Jalen Hurts - shoulder sprain injury; expected for playoffs

[eagle45]

57 minutes ago, dawkins4prez said:

Is it me or does it feel like Lurie's comments come off as publicly setting a boundary to keep Howie from further creating a circus?  

Lurie is the circus.  Howie is just the GM who is willing to let him pull the strings while taking the heat.

[kentwo]

3 hours ago, dawkins4prez said:

Is it me or does it feel like Lurie's comments come off as publicly setting a boundary to keep Howie from further creating a circus?  

I don't mind the owner having input in the QB situation. To me though, this causes more problems than it is worth. It hamstrings the new coaching staff as they evaluate talent and prepare for the draft. What if Siri's staff really likes one of the QBs and feel like he fits their system and would be a franchise guy? Now they're put in a position where they can't build the team that puts them in the best chance to win. It also limits draft trade options. Why let teams know who you are not taking? It seems to put Howie in a weird spot. How much blame does he get if Hurts doesn't work out? How does it affect his ability to get another QB for competition?

The only positive, maybe, is to let Hurts not feel pressured. But that could be done with just a private chat on the phone.

It really sounds like Lurie is trying to be something he's not (a great football mind.) I get that he enjoys being involved and forcing people to do analytics and debrief sessions etc... But that's not his strength. Having lots of money is his strength. Pay guys who have spent their entire lives in football to handle the rest.

[DawkinsOwnage03]

Hurts can handle pressure, will be nice for a change.

[jsdarkstar]

Announcing it to the world is a poor management decision, heading into the draft. 

[[TSM]_PimpDaddyPain]

2 hours ago, jsdarkstar said:

Announcing it to the world is a poor management decision, heading into the draft. 

Not really, especially if it's just smoke and mirrors although I hope it isn't

[Bwestbrook36]

7 hours ago, DawkinsOwnage03 said:

Hurts can handle pressure, will be nice for a change.

And you know this how? From 4 games? What pressure has he faced that he handled?

[RememberTheKoy]

1 hour ago, Bwestbrook36 said:

And you know this how? From 4 games? What pressure has he faced that he handled?

 

He faced a lot in college. 

[XoqTionR]

On 3/9/2021 at 3:55 PM, Penn7980 said:

As owner of the team, Lurie making calls on key personnel decisions is understandable.  The GM needs to be the person to smooth things out or give alternatives and suggestions.  The owner is alone at the top and he needs someone to discuss and bounce ideas.  Howie appears to be tight with Lurie and not sure to what extent he is filling in the various roles of a GM.  What is unclear is when the owner wants to fire the GM, whom he can talk to within the organization.

Hurts is here as the #1 QB now.  To draft another QB high, e.g. with the #6 pick, it would mess up the position once again.  Smart move is to play Hurts this season and add weapons on offense as a key element of rebuilding effort.  If Hurts fails to impress, you find the QB of the future after the season.

Defense also needs new talents.  It makes sense to trade back to the teens and pick up another mid- to late round pick or two.  We need all the picks to fill in many holes on the roster.

 

I think the talent is there on offense, just need to develop and let young players grow... Build the defense and lines. If they do that I think the eagles will surprise the league.

[Random Reglar]

1 hour ago, XoqTionR said:

I think the talent is there on offense, just need to develop and let young players grow... Build the defense and lines. If they do that I think the eagles will surprise the league.

build the run first offense with running QBs.  They have a lot of the parts already.  Running QBs do well.  The Eagles beat the Saints,  a top team, last year, in Hurts first start, with Hurts having his best game running ,  18 carries, over 100 yards.  Just do that.  It seems to me that the oline and the dline are good.  The players are highly paid, and have been with the Eagles for a while.  The LBs and secondary aren't as good.  Put draft picks into the back 7 of the defense.    If there's a big running back, 230+ pounds,  day 3 for him. 

The Eagles have a lot of good good players who might be slowly getting worse, maybe, who are signed to big contracts.  It won't be easy to replace all these players,  and it might not even be a good idea to do so.  The Eagles don't have a lot of resources to get expensive new players.  But the Eagles do have good players on both lines.

Look at teams like the Browns and the Ravens,  The Browns have 2 or 3 good dliners,  one is great, Sheldon Richardson is good,  and maybe Billings will be good?  And Vernon is injured and he needs to be replaced.  There is clearly a need to add a DE and possibly also a DT.  And there are some JAGS there on the roster.   The Browns oline is very good. But back  there on defense,  they're weak where the Eagles are weak, lb and secondary. 

The Ravens seem to lose their best OLB/edge every 2 years.  It appears that at least one if not both of the starting edgers will be gone.  And their oline,  last year,  had 2 players that would be considered good,  and 1 of the 2 was injured,  so, basically,  the Ravens had good at LT,  mediocre at LG, and bad at C, RG, RT, when Stanley was injured.  3 Eagles oliners are highly paid good veterans.  Dillard should be able to be at least a mediocre LT.  Mailata is a swing tackle who should be used a lot as a versatile blocking weapon who can do rugby things like running the ball.    With the Browns and Ravens,  you have 11-5 teams.  I'm just pointing out that 11-5 teams can have glaring flaws, and still go 11-5.  

Running QBs,  when they run a lot, tend to win games.  I like those running QB positional switch guys,  Ward has done well,  Tate and Jackson I like as well.  They're both cheap.  And the Eagles are in a situation where they need to value cheap pretty highly.     The Eagles have a larger than normal, I'd say, number of good players locked into expensive deals for some time.   These players might or might not be declining,  but not too long ago, some of them at least were very very good.   The Eagles are sorta stuck with a good number of expensive, formerly very good or great, but still at least good,  players, especially on the lines.    The Ravens had formerly great RG Yanda retire,  and they did not adequately replace him, and the Ravens were worse because of it, and if you watch the playoff loss, you'll see that.  

Having at least 3 good oliners there,  some of whom might still be very good or great,  is not a terrible problem,  even if their salaries get converted to bonuses and pushed onto dummy years.  It's not ideal but, this method allows the team to have more talent on the 53 than they would be able to buy if they weren't pushing the cap consequences into the future.     Greg Ward,  Khalil Tate,  Tyree Jackson are all playing for minimal amounts of money,  with running QBs,  the costs can be quite low.  I've mentioned Terrelle Pryor before and will again.  He's cheap.  The existence of cap issues shouldn't prevent good offense. 

[eglz1]

19 hours ago, kentwo said:

It really sounds like Lurie is trying to be something he's not (a great football mind.) I get that he enjoys being involved and forcing people to do analytics and debrief sessions etc... But that's not his strength. Having lots of money is his strength. Pay guys who have spent their entire lives in football and have shown a high level of competence to handle the rest.

 

[nipples]

12 hours ago, XoqTionR said:

I think the talent is there on offense, just need to develop and let young players grow... Build the defense and lines. If they do that I think the eagles will surprise the league.

What talent on offense outside of Goedert (who isn’t a slam dunk to be a good starter) and Sanders? I like Reagor but he wasn’t particularly good last season and far from a guarantee that he develops. Watkins could turn out to be a good depth receiver. Fulgham had a nice run for a few games them disappeared. 
 

Bottom line, wide receiver is still a major issue. 

[Bwestbrook36]

4 minutes ago, nipples said:

What talent on offense outside of Goedert (who isn’t a slam dunk to be a good starter) and Sanders? I like Reagor but he wasn’t particularly good last season and far from a guarantee that he develops. Watkins could turn out to be a good depth receiver. Fulgham had a nice run for a few games them disappeared. 
 

Bottom line, wide receiver is still a major issue. 

Not so confident about Reagor anymore? I still think he will be fine but, you were at one point his biggest fan

[kentwo]

22 minutes ago, nipples said:

What talent on offense outside of Goedert (who isn’t a slam dunk to be a good starter) and Sanders? I like Reagor but he wasn’t particularly good last season and far from a guarantee that he develops. Watkins could turn out to be a good depth receiver. Fulgham had a nice run for a few games them disappeared. 
 

Bottom line, wide receiver is still a major issue. 

I'm definitely worried about the offense. Goedert looks like a good starter, not sure about reaching the great top tier TE yet. Sanders has had injury problems and for a smallish back that is a tough one to see through. Also, he flashes big plays, but shows indecisiveness that limits his consistency. I'd like to see him hit holes harder rather than dance around. Not sure how much of that is on him and how much is on the Oline. The Eagles were last in the time it took for the ball to reach the line of scrimmage last season. So the RBs were either dancing too much, holes weren't there, assignments were blown, or play design was just bad.

[nipples]

34 minutes ago, Bwestbrook36 said:

Not so confident about Reagor anymore? I still think he will be fine but, you were at one point his biggest fan

It could go either way. I like his raw talent and think he could be very good, but his route running was awful. He needs to fix that. 

[E-A-G-L-E-S Eagles]

What's the best way for Hurts to win a QB competition?  Don't have one.  Geez!

This puts the fans in their place, the GM in his, and the coaching staff in theirs.  What a great organizational strategy to build the organization and show a winning attitude.

[XoqTionR]

2 hours ago, nipples said:

What talent on offense outside of Goedert (who isn’t a slam dunk to be a good starter) and Sanders? I like Reagor but he wasn’t particularly good last season and far from a guarantee that he develops. Watkins could turn out to be a good depth receiver. Fulgham had a nice run for a few games them disappeared. 
 

Bottom line, wide receiver is still a major issue. 

I think fulghams production stopped due to eagles trying to bring back in old injured vets like jackson and jeffrey. Think fulghams will pan out this year. Isn't ward a free agent though?

[RememberTheKoy]

4 hours ago, nipples said:

What talent on offense outside of Goedert (who isn’t a slam dunk to be a good starter) and Sanders? I like Reagor but he wasn’t particularly good last season and far from a guarantee that he develops. Watkins could turn out to be a good depth receiver. Fulgham had a nice run for a few games them disappeared. 
 

Bottom line, wide receiver is still a major issue. 

 

It is but there is that young talent to let develop with the young QB.  Talent at a lot of positions is a major issue on the team, at least WR is an area where the Eagles have invested draft picks in so there is that potential to try and coach and develop and grow.  

[eglz1]

7 hours ago, nipples said:

What talent on offense outside of Goedert (who isn’t a slam dunk to be a good starter) and Sanders? I like Reagor but he wasn’t particularly good last season and far from a guarantee that he develops. Watkins could turn out to be a good depth receiver. Fulgham had a nice run for a few games them disappeared. 
 

Bottom line, wide receiver is still a major issue. 

Re Fulgham how much of his 'disappearance' was due to Jeffrey's return?

[kentwo]

6 hours ago, eglz1 said:

Re Fulgham how much of his 'disappearance' was due to Jeffrey's return?

I think Fulgham's disappearance was more to defenses switching up how they covered him. He thrived eating up zones and using his strength to gain leverage on people. They started playing man with bigger bodies on him that he couldn't out muscle. He doesn't have elite quickness to create separation on his own and thus struggled. Giants started doing this first. 

[Iggles25]

2 minutes ago, kentwo said:

I think Fulgham's disappearance was more to defenses switching up how they covered him. He thrived eating up zones and using his strength to gain leverage on people. They started playing man with bigger bodies on him that he couldn't out muscle. He doesn't have the quickness to create separation on his own and thus struggled. Giants started doing this first. 

Absolutely. The film tells the tale.

Hope he hits the weight room hard this offseason. He bulks up and he could win a lot of those man matchups.

Still think he has a place in this offense.

[EazyEaglez]

On 3/9/2021 at 7:55 AM, NOTW said:

 

This team always has gossip and drama around it, with often conflicting reports. Hard to know what to believe. 

Best thing to do is not worry about it. Regardless if Lurie is meddling or not he’s the owner and can do what he wants. There was a report out there that Lurie was listening to WIP and doing stuff the fans wanted. That’s a complete joke. If anything he’s doing quite the opposite of what the fans want. In any case nothing is going to change and to me he’s still 100 times better than Brahman. We still got a bowl under his watch too. Let’s see what happens on the field. 

[time2rock]

Lurie/Howie:  we don't want to bring in competition for Jalen Hurts, we want to build around him.

Then there's this:

https://www.nbcsports.com/philadelphia/eagles/2021-nfl-draft-trey-lance-pro-day-eagles

Moral of the story:  never believe anything during the silly season.  

[NOTW]

12 minutes ago, time2rock said:

Lurie/Howie:  we don't want to bring in competition for Jalen Hurts, we want to build around him.

Then there's this:

https://www.nbcsports.com/philadelphia/eagles/2021-nfl-draft-trey-lance-pro-day-eagles

Moral of the story:  never believe anything during the silly season.  

 

But but but Lurie is ruining their draft trade leverage!

This won't be the last "report" about the Eagles draft plans.

[flyerdog]

36 minutes ago, time2rock said:

Lurie/Howie:  we don't want to bring in competition for Jalen Hurts, we want to build around him.

Then there's this:

https://www.nbcsports.com/philadelphia/eagles/2021-nfl-draft-trey-lance-pro-day-eagles

Moral of the story:  never believe anything during the silly season.  

there is so much deception and subterfuge going on pre-draft...misdirection and so on....all teams do it..probably even with the media leaks, as those are an effective tool now...someone in the organization leaks to the media that the Eagles are very high on player 'A'...and the buzz starts...when the team actually likes and wants player 'B'....which is why with all this Ja'Marr Chase and Kyle Pitts talk...I am more and more convinced that they WILL draft a QB @ #6.....but then maybe the guy they are really targeting is a DL (howie LOVES his DTs) or a CB

[Cochis_Calhoun]

45 minutes ago, time2rock said:

Lurie/Howie:  we don't want to bring in competition for Jalen Hurts, we want to build around him.

Then there's this:

https://www.nbcsports.com/philadelphia/eagles/2021-nfl-draft-trey-lance-pro-day-eagles

Moral of the story:  never believe anything during the silly season.  

That tells me they're going to trade back and they're trying to bluff a QB needy team into ponying up for #6. I stand by my prediction that if Trask falls into their lap in Rd 3 the Eagles will take him.