My theory is if Lane Johnson is himself, everything else will fall into place and any other issues will be survivable and not interfere with Superbowl aspirations.

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

I forgot he went 2nd

I didn’t dare respond to you, because I was having real trouble finding a way to express my feelings without it sounding horribly belittling

But, truth be told, yours was a decent guess compared to someone else. RTK ventured Cam Newton

And then after he guessed Matthew Stafford…. Showing he didn’t even understand the point of the exercise

Makes more sense

1 minute ago, DEagle7 said:

Makes more sense

That’s still 1m$ per career catch. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before

39 minutes ago, NOTW said:

I get that you're always negative and pessimistic, but you simply can't post something that is factually false to base your opinion on that. You may not like the quality of guys brought in, that's fine. But they did not only add rookies. They added Hollywood Brown, Wicks, Elijah Moore, blocking TE Jonny Mundt (we were screaming last year they need better blocking TE), and added a veteran backup QB with starting experience in Dalton. There's a lot of reason for optimism about Lemon and Stowers contributing as well.

Patullo was absolute garbage last year, the change at OC is the most significant change. The O line health was the other main reason the offense struggled. I was curious how they would address O line and they only added rookies there. What is their assessment of the health of Jurgens and Dickerson? They did bring back Fred Johnson as security backup at OT. As for the rookies, Bell has already taken snaps with the 1s, Micah Morris is a good prospect to develop and hopefully good depth, and I'm interested in seeing Jaeden Roberts who started games for Alabama. Hopefully that brings good depth, but O line starters health is a concern.

We have to also remember they still have some top talent in the league in Smitty, Barkley and Goedert and Tank Bigsby is a very good #2 RB, he was underutilized by the coaches last year. Tank was a player not even on the week 1 roster, added in September.

I always approach the season with a balance of optimism and questions/concerns about how the changes will work. There is a lot of change with coaching, scheme and personnel on offense for Mannion, Grizzard and staff to put it all together and make it work. It's also going to be an evaluation of returning players to see if they have a continued future in this new offense and what other personnel changes will be made.

Absolute stud veterans you listed there

8 minutes ago, jojodancer said:

My theory is if Lane Johnson is himself, everything else will fall into place and any other issues will be survivable and not interfere with Superbowl aspirations.

Eh...Dickerson and Jurgens need to be a lot better. The interior pressure was a serious problem for the run game last year.

11 minutes ago, eglz1 said:

Maybe he doesn't care all that much about the team. If somebody plays NFL football and claims to not care that much about winning another Super Bowls, their priority is different that most.

He doesn't give an ish about the team, but he thinks he's going to go to NE and his stats are going to blow up and that just simply isn't what's gonna happen. The pats had the easiest schedule in the league last year, maye is not that good of a QB. He thinks it's some giant step up when it's probably more a lateral move

Fans tend to think in extremes about too many things. But there is balance and nuance. Being negative all the time isn't realistic, it's just pessimism. Realistic is being balanced and not on extremes. Being realistic is looking at all the angles and being fair. "We're just passionate." Well, passion is great but not an excuse for being unintelligent and ignoring facts or having over the top anxious reactions.

• AJ Brown was a great receiver and his talent will be missed, and at the same time the relationship was breaking down and he wanted out and his on the field play was slacking. It was time to move on for both parties. Smitty is great, and the rest of the WR group will try to collectively replace AJ's production. We finally had two 1,000 yard receivers with Brown and Smitty and that was a lot of fun. Next season there will be all sorts of comments from "both sides" about AJ Brown. When the Eagles offense has a good game some will rip Brown and say see we didn't need him. If they have a bad game, others will say see we miss AJ.

• Hurts is neither a great passer nor a terrible passer. Most years he's been average. He didn't run as much last year which takes away that dynamic dual threat. Even so, he's never been a very fast runner anyway. He is very good at deep passes, and actually plays better under center. He has made pre-snap reads and called audibles that resulted in big plays and TDs. He's made some dynamic plays. He's also made some bad plays, bad decisions, missed open receivers and had trouble with interceptions when he tries to play too loose. People don't realize that in 2023 he actually had his best year of pass yards and TDs, because it's overshadowed by the INTs. Then they overcorrected and played too scared. It worked in 2024 because of the O line and Barkley and the dominant defense. Last year the run game wasn't the same and they needed more answers in the pass game. When you look at the state of the QB position around the league it's not like it was 15+ years ago with a lot of quality passers. There's a lot of mediocre QBs these days. Hurts can do enough to win. There's a lot to prove this year in the new offense for sure.

• Patullo was terrible, but if the O line had been healthy and they had a dominant run game and AJ wasn't as much a problem last year's offense could have been better. Despite how bad he was, Patullo DID manage to do some things well. The red zone offense was good and creative. He started running plays under center more. He wasn't up to the task for a SB defending team, they should have gone with someone with experience. He is probably better in a role he has now rather than OC calling plays.

• Fangio has been awesome along with the core young guys but last year they all took a step back as well. Carter had the spitting incident and missed a game and had a shoulder issue. Mitchell and DeJean were amazing as rookies and ended up having some plays that didn't go as well last year, which is fine, they're great players. But they kind of had their rookie mistakes in their 2nd year. They will only get better and better.

• Barkley is still a great RB. Last year he was 10th in the league after being #1 the year before. The O line and confusion from the coaches hurt the run game overall. The coaches also had Bigsby and then would not use him which was stupid and odd. When he played, he brought a burst.

• Despite issues on the O line last year, Steen played well. People were concerned he'd be the weak link but he wasn't. Mailata had some struggles but improved and got back to form. When healthy, Lane Johnson still a best and Fred Johnson is a quality backup.

• Siri does some things well and some things not. He does better as the CEO coach who oversees everything and lets his coordinators and position coaches focus on the details. He obviously does something right, they have been to two Super Bowls and made the playoffs every year he's been here. That's not an accident. He has flaws and didn't have any answers to fix the offense last year after promoting his buddy which was a fatal mistake. Now they revamped the offensive coaching and we'll see how it all works.

Looking at things with a biased view, taking extreme stances, and ignoring facts is very limiting and not intelligent.

7 minutes ago, Sack that QB said:

If you took the current WRs and put them on the Rams with McVay and Stafford I don't think the group would be great, but they would be fine. Far from the best in the league, far from the worst. I think Wicks and Hollywood kinda suck, but they can "do things" Devonta is really good, Lemon I don't think is going to be special, but I think he'll be good. With a great QB, a great scheme, and a team that can run the ball, they'd suffice.

It's less the WRs and more that they are trying to redo this thing on the fly. Taking a QB who I think is in obvious decline, and instead of building a system around the players, this is clearly the system Howie and Lurie want to run. Which is fine, it's a very successful system, I'm just not sure they have the personnel to run it at the capacity they want to. This offseason felt more like painting over the cracks in the foundation to see if it'll be good enough to "pass inspection" and if it doesn't, then they tear down the foundation and rebuild it(the personnel on offense) from scratch.

Lemon's success seems more tied to the OC and QB whereas Hurts really just needed to throw it to AJ (during his prime) and he'd catch it whether he was covered or not

I'm excited about a timing offense with Lemon and Smith though. Might simply be because it's different than what we've had. I know Smith could succeed in it

5 minutes ago, DEagle7 said:

Makes more sense

Based off the wide receiver contracts that came out over the last week, there’s no way AJ Brown is not asking for a new deal after 2026 with just $4 million guaranteed on this contract.

1 minute ago, vikas83 said:

Eh...Dickerson and Jurgens need to be a lot better. The interior pressure was a serious problem for the run game last year.

They're my biggest worry. Or it's like OC is 1a and Landon/Cam are 1b

5 minutes ago, Aerolithe_Lion said:

That’s still 1m$ per career catch. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before

Well when you put it that way...

I think he's a DVOA darling so I'm sure the ESPN guys will praise the move (while ignoring the fact he was on the sidelines over half the year)

Here's a dash of pessimism for those who want it:

Sirianni is still the HC and he's an idiotic tool

3 minutes ago, vikas83 said:

Eh...Dickerson and Jurgens need to be a lot better. The interior pressure was a serious problem for the run game last year.

Don't disagree. Landon couldn't move. I'm assuming that he's either incrementally better or they wont be afraid to pull him and the replacement won't be as immobile. Can't have an all pro at every position. They found Toth in desperation and he did well at center although he's not there anymore. I think they can figure that all out. Maybe Kendall or someone else this year. But when Lane plays we win. That's the track record. If Lane doesn't play there will be no Superbowl. Pretty sure about that fact.

Just now, Mike030270 said:

They're my biggest worry. Or it's like OC is 1a and Landon/Cam are 1b

For me, it's the line first and foremost. If they're even 70% of the way back, then Barkley will have more room and we can avoid 2nd and 3rd and long. Getting behind the sticks is what sunk our offense last year. Per this article, they had the 8th most 3rd and longs in the NFL through 8 weeks (https://www.phillyvoice.com/eagles-third-down-stats-news-analysis-penalties-third-and-long-latest-bye-week-giants/). The Patullo/Sirianni hyper conservative offense wasn't set up for that - hence the infuriating coward's draws. We were 22nd in the league in 3rd down percentage last year vs. 8th in 2024.

Adjusting to the new scheme is #2 for me. I am cautiously optimistic that, with a whole offseason for install, they can get most of it down. They tried to add more under center on the fly last year - Hurts is a guy that needs a ton of reps to be comfortable, IMO. Hopefully it works.

7 minutes ago, eagle45 said:

Absolute stud veterans you listed there

Well, you were wrong when you said "nothing but rookies" so instead of admitting that and engaging with the discussion, you changed the argument, which I already anticipated in saying you may not like the quality brought in, but they did in fact add more than just rookies.

What "stud veterans" on offense did you expect them to bring in? Everyone (well most) should know and realize with the financial situation they're trying to get younger on offense on rookie deals (Lemon, Stowers) and shift finance to the defense to pay the young stud players they need to, which already started with Davis.

They have "stud veterans" in Smitty, Barkley and O line guys. What did you expect? The overall WR group has better depth now than it did before. The last 2 years people complained about the WR talent behind Smitty and Brown. Now they improved that and you want "stud veterans" brought in. With what money? And at what expense of losing other guys? You want them to lose Mitchell or DeJean to sign a stud veteran receiver? If they did that, you'd complain. You'd say Hurts doesn't throw to anyone but his first read anyway. There's always a negative response.

1 minute ago, jojodancer said:

Don't disagree. Landon couldn't move. I'm assuming that he's either incrementally better or the replacement won't be as immobile. Can't have an all pro at every position. They found Toth and he did well at center although he's not there anymore. I think they can figure that all out. Maybe Kendall or someone else this year. But when Lane plays we win. That's the track record. If Lane doesn't play there will be no Superbowl. Pretty sure about that fact.

Landon and Cam shouldn't have been on the field, certainly early in the year. Nick wouldn't just play Toth at C and Pryor at LG - I think they'd have been better before the bye, and then hopefully Landon and Cam would be ready for 2nd half of season. I get being loyal to your guys, but it was dumb.

9 minutes ago, vikas83 said:

For me, it's the line first and foremost. If they're even 70% of the way back, then Barkley will have more room and we can avoid 2nd and 3rd and long. Getting behind the sticks is what sunk our offense last year. Per this article, they had the 8th most 3rd and longs in the NFL through 8 weeks (https://www.phillyvoice.com/eagles-third-down-stats-news-analysis-penalties-third-and-long-latest-bye-week-giants/). The Patullo/Sirianni hyper conservative offense wasn't set up for that - hence the infuriating coward's draws. We were 22nd in the league in 3rd down percentage last year vs. 8th in 2024.

Adjusting to the new scheme is #2 for me. I am cautiously optimistic that, with a whole offseason for install, they can get most of it down. They tried to add more under center on the fly last year - Hurts is a guy that needs a ton of reps to be comfortable, IMO. Hopefully it works.

I just don't think they're going to get back from their injuries no matter the time frame. Landon was always a red flag with his injury history but Cam having back problems is a huge one

3 minutes ago, jojodancer said:

What a Fing p***y, "which i won't do anymore" yea sure you baby back bish the second you don't 6 catches you're gonna be crying again

10 minutes ago, jojodancer said:

That's taken out of context. His admission was he purposely would tweet things and put stuff on social media everyone at the time would either call cryptic or downplay as nothing.

What's the over/under on targets for Brown next year? They are going to absolutely forcefeed him in New England.

1 minute ago, DEagle7 said:

What's the over/under on targets for Brown next year? They are going to absolutely forcefeed him in New England.

More importantly what is the over under amount of interceptions on targets to AJ thrown by Maye, when AJ either underruns throws, or has someone draped on him as he no longer gets much separation. Gonna be fun to watch. Looks like he's not getting calls at this point of his career either.

8 minutes ago, LeanMeanGM said:

That's taken out of context. His admission was he purposely would tweet things and put stuff on social media everyone at the time would either call cryptic or downplay as nothing.

That's part of his schtick of being a master manipulator. This is not a good teammate or considered professional conduct.Talks a big game and talks about winning. But for me, doesn't back it up. I think he's close to washed, from what I saw in the last game we ever saw him. Will see. Howie dodged a bullet. Maybe his best move of offseason when we look back at it.

Coaching can absolutely make up for any talent loss.

And the only talent loss is unmotivated AJ Brown.