The slant to Cooper on the Ainais TD drive reminded me of AJ. Catches the slant, sees 3 defenders converging on him, slams the breaks, turns and picks up an additional 10 yards running to the boundary. On the Cooper TD love how he caught that with his hands.

I thought Ainais showed good speed in tight spaces on his nice punt return at the end of the 2nd qtr.

I love that we scored 2x in the last 2 minutes of the 1st half. Score, 3 and out, score. Love that intensity.

21 minutes ago, just relax said:

While Ringo and Jackson did nothing to distinguish themselves it's worth noting that Fangio did nothing to help them. They were both in solo coverage against Chase or whoever, with no safety help, no inside help, and were playing off coverage. IOW, Fangio put each of them on an island with maximum stress. That makes perfect sense in the pre-season but you won't see it come September 4. These were coaching moments.

As far as the OL went, and I'll wait on the All-22 if they ever post it before going further, the one guy who really stood out to me was Kendall. Good snaps, a couple of good reach blocks, and some decent doubles. Toth has no chance of beating him out, no chance at all.

Edit: looks like @HazletonEagle and I agree on the CBs. Wonder of wonders!

Reminds me of when fans freak out in spring training because a pitcher has a bad stat line but he hadn’t even thrown a breaking ball that spring yet.

1 hour ago, ManuManu said:

I was hoping to see something more out of Cooper based on the reaction in here and his stat line. He doesn’t look fast, doesn’t seem to have much burst or wiggle. With an odd body type, maybe he would benefit from dropping like 10 pounds. Doesn’t need to be 210 at his height.

Reminded me of Jason Avant. Good #3 that can be counted on to move the chains reliably.. Not going to be a game changer in terms of splash plays, but could be in terms of timely plays.

If that's his ceiling, thats amazing for a UDFA.

Just now, Freshmilk said:

The slant to Cooper on the Ainais TD drive reminded me of AJ. Catches the slant, sees 3:defenders convergingon him, slams the breaks, turns and picks up an additional 10 yards running to the boundary. On the Cooper TD love how he caught that with his hands.

I thought Ainais showed good speed in tight spaces on his nice punt return at the end of the 2nd qtr.

I love that we scored 2x in the last 2 minutes of the 1st half. Score, 3 and out, score. Love that intensity.

Cooper said AJ Brown is his favorite WR, and I immediately thought of that play and how much it resembled AJ Brown. The quick turn on the comeback, and finished it off with a stiff arm going out of bounds. Hope he can be one of those tough to tackle after the catch guys. Love that.

1 hour ago, Eriv20 said:

Need to cut Adoree Jackson today. Dude is garbage. Ringo ain’t far behind

Jackson looked better to me than Ringo. He didn't look good, but at least he made the tackles he had to make

1 hour ago, Mike030270 said:

I watched until part of the 3rd. Agreed. I don't want to kill anyone over failing to cover Chase. Bengals starting offense put up big numbers last season. This was good experience for the backups

I didn't mind allowing that reception, the bad part was the massive whiff on the tackle.

1 minute ago, Iggles_Phan said:

Reminded me of Jason Avant. Good #3 that can be counted on to move the chains reliably.. Not going to be a game changer in terms of splash plays, but could be in terms of timely plays.

If that's his ceiling, thats amazing for a UDFA.

I get the sense that your and manu's impression of Cooper is somewhere between Paul Turner and Jason Avant. I think he is probably a different player- potentially a better playmaker than that. I was watching wondering if we could have a Diontae Johnson on our hands.

29 minutes ago, just relax said:

While Ringo and Jackson did nothing to distinguish themselves it's worth noting that Fangio did nothing to help them. They were both in solo coverage against Chase or whoever, with no safety help, no inside help, and were playing off coverage. IOW, Fangio put each of them on an island with maximum stress. That makes perfect sense in the pre-season but you won't see it come September 4. These were coaching moments.

As far as the OL went, and I'll wait on the All-22 if they ever post it before going further, the one guy who really stood out to me was Kendall. Good snaps, a couple of good reach blocks, and some decent doubles. Toth has no chance of beating him out, no chance at all.

Edit: looks like @HazletonEagle and I agree on the CBs. Wonder of wonders!

Best way to evaluate these CBs is to isolate them and ask them to compete. Good match up last night to test their competitive spirit.

3 minutes ago, Iggles_Phan said:

Jackson looked better to me than Ringo. He didn't look good, but at least he made the tackles he had to make

I wonder if Ringo's confidence took a shot after the Bennett trade.

I like how Cooper is built. Pretty jacked. Reminds me of a smaller version of when AJ Brown came out of college. I think he's going to be a good YAC guy in the NFL.

I want to see Bennett and Mukuba play the next two games. Still think the Eagles will be fine with what they have at CB though. They've been better in games that matter.

Not sure why Mondon started over Campbell.

11 hours ago, HazletonEagle said:

he was a decent looking prospect who looks pretty good finally playing for an NFL team. But, he has looked good in pre-season before with his crap team so point taken.

Still, I want to see McKee get his shot.

Next year or the year after that. Hurts is due to miss multiple games. Not that I'm in a hurry to see it but the odds will eventually catch up to Hurts.

1 hour ago, ManuManu said:

I was hoping to see something more out of Cooper based on the reaction in here and his stat line. He doesn’t look fast, doesn’t seem to have much burst or wiggle. With an odd body type, maybe he would benefit from dropping like 10 pounds. Doesn’t need to be 210 at his height.

He looked pretty good to me.

11 hours ago, T-1000 said:

CB2 isn't currently on this roster, is it?

I haven't seen Jakorian Bennett play so it's too early to say. Certainly neither Ringo or Jackson impressed.

25 minutes ago, HazletonEagle said:

Cooper said AJ Brown is his favorite WR, and I immediately thought of that play and how much it resembled AJ Brown. The quick turn on the comeback, and finished it off with a stiff arm going out of bounds. Hope he can be one of those tough to tackle after the catch guys. Love that.

The fact that he was/is a hands catcher was the most impressive thing to me … best of a good bunch of traits.

4 hours ago, bpac55 said:

WR is getting interesting now too. I was hoping Terrace Marshall would take WR4 and run, but his knee injury really killed his chances. Elijah Cooks seems to have suffered a serious injury too. Those two were dark horses to make the roster and both seem to be IR candidates now.

Something I would conisder if Ainias Smith, Johnny Wilson and Darius Cooper contnue to impress is trading Jahan Dotson. They could always keep 6 WR, but Dotson isn't here for the long haul. I can't see them giving him a market value deal and I think some team will see him as a WR2. He offers more experience than the others and Jalen Hurts really likes him and has been building chemistry wtih him too, but his contract is very tradeable. Just have to wonder what he would bring back.

The Eagles traded a 3rd for Dotson. could they get the same in return? Would you move him for a 3rd or are the 20 catches or so he might have worth it?

Doubt it, we got Dotson with time left on his rookie deal which increased his value. That's all used up now. Not even sure if we can fetch a 4th for him. Probably better off holding onto him at this point, he finally has some chemistry with Hurts.

Unrealistic hypothetical…

It’s August 20. Aaron Rodgers ends up not playing for the Steelers this season (injury, arrest, catatonic from an ayahuasca trip). Pittsburgh, clearly in win now mode AND lacking a long term starting QB, desperately offers the Sam Bradford trade (2026 1st, 2027 conditional 4th) to Howie for McKee. You taking it?

4 hours ago, bpac55 said:

I don't think Howie panics and signs a street FA. They moved a great depth peice at DT who was loved in the locker room to get Bennett in here. He's going to be given every chance to prove he's the guy before they make a move.

That's how I would handle it. But then I'm not Howie.

5 minutes ago, Saltpeter said:

Unrealistic hypothetical…

It’s August 20. Aaron Rodgers ends up not playing for the Steelers this season (injury, arrest, catatonic from an ayahuasca trip). Pittsburgh, clearly in win now mode AND lacking a long term starting QB, desperately offers the Sam Bradford trade (2026 1st, 2027 conditional 4th) to Howie for McKee. You taking it?

Yes. If anyone offers even just a 1, you take it.

Some other backup QB from Cleveland or Giants will shake loose to be backup. I only see McKee being a one year "rental" here anyway.

Well, usual type reactions to a PS game. Pretty vanilla and deliberately putting players in isolation. Nothing we saw on D would happen in a game. Q would probably be on Chase, for example. The front four playing together on D last night would probably never happen. None of those OL alignments are likely to occur in 2025.

I said I was excited to see Cooper and he didn’t disappoint. (But the hype as a result is overblown.). He is a hand snatcher. Similar build with AJ and similar speed but with a bit less height and a little lighter.

Hinton did disappoint a bit. But the Eagles play their OTs on an island so, he has to learn from that. In think Kendall looked good. Glad Toth was LG through the game. Oh my, year two and the new Aussie OL looks like the fat kid in middle school that gets put on the line because of his size. Poor McCord.

Didn’t see any obvious misfires by Brown or McCollum. Decent play by Sam. Saw good and bad with both Ringo and Jackson and McWilliams looked out of place and poor tackling which is a strength for him so that kind of surprised me. Tough night for Ricks.

Now, imagine if you were a Bengals fan getting up today and reacting to how your secondary got overwhelmed by Johnny Wilson, Ainias Smith, Elijah Cooks, Darius Cooper and made Japan Dotson look like Chase. Ouch.

Sykes has some speed to him. Evans got in so little I can’t say much about him. Robinson and Hall both need to continue working on bending the knees. Play too high at times. Noticed Ogbo (I will learn how to spell his last name if he makes the team) around the ball a lot but like Mondon, struggled with the tackling. I note in pads in practice the third string is getting some tackling in the third string. Both plus McWilliams need some tackling reps.

Jumping in late...

• I have no concerns about the personnel on offense. Bringing back 10/11 starters from last season. Steen looks solid at RG. As long as he isn't a vulnerability, we're good. We have QB2, RB2 and RB3, and TE2. Dotson looks like he belongs now. Wilson, Cooper, and Smith make a solid WR4-6. Unless there is film review to the contrary, I will attribute a fair share of the offense looking good in the first half to the backup OL. Lamm, Prior, and Kendall looked competent. Regarding backup OL - as long as we can still run the entire offense with them in the game, they are good enough.

• Vic has four weeks to figure out CB. It was a disappointing showing by them last night. The only silver lining is that Q is so good that we can rotate safety help to the other CB.

• We need Mukuba to get on the field. Brown will not last an entire season the way he plays. Andre Sam flashed a bit.

• Gabe Hall made me forget the guy we traded to the Raiders. Looks real good out there.

• We have a bunch of playable linebackers.

18 minutes ago, Sack that QB said:

I like how Cooper is built. Pretty jacked. Reminds me of a smaller version of when AJ Brown came out of college. I think he's going to be a good YAC guy in the NFL.

I want to see Bennett and Mukuba play the next two games. Still think the Eagles will be fine with what they have at CB though. They've been better in games that matter.

Not sure why Mondon started over Campbell.

Regarding your last question, for Fangio and all the coaches the Preseason games are like the first 15 snaps of a regular season game … designed to learn as opposed to trying to maximize scoring. Fangio no doubt started Mondon to learn and to help Mondon learn.

Maybe this is the answer to Jake being so bad with extra points in the playoffs last year.

I like Cooper over Smith and Wilson because I think he has the most room for improvement. Smith and Wilson have reached their ceilings. Cooper is just as good as they are right now, but I think he can get even better. Just my scouting expertise!

13 minutes ago, LeanMeanGM said:

Yes. If anyone offers even just a 1, you take it.

Some other backup QB from Cleveland or Giants will shake loose to be backup. I only see McKee being a one year "rental" here anyway.

I'd be reluctant to be suspect at QB2 while trying to defend our title. Hurts is going to miss some time - he carries the ball to often to think he won't.

I would prefer to wait until March. There will be teams without any solutions at QB and may not be in the draft position to solve it in the first round. For me, a conditional second that can turn into a 2027 first would be great.