling ability, and versatility. I don’t see a player who would be impactful by lining him up as a full time EDGE and having him rushing the QB on every down. He’d be miscast there.

27 minutes ago, mattwill said:

Ravens in Round 2 = Mike Green

Bills in Round 2 = trade out to Bears who took Shemar Turner

Ravens in Round 3 = Emery Jones

Bills again traded out to Browns who took the Oregon QB

Ravens in Round 4 = Teddye Buchanan

Bills again traded out to Bears who took a LB

Other than in Round 2 how did either the Ravens or Bills screw the Eagles?

Just felt like it most of the draft. One of them would grab a guy I could see the Eagles having interest in. I'd have to look at the rounds to tell ya.

@mattwill

Jackson

Hawes

I forget where the Eagles picked but I remember thinking they were guys the Eagles could have used.

14 minutes ago, Diehardfan said:

@mattwill

Jackson

Hawes

I forget where the Eagles picked but I remember thinking they were guys the Eagles could have used.

Jackson went at 72 and the Eagles picked at 96. Moving up 25 spots would have cost 96 plus a 2026 3rd. I didn’t like Jackson that much. Josaiah Stewart went to the Rams at pick 90. Moving up 7 spots for him would have made more sense. I personally liked Stewart much more than Jackson.

1 hour ago, mattwill said:

Jackson went at 72 and the Eagles picked at 96. Moving up 25 spots would have cost 96 plus a 2026 3rd. I didn’t like Jackson that much. Josaiah Stewart went to the Rams at pick 90. Moving up 7 spots for him would have made more sense. I personally liked Stewart much more than Jackson.

It wasn't about trading up for them. Like I said watching it that's how it felt especially with the Ravens and Bills who seemed to draft very well. Each round teams got good players ahead Howie. He did well with what he had to work with.

4 hours ago, ToastJenkins said:

Bigly lol

Its the growth mindset. Howie grasped it. I try to. Even professionally, there comes a time to Unlearn what you have learned…

My current job demanded that and we have have been wildly succesful

What does bigly mean? I’ve seen it several times here but nowhere else

34 minutes ago, Diehardfan said:

I also like this Maliq Carr that they either signed or invited to mini camp