33 minutes ago, 4for4EaglesNest said:

That's an ignorant take.  Ward was a college QB and he made himself into a serviceable slot WR.  Not great.  But not the bum you hot take guys are claiming he is.  You think our team was so deep with weapons back then that Mahe couldn't get on the field?  The dude couldn't even hold down PR duties.  There are so many other worthy punching bags on this team than Ward.  Pretty tone deaf TBH.  

Good point about Ward making the transformation from college QB to reliable/steady albeit limited slot WR in the NFL.  Reno Mahe is a borderline BYU great as an All-Purpose guy who wasn't able to translate that game to the NFL. 

Ward is pure trash at PR, whereas Mahe if you look back at his career averaged a good clip when lining up back there.  

Ward has also made some very good contested catches for TD despite his smallish frame.  He isn't flashy and no, he doesn't average more than 8 yards per catch but he is the least of our worries on this team.  If you can upgrade go for it but if you can surround him with superior talent he can occupy the middle while the outside WR do their thing.

For a fan base that constantly complains about WR who drop passes, let things get in their head and miss games due to injury I think it's silly to complain about Ward who does anything he's asked, doesn't drop the ball, hasn't missed a game due to injury and actually contributes on Sundays. 

He also had 6 TD last year which puts him 9th  below the leaders and tied with DeAndre Hopkins, Brandin Cooks, Allen Robinson, Christian Kirk and Tee Higgins.  Julio Jones and Amari Cooper each had 5 TDs.  Before anyone freaks out and says I'm saying he's on that level please stop.  I'm just showing that Greg Ward produces where it counts.

Ward does his job, which is to get open on 3rd down past the sticks. He's always going to be #4 or #5, but a lot of big play guys can't make the little play when you need it.

Interesting point by Tommie (going through his archives):

"This move does show that the team is letting Sirianni choose his staff. Pederson needed help as he put his staff together. There is a huge difference in the situations. Pederson had coached in Philly and then went to KC with Reid. He wasn’t exposed to a lot of different people. Sirianni coached for the Chiefs, Chargers and Colts over the course of 12 seasons. He worked for four head coaches and was exposed to different systems and staffs. He’s got a much larger pool of candidates to draw from."

53 minutes ago, 4for4EaglesNest said:

That's an ignorant take.  Ward was a college QB and he made himself into a serviceable slot WR.  Not great.  But not the bum you hot take guys are claiming he is.  You think our team was so deep with weapons back then that Mahe couldn't get on the field?  The dude couldn't even hold down PR duties.  There are so many other worthy punching bags on this team than Ward.  Pretty tone deaf TBH.  

He averages 5.5 yards per target and it’s a hot take to suggest he’s bad slot?

Just now, austinfan said:

Ward does his job, which is to get open on 3rd down past the sticks. He's always going to be #4 or #5, but a lot of big play guys can't make the little play when you need it.

Interesting point by Tommie (going through his archives):

"This move does show that the team is letting Sirianni choose his staff. Pederson needed help as he put his staff together. There is a huge difference in the situations. Pederson had coached in Philly and then went to KC with Reid. He wasn’t exposed to a lot of different people. Sirianni coached for the Chiefs, Chargers and Colts over the course of 12 seasons. He worked for four head coaches and was exposed to different systems and staffs. He’s got a much larger pool of candidates to draw from."

That’s the point. He’s not a starting level player, and people on here act like he’s passable as a 3. 

1 hour ago, 4for4EaglesNest said:

Greg Ward is much better and more impactful player than Mahe was.  That’s just silly.   

You're just silly

7 hours ago, eaglesflyers#1 said:

Haven’t checked in for a bit. Who are the consensus wants if they stay at #6?

Mac McCorckle Jones 

This fanbase fawns over Jason Avant but Ward is a far better receiver than Avant was. 

 

I guess if a WR doesn't have the potential to be a big play star WR than he has no use. Beyond ridiculous. The guy has made more clutch catches over the past two seasons than any other player on the roster.  

14 minutes ago, ManuManu said:

That’s the point. He’s not a starting level player, and people on here act like he’s passable as a 3. 

For not a starting level WR, he led the team with 6 TDs.  The other WR combined for a total of 8, Fulgham had 4 of those in his HOF stretch and the others had 1 each.

Again, if you can upgrade him in the slot go ahead.  However, he is the least of their worries.

18 minutes ago, austinfan said:

Ward does his job, which is to get open on 3rd down past the sticks. He's always going to be #4 or #5, but a lot of big play guys can't make the little play when you need it.

Interesting point by Tommie (going through his archives):

"This move does show that the team is letting Sirianni choose his staff. Pederson needed help as he put his staff together. There is a huge difference in the situations. Pederson had coached in Philly and then went to KC with Reid. He wasn’t exposed to a lot of different people. Sirianni coached for the Chiefs, Chargers and Colts over the course of 12 seasons. He worked for four head coaches and was exposed to different systems and staffs. He’s got a much larger pool of candidates to draw from."

You’d think these multibillion dollar organizations could run a more robust hiring process than "who do you know”?  
 

But then you’d be wrong lol.

And let's say you lock Ward up on a cheap 3-4 year deal and eventually you have have 3 WRs on the roster that develop to be better than him.  Well you can do a hell of a lot worse for a #4 or #5 WR on the roster than an ultra reliable young WR with great hands that has proven he will not be defeated by the pressure in a big moment if the ball is thrown his way in a do or die moment of the game. 

Annnnd there's Hargrave.

Pay it forward 

2 minutes ago, Arsenal79 said:

You’d think these multibillion dollar organizations could run a more robust hiring process than "who do you know”?  
 

But then you’d be wrong lol.

Most jobs are obtained by "who you know," including top level jobs.

In football, that's more important b/c most skills are "job skills," and there are few metrics (even winning has so many factors that isolating one coach's contribution is difficult), so obviously you're going to value first hand knowledge of a coach's skills, ability to teach, interact, game plan, etc. 

One reason there are winter meetings, etc. is so NFL personnel can spend time hanging out, picking up the scuttlebutt, and so on. And if you have a wider network, you'll obtain more information about NFL people.

Some HCs just have a feel for finding good assistants, but since you have a limited supply of interns, etc. you can cultivate, a lot of this has to come from personnel connections around the league that give you better evaluations of potential candidates.

19 minutes ago, RememberTheKoy said:

This fanbase fawns over Jason Avant but Ward is a far better receiver than Avant was. 

 

I guess if a WR doesn't have the potential to be a big play star WR than he has no use. Beyond ridiculous. The guy has made more clutch catches over the past two seasons than any other player on the roster.  

No, he's not. Avant had great hands, ran crisp routes and knew how to use his body to shield the throw. YAC, well, that's another matter.

Mahe was a very consistent and smart PR who had a solid yards per PR average, he wasn't going to break any, but he knew when to fair catch, and could make the first tackler miss, the second one, not so much. He was a limited player who could give you a few plays a game, but not much more.

Just now, austinfan said:

Most jobs are obtained by "who you know," including top level jobs.

In football, that's more important b/c most skills are "job skills," and there are few metrics (even winning has so many factors that isolating one coach's contribution is difficult), so obviously you're going to value first hand knowledge of a coach's skills, ability to teach, interact, game plan, etc. 

One reason there are winter meetings, etc. is so NFL personnel can spend time hanging out, picking up the scuttlebutt, and so on. And if you have a wider network, you'll obtain more information about NFL people.

Some HCs just have a feel for finding good assistants, but since you have a limited supply of interns, etc. you can cultivate, a lot of this has to come from personnel connections around the league that give you better evaluations of potential candidates.

I know it’s about who you know.

What I am saying is that is an antiquated old school mentality.  But I wouldn’t expect a bunch of meatheads to be innovative lol.

 

23 minutes ago, RLC said:

Annnnd there's Hargrave.

Are we paying him until he's 40 now?

17 minutes ago, austinfan said:

Most jobs are obtained by "who you know," including top level jobs.

In football, that's more important b/c most skills are "job skills," and there are few metrics (even winning has so many factors that isolating one coach's contribution is difficult), so obviously you're going to value first hand knowledge of a coach's skills, ability to teach, interact, game plan, etc. 

One reason there are winter meetings, etc. is so NFL personnel can spend time hanging out, picking up the scuttlebutt, and so on. And if you have a wider network, you'll obtain more information about NFL people.

Some HCs just have a feel for finding good assistants, but since you have a limited supply of interns, etc. you can cultivate, a lot of this has to come from personnel connections around the league that give you better evaluations of potential candidates.

excuses excuses. who you know opens doors. performance is what matters after that.

 

So it sounds like this will largely be the same team we fielded last year except of course foe the QB. What happened to "rebuilding?”

I do wonder if the fact that we won’t have an major QB contract on the books in 2022 allowed folks to feel more comfortable kicking the can to next year.

2 minutes ago, bpac55 said:

Are we paying him until he's 40 now?

Hargrave was one of the few players in which restructuring made sense.

29 minutes ago, bpac55 said:

For not a starting level WR, he led the team with 6 TDs.  The other WR combined for a total of 8, Fulgham had 4 of those in his HOF stretch and the others had 1 each.

Again, if you can upgrade him in the slot go ahead.  However, he is the least of their worries.

Shouldn’t be too hard to upgrade. 

1 minute ago, Thrive said:

So it sounds like this will largely be the same team we fielded last year except of course foe the QB. What happened to "rebuilding?”

I do wonder if the fact that we won’t have an major QB contract on the books in 2022 allowed folks to feel more comfortable kicking the can to next year.

I think kicking the can unfortunately is the only option.  This is the position Howie put them in.  No other way around it.  It really sucks.  There weren't going to be any additions outside of the draft, maybe a veteran addition later in the year and a trade here and there.

Any way they can reasonably get under the cap and not do anything with Barnett or Ertz? Would certainly give them more leverage with both players' situation. I didn't realize they were gonna free up THAT much cap space by restructuring Hargrave.

Ward is better than Avant now? Holy cow. This is why we argue so much about Ward.

29 minutes ago, austinfan said:

No, he's not. Avant had great hands, ran crisp routes and knew how to use his body to shield the throw. YAC, well, that's another matter.

Mahe was a very consistent and smart PR who had a solid yards per PR average, he wasn't going to break any, but he knew when to fair catch, and could make the first tackler miss, the second one, not so much. He was a limited player who could give you a few plays a game, but not much more.

 

For as great as Avant hands were I remember some big time drops from him.  I don't remember any from Ward. 

What's wrong with Wards hands and route running? 

 

Most receptions Avant ever had in a season was 53 (7th season, most yards Avant ever had was 679 (6th season) and most TDs that he ever had was 3 (4th season).   

Greg Ward in his second season has shown that he is already well on his way in his development to far surpass the career that Avant had.  Last year Ward had 53 reception for 419 yards and 6 TDs. 

 

3 minutes ago, ManuManu said:

Ward is better than Avant now? Holy cow. This is why we argue so much about Ward.

 

How was Avant better? I don't at all understand this romanticizing about Avant. 

5 minutes ago, ManuManu said:

Shouldn’t be too hard to upgrade. 

I just think Ward is better than what we give him credit for.  

2020 Greg Ward 6 TD

2019 Alshon Jeffery 4 TD

2018 Alshon Jeffery 6 TD

2017 Alshon Jeffery 9 TD/Nelson Agholor 8 TD (lighting strikes SB52)

2016 Jordan Matthews 3 TD

2015 Jordan Matthews 8 TD