@ManuManu I just watched those Fran Duffy clips. And I have seen some highlight videos.

Im excited for the ball skills.

I have to say, Im concerned about tackling. All of his takedowns are weak. 

Ill take that tradeoff if he is a good enough ballhawk at the position, and the tackling is somewhat reliable. But I do think we are going to see guys run out of his tackles from time to time.

2 minutes ago, Swoop said:

Everyone needs to take a breath. Good lord.

Unless you are a trained yoga breathing master I don't think you are qualified to make that assessment, unless of course you have a vague non specified exemption...😉

Just now, HazletonEagle said:

@ManuManu I just watched those Fran Duffy clips. And I have seen some highlight videos.

Im excited for the ball skills.

I have to say, Im concerned about tackling. All of his takedowns are weak. 

Ill take that tradeoff if he is a good enough ballhawk at the position, and the tackling is somewhat reliable. But I do think we are going to see guys run out of his tackles from time to time.

Where's Singleton when you need him? Jumping in on tackles after the fact were his specialty.

1 hour ago, TorontoEagle said:

Who's the 3? 

Ignore Prime

Ignore the Deuce

Ignore Trey

3 hours ago, 4for4EaglesNest said:

You need a big boy passing game to average 30 and 400.  You’re naive to think otherwise.  And you also need a real passing game in order to compete with the better teams.  We showed that last year.  What you’re content with, is much of the same as last year.   And that wasn’t nearly enough.  If we had a real QB and Hurts was on the Giants, you wouldn’t be saying that about him.  But because he’s on your favorite team, who cares.   Right?  

Buffalo and GB (Allen and Rodgers) didn't average 30 and 400 - I just used those as an example of a level where it doesn't matter how you do it, if you can do that, you're special.

Only 2 teams had 400+ ypg (Dal and TB, KC 397, SD 390, Buf 382), TB averaged 29.3 ppg on offense, Buf 28.0, Dallas 27.5, Chargers 27.1, KC 26.5 (subtracting defense and ST TDs).

So 380 ypg, and 26.5 ppg puts the Eagles in the top 5 - in which case there should be no complaints about Hurts.

To get there, the Eagles would need about 2 1st downs more per game (360 ypg last season), and one FG (24.0 ppg) per game.

 

Now good teams pad their stats against bad teams, you're not putting up 30 against good defenses on a regular basis - because that's why they're good defenses.

But over 17 games, a lot evens out, you can't maintain a high average (especially a run oriented team that will pound the ball with a 2 TD lead) just running up scores against bad teams.

Eagles 6th youngest. 

3 minutes ago, Swoop said:

Where's Singleton when you need him? Jumping in on tackles after the fact were his specialty.

Probably out there on the waiver wire. 

1 hour ago, Alphagrand said:

In today's NFL a championship-caliber team can be built with a top 5 offense and a top 15 defense.  For that, the Eagles would need an elite (top 8 out of 32) QB.  Not having that QB means you need a top 5 defense to be a Super Bowl team. 

Eagles aren't there yet.  I still see their ceiling this year at 11 wins.

13 through Week 17 plus a meaningless Week 18 game that is a tossup

1 minute ago, austinfan said:

So 380 ypg, and 26.5 ppg puts the Eagles in the top 5 - in which case there should be no complaints about Hurts.

This works in theory, but we have to see how the games play out. If he's clearly holding the offense back and the running game/defense is winning games while he still misses easy passes/rolls to his right, it's fair to criticize.

I get your point, but the context needs to be there, too.

my scroll wheel just stopped working on this site only. who unleashed the virus on us?

3 minutes ago, HazletonEagle said:

Probably out there on the waiver wire. 

Denver, I believe.

5 minutes ago, mattwill said:

Ignore Prime???

Ignore the Deuce

Ignore Trey

😤.

 

3 minutes ago, austinfan said:

Buffalo and GB (Allen and Rodgers) didn't average 30 and 400 - I just used those as an example of a level where it doesn't matter how you do it, if you can do that, you're special.

Only 2 teams had 400+ ypg (Dal and TB, KC 397, SD 390, Buf 382), TB averaged 29.3 ppg on offense, Buf 28.0, Dallas 27.5, Chargers 27.1, KC 26.5 (subtracting defense and ST TDs).

So 380 ypg, and 26.5 ppg puts the Eagles in the top 5 - in which case there should be no complaints about Hurts.

To get there, the Eagles would need about 2 1st downs more per game (360 ypg last season), and one FG (24.0 ppg) per game.

 

Now good teams pad their stats against bad teams, you're not putting up 30 against good defenses on a regular basis - because that's why they're good defenses.

But over 17 games, a lot evens out, you can't maintain a high average (especially a run oriented team that will pound the ball with a 2 TD lead) just running up scores against bad teams.

In the playoffs last year, the winning team on average put up 29 points.

3 minutes ago, WentzFan11 said:

Eagles 6th youngest. 

Howie said they were still rebuilding, guess he meant it.

All the age is in starters, and they have replacements in place for the oldest starters (Kelce/Jurgens, Cox/Davis, Graham/Williams).

The only old starters where they need replacements are Slay and Lane. And Lane has a few years left on his odometer if the ankle holds up (if healthy, should be elite until 35 or so).

Didnt see any updates on this. People must be trying to stay secretive for the blog fantasy draft.

Brian Robinson was back at the team facility 2 days after being shot. And brought oreos for the RB room.

 

2 minutes ago, 4for4EaglesNest said:

AOL is slowing down.  How is your MySpace?

closed chrome. Reopened it. Now its working like a charm. I should be in IT. 

Reposting for the Howie haters.

 

10 minutes ago, BigEFly said:

Right now they have 7 players who are starters on defense that are free agents next year.  That’s bandaids for this year any way you cut it.  Right now the Eagles have just short of $8 million on the cap this year.  Let’s say, just for argument sake that they carry all of that to next year (unlikely as that may be).  Next year they have just short of $10 million in cap space.  Because Howie is addicted to void years to spread bonuses, there are several players not signed next year, like Edwards, White, Bradberry, Hargrave, (and Seumalo) that cost about as much that against the cap with dead cut money.  Makes those extensions a little harder.  Now Howie will just restructure and eat into 2024 and beyond’s cap structure.  BTW, that doesn’t take into consideration Cox or Graham, who are signed and have really small salaries but pretty big cap hits if they decide to leave (and Cox already has a $15 million cap hit from getting cut for a day this year).  Some of those 7 players on defense are going to leave because Howie cannot resign them all.  Thus he bandaided a defense together for this year adding Davis (hopefully future starter), Dean (right now a project and backup) and K. Johnson.  From the UDFAs, Jobe is a backup at this time at best and Blankenship, same.

Now I didn’t say some of the bandaids aren’t good, but a bandaid is a good temporary replacement for damaged skin, these bandaids are probably good (coming from a bad defense, they might even be average this year, Hurts anyone) but a lot are at this point temporary.  Howie can work more restructure and spread "magic” or mortgage may be a better term but that just spreads what is owed to the future.  I don’t think my bandaids comment is pessimistic, it is the realism of where the team is.

I agree, mostly. Everyone knows the soft spots in our D. Positions needing upgrades are easily identified. LB, Edge guys, Slot and Outside corners need to be looked at. Most teams have the same issues. Howie has addressed some of these already.

Fielding a Top 10 Defense (for argument's sake) takes a measured approach. Proven Vets combined with younger talent, mix in a couple Free Agents, a constantly fluid scenario. Keep stocking the cupboard, retain your playmakers.

Bandaids? Not so much. Placeholders? Maybe, but not desirable, sometimes necessary ( Barnett?).

The Cap will continue to rise, Howie will weave a "Down the road" web of craziness but ultimately the roster building continues unabated.

I don't think you are pessimistic, rather realistic. It is what it is, up to Gannon now. 

9 hours ago, Connecticut Eagle said:

Seriously?  Every addition of young talent is merely a band-aid because a vet is leaving.

And you left out Reddick all together.   

See my post in response to @jsb235  as to my use of bandaids  

As to Reddick, he didn’t play much this PS, so he is still a question mark with the Eagles as to whether he sees the same success as in the past.  I have hopes we see that success and have pondered what defensive looks Gannon will run this season.  (I also like that Fangio has been around).  I don’t think we can fully judge how the SAM will perform or even look from the vanilla defense played this offseason, especially when the Johnsons lined up as edges a lot.  But, that said, the line play wasn’t great at getting pressure.  Davis, Williams and Marlin T weren’t collapsing the pocket in PS games any more than Smith, Wilson and Wren.  Now the DEs, when they were in the game were pretty much Jackson and Leo besides the Johnsons.  But we kind of already know Sweat, which is the "young talent” there.  I was criticized for elevating Jackson to solid rotational DE, but not a starter.  I will stick with that. Dean didn’t look much better than Taylor against Cleveland.  I called both projects and will stick with that. Jobe struggled against the Jets. Looked better against Cleveland but that was also because the Cleveland QBs were picking on Vincent and throwing less against Jobe.  Wallace looked lost.  Blankenship is the Edwards of the secondary, good instincts, good tackling but susceptible to speed.  McPhearson is solid.  Well that’s the young talent as I see them going forward past this year.  Might they extend some of the others like Edwards, White, Epps, CGJ but until they do, they are bandaids. 

Just now, WentzFan11 said:

Reposting for the Howie haters.

 

First of all, why do you have to be so antagonistic after all the hand wringing in here lately? 

 

Secondly....Howie created the very mess he's digging out of. He's done a good job this offseason, but he's the reason there was so many issues in the first place. 

3 minutes ago, Swoop said:

This works in theory, but we have to see how the games play out. If he's clearly holding the offense back and the running game/defense is winning games while he still misses easy passes/rolls to his right, it's fair to criticize.

I get your point, but the context needs to be there, too.

Exactly, but if he's making plays to compensate for the "misses," who cares. I mean even Brady makes mistakes, like dropping key passes. 🤣

Sirianni is building an offense similar to what Reid had, where you can almost "plug and play" QBs, look what Garcia did in 2006 coming in for McNabb.

So it's less about QB heroics than efficiently commanding an well oiled machine.

Replacing Reagor with Brown takes them up another notch, if they could add a power back off waivers even better.

Now until we play the games we won't know if Hurts can manage this offense at a high level - but if they need to replace him, they will probably go for an efficient veteran over a draft pick - unless a NFL ready type like Jones is available. With the balance of talent on this team, a game manager works as well as a gunslinger (i.e. big plays downfield are less important than consistently hitting slants to Brown, quick outs to Smith, throws down the seam to Goedert, screens behind mobile big uglies, and running the RPO to perfection).

1 minute ago, WentzFan11 said:

Reposting for the Howie haters.

 

Howie is leading the league in causing other team's fans to have twitter meltdowns. Colts, Titans, Saints, Cowboys... 

38 minutes ago, BigEFly said:

Right now they have 7 players who are starters on defense that are free agents next year.  That’s bandaids for this year any way you cut it.  Right now the Eagles have just short of $8 million on the cap this year.

I just went and looked at OTC, they have the Eagles with 3.12 million in 2022 cap space, and that will be 1.7 million once players 52 and 53 count against the cap week 1.

Rolling all of that over and adding to 2023, the Eagles currently have 11.58 million in 2023 cap space with 42 players under contract.

10 minutes ago, austinfan said:

Howie said they were still rebuilding, guess he meant it.

All the age is in starters, and they have replacements in place for the oldest starters (Kelce/Jurgens, Cox/Davis, Graham/Williams).

The only old starters where they need replacements are Slay and Lane. And Lane has a few years left on his odometer if the ankle holds up (if healthy, should be elite until 35 or so).

I don't see all the love for Milton Williams. I don't remember him "flashing" at all. I don't remember him being overly disruptive last year. He had 2 sacks, 5 hurries on 456 snaps. That doesn't jump at me. Am I missing something? 

4 minutes ago, BigEFly said:

See my post in response to @jsb235  as to my use of bandaids  

As to Reddick, he didn’t play much this PS, so he is still a question mark with the Eagles as to whether he sees the same success as in the past.  I have hopes we see that success and have pondered what defensive looks Gannon will run this season.  (I also like that Fangio has been around).  I don’t think we can fully judge how the SAM will perform or even look from the vanilla defense played this offseason, especially when the Johnsons lined up as edges a lot.  But, that said, the line play wasn’t great at getting pressure.  Davis, Williams and Marlin T weren’t collapsing the pocket in PS games any more than Smith, Wilson and Wren.  Now the DEs, when they were in the game were pretty much Jackson and Leo besides the Johnsons.  But we kind of already know Sweat, which is the "young talent” there.  I was criticized for elevating Jackson to solid rotational DE, but not a starter.  I will stick with that. Dean didn’t look much better than Taylor against Cleveland.  I called both projects and will stick with that. Jobe struggled against the Jets. Looked better against Cleveland but that was also because the Cleveland QBs were picking on Vincent and throwing less against Jobe.  Wallace looked lost.  Blankenship is the Edwards of the secondary, good instincts, good tackling but susceptible to speed.  McPhearson is solid.  Well that’s the young talent as I see them going forward past this year.  Might they extend some of the others like Edwards, White, Epps, CGJ but until they do, they are bandaids. 

I don't think there is a right or wrong answer here. There are definitely band aids in terms of one year contracts, but there is also young talent with potential. Ultimately, if Davis, Reddick and the other young guys struggle, we are in trouble. But if they do well, I don't see us struggling to extend the other guys on one-year deals. I don't see a scenario where the defense gets dismantled after this year if it plays well.