EMB Blog: 2021 Training Camp / Preseason

[Diehardfan]

14 minutes ago, bpac55 said:

You also have to consider of the guys you cut, who is more likely to get claimed and who can be on their speed dial if an injury occurs.

No one is claiming Jordan Howard.  I'm guessing he could be a last minute cut and then signed after week 1 so his contract isn't guaranteed.  Same goes for Johnson but he might be more intriguing to a team than Johnson.

If Huntley shows speed in the pre-season, someone will take a chance on him a la Raheem Mostert.  Keep in mind, the Eagles claimed him last year based on practice alone, there were no pre-season games to see how he did against other teams.  You're right about ST.  I think 5 WR and 5 RB is going to make the most sense for the initial roster.

Smith, Reagor, Fulgham, Ward, and one of Watkins/Hightower/JJAW.  

Sanders, Scott, Gainwell, Huntley, one of Howard/Johnson.

Boston Scott is a fun story.  Seems to be a super likeable guy but he's 100% replaceable.  I'd like to see Gainwell take his spot as I think they are both fighting to be RB3.  

I'd keep an extra WR over Howard or Johnson. 

[ManuManu]

For the Fehoko fans in here. 

[BigEFly]

30 minutes ago, Alphagrand said:

The bolded is simply not true.  Looking through pre-draft rankings from the days before the draft, and the highest I’ve seen Jefferson ranked is 5th, other sites had him 7th or 8th, right around the same range as Reagor.  Walter football is closest to your assertion; they had Jefferson 5th and Reagor 8th — but most draft sites had them ranked similarly.

If anything, Jefferson was a consensus 2nd round prospect on boards until he ran at the combine, then when scouts saw him run low 4.4s he shot up draft boards into the 1st round as a prospect.  Prior to that he was labelled solely as a slot WR.

Jefferson was always going to be graded as the volume target who would amass a lot of receptions; very few scouts saw him as an explosive player.  Reagor was always graded as a lower volume but higher big-play WR prospect.  Howie chose to select the player with more big-play ability because the Eagles offense outside of Desean was terribly slow.

And now the realization  why most of the draft rankings are nonsense.  They all use similar generalizations.  CB not taller than 6’, nickel or slot CB.  Made catches from the slot, slot WR.   WR shorter than 6’, slot WR.   Etc.  Depends on what the team is drawing up.  Rankings are a media tool, not a team tool.  Top 50?  For every team? No. I suspect for some teams, Jefferson may have been ranked a second rounder on their value board.  For others he may have been one of six ranked as a first rounder.  Obviously, for what Doug had in mind, the Eagles had Reagor ranked a bit higher than Jefferson.  Likely targeting him as a replacement at primarily the Z.
 
Allegedly, the Eagles had McPhearson as a third round value on their board. (Howie says something like that every draft so take it with a grain of salt.)

[Godfather]

5 minutes ago, 4for4EaglesNest said:

Not if that WR is JJAW or Greg Ward.

 

 

On a side note, Boston Scott reminds me a little of Greg Ward.  Meaning, we have seen what their ceilings are.....and I am not sure their ceilings are high enough to warrant playing time over some younger guys.  

I'd add Hightower on that list as well

[Utebird]

1 hour ago, greend said:

Reagor controls how he plays and the amount of effort he puts forth. Siri having to yell at him to run fast is his own fault

He looked plenty fast when he one hand mossed slay but instead people want to talk about Siriani pushing him in a drill.

[greend]

Just now, Utebird said:

He looked plenty fast when he one hand mossed slay but instead people want to talk about Siriani pushing him in a drill.

He looked fast because he is fast and that's the whole point.  As a boss if I have to push you to do your job, you fill in the rest.

 

[Penn7980]

1 hour ago, bpac55 said:

The RB competition really is intriguing but the question isn't if they keep 4, it's if they keep 5 IMO.

Miles Sanders- 24 y/o, hopefully your bell cow despite RB rotation.  100% lock

Boston Scott- 26 y/o, ideally he's a 3rd down back.  99.9% lock

Kenny Gainwell- 22 y/o, 5th round pick.  Reports are he's flashing as a receiver but not much as a runner right now.  Sanders still struggles catching the ball so this is where he makes the team. 95% lock

Jordan Howard- 26 y/o, journeyman.  Hard to believe he's just 26.  Knees have been beat up pretty bad, 3 teams with multiple stops in Philly in 6 years.  Does he have anything left in the tank?  Based off the minimal reports we get, he looks pretty good.  He played a total of 7 games last year.  Can you give him a role on offense and depend on him to be healthy to fill it?

Kerryon Johnson- 24 y/o, former 2nd round pick.  Injuries have taken their toll on him as well.  RB who could do it all before knee issues.  I honestly haven't heard much about him so far.  If healthy, he's a great #2 behind Sanders.

Jason Huntley- 23 y/o, speedster/returner.  Every day we see reports that Huntley's speed is on display.  Speed shines when you're just helmets however.  Reports are he's improved his pass blocking.  Any time a player brings an element of game changing speed, he has to be looked at.  Helps that he has potential as KO returner.  

Elijah Holyfield- 23 y/o, PS RB.  Haven't heard much of a peep about him, easy to forget he's on the team.  I did see his name pop up on the KO and KOR depth charts.  He can be stashed on the PS.

It's a very young RB room, all under 26.  

If you keep only 4, I think it's Sanders, Scott, Gainwell and one of Howard/Johnson. One of Ho-Jo SHOULD be RB2 to take the load off of Sanders.  That shouldn't be Scott's role.  

I think Huntley's TC and KR ability make you keep 5 with the question still being which of Ho-Jo do you keep?

 

 

If Siri is true to his reputation on running the ball, the team would carry 4 RBs.  Sanders, Scott, Gainwell and Johnson/Howard should be on the roster.  I'd put Johnson ahead of Howard on durability basis, even Johnson has had his injury issue, but he is younger and has less wears.  Huntley can be stashed at PS. If only on RS, it is costly to keep a 5th RB.  That role can be filled by one of back-up WRs. 

[Godfather]

1 hour ago, bpac55 said:

The RB competition really is intriguing but the question isn't if they keep 4, it's if they keep 5 IMO.

Miles Sanders- 24 y/o, hopefully your bell cow despite RB rotation.  100% lock

Boston Scott- 26 y/o, ideally he's a 3rd down back.  99.9% lock

Kenny Gainwell- 22 y/o, 5th round pick.  Reports are he's flashing as a receiver but not much as a runner right now.  Sanders still struggles catching the ball so this is where he makes the team. 95% lock

Jordan Howard- 26 y/o, journeyman.  Hard to believe he's just 26.  Knees have been beat up pretty bad, 3 teams with multiple stops in Philly in 6 years.  Does he have anything left in the tank?  Based off the minimal reports we get, he looks pretty good.  He played a total of 7 games last year.  Can you give him a role on offense and depend on him to be healthy to fill it?

Kerryon Johnson- 24 y/o, former 2nd round pick.  Injuries have taken their toll on him as well.  RB who could do it all before knee issues.  I honestly haven't heard much about him so far.  If healthy, he's a great #2 behind Sanders.

Jason Huntley- 23 y/o, speedster/returner.  Every day we see reports that Huntley's speed is on display.  Speed shines when you're just helmets however.  Reports are he's improved his pass blocking.  Any time a player brings an element of game changing speed, he has to be looked at.  Helps that he has potential as KO returner.  

Elijah Holyfield- 23 y/o, PS RB.  Haven't heard much of a peep about him, easy to forget he's on the team.  I did see his name pop up on the KO and KOR depth charts.  He can be stashed on the PS.

It's a very young RB room, all under 26.  

If you keep only 4, I think it's Sanders, Scott, Gainwell and one of Howard/Johnson. One of Ho-Jo SHOULD be RB2 to take the load off of Sanders.  That shouldn't be Scott's role.  

I think Huntley's TC and KR ability make you keep 5 with the question still being which of Ho-Jo do you keep?

 

 

Johnson over Howard

[dawkdaballhawk]

I had to look it up.....

bell cow in American English

noun. a cow, esp. the lead cow of a herd, having a bell attached to a collar around its neck so that the herd can be located easily.

[Utebird]

23 minutes ago, greend said:

He looked fast because he is fast and that's the whole point.  As a boss if I have to push you to do your job, you fill in the rest.

 

If Reagor was running as fast as he could it's still Sirianis job to push him to run faster and squeeze every little bit out of him.

Good coaching, good on reagor for taking to coaching.

Hopefully Siriani can get the most out of reagor and reagor can give his most.

[Alphagrand]

I interpreted the clip that was posted "If nothing else Jalen, run fast" to mean start with the basic first step (his stock and trade, speed) and let's build from there -- as a teaching method.  Clear your mind of the other stuff; start from the first building block.

I did not interpret it to mean he hadn't been giving effort in his previous reps; rather trying to un-clutter his mind and do the basics first.

[Cochis_Calhoun]

2 hours ago, Alphagrand said:

The bolded is simply not true.  Looking through pre-draft rankings from the days before the draft, and the highest I’ve seen Jefferson ranked is 5th, other sites had him 7th or 8th, right around the same range as Reagor.  Walter football is closest to your assertion; they had Jefferson 5th and Reagor 8th — but most draft sites had them ranked similarly.

If anything, Jefferson was a consensus 2nd round prospect on boards until he ran at the combine, then when scouts saw him run low 4.4s he shot up draft boards into the 1st round as a prospect.  Prior to that he was labelled solely as a slot WR.

Jefferson was always going to be graded as the volume target who would amass a lot of receptions; very few scouts saw him as an explosive player.  Reagor was always graded as a lower volume but higher big-play WR prospect.  Howie chose to select the player with more big-play ability because the Eagles offense outside of Desean was terribly slow.

Daniel Jeremiah, ESPN, NBC, CBS, Pro Football Network, Draft Network, Sporting News, College Football News and SI all had Jefferson WR4, Drafttek and Walter Football had him WR5, SI, CFN and NBC had Reagor at 9, Jeremiah didn't have Reagor in his top 50 overall (it contained 8 WR's), Sporting News and PFN had Reagor at 6. All the rankings listed had Jefferson above Reagor (none of them had Reagor higher than 6, at least 3 didn't have him top 10).

For balance I checked Alphagrands Messageboard 2020 NFL Draft big board and yeah fair enough they had Jefferson at whatever the F point you were trying to make.

[Alphagrand]

Just now, Cochis_Calhoun said:

For balance I checked Alphagrands Messageboard 2020 NFL Draft big board and yeah fair enough they had Jefferson at whatever the F point you were trying to make.

Good -- Now at least you're getting your facts.

[WentzFan11]

Reagor had a good day of practice, but this is a little weird. 
 

 

[HazletonEagle]

1 hour ago, ManuManu said:

For the Fehoko fans in here. 

I liked him in the later rounds. I felt like you can get him in space and let his size and athleticism take over.

Its not terribly surprising though. We saw with JJAW that Stanford isnt sending WRs to the NFL prepared. 

Highest profile WR from there, before these 2 was Ty Montgomery who transitioned to RB. And when you look at the history of their draft picks, there just arent even many WRs even getting selected in the draft from there. Before Montgormery was Ryan Whalen. Also sucked.

 

 

[Utebird]

9 minutes ago, WentzFan11 said:

Reagor had a good day of practice, but this is a little weird. 
 

 

What's weird about it???

[Mike030270]

12 hours ago, ManuManu said:

Yeah, considering Sirianni kept Moorehead hanging for so long, it sure seems like he had to settle. I could see Sirianni move on after this season. 

I think they kept Moorehead simply because that position coach spot has been a revolving door for years

[ManuManu]

 

[bpac55]

31 minutes ago, 4for4EaglesNest said:

Not if that WR is JJAW or Greg Ward.

 

 

On a side note, Boston Scott reminds me a little of Greg Ward.  Meaning, we have seen what their ceilings are.....and I am not sure their ceilings are high enough to warrant playing time over some younger guys.  

So last year, the Eagles averaged 25 rushes per game.  The Colts averaged 29 rushes per game.

Miles Sanders averaged 14 carries a game in 2020.  His high was 20 carries and his low was 6.

Ideally, I'd love to see him getting up to 18-20 carries.

Then there's the passing game.  RB's caught 4 passes per game last year, 2 for Sanders and basically 2 for Scott.  Corey Clement had 5 catches all year.

Let's assume Eagles RB are getting the ball in some fashion on  35 plays per game.

My hope is Miles Sanders touches the ball 20-22 times per game be it by run or catch. 

That means there are roughly 13-15 other plays for other RB to get the ball.  How many players do we want to spread those touches around to and how many per player?

 

 

 

 

[ManuManu]

Just now, Mike030270 said:

I think they kept Moorehead simply because that position coach spot has been a revolving door for years

Maybe. But they left him hanging a long time. That suggests at the very least they weren’t sold on him and wanted to interview others. My guess is they missed out on their top candidates. 

[jsb235]

19 minutes ago, Cochis_Calhoun said:

Daniel Jeremiah, ESPN, NBC, CBS, Pro Football Network, Draft Network, Sporting News, College Football News and SI all had Jefferson WR4, Drafttek and Walter Football had him WR5, SI, CFN and NBC had Reagor at 9, Jeremiah didn't have Reagor in his top 50 overall (it contained 8 WR's), Sporting News and PFN had Reagor at 6. All the rankings listed had Jefferson above Reagor (none of them had Reagor higher than 6, at least 3 didn't have him top 10).

For balance I checked Alphagrands Messageboard 2020 NFL Draft big board and yeah fair enough they had Jefferson at whatever the F point you were trying to make.

For the record, his draft stock fell a lot because of his combine performance. If he hadn't run such a slow 40 time, he would have been ranked much higher.

The Eagles clearly felt that he was faster than his listed time, and they wanted to add speed on offense. I think it is fair to be critical of their decision, but it is somewhat dishonest to post information without context.

 

[TorontoEagle]

29 minutes ago, Utebird said:

What's weird about it???

The catch got a lot of hype, but in a game situation it's unlikely he makes it. Slay wouldn't just drop his arm as the ball is arriving, and likely gets a PBU. It was a slick, one handed grab and looks great, but the reality of it is it really doesn't mean anything. 

Again, I hope that it does provide Reagor with something of an ego boost, to get his mind on track. That remains to be seen. 

[greend]

53 minutes ago, Utebird said:

If Reagor was running as fast as he could it's still Sirianis job to push him to run faster and squeeze every little bit out of him.

Good coaching, good on reagor for taking to coaching.

Hopefully Siriani can get the most out of reagor and reagor can give his most.

100% We need all this guys to step up..........................now

1 hour ago, 4for4EaglesNest said:

You had to look that up?

[Utebird]

6 minutes ago, TorontoEagle said:

The catch got a lot of hype, but in a game situation it's unlikely he makes it. Slay wouldn't just drop his arm as the ball is arriving, and likely gets a PBU. It was a slick, one handed grab and looks great, but the reality of it is it really doesn't mean anything. 

Again, I hope that it does provide Reagor with something of an ego boost, to get his mind on track. That remains to be seen. 

If Jefferson made that catch in practice would it mean anything???

[RememberTheKoy]

13 hours ago, EaglePhan1986 said:

Typical you’re going to splooge over something one of your favorite players does in practice but won’t give Nick Foles credit for being the super bowl mvp. 
 

keep rubbing one off to your agenda 

 

No idea what the Bears 3rd string QB has to do with anything.