18 minutes ago, downundermike said:

 

I find this to be a curious move, considering, the Eagles had  by what most percieve or project as one of their best drafts in the past 2 decades? 

So we get something good going, and 

 

 

WHAM!  

Just realized with all the other old Eagle player/coaches vs current Eagles team games on the schedule we'll also have AJ Brown playing against his former team. 

12 minutes ago, Alphagrand said:

As far as a passing offense is concerned, there were 10 teams last season that averaged 250 passing yards per game.  12 teams that averaged 248 or more, then a big drop off down to 233 passing yards per game.  Of those 12 teams, 10 made the playoffs -- only the Vikings and Chargers missed.  The Eagles finished 25th in the NFL with 200.2 passing yards per game.  All 7 teams behind them missed the playoffs.

With the Eagles pass catching group now including a $25M per year AJ Brown, a $15M per year Dallas Goedert, and a #10 overall draft pick in DeVonta Smith, it's pretty clear where the Eagles allotment of financial resources is going -- towards creating a competitive passing offense.  For good reason -- as per the above, your chances of being a playoff team and making noise in the playoffs increases greatly with a prolific passing attack.  The current swell of WR salaries across the NFL dictate that the league GMs see a strong passing attack as more and more important.

To get into the top 12 passing offense the Eagles would need 4,200 passing yards -- based on 2021 numbers.  That would need to be approximately:

Brown -- 1,000

Smith -- 916

Goedert -- 830

Watkins -- 647

Reagor -- 300

RB -- 500 

 

It seems unlikely, because I took all of the Eagles pass catchers numbers from 2021 and simply added all of AJ Brown's 1,000 yards on top of it -- without accounting for a decrease in targets for anyone else.

The QB is going to have to take a huge leap in 2022.

I think an cool bet would be does gainwell have more receptions than reagor and amount of games JJAW is on the eagles roster higher or lower than how many weeks does reagor have a reception. 

37 minutes ago, garingovt2000 said:

What ranked QB will Hurts be in fantasy this year?  We might not love him as our QB but he puts up some great stats in fantasy thanks to his rushing TD's

Too bad they don't have a garbage time fantasy league. 

39 minutes ago, downundermike said:

 

Guess they either assume Andy is gone or want him to be gone?

31 minutes ago, Iggles_Phan said:

Weirdest one is Weidl.  Greasing the skids for Andy to leave by firing his brother?  Very odd.

And... who are they bringing in?  

This all reeks of Dave Caldwell replacing Weidl.

3 minutes ago, Bacarty2 said:

can someone explain this scouting stuff to me like Im 5.

Where is this coming from? beef? must of disagreed with a lot on the draft?

Available from Amazon..

Who cares if Hurts gets to 4,000 yards.

Eagles are one of the best running teams in the NFL, a lot of teams that put up big passing yards do so the way Reid used to, using the short pass instead of running the ball because they're so bad at it.

So I'd expect the Eagles to be in the bottom half of passing yardage, but top ten in total yardage and points scored.

13 teams with 600+ passes, only two had 7+ NY/A, 5 were less than 6 NY/A. Eagles were at 6.5 NY/A.

43 minutes ago, garingovt2000 said:

What ranked QB will Hurts be in fantasy this year?  We might not love him as our QB but he puts up some great stats in fantasy thanks to his rushing TD's

I've heard buzz of taking him at QB1 but mostly from fantasy nerds trying to sound like the smartest person in the room. I'd imagine he'll go top 5 though. Running QBs have a hight floor.

2 minutes ago, austinfan said:

Who cares if Hurts gets to 4,000 yards.

Eagles are one of the best running teams in the NFL, a lot of teams that put up big passing yards do so the way Reid used to, using the short pass instead of running the ball because they're so bad at it.

So I'd expect the Eagles to be in the bottom half of passing yardage, but top ten in total yardage and points scored.

13 teams with 600+ passes, only two had 7+ NY/A, 5 were less than 6 NY/A. Eagles were at 6.5 NY/A.

I’d like to see that 4k yards but you are right: In the end you want points and wins.

45 minutes ago, downundermike said:

 

The Eagles might have found out Casey Weidl was actively seeking other employment, and perhaps even violating a confidentiality agreement as part of a recruitment process with another organization.  Some companies are very sticky on that.

The other possibility is he was trying to get fired, like George Costanza going for that Mets job

 

4 minutes ago, austinfan said:

Who cares if Hurts gets to 4,000 yards.

Eagles are one of the best running teams in the NFL, a lot of teams that put up big passing yards do so the way Reid used to, using the short pass instead of running the ball because they're so bad at it.

So I'd expect the Eagles to be in the bottom half of passing yardage, but top ten in total yardage and points scored.

13 teams with 600+ passes, only two had 7+ NY/A, 5 were less than 6 NY/A. Eagles were at 6.5 NY/A.

THE EAGLES WANT TO BE A PASSING OFFENSE

1 minute ago, LeanMeanGM said:

THE EAGLES WANT TO BE A PASSING OFFENSE

The Eagles want to win. Preferably by passing the ball a lot.

With too much time on my hands I decided to follow through on what I have perceived as a focus of the Eagles - getting younger and getting faster. Times are for the 40.

Player                                  Age        40 Time

LBs

Shaun Bradley                   25           4.51

Nakobe Dean                    21           4.52

TJ Edwards                       25           4.87

Christian Elliss                 23           4.48

Kyron Johnson                 23           4.40

Patrick Johnson               24           4.59

Joe Ostman                      26           4.82

Jacoby Stevens                23           4.62

Davion Taylor                    23           4.49

Kyzir White                        26           4.69

Hassan Reddick               27           4.52

CBs

Tay Gowan                         24           4.47

Craig James                      26           4.55

Avonte Maddox                26           4.39

Mac McCain                      24           4.38

Zech McPhearson            24           4.45

Josiah Scott                      23           4.42

Darius Slay                         31

Kary Vincent                      23           4.33

Ss

Andre Chachere                 26           4.66

Marcus Epps                      26           4.52

Anthony Harris                  30

Jared Mayden                   23           4.40

KVon Wallace                    24           4.53

 

Cherry-picking a few DLs:

Milton Williams                23           4.63

Jordan Davis                    22           4.78

Josh Sweat                      25           4.57

Ostman is listed as an LB but he's really a DE. If he makes the team it will be as a stand-up edge rusher. 

I was surprised at Edwards' slow time. It looked to me like he plays faster than that.

I didn't bother with 40 times for Slay or Harris as they would be 8-10 years old.

Those two aside, that's a lot of team speed and youth.

The Eagles have been stock-piling young DBs for a while now. @BigEFly has commented on it and on the skills of some of the players. Gannon clearly wants to run a lot of zone, ideally with two high safeties. It's worth mentioning that Mayden played for Alabama, started for them as a senior and led the team in INTs. Saban plays a lot of zone.

I think we all went a little nuts last season watching opponents play pitch and catch in our secondary. The only good thing was that we didn't give up a lot of deep balls. We were just dreadful underneath. Well, we've loaded up on fast guys so those underneath zones should get smaller. That's clearly the coaches' and front office's intent.

 

6 minutes ago, austinfan said:

Who cares if Hurts gets to 4,000 yards.

Eagles are one of the best running teams in the NFL, a lot of teams that put up big passing yards do so the way Reid used to, using the short pass instead of running the ball because they're so bad at it.

So I'd expect the Eagles to be in the bottom half of passing yardage, but top ten in total yardage and points scored.

13 teams with 600+ passes, only two had 7+ NY/A, 5 were less than 6 NY/A. Eagles were at 6.5 NY/A.

Ah yes, the tried-and-true formula for being down 31-0 in the wildcard game.  Howie called that game an embarrassment last week, btw.

That's not going to be the plan moving forward.

 

1 minute ago, austinfan said:

Who cares if Hurts gets to 4,000 yards.

Eagles are one of the best running teams in the NFL, a lot of teams that put up big passing yards do so the way Reid used to, using the short pass instead of running the ball because they're so bad at it.

So I'd expect the Eagles to be in the bottom half of passing yardage, but top ten in total yardage and points scored.

13 teams with 600+ passes, only two had 7+ NY/A, 5 were less than 6 NY/A. Eagles were at 6.5 NY/A.

First off, passing is far more efficient than running. The best yards per attempt rushing team had 5.1 yards (colts), the worst passing per attempt team had 5.8 yards (jets) per attempt. Passing is more efficient to get a team in scoring position. Secondly, Eagles came in 15th in total yards and 14th in total TDs. The Eagles are not going to get into the top ten in either of those categories unless the passing offense gets better. Yes, the Eagles had a top 3 rushing attack, but that is not sustainable nor does it lead to a high scoring offense.

7 minutes ago, Infam said:

Caplan said he heard they want Dillard to take at least some snaps at guard.

Given his difficulty anchoring I am not sure how moving him inside helps.  

4 minutes ago, LeanMeanGM said:

THE EAGLES WANT TO BE A PASSING OFFENSE

6 minutes ago, Infam said:

The Eagles want to win. Preferably by passing the ball a lot.

Come on. They spent a 2nd, a 1st, a top 10 1st and traded a 1st while giving a guy a $100M extension to pass the ball. Not to run block. All in 3 years. They want to pass the ball. They aren't going to pride themselves on being a run first offense. Anyone that thinks they will be a run first offense has their head in the sand. 

1 hour ago, KDUB1510 said:

Because they spent a top 10 pick on DeVonta Smith, traded a 1st + gave $100M to AJB, gave Dallas Goedert a $15M/yr contract & they have one of the best pass blocking offensive lines in the NFL. That's why. Would be insane to invest all those resources in pass catchers just to run the ball 40 times a game again this year. Someone needs to be fired if that's the plan

 The objective is to win games, not stat pad to please message board nerds.

SF passed only 20 more times than the Eagles, Samuel 1405 yards, Kittle 910 yards, Aiyuk 826 yards. But 7.7 NY/A.

So don't look for a drastic increase in passing, rather, the focus will be on increasing the efficiency of the passing game, and one way to do that is establish the run behind a powerful OL, and then quick strikes for big yardage off play action. And a lot more screens, with the athletes they have on the OL, they should have a top screen game. Spread defenses both horizontally and vertically.

I figure they'll move toward more of a balanced offense, say 550 pass attempts, 500 rushes. They averaged 4.9 yards a rush, why would you make a drastic move away from the running game when it was so effective?

They were 7th in average length of drive, but only 2 teams (Chiefs, Chargers) were significantly higher. So they only need an incremental improvement here.

12th in points per drive, that's where you want to make the jump.

 

 

3 minutes ago, justrelax said:

The Eagles have been stock-piling young DBs for a while now. @BigEFly has commented on it and on the skills of some of the players. Gannon clearly wants to run a lot of zone, ideally with two high safeties. It's worth mentioning that Mayden played for Alabama, started for them as a senior and led the team in INTs. Saban plays a lot of zone.

I think we all went a little nuts last season watching opponents play pitch and catch in our secondary. The only good thing was that we didn't give up a lot of deep balls. We were just dreadful underneath. Well, we've loaded up on fast guys so those underneath zones should get smaller. That's clearly the coaches' and front office's intent.

Yup.

If the Eagles are going to over-invest in some positions (OL, DL, WR...and eventually QB), we have to go light somewhere (LB, DB, RB). Much easier to go light on DBs if we're a 2 high team with a strong front 4.

3 minutes ago, NCiggles said:

Given his difficulty anchoring I am not sure how moving him inside helps.  

I’m guessing during the summer and training camp they’ll put fluff pieces and quotes out about how good he looks at guard. That way when they try to deal him either end of preseason or close to deadline they can say he has versatility to try to get better value for him. 

10 minutes ago, Infam said:

I’d like to see that 4k yards but you are right: In the end you want points and wins.

No, in the end, you want to be able to move the ball at will and be able to stay competitive in postseason games. Winning against bad teams by running way too much isn’t as sustainable strategy, unless you only care about regular season divisional wins in the worst division in football. 

6 minutes ago, justrelax said:

With too much time on my hands I decided to follow through on what I have perceived as a focus of the Eagles - getting younger and getting faster. Times are for the 40.

I think we all went a little nuts last season watching opponents play pitch and catch in our secondary. The only good thing was that we didn't give up a lot of deep balls. We were just dreadful underneath. Well, we've loaded up on fast guys so those underneath zones should get smaller. That's clearly the coaches' and front office's intent.

Yep. Faster, and just as important, quicker LBs and faster DBs who can close in zone. And faster DBs mean they can play a step or two closer to the LOS and still recover deep.

1 minute ago, austinfan said:

 The objective is to win games, not stat pad to please message board nerds.

SF passed only 20 more times than the Eagles, Samuel 1405 yards, Kittle 910 yards, Aiyuk 826 yards. But 7.7 NY/A.

So don't look for a drastic increase in passing, rather, the focus will be on increasing the efficiency of the passing game, and one way to do that is establish the run behind a powerful OL, and then quick strikes for big yardage off play action. And a lot more screens, with the athletes they have on the OL, they should have a top screen game. Spread defenses both horizontally and vertically.

I figure they'll move toward more of a balanced offense, say 550 pass attempts, 500 rushes. They averaged 4.9 yards a rush, why would you make a drastic move away from the running game when it was so effective?

They were 7th in average length of drive, but only 2 teams (Chiefs, Chargers) were significantly higher. So they only need an incremental improvement here.

12th in points per drive, that's where you want to make the jump.

 

 

For a moment I actually thought you were going to finish this sentence by saying "get a better QB"

My bad.