EMB Blog: 2021 Offseason

[ManuManu]

1 hour ago, BigEFly said:

Yes.  He showed some skill at FS.  He liked Scott’s skill set but not his size last year.  This whole slot thing because of height doesn’t make sense.  Maybe for Edelman (retired) and Colt Beasley (and Greg Ward).   Most successful slot WRs are bigger and quick. That is why I like Fulgham in the slot. Slot CBs are tasked with covering TEs and RBs too.  (So are OLBs and SSs which is why Stevens, Taylor and Wallace make sense and even Bradley, Singleton and Avery, who all ran 4.5+ forties. 

Doesn’t make sense? How many outside corners are 5-9 with sub-30 inch arms?

[bpac55]

24 minutes ago, greendestiny27 said:

I do feel as though our division attacked their weaknesses and had strong drafts. I think all the teams, besides us, will be better than last year. I have us in last pretty easily. We could barely stop the giants last year and they added Galloday, Toney, Rudolph, Booker and Barkley by default to the offense. The o-line isn't great but improved and they have some young guys who could make some jumps.  
On defense they added Azeez and EIerson Smith to rush the passer and have a really nice duo at DT in Williams who turned his career around and is 26 and Lawrence who's only 23 and they added Danny Shelton who's 27. A nice #2 CB in Jackson who we were interested in and one of the better slots in the draft in Robinson, color me impressed.

"The Team" added Samuel whom I love, Humphries who's a solid slot WR, Dyami Brown... Look at the speed on this team between McLaurin 4.35, Brown 4.4, Samuel 4.32 and Gibson 4.39 who's a bit of a freak at RB. This is looking like it could be lethal. Then they added to a stacked defense a highly touted LB in round 1, I guess their GM gets it, a CB I thought we should have looked at in round 3 territory in St. Juste, CB William Jackson in FA, just added S Bobby McCain. I'm just gonna stop because I'm getting depressed. Bottom line, the division was aggressive and made vast improvements with coaches going into their second year and I think we will be finding out the hard way this year, sadly. I'm just not seeing what a lot of folks think that the division is still straight garbage. 

That makes it even more confusing in how the Eagles approach their defensive backs.  Every team in the NCFE has at least 4 legitimate playmakers.  We have no one to cover them.  

[rambo]

3 hours ago, downundermike said:

Get my second one on Saturday morning.  Sounds like I get a ready made excuse to sit in the recliner and watch baseball all weekend.

Get my second Sunday morning.  Figured a good excuse for a sick day Monday. 

[LeanMeanGM]

25 minutes ago, ManuManu said:

Doesn’t make sense? How many outside corners are 5-9 with sub-30 inch arms?

1

[greendestiny27]

20 minutes ago, bpac55 said:

That makes it even more confusing in how the Eagles approach their defensive backs.  Every team in the NCFE has at least 4 legitimate playmakers.  We have no one to cover them.  

Howie just can't build a roster, that's all their is to it. That's my take 

[greendestiny27]

1 hour ago, D-Shiznit said:

If Dickerson starts at LG, he's gonna end up staying there for good, like Lane at RT.

I really hope so, I was going to say in the offseason target Ragnow for C so we don't miss a beat but just saw he got a big extension. Tyler Lindebaum would look nice at C with Landon to his left. These are some nasty tough linemen, between them and Jordan they really could anchor the line for years to come. 

[D-Shiznit]

5 minutes ago, 4for4EaglesNest said:

Start at LG when?  2022?

NFL.com is projecting him as the starter at LG for this season. 

[HazletonEagle]

Players are annoying with these demands after they negotiated their labor deal. 

But I'm glad Sirianni found a way to get everyone there.  Which is better than holding firm and having them all miss OTAs.

He deserves credit for being one of the first to solve the issue satisfactorily enough for players to get to camp. 

I understand the criticism of the players,  and of the softening of the NFL in general.  But criticism of Sirianni for this reeks of desperation from those of you who have chosen to hate him before his team ever plays a game,  based on press conferences.

[Iggles_Phan]

11 hours ago, NCiggles said:

If Flacco ends up starting it's because of an injury to Hurts or that Hurts is so terrible there's no choice.  I think he would have to be full on Nathan Peterman for that to occur.  

Insert Hurts for Flacco and Wentz for Hurts and you have the state of the QB position at this point last offseason.

[austinfan]

Right now they don't need to be practicising so much as learning scheme, terminology, and roles, and walking through this stuff.

Key is to have this stuff down mentally before TC, so when the pads go on you're ready to roll.

[BigEFly]

5 hours ago, LeanMeanGM said:

Weak.

Pretty f’in smart. Let’s face it.  Installs during minicamp and 7 on 7s are crap. Fun for the beat reporters but not worth a crap in molding the players. Nick negotiated workouts geared towards teaching.  Makes Lot of sense. 

[Iggles_Phan]

4 hours ago, BigEFly said:

I am wondering if just that.  A couple of things have me debating with myself (I’m winning). First, there is the whole QB factory thing.  Last year, I think many of us looked at that as an excuse for taking a QB that high. I wonder now if that was also to diffuse attention from the possibility that they were viewing Wentz as unresponsive to direction and coaching and possibly divisive in the locker room.  Which segues to Wentz continuing to being unresponsive to instruction and coaching leading to his benching.  Add to that, the history of injury.  Maybe best case Hurts was drafted as a backup likely to see some playing time to be trained up to a trade asset and worst case a decent QB prospect with some experience sitting who was Wentz insurance against further injury or Wentz not taking instruction.  

Sure... but then that's also derailed by the fact that the organization (reportedly) tried to keep Wentz, and reportedly tried desperately to move up to #2 for a QB.   Makes you question the commitment to Hurts, too, doesn't it?    And leaving him off the schedule announcement?   I'm not one for conspiracy theories, but nothing the Eagles have done since making the selection of Hurts in the 2nd round last year has said, "We are committed to this guy."  

[Sturm]

1 hour ago, greendestiny27 said:

Howie just can't build a roster, that's all their is to it. That's my take 

[blindside]

Y’all are dogging Sirianni. I get it, we wish he’d put his foot down and be a hard arse or whatever, but it’s not like we’re the only team giving in to the NFLPA. It’s basically every team. He’s trying to win his players over. The guys who want to show up will show up. The hard workers will work hard. He’s not really in a position to fight back. I personally haven’t heard of any coaches that are. The guy might be a pushover yes man, and terrible head coach, but I’m willing to give him at least half a season to show it. People dogged Pederson, and he was terrible the last couple years, it he also won us a Super Bowl. 

[blindside]

56 minutes ago, HazletonEagle said:

Players are annoying with these demands after they negotiated their labor deal. 

But I'm glad Sirianni found a way to get everyone there.  Which is better than holding firm and having them all miss OTAs.

He deserves credit for being one of the first to solve the issue satisfactorily enough for players to get to camp. 

I understand the criticism of the players,  and of the softening of the NFL in general.  But criticism of Sirianni for this reeks of desperation from those of you who have chosen to hate him before his team ever plays a game,  based on press conferences.

Just like everyone did with Doug. Doug, for all his recent faults, brought me the ultimate moment as a fan that I never thought I’d see. 

[e-a-g-l-e-s eagles!]

4 hours ago, LeanMeanGM said:

That was pre draft. It’s time for them to ramp it up 

I’m more for the musical chairs cause there’s some physicality with it and need to use speed and agility. 

[LeanMeanGM]

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

I’m more for the musical chairs cause there’s some physicality with it and need to use speed and agility. 

I miss the good old days when the game was rough and tough, full of pain and hard hits when they played child games like suicide. 

[ManuManu]

SI.com's Eagle Maven texted a former AFC personnel executive to get the skinny on Scott as a prospect coming out of Michigan State.

"Was a really good inside prospect who mirrored well at the college level," the exec said. "Not enough length to play outside but he's physical and understands run fits."

***

Of the lesser-known options, keep your eye on Shakiel Taylor, who has some of that needed length at 6-foot, and started as a UDFA in Indianapolis with Gannon in 2019. The Eagles claimed Taylor on waivers from the New York Giants in February on the recommendation of Gannon, according to a team source.

https://www.si.com/nfl/eagles/news/handicapping-the-eagles-cb-situation-after-the-addition-of-josiah-scott

[LeanMeanGM]

24 minutes ago, ManuManu said:

SI.com's Eagle Maven texted a former AFC personnel executive to get the skinny on Scott as a prospect coming out of Michigan State.

"Was a really good inside prospect who mirrored well at the college level," the exec said. "Not enough length to play outside but he's physical and understands run fits."

***

Of the lesser-known options, keep your eye on Shakiel Taylor, who has some of that needed length at 6-foot, and started as a UDFA in Indianapolis with Gannon in 2019. The Eagles claimed Taylor on waivers from the New York Giants in February on the recommendation of Gannon, according to a team source.

https://www.si.com/nfl/eagles/news/handicapping-the-eagles-cb-situation-after-the-addition-of-josiah-scott

Shakial Taylor has one of the strangest recent transactions. He was an ERFA so got paid the bare minimum, but was waived late July by Denver. Claimed and then waived 5 days later by Giants. Then opted out a month later. Seems like he has something behind the scenes going on. 

[Alphagrand]

41 minutes ago, LeanMeanGM said:

I miss the good old days when the game was rough and tough, full of pain and hard hits when they played child games like suicide. 

Best rock vocalist of the past 25 years

 

[Green_Guinness]

1 hour ago, Sturm said:

That's a great shot.  Four Cheatriots closer to him than an teammate and he's looking the ball into his hands.  Lights out performance by him and the whole O that game.  Thank you, BDN.

 

[greendestiny27]

1 hour ago, Sturm said:

That was an outlier as we now can see... And since then? Deteriorating roster and failure draft after draft after draft... 

[BigEFly]

6 hours ago, austinfan said:

Depends. 2nd Pfizer shot kicked my ass, but so did the 2nd shingles shot, b/c both triggered a West Nile Fever relapse.

Nothing major, just a miserable day yesterday with chills, aches and fatigue.

But that's better than worrying about catching one of the new variants, which are both more contagious and more deadly (b/c severity of symptoms seem to be correlated with viral load, and the new variants increase viral load). UK variant is everywhere, Brazil variant is moving in, and there may be worse on the way.

Anyone who doesn't get vaccinated is a stone cold idiot, with tens of millions shot up, the side effects are at best discomfort for a day, but getting the new COVID variants means even for younger people a low probability of death (0.1%?, but higher than last year) but also a substantial (5-10%?) of becoming a long-hauler, at best with some degree of mind fog and lung damage, at worst year(s) of misery ahead of you. The evidence is in, there is nothing to argue about. Even the WSJ is printing stories on long-term COVID effects.

Damn. I must be a tough old coot.  Not even a sore arm from my second shingles or second Pfizer Covid shot. 

[greend]

On 5/17/2021 at 8:39 PM, Iggles_Phan said:

We could have.   McNabb was bad in the Super Bowl.   LJ Smith was brutal.  And Brady et al cheated.

Should have been there more than once. And Reid should have gotten the team ready for it. 

[Iggles_Phan]

7 hours ago, Sturm said:

Ah yes, the classic answer to any criticism of Howie.    Ignoring the fact that from that moment to today, nearly everything Howie has done has been a failure.   The team has gotten older, more injury prone, less cap flexibility, less youth in place to move into key roles and horrific wastes of draft capital on players that should have never been traded for in the first place.  

But, yes, this organization caught lightning in a bottle and soared to the pinnacle of the sport... and just as quickly crashed back down and landed near the absolute bottom of the league.   Traded away their franchise QB, fired their HC winning coach... a complete overhaul, well, complete all except for the one constant in this organization.

40 minutes ago, greend said:

Should have been there more than once. And Reid should have gotten the team ready for it. 

I don't deny any of that.  But, the Cheaters don't get credit for that Super Bowl.   Cheating is not preparing.