43 minutes ago, weko said:

I think E Moore will have to make the roster with Lemen being a no show for the last 3 months and we will need to keep 6 WRs.

He's missed only one part of training camp. They may keep 6 WRs. I also think it's likely Elijah Moore would make it through to the practice squad. He was on the practice squad last season in Denver. They only kept 5 WRs last season. It seems Smith, Lemon and Wicks are pretty certain at this point. Brown is going to take another slot. I don't know if they keep Moore over Cooper. I think they would take a chance that Moore makes it through to the PS rather than just keep him on the roster.

2 hours ago, Sack that QB said:

EJ and Fran saying one of their biggest negative moments of the day was Stowers getting absolutely no separation from Ebiketie, a player he should have no trouble separating from given he's an Edge rusher. Said he's gotten no separation in camp so far and has trouble getting in and out of his breaks. This lines up with what he looked like playing in college. Good vertical speed, but herky jerky and moves sluggishly.

I will watch as the season plays out…last year the Eagles passing game faced mostly zone defenses and really struggled. That may change without Brown being in the lineup, but Devonta is still pretty much uncoverable against man D. The Eagles will probably see a lot of zone early on until they can show the ability to consistently beat it.

Separation is a non-factor against zones, so the bigger question for me is whether Stowers can be a reliable pass catching target by recognizing and sitting in the appropriate gaps.

9 minutes ago, eagle45 said:

I feel like they've gone in that athlete direction everywhere except WR (and with excellent results).

To be fair, athleticism in WRs is especially tricky. A good WR who is extremely athletic just isn't getting drafted in our typical range. So we sort of have to pick between good WRs who aren't that athletic or great athletes who, for various reasons, failed to be good NCAA WRs.

Exactly the issue I see, and why I am sort of hoping we look in the 2027 draft. There seems to be about half a dozen top tier athletes at WR who could be available in the 20-50 overall range.

1 hour ago, NCiggles said:

I don't think they will shy away from a WR if he's the best player available unless Lemon looks great.

I hope so, but I fear that with Smith, Lemon, Stowers, and the needs to get younger on the OL we’ll look elsewhere.

2 minutes ago, TEW said:

I hope so, but I fear that with Smith, Lemon, Stowers, and the needs to get younger on the OL we’ll look elsewhere.

I think OL is going to be a glaring 1st round need sooner rather than later...and WR in round 1 next year, as you said, isn't very reasonable.

But round 2? That's arguably Howie's best round. That's when Howie seems to be less shackled by need and the pressure to evenly distribute positional investments. If he likes a WR 30-50, he'll trade up for him next year.

I'm just not convinced they are at the point where they would draft an elite athlete at WR that has fit and finish uncertainty. We've seen them draft Stowers, Quinyon over Terrion Arnold, Jordan Davis over more polished DTs, Nolan Smith, etc etc......but every time they've had the choice between a smaller, slower, more productive WR versus a big time athlete that needed more development, they've favored the former.

17 hours ago, brkmsn said:

Ty Robinson just moved up the depth chart.

Bummer

Had hopes for Graham as a roster datkhorse

If Stowers/Lemon provide any production this season, yay. I’m expecting……not much.

I played HS Football and some low level College, and the Offense had the #’s for hole positions. Meaning, the right side of the O/Line, the hole calls were the even ones…..2, 4, 6, and 8. The left side had the odd #’s.

4 hours ago, just relax said:

Loved that Oiler team. Bum Philips, Curley Culp, Bethea, Pastorini, Ken Burrough, Earl Campbell. Great uniforms too. Bum never wore his cowboy hat in the Astrodome. Said his mama told him never to wear a hat indoors.

Does it count as 'indoors' when the roof is 200 feet in the air, and you are playing a game on 'grass'?

3 hours ago, TEW said:

Yeah, it really strikes me as odd that the team seems to focus on bench speed and not starting speed.

I am a bit more optimistic than you, though. The Eagles have clearly turned a corner in Howie 2.0 regarding how they value physical traits and upside in the draft.

I’m thinking we are due to invest in a size/speed athlete at WR. The problem is since we just used a first round pick on Lemon, I’m not sure if we’d come back and use another top 50 sort of asset in the next two years.

I suspect we will see a WR added next year as Wicks will be in his last year on his contract and Hollywood may be gone.

4 minutes ago, Iggles_Phan said:

Does it count as 'indoors' when the roof is 200 feet in the air, and you are playing a game on 'grass'?

Did to Bum. Met him multiple times. Always personable and had a good sense of humor. I was brought up in Texas and we heard take your hat off inside all the time. (Usually involved a cowboy hat or a ball cap). We were also taught to stand for the flag and remove your hat. Before Bum’s time, but the Oilers didn’t move into the Astrodome until 1968. They played at Jeppensen (UH/high school stadium) 1960-1964 and then at Rice 1965-1967. The same Rice stadium where Kennedy gave his "we do these things not because they are easy but because they are hard” speech.

11 minutes ago, BigEFly said:

Did to Bum. Met him multiple times. Always personable and had a good sense of humor. I was brought up in Texas and we heard take your hat off inside all the time. (Usually involved a cowboy hat or a ball cap). We were also taught to stand for the flag and remove your hat. Before Bum’s time, but the Oilers didn’t move into the Astrodome until 1968. They played at Jeppensen (UH/high school stadium) 1960-1964 and then at Rice 1965-1967. The same Rice stadium where Kennedy gave his "we do these things not because they are easy but because they are hard” speech.

I thought that was the "we choose to go to the moon and do the other things" speech. (I always wondered what the other things were.)

44 minutes ago, Iggles_Phan said:

Does it count as 'indoors' when the roof is 200 feet in the air, and you are playing a game on 'grass'?

It did to Bum.

Why I loved him.

1 hour ago, BigEFly said:

I suspect we will see a WR added next year as Wicks will be in his last year on his contract and Hollywood may be gone.

I would love it, but my guess is Howie would look more in the 4th or 5th round than in the top 50. See if we can get lucky while we have our clear top 3 guys, then maybe look at a higher pick in 2 years when Wicks is gone, Smith is 29 years old and Howie starts thinking about replacing him long term.

And as @eagle45 said, anyone with those physical traits of both size and speed who also has any semblance of actual NFL receiving skills tends to be taken in the first round.

And then, even assuming we’d take a guy that high, and also assuming he’s a good player, do we actually have enough targets to make the investment worth it? The average team in the NFL attempts about 33 passes per game. If you were to give 10 to targets to Smith, 8 to Lemon, and 7 to Stowers (because let’s be real, he’s a pure receiving target and if he’s not getting high usage it means he’s a bust) then you are left with 8 targets for the entire rest of the team.

To make that sort of investment in another receiver worth it, I think we’d need to become a very pass heavy team. But even then, Bo Nix led the NFL with 36 per game, so it’s not like there is a lot of room to increase the targets to accommodate so much investment in the WR position. And that’s all built on the assumption that Hurts can even handle becoming a prolific passer; if not, are we then prioritizing his replacement?

It’s all a real issue from a roster construction view in my opinion unless you can get REALLY lucky with some small school or injury recovery special situation type of prospect outside of the top 50.

2 hours ago, eagle45 said:

I think OL is going to be a glaring 1st round need sooner rather than later...and WR in round 1 next year, as you said, isn't very reasonable.

But round 2? That's arguably Howie's best round. That's when Howie seems to be less shackled by need and the pressure to evenly distribute positional investments. If he likes a WR 30-50, he'll trade up for him next year.

I'm just not convinced they are at the point where they would draft an elite athlete at WR that has fit and finish uncertainty. We've seen them draft Stowers, Quinyon over Terrion Arnold, Jordan Davis over more polished DTs, Nolan Smith, etc etc......but every time they've had the choice between a smaller, slower, more productive WR versus a big time athlete that needed more development, they've favored the former.

Yeah, I’m a bit terrified about the OL if I’m being honest.

Lane is obviously going to retire in the next few years. Most likely Dickerson does as well due to injuries. Mailata is already 29 years old… is this sport a passion or a job to him, because if it’s a high paying job but not a passion, I could easily see him retire in the next few years as well. Jurgens seems like he’s doing better, but who knows? And Steen is on the last year of his contract, and isn’t special in any case.

The good news is it seems there are a bunch of high upside prospects in the coming draft. The bad news is we ALSO need to start thinking about life post Saquan… the three first rounders over the next two drafts will help, but we really need to make them count.

1 hour ago, Iggles_Phan said:

I thought that was the "we choose to go to the moon and do the other things" speech. (I always wondered what the other things were.)

Same speech. The other things were the knowledge we would gain from space e exploration, that exploration and that we do so under a banner of peace and vow to keep weapons of mass destruction from space. Really is a great speech, including when defining great challenges and accomplishments, why does Rice play Texas. Here is the full speech for you enjoyment. As a science teacher, I would encourage you to share it with your students.

https://www.rice.edu/jfk-speech

Shout out to the PHLY’s guys for reading the Blog and per my request posting this

5 minutes ago, BigEFly said:

Shout out to the PHLY’s guys for reading the Blog and per my request posting this

I said right after the draft that I thought Weru had a better shot than Bernard. Bernard looks very stiff like a straight line athlete. Weru clearly had much more bend.

1 minute ago, HazletonEagle said:

I said right after the draft that I thought Weru had a better shot than Bernard. Bernard looks very stiff like a straight line athlete. Weru clearly had much more bend.

I should hope a 244 lb guy would have more bend than a 306 lb guy.

1 minute ago, BigEFly said:

I should hope a 244 lb guy would have more bend than a 306 lb guy.

Well, edges are typically smaller than DTs. And yet many edges dont have bend, while DTs still need it. For example, youd find a ton of edge prospects with a lot less bend than Fletcher Cox had.

Our Edge prospect looks the part and the DT does not. Too straight line.

5 hours ago, BigEFly said:

Maye was in over his head in the Super Bowl. Total deer on headlights. If I were a Pats fan I wouldn’t be 100% sold on him like the rest of the league seems to be.

25 minutes ago, HazletonEagle said:

Well, edges are typically smaller than DTs. And yet many edges dont have bend, while DTs still need it. For example, youd find a ton of edge prospects with a lot less bend than Fletcher Cox had.

Our Edge prospect looks the part and the DT does not. Too straight line.

Well Cox was an all-pro level player in his prime so that’s kind of an unfair example.

2 minutes ago, EaglePhan1986 said:

Well Cox was an all-pro level player in his prime so that’s kind of an unfair example.

No it isnt. Im not comparing Cox to Bernard. Far from it. That would be saying, "Bernard has less bend than Cox, so hes not going to be as good." That would be unfair.

What I am saying is, Bernard has no bend. That is fair and accurate.

So I dont really get excited about this project. Weru looks more likely to be a successful project. He actually moves like an NFL player. Bernard does not.

1 hour ago, TEW said:

Yeah, I’m a bit terrified about the OL if I’m being honest.

Lane is obviously going to retire in the next few years. Most likely Dickerson does as well due to injuries. Mailata is already 29 years old… is this sport a passion or a job to him, because if it’s a high paying job but not a passion, I could easily see him retire in the next few years as well. Jurgens seems like he’s doing better, but who knows? And Steen is on the last year of his contract, and isn’t special in any case.

The good news is it seems there are a bunch of high upside prospects in the coming draft. The bad news is we ALSO need to start thinking about life post Saquan… the three first rounders over the next two drafts will help, but we really need to make them count.

There will be at least 1 OL and 1 edge rusher of those 3. Should be interesting. I really don’t know what to make of this season. I feel it could be anywhere from a 6 to 14 win season. The health of the OL will more than likely be the deciding factor.

Also, as great as Saquan is, I’m not worried at all about life without him. I’m sure I’m in the minority, but I think right now that Devonta Smith is the more valuable player than Saquan… both short and long term.

5 minutes ago, HazletonEagle said:

No it isnt. Im not comparing Cox to Bernard. Far from it. That would be saying, "Bernard has less bend than Cox, so hes not going to be as good." That would be unfair.

What I am saying is, Bernard has no bend. That is fair and accurate.

So I dont really get excited about this project. Weru looks more likely to be a successful project. He actually moves like an NFL player. Bernard does not.

I was talking about the edges you say that have less bend than Cox… :)