11 minutes ago, Connecticut Eagle said:

The Cowboys are a better team now with Pickens than without. If Dak, Lamb, and Parsons stay healthy, they can win on any Sunday. They will be a challenge in 2025.

O-Line & D-Line are still unproven. DAL has made attempts to improve in the draft over the last five years on both lines, only Tyler Smith has played at a high level, Beebe was serviceable as a rookie, but still the OLine is not a stable unit until proven otherwise. As well as DAL has drafted historically, and try as they may, they cannot seem to get the DT they really need.

I see an additional challenge for DAL this year. The number of injuries at CB/DB (knee/ACL, shoulder) last year was astounding. Butler, Diggs (again), Hall, Carson. Even with drafting Revel (also coming off ACL injury), the CB group has a lot to prove, availability is the best ability.

I think DAL has made strides in the LB group, but losing Overshown to an ACL, MCL, PCL...(ridiculous and horrible bad luck after having his rookie year wiped out in '23 from an ACL) is impactful as well. The guy is/was an incredible talent and will be hard to replace. I feel so bad for him. He is from a small East Texas town and lives for and loves the game...I hope for his sake he can make a recovery and compete at a level similar to where he was last year going into November when he got hurt. That is going to be very, very difficult but he has no quit in him and he is a fighter. I wonder how those injuries will affect his mobility as he ages, makes me think of Earl Campbell and how he can barely walk anymore. Sad.

1 minute ago, vikas83 said:

Lot of moving pieces, but that is directionally correct. Becton signed a 2 year, $20mm deal and that should net us a 5th.

I’d add tight end class has decent players in it. Excluding Kelce cause he’s either chiefs or retirement, the 2026 free agent tight end class has potentially goedert, otton, ertz, andrews, njoku, Jonnu smith (was really good down the stretch last year with Miami), Jake Ferguson and Kyle Pitts

Just now, LeanMeanGM said:

I said he had the leverage but never said "demand more money”. I said he had the leverage to play on his current deal the way it is. Given that he didn’t take much of a pay cut to stay, he used some of it.

Both sides has some cards to play. With no guaranteed money, the Eagles could have released him post June 1, and he would struggle to get a deal for $10mm in 2025 hitting the market that late. Now, maybe he could have gotten a multi-year deal with more than $10mm fully guaranteed, but with teams already set, it's a risk. Goedert could have told the Eagles to get lost and honor his contract, but again, he could have ended up much worse off if they cut him. Assuming the team guaranteed this $10mm, then it's fair for both sides. Howie should have been selling him on the idea of being Sweat (same draft class) -- guy balled out in the Super Bowl and got paid way more this offseason than he would have last year. DG gonna try an do the same.

4 minutes ago, Joe Ball said:

O-Line & D-Line are still unproven. DAL has made attempts to improve in the draft over the last five years on both lines, only Tyler Smith has played at a high level, Beebe was serviceable as a rookie, but still the OLine is not a stable unit until proven otherwise. As well as DAL has drafted historically, and try as they may, they cannot seem to get the DT they really need.

I see an additional challenge for DAL this year. The number of injuries at CB/DB (knee/ACL, shoulder) last year was astounding. Butler, Diggs (again), Hall, Carson. Even with drafting Revel (also coming off ACL injury), the CB group has a lot to prove, availability is the best ability.

I think DAL has made strides in the LB group, but losing Overshown to an ACL, MCL, PCL...(ridiculous and horrible bad luck after having his rookie year wiped out in '23 from an ACL) is impactful as well. The guy is/was an incredible talent and will be hard to replace. I feel so bad for him. He is from a small East Texas town and lives for and loves the game...I hope for his sake he can make a recovery and compete at a level similar to where he was last year going into November when he got hurt. That is going to be very, very difficult but he has no quit in him and he is a fighter. I wonder how those injuries will affect his mobility as he ages, makes me think of Earl Campbell and how he can barely walk anymore. Sad.

I like Pickens as an athlete and player, but putting his personality into that locker room...oh boy. With a rookie head coach who was talking about building a good culture, this seems like a disaster waiting to happen.

My skepticism on Dallas comes from having very little faith in their offensive line and ability to stop the run. Overshown is a huge loss and they have basically nothing at DT. Guyton is unproven at best, and they also need to replace Martin. The national media keeps using the Prescott injury excuse, but they were 3-5 with Dak and 4-5 without him.

5 minutes ago, vikas83 said:

Both sides has some cards to play. With no guaranteed money, the Eagles could have released him post June 1, and he would struggle to get a deal for $10mm in 2025 hitting the market that late. Now, maybe he could have gotten a multi-year deal with more than $10mm fully guaranteed, but with teams already set, it's a risk. Goedert could have told the Eagles to get lost and honor his contract, but again, he could have ended up much worse off if they cut him. Assuming the team guaranteed this $10mm, then it's fair for both sides. Howie should have been selling him on the idea of being Sweat (same draft class) -- guy balled out in the Super Bowl and got paid way more this offseason than he would have last year. DG gonna try an do the same.

FWIW but who knows if this is just agent speak

2 hours ago, BigEFly said:

I doubt we see any major moves by Howie this spring. This season and last season and a bit of next season were always going to include some cap clearing. Next season clears BG, Slay and Bradberry impacts. This season takes Cox and Kelce dead money away. Eagles have one of the youngest teams in the NFL.

Depends on how the camp battle at CB and safety goes. If it doesn't look like either Brown or Mukuba are capable of starting this season or none of the available guys look starting quality to replace Slay then I could see a late training camp trade.

1 minute ago, LeanMeanGM said:

FWIW but who knows if this is just agent speak

What does foreseeable future mean exactly? Cause i dont see if this is like sweat that its the foreseeable future. It’s for a year.

10 minutes ago, vikas83 said:

Both sides has some cards to play. With no guaranteed money, the Eagles could have released him post June 1, and he would struggle to get a deal for $10mm in 2025 hitting the market that late. Now, maybe he could have gotten a multi-year deal with more than $10mm fully guaranteed, but with teams already set, it's a risk. Goedert could have told the Eagles to get lost and honor his contract, but again, he could have ended up much worse off if they cut him. Assuming the team guaranteed this $10mm, then it's fair for both sides. Howie should have been selling him on the idea of being Sweat (same draft class) -- guy balled out in the Super Bowl and got paid way more this offseason than he would have last year. DG gonna try an do the same.

Curious to see how this effects the ravens with mark Andrews and their situation. Dealing with him coming up on the last year of his deal and trying to trade him. His cap number is 16+ mil and looking at spotrac his dead money is 9 mil

Just saw the Goedert news. Great huge news. It's a major benefit to keep him for this season.

All for Goedert being here this season, 2025. I just don’t want to be paying him anything in 2026.

57 minutes ago, Sack that QB said:

Kind of embarrassing he would show the world the size of my dong in that picture. Glad to have him back.. Would be cool if we still made a move for Michael Mayer. That would make things interesting.

8 minutes ago, LeanMeanGM said:

FWIW but who knows if this is just agent speak

I'm sure they got some trade interest, but I wonder what teams were offering him as an extension after a trade. My guess is if someone were willing to give the Eagles a pick and extend him on a nice contract, he'd be gone. Feels like he heard back that the market wasn't going to pay up off an injury plagued year.

2 minutes ago, garingovt2000 said:

Kind of embarrassing he would show the world the size of my dong in that picture. Glad to have him back.. Would be cool if we still made a move for Michael Mayer. That would make things interesting.

I don’t think it’s was ever automatic the raiders would just trade Mayer. He’s under a rookie contract for 2 more years. If the raiders are only going to get a 4-5th this year then they might think his value to the team is more valuable than that 4-5th. Can look to deal him next year and potentially get a 5th. Or even say well if we play out his contract we get two relatively cheap years for a second TE then if someone pays him in FA get a comp Pick of a 5-6th. I think the raiders this year view him being relatively cheap and on the team is more valuable than a 4-5th rounder

Nine of these guys could make the Pro Bowl.

10 minutes ago, LeanMeanGM said:

FWIW but who knows if this is just agent speak

Disagree it would have been difficult

To be reflective for a minute, TE is one of the more interesting positions in football.

It ranges from a non-premium position that doesn’t get drafted high to one of the most important non-qb positions on your offense, depending on scheme and utilization. Prime Gronk/Kelce/Graham were the second most critical players on elite, elite offenses. And then there are great offenses where the TE can be an afterthought.

And utilization…with the 12 personnel failure from 2017-2020, defenses started to treat Zach Ertz as a WR, not a TE. So in function it was really 11 personnel with Ertz as the slot. His blocking and our running game were not good enough to dictate otherwise. And he’s a lot easier to cover in that scenario.

The more viable a TE is as a blocker, the trickier it is to match up against them in coverage. If you respect them as a receiving threat and sell out to stop that, their blocking ability may really allow your offense to push the defense around.

Goedert isn’t a great receiver or great blocker, but that balance of being good to very good at both has always been his best asset. I’m not sure how much our running game depends on him, but we did just lose Becton, so I’d rather not find out this year..

1 minute ago, eagle45 said:

To be reflective for a minute, TE is one of the more interesting positions in football.

It ranges from a non-premium position that doesn’t get drafted high to one of the most important non-qb positions on your offense, depending on scheme and utilization. Prime Gronk/Kelce/Graham were the second most critical players on elite, elite offenses. And then there are great offenses where the TE can be an afterthought.

And utilization…with the 12 personnel failure from 2017-2020, defenses started to treat Zach Ertz as a WR, not a TE. So in function it was really 11 personnel with Ertz as the slot. His blocking and our running game were not good enough to dictate otherwise. And he’s a lot easier to cover in that scenario.

The more viable a TE is as a blocker, the trickier it is to match up against them in coverage. If you respect them as a receiving threat and sell out to stop that, their blocking ability may really allow your offense to push the defense around.

Goedert isn’t a great receiver or great blocker, but that balance has always been his best asset. I’m not sure how much our running game depends on him, but we did just lose Becton, so I’d rather not find out this year..

I believe @Iggles_Phan checked the numbers

20 minutes ago, vikas83 said:

My skepticism on Dallas comes from having very little faith in their offensive line and ability to stop the run. Overshown is a huge loss and they have basically nothing at DT. Guyton is unproven at best, and they also need to replace Martin. The national media keeps using the Prescott injury excuse, but they were 3-5 with Dak and 4-5 without him.

This is exactly how I see them.

Just now, vikas83 said:

I think it’s super curious that the Steelers were willing to pay what they did for DK Metcalf when they had George Pickens in their locker room. They could’ve just paid Pickens who’s young and has potential for big upside. also kept the draft capital. Instead they didn’t and choose to send him to Dallas. I’m guessing there’s off the field issues (which i believe coming out of Georgia had character concerns)

dallas not having a contract in place when making the trade feels like he if hits they are going to wind up spending more at the end of 2025 or losing him in FA and getting back a 2027 comp pick. time to get him on a better team deal is when making that trade. Tbh i think Pickens believes if he waits and he goes off that he’ll get top WR money going into FA. That said FA has potentially mclaurin (don’t see him reaching FA), Mike Evans (think he does why Bucs drafted a WR in round 1), Sutton and Deebo.

7 minutes ago, vikas83 said:

I like Pickens as an athlete and player, but putting his personality into that locker room...oh boy. With a rookie head coach who was talking about building a good culture, this seems like a disaster waiting to happen.

My skepticism on Dallas comes from having very little faith in their offensive line and ability to stop the run. Overshown is a huge loss and they have basically nothing at DT. Guyton is unproven at best, and they also need to replace Martin. The national media keeps using the Prescott injury excuse, but they were 3-5 with Dak and 4-5 without him.

Well, I agree with mostly everything here. Hopefully (hope is not a strategy btw) the existing leadership in the locker room (Micah & Dak) can make a difference in Pickens mental approach and prevent any distractions. Pickens is not looking for a long term deal according to reports. He wants to prove he is a #1 WR, maybe that will also make a difference in his on & off the field behaviors/decisions, he will never be a #1 without significant attitude changes. Schottenheimer has already made significant locker room changes and the players had zero input, he appears thus far to be a strong personality and if he fails it is going to be based on his decisions, I think that change is necessary and has been for a while.

Ditto on the DLine...seems like it's been a problem for over a decade now. Guyton is a bust at this point, possibly worse than Mazi Smith, but not as bad a Taco Charlton. I think they have found Martin's replacement, he was at least the highest rated guard in the draft, not as athletic as Martin but a bruiser in the run game, which what Schotty wants to do, run the damn ball. Dak is Dak and they will have to live with that abortion of a contract until its completed in '28 barring some miracle of a team desperate and stupid enough to take him off their hands.

7 minutes ago, Mike030270 said:

I believe @Iggles_Phan checked the numbers

@eagle45

I posted the total yards in the games he missed and compared it to the average for games he played. The Eagles averaged more yards in games he missed than games he played. In the two games where we met the same opponent with him and without him (Dallas and Washington) both games they rushed for over 175 yards in each game, gaining about 10 yards more in the games with him than without him.

I didn't look at the ypc averages or anything like that, but from what I saw, it's really hard to build a strong case based on the statistics that having him in the running game is some significant bonus over versus not having him in the running game. One could easily make the argument that he's a better in-line blocker than Calcaterra... but in terms of how that difference effective the overall output, there's not much there in terms of gross yards.

2 hours ago, ManuManu said:

What a group of former Steeler WRs who have been traded away…

- Antonio Brown

- Martavis Bryant

- Chase Claypool

- Diontae Johnson

- George Pickens

There's a name I haven't thought about in a while. Dude got 1/3 of his career touchdowns in one game against us.

27 minutes ago, eagle45 said:

All for Goedert being here this season, 2025. I just don’t want to be paying him anything in 2026.

Not paying him in 2026 or not having him count against the cap in 2026? The latter isn’t possible. Goedert has nothing guaranteed this year. He traded the roster bonus and salary for the 2025 guarantee, just like Sweat last year. This is a Howie tactic towards the end of careers. (Note how the roster bonuses with the Kelce extensions went away, for example. Now Goedert has a guarantee for this year. And Lane’s last guarantee was extended to 2026 with this extension).