One interesting roster decision. The Eagles currently have 1 open spot, with Cooper and Bennett being in practice windows, as well as Graham being on a roster exemption. Cooper just started practicing yesterday so he's likely not an option. But it feels like this week will come down to Graham or Bennett. I would be surprised if they cut someone else from the 53 this late in the week. Unless they IR someone like Ojulari or Jackson.

2 minutes ago, Waiting4Someday said:

Again, I think we cheap out and have a guy let Epps compete with Sydney for the job in 2026 and draft somebody on day 2 to add to the mix. No middle class.

Also possibility. I kind of view it this way, the longer this plays out the more realistic it becomes that Blankenship is just gonna play out the season then go test free agency to see what’s out there. It’s a dangerous game to assume can just sign him before free agency starts. You might be able to do that, but I’m guessing his agent will say you just made it through the year healthy. we might as well see what’s out on the open market and then come back to the Eagles. There’s a chance there’s a dumb team out there that needs a safety, that likes him and overpays to the point where the Eagles are like we don’t want to pay that.

Just now, LeanMeanGM said:

One interesting roster decision. The Eagles currently have 1 open spot, with Cooper and Bennett being in practice windows, as well as Graham being on a roster exemption. Cooper just started practicing yesterday so he's likely not an option. But it feels like this week will come down to Graham or Bennett. I would be surprised if they cut someone else from the 53 this late in the week. Unless they IR someone like Ojulari or Jackson.

It has to be Bennett. Who plays if Ringo goes down?

2 minutes ago, LeanMeanGM said:

Howie is the king of over correcting mistakes from a previous season. There's no way he's happy with how his Jackson/Ringo experiment went. I think he pivots.

This is the downside of having a $200M offense.

Just now, Diehardfan said:

It has to be Bennett. Who plays if Ringo goes down?

McWilliams or Nickerson would be my guess.

Just now, Waiting4Someday said:

This is the downside of having a $200M offense.

Why I think they would let Goedert walk and replace that position with a draft pick/1 year guy

2 hours ago, vikas83 said:

And he hasn't been very good when he's on the field. People cry about Steen and losing Becton -- Steen has been objectively better. People cry about Ojomo and losing Milt -- Ojomo in 2025 is better than Milt in 2024 despite Carter being worse.

People just like to complain.

There's a lot of things to consider here. Steen was the 6th OL. So, when Dickerson missed time, he stepped in. This year, that guy is Toth. I think everyone will agree without reservation that Steen is better than Toth. Further, while an argument could be made that Steen is a better pass protector at OG than Becton was, he's nothing like Becton in the running game. Becton blew people up, at his best, Steen shields defenders from the run lane. Becton redefined the LOS and bodies would literally be flying around after he cleared the path.

Secondly, just like with the overall depth of OL by losing Becton and having to give snaps to Toth this year, which is an undisputed massive downgrade... they lost the depth along the DL as well. It isn't just about Ojomo versus Milton Williams, its more along the line of Williams and Ojomo versus Ojomo and Byron Young, et al. And again, I think that's a massive downgrade. Not to mention that the DL inside is also affected by the DL outside. Last year we had Smith on the rise, Hunt on the rise, Graham still playing well in limited snaps and Sweat. Now we have Smith on IR, Hunt finally doing something, Graham just now returning, Uche and Ojulari replacing Sweat. That's just not as good a front and the run defense is suffering mightily as a result. Campbell is playing really well in pass D, but he's not the lane filler that Nakobe Dean was. Another downgrade for the defense.

Death by a thousand paper cuts is a real thing. The loss of depth cannot be overstated.

1 hour ago, LeanMeanGM said:

He hasn't even been AT practice, so he surely is going to be out this week

37 minutes ago, e-a-g-l-e-s eagles! said:

Just saw this on Twitter from a Vikings fan

kyphosis

5 minutes ago, LeanMeanGM said:

One interesting roster decision. The Eagles currently have 1 open spot, with Cooper and Bennett being in practice windows, as well as Graham being on a roster exemption. Cooper just started practicing yesterday so he's likely not an option. But it feels like this week will come down to Graham or Bennett. I would be surprised if they cut someone else from the 53 this late in the week. Unless they IR someone like Ojulari or Jackson.

Graham takes the 53rd spot, and you can waive Nickerson for Bennett.

2 minutes ago, Diehardfan said:

It has to be Bennett. Who plays if Ringo goes down?

McWilliams. Could put Nickerson in the slot and Cooper outside to make it work for one game. Kinda surprised they didn't bring back Ricks to possibly elevate him.

You could say the same thing with DE. What happens if Hunt or Uche goes down? You're looking at Patrick Johnson taking 100% of the snaps.

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

Yup. Becton has missed some time but he has also not been good when he’s been out there. The Chiefs game is about the only game he really looked as good as he did with the Eagles. And that was all the way in week one. Before last night’s Thursday night game, he played 99% of the snaps the previous two weeks. both weeks was one of the worst players on the Chargers. I wouldn’t be shocked if he’s released after this year unless he stays healthy and turns it around.

For me, what he does with the Chargers is irrelevant to me. He sucked with the Jets too. What does that prove? It proves nothing about who he was when he was here. Here he was a people mover like very few ever at the OG position.

But, the OL issues aren't just about Becton vs. Steen, but Becton and Dickerson/Steen vs. Steen and Toth. Steen moving into the starting lineup created a massive void in the OL depth, and we are seeing first hand the impact of that. Toth is terrible. And having to play him has a deleterious impact on the rest of the line.

2 minutes ago, Waiting4Someday said:

This is the downside of having a $200M offense.

I’ve been thinking about this with the people who want to trade AJ Brown. I’m never against trading somebody because there’s always a price you’re willing to trade somebody for. However, the issue becomes you’re going to have to replace AJ Brown. The Eagles have been awful at drafting and developing wide receivers. Devonta Smith is about the only wide receiver since howie came back that has been a good starting wide receiver. Mack Hollins is probably the second best.

Then you go to the trades. We were going to make a trade for Calvin Ridley and give him an extension and that fell through. That was before we acquired AJ Brown. That would’ve been a bad trade based off how Ridley‘s career has played out. He got AJ Brown for that package which is a great deal. His next trade was for Dotson for a third. ok trade.

So to me, the issue is really I don’t know if there’s gonna be another AJ Brown on the trade market in the next couple years. Also they haven’t shown enough to definitively think they’re just gonna draft a guy and he’s gonna eventually replace him.

I think Bennett is starting outside this Sunday. They're gonna want to get a look at him before the deadline.

2 hours ago, SkippyX said:

The one thing about Steen is that he is tipping the snap so the entire line sees more pressure than they should.

Doing this on the road in a dome is bad but possibly some reasons could be presented.

Doing this on the road in general is stupid.

Doing this at home is inexcusable.

Really? We are still going on about this, even though every team in the NFL does this, INCLUDING the Eagles just last year? That's a non-factor the OL issues. Send your resume to Stout, I'm sure he'd love to get your insights into what they should do instead.

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

I’ve been thinking about this with the people who want to trade AJ Brown. I’m never against trading somebody because there’s always a price you’re willing to trade somebody for. However, the issue becomes you’re good to have to replace AJ Brown. The Eagles have been awful at drafting and developing wide receivers. Devonta Smith is about the only wide receiver since howie came back that has been a good starting wide receiver. Mack Hollins is probably the second best.

Then you go to the trades. We were going to make a trade for Calvin Ridley and give him an extension and that fell through. That was before we acquired AJ Brown. That would’ve been a bad trade based off how Ridley‘s career has played out. He got AJ Brown for that package which is a great deal. His next trade was for Dotson for a third. ok trade.

So to me, the issue is really I don’t know if there’s gonna be another AJ Brown on the trade market in the next couple years. Also they haven’t shown enough to definitively think they’re just gonna draft a guy and he’s gonna eventually replace him.

Don't forget their plan B after missing on Ridley was Alllen Robinson. The fact they fell ass backwards into AJ Brown was a miracle.

Just now, Iggles_Phan said:

For me, what he does with the Chargers is irrelevant to me. He sucked with the Jets too. What does that prove? It proves nothing about who he was when he was here. Here he was a people mover like very few ever at the OG position.

But, the OL issues aren't just about Becton vs. Steen, but Becton and Dickerson/Steen vs. Steen and Toth. Steen moving into the starting lineup created a massive void in the OL depth, and we are seeing first hand the impact of that. Toth is terrible. And having to play him has a deleterious impact on the rest of the line.

I think their depth in future years is going to be better. I think that’s what they addressed this off-season. Imo Hinton, Williams and Kendall were all drafted to be the future backups and potentially maybe one becomes a starter down the road. I think howie looked at the market and said I could bring in a guy like pryor, trade for a guy like green and I still have toth try to get by this year. I think their plan last off-season was to get three or four rookie offensive lineman in here on rookie contracts to develop them to be their depth over the next three years.

I think this year he was just hoping pryor, Toth, and Green would be good enough. It clearly isn’t. Give credit he did trade back for Fred Johnson .

1 minute ago, Iggles_Phan said:

Really? We are still going on about this, even though every team in the NFL does this, INCLUDING the Eagles just last year? That's a non-factor the OL issues. Send your resume to Stout, I'm sure he'd love to get your insights into what they should do instead.

The only thing I don't understand about it is why they do it at home when it's not even loud on offense.

1 hour ago, e-a-g-l-e-s eagles! said:

However i dont think she misses it purposefully

I think it has something to do with her eyes

I would like if Howie would extend Reed Blankenship during the bye week, he used to do that a lot with players. Last year he said he didn't want to during the season because he didn't want anyone being distracted due to so many hitting free agency, and knowing they chose someone over another. This year I don't see an issue. The other notable players hitting free agency would be Goedert and Dean.

Either way, I think they'll re-sign Blankenship. He'll be an early signing when the offseason starts. Every players wants to get their money, but I think he likes it here and wants to stay, same way Smitty, Baun and others could have taken more money elsewhere but stayed.

1 hour ago, HazletonEagle said:

I thought so. Makes you wonder... we hated losing him. Now he can be snatched freely, just like they did to us. And there he sits. We are letting it happen. Toth really stinks... what gives?

He might have been replaced by Kendell. And Kendell can play OG, I don't think McMahon can. So... that leaves them in a bit of a bind. And for some reason they really like Toth.

1 minute ago, LeanMeanGM said:

Don't forget their plan B after missing on Ridley was Alllen Robinson. The fact they fell ass backwards into AJ Brown was a miracle.

That too. Besides AJ Brown being one of the 10 best wide receivers in the league, it’s not a given the Eagles are just gonna find another one of him.

I get he’s not a pass rusher, but this is like the Cowboys trading away Micah Parsons and getting two first round picks. then Jerry saying we’ll just replace him with those two first round picks. In theory that sounds great, except when you look at their history of us at WR we haven’t exactly been stellar at drafting that position and hitting on it. Add on almost had Calvin Ridley or Robinson, instead of AJ Brown.

22 minutes ago, vikas83 said:

Have we even played him at guard this year?

If I mis remember he played some snaps at guard this year and equally sucked.

Hes always been garbage, guard or tackle, he had a couple games last year with the bears where he didnt look like complete trash and some how this myth started that hes a good OG, hes not, never has been, hes garbage.

1 minute ago, NOTW said:

I would like if Howie would extend Reed Blankenship during the bye week, he used to do that a lot with players. Last year he said he didn't want to during the season because he didn't want anyone being distracted due to so many hitting free agency, and knowing they chose someone over another. This year I don't see an issue. The other notable players hitting free agency would be Goedert and Dean.

Either way, I think they'll re-sign Blankenship. He'll be an early signing when the offseason starts. Every players wants to get their money, but I think he likes it here and wants to stay, same way Smitty, Baun and others could have taken more money elsewhere but stayed.

It's not a one year thing though. The last time they did an in-season extension was Goedert back in 2021.

Just now, LeanMeanGM said:

Why I think they would let Goedert walk and replace that position with a draft pick/1 year guy

Yeah, definitely - he's an asset we can no longer afford. He's having a good year, and Howie already already played the Josh Sweat game. $$$