15 minutes ago, BigEFly said:

They have six Ss on the roster.  Harris, Epps, Wallace, Chachere, Vincent and Mayden. They took a swing at a couple of the better FA options but didn’t overpay.  Hoping they draft one if the BPA. 

I can’t say that I care about any of the safeties on the roster beyond Epps and Harris. The rest are special teamers, scrubs or lottery tickets. I want a real answer at safety  

 

5 minutes ago, HazletonEagle said:

I would feel very uneasy heading in to the season with him as the starter, but a name that intrigues me a lot as a possible S is Grayland Arnold.

He seemed to have talent, and we have a habit of holding on to horrible backup safeties, and cutting really good ones too early. 

He’s on the Texans. 

2 minutes ago, ManuManu said:

He’s on the Texans. 

Oh. Saw him listed on the sportrac list of free agents. 

10 minutes ago, austinfan said:

You can work on mechanics, of course some players resist coaching, I think that was the problem with Wentz after he got injured - he was so used to making plays with athletic talent (similar to McNabb, who also went downhill after he was injured in 2005 for the same reason) that he struggled to adjust when he could no longer extend plays.

Hurts has the smarts and work ethic, it comes down to whether he can master the body memory to where proper mechanics become second nature.

Very few college coaches teach QBs, Eagles did bring in Johnson who coached up Prescott and Trask. Not sure Hurts ever got good coaching in college, and as a rookie, he was both an afterthought and not on a staff that I'd trust with a young QB.

We'll see if the current group can take him up a notch - I'll withhold opinion until I see him this fall.

Does he, though?  He threw a ball OOB on a FREE play.  Yeah, that's just one play, but it's also basic knowledge even HS player should know. 

Now, is his inability to read a D, to process quickly enough where to go with the ball, keeping his eyes downfield when running out of the pocket, and to see more than 1/3 of the field, is that smarts or something else?  Having a sense of the pocket is more instinct, but you need a certain amount of smarts to be able to do the others.  He can get a little better at those other things with some disciplined practice working on muscle memory.  It's the ability to read a D and process quickly that has me most concerned.  At least more concerned than only seeing 1/3 of the field and an utter lack of pocket presence.  He has loads of flaws that need fixing.

Sure, QBs in college won't get the same coaching they will in the NFL.  Still, he came from a football family where his father was HC at 2 HS teams and he played for 2 of the upper echelon college programs where while he didn't get NFL level coaching, he did get the best coaching available at the college level.  When you combine his poor mechanics with his lacking abilities in other areas considering his background then he should be much better than what he is showing.  This is why I opine that he has a low ceiling and won't improve that much over what he currently is or that he won't improve enough to be that QB who can lead the team through a playoff run.

I have accepted that he is going to be our starting QB in 2022.  Only way he's not is if they, in one fell swoop, trade up for Pickett (looks like they're keen on him) and find a trade partner to take Hurts.  Otherwise he's QB1 and we'll all see how far his hard work takes him, but I'm not expecting much different from him. 

 

Hurts has a nfl arm , good but not great  , his arm looks weak at times , because of his timing , he throws late , which leads to under thrown balls .

1 hour ago, DeathByEagle said:

Gannon's base is a 3-4 over/under which looks like a 4-3 but has a LB on the outside rush edge. (Avery, P.Johnson last year). Why do you thing we landed Reddick? hes perfect for that role as he has his most success with it in Carolina. 

Avery played about a third of the snaps each game.  Johnson rarely more than a snap or two. Barnett, Sweat, Jackson and even some Williams were getting snaps at DE.  Even Malveaux was getting more snaps than Johnson (8 snaps in games 4-16) at the very the end of the season.   As I stated, Gannon mixed his defensive fronts.  I think he played more with four DL than anything. But I don’t think he ran much with a four LB base.  Most of his 3 down linemen was with two LBs.  But he was kind of limited with the players he had so it may be he wants to play some 3/4. I suspect he wants to play 4i with extensive use of an Elephant and that Reddick and Sweat will play a lot of two point stance. But that’s a guess at this point.  

I suspect they see Epps as a starter; a player that we may not see that highly but they will elsewhere in the league and do the job asked of him.  It means they can draft (lol) someone to come in later and take the job over

3 minutes ago, Original Sin said:

Hurts has a nfl arm , good but not great  , his arm looks weak at times , because of his timing , he throws late , which leads to under thrown balls .

His mechanics are not good either.  Too often he doesn't have his feet set and his throwing motion can look weird at times like a big over looping throw similiar to when a baseball outfielder is trying to throw a runner out at home.

1 hour ago, Wentz_Era said:

He really didn't have that weak of an arm.

And No one said his arm was weak

8 minutes ago, 4for4EaglesNest said:

His mechanics are not good.  He seems to get to elevated on his toes.  Especially when "trying” to the throw the ball deep or even intermediate.  

So…late release, weak arm, inaccurate, bad mechanics, and can’t read a defense.  But he’s improving and deserves more time.

17 minutes ago, Green_Guinness said:

Does he, though?  He threw a ball OOB on a FREE play.  Yeah, that's just one play, but it's also basic knowledge even HS player should know. 

Now, is his inability to read a D, to process quickly enough where to go with the ball, keeping his eyes downfield when running out of the pocket, and to see more than 1/3 of the field, is that smarts or something else?  Having a sense of the pocket is more instinct, but you need a certain amount of smarts to be able to do the others.  He can get a little better at those other things with some disciplined practice working on muscle memory.  It's the ability to read a D and process quickly that has me most concerned.  At least more concerned than only seeing 1/3 of the field and an utter lack of pocket presence.  He has loads of flaws that need fixing.

Sure, QBs in college won't get the same coaching they will in the NFL.  Still, he came from a football family where his father was HC at 2 HS teams and he played for 2 of the upper echelon college programs where while he didn't get NFL level coaching, he did get the best coaching available at the college level.  When you combine his poor mechanics with his lacking abilities in other areas considering his background then he should be much better than what he is showing.  This is why I opine that he has a low ceiling and won't improve that much over what he currently is or that he won't improve enough to be that QB who can lead the team through a playoff run.

I have accepted that he is going to be our starting QB in 2022.  Only way he's not is if they, in one fell swoop, trade up for Pickett (looks like they're keen on him) and find a trade partner to take Hurts.  Otherwise he's QB1 and we'll all see how far his hard work takes him, but I'm not expecting much different from him. 

Not that it is the be all and end all... but his 21 on the Wonderlic puts him below average on that measurement leading up to the NFL draft.  I haven't seen anything from Hurts that would make me overly confident in his intelligence, nor his football IQ.

4 minutes ago, UK Eagle said:

I suspect they see Epps as a starter; a player that we may not see that highly but they will elsewhere in the league and do the job asked of him.  It means they can draft (lol) someone to come in later and take the job over

That's pretty bad if they do 

Why not one of Howie's one year specials on DeShon Elliott. 

7 hours ago, UK_EaglesFan89 said:

The 2022 Eagles... Exactly the same as the 2021 Eagles but for the most part older.

Screw the draft and all those high picks. We’re doomed.

4 minutes ago, greendestiny27 said:

That's pretty bad if they do 

I suspect he is assignment correct and has the physical tools they want. For me, he's a walking concussion waiting to happen, but they seem to rate him a lot.

7 minutes ago, UK Eagle said:

I suspect they see Epps as a starter; a player that we may not see that highly but they will elsewhere in the league and do the job asked of him.  It means they can draft (lol) someone to come in later and take the job over

I’ve been saying for awhile that I think Epps ends up the starter at the beginning of 2022. I don’t think they see him as a quality starter though, but a third safety. 

21 minutes ago, ManuManu said:

I can’t say that I care about any of the safeties on the roster beyond Epps and Harris. The rest are special teamers, scrubs or lottery tickets. I want a real answer at safety  

 

Well free agency is for filling holes and there isn’t a hole per se at safety, rather a talent question including Harris and Epps.  Now Harris (originally an UDFA) and Epps (a 6th round draft choice) have had experience and some success in the NFL.  Mayden is a PS player with phenomenal athleticism but not the instincts to match.  Chachere is green and from a smaller school and shows potential.  Howie traded for Vincent, who was a seventh round choice, with a sixth round pick.  I really liked him out of LSU except his size. It’s time,for, Wallace to deliver, if he wants to stick.

But I also want a S.  Been asking for one in the draft four years and was given only Wallace.  I do like Vincent’s potential but I want Hill or Brisker in the draft. 
 

 

6 minutes ago, justrelax said:

Screw the draft and all those high picks. We’re doomed.

The draft is obviously critical for the future but I don't think the expected play level of a 1st rd CB is that much higher than we got from Nelson last year. And a DL is likely to get only rotational snaps. Stuff happens and guys emerge but I don't see some huge short term impact on this team from the draft unless they take a QB.

5 minutes ago, BigEFly said:

Well free agency is for filling holes and there isn’t a hole per se at safety, rather a talent question including Harris and Epps. 

If Harris and Epps are the bodies at safety... there are absolutely still holes to be filled.

2 minutes ago, pgcd3 said:

The draft is obviously critical for the future but I don't think the expected play level of a 1st rd CB is that much higher than we got from Nelson last year. And a DL is likely to get only rotational snaps. Stuff happens and guys emerge but I don't see some huge short term impact on this team from the draft unless they take a QB.

Yep. First-round corners typically are bad players as rookies. We’d be lucky to get Steven Nelson level of play from someone like Andrew Booth for example. 

If Harris and Epps are the safeties, Gannon is going to be lining those boys up 70 yards down the field

11 minutes ago, ManuManu said:

I’ve been saying for awhile that I think Epps ends up the starter at the beginning of 2022. I don’t think they see him as a quality starter though, but a third safety. 

Agree.  He's not a quality starter, but I suspect he fills a role out there and can be trusted to be there and has the athleticism to do it - something Harris and McLeod kind of struggled to do all last year. This team does need to get significantly better at Safety though.

2 minutes ago, UK Eagle said:

Agree.  He's not a quality starter, but I suspect he fills a role out there and can be trusted to be there and has the athleticism to do it - something Harris and McLeod kind of struggled to do all last year. This team does need to get significantly better at Safety though.

I thought McLeod played much better once he passed the one year mark of his injury. Still getting older obviously but I think his early struggles were more injury related

Just now, pgcd3 said:

I thought McLeod played much better once he passed the one year mark of his injury. Still getting older obviously but I think his early struggles were more injury related

I would have preferred McLeod to stay vs Harris.  He seems to the heartbeat for the D, regardless of his physical limitations.

The folly and energy of youth. I miss it