I was going through Jalen Carter plays and the one play where he lines up as like a joker standing straight up and gets to the QB is ridiculous. A man of his size is not supposed to be able to rush standing up like an edge.

I think him having a basketball background speaks to his athleticism. Dude is huge but can run and jump. Apparently has an impressive vertical leap even though I don't think he did that in his pre-draft stuff, right? Eagles seem to value vertical leap ability a lot, a good indicator of athleticism.

If he is in shape, I don't know how this guy isn't going to start opening day. Davis' second year be damned.

3 hours ago, ManuManu said:

Ok, so back from Kansas City with a little more sleep and time to digest everything that happened…

* I’m curious who the Eagles were bidding against to trade up for Carter. My guess is nobody since the Bears moved down for so cheap, or the cost was simply too prohibitive for a player with his concerns. I was anti-trade up for Carter, but I firmly expected the Eagles to have to move up a bit higher  to hop the Bears. For a 4, it was worth it even if there were no other suitors. I understand all the concerns people have about Carter, but we’re talking about a player with HoF potential. The stars were aligned to make the pick.

* I would have rationalized the hell out of Nolan Smith at 10, but I would not have been happy at all. He had an amazing combine, but he just didn’t excite me as a prospect. I know McLane said he would have been under consideration at 10, but I question that a bit. If that’s true, why didn’t they move up for him? I haven’t read anywhere that the Eagles were calling teams to move up. Regardless, Smith is a Micah Parsons-type athlete with an elite character makeup. Maybe Parsons is a unicorn, but I’d much rather bet on an outlier at 30 than 10. 

* Brown is a fun player. I wish one of our safeties (not counting Evans because he’s too far down the depth chart) projected better as a deep safety in the wide side of the field. The red star thing is cool to read about it, and it’s nice to have a physical and mental tone setter out there. I think we’ll like him a lot. I expect him to start no later than year 2 but be an immediate contributor.

 

I had some of the same rationales that you did on these three points. With Jalen Carter, I’ll look at it this way, the Bears must’ve not a wanted to move further down than what they did. I think they wanted Wright over jones and skoronski. Thought he was a better prospect than both. I also think they believe if they would’ve moved into the 13 to 21 range that they’d risk not getting wright. I think the bears biggest fear was the titans at 11 and the Steelers who jumped up to get Broderick jones potentially taking wright if they moved too far back and then they’d miss out on him. The eagles I’m guessing thought it was a small price to pay to secure the guy they believed was likely the best overall talent in the draft at a premium position that they value. 

With the Nolan Smith pick, somebody asked why Smith was falling on draft night. I said  i don’t think he’s falling as much as he was over projected by a lot of people. I don’t think he was a top 10 pick on a lot of peoples boards. I think he was more in the 15 to probably 30 range for a lot of teams. But picks 15-35 this year were all very closely graded imo and i think a lot of teams took need over BPA in that range. I also think his sack total at Georgia and coming off a pectoral injury probably didnt help him. I do think if guys like Johnson, Carter and maybe Gonzalez were off the board at 10 then i do think smith was in play with a couple of other guys. I haven’t heard the Eagles try to move up, but I imagine they probably did and some teams didn’t want to move down or they felt the cost was too much. To be honest if Smith didn’t fall the 30 i tend to think the titans would’ve tried to move into 30 to get Will Levis. There were rumors they were talking to other teams about moving down. I think that team specifically they were talking to was the Titans. And it makes sense because the Titans moved into the second pick in the second round to get Will Levis. But like you said love to take the chance at 30 over 10 

I agree with you 100% on this take with brown. I love that kid before the combine. he was my favorite safety to watch. I think he’s gonna be good with time. Might take some time as a rookie to get acclimated to the league and new role. I think brown can do a lot of different things. My concern like you is I don’t think any of these guys’ specialty is playing deep safety. It’s why I keep saying they should really go get John Johnson because I think he’s a perfect fit with any one of the other three that you wanna start. I don’t think edmunds is a deep safety. If he were he’s likely not a FA or if he was a FA making more than what we gave him. I think asking Brown as a rookie is asking a lot. Maybe he can do it but I’m not sure as a rookie it works out as well as they think. And I don’t think that is Blankenship’s best role. 

6 minutes ago, Outlaw said:

Agreed on both, with a slight edge to Ana for me.

Its a huge edge for Ana. Robie has never looked as good as she did in Wolf of Wall Street imo. Always attractive, but that level of hot was once in a lifetime for her. Ana is stunning always. She needs no makeup either. Natural beauty, and never doesnt look like a 10.

2 hours ago, LeanMeanGM said:

Side note based on this, I hope Howie chills with the Georgia bit. Not complaining about anyone as all were good to great prospects where taken, I just don't want it to get too clique in the locker room, especially with the respected vets having a foot out the door and being replaced by all these young guys on defense. 

Yes...

2 hours ago, Waiting4Someday said:

Maybe some more BAMA picks...

And yes...

 

and maybe some other SEC options.

31 minutes ago, ManuManu said:

 

He better hope that judge isn’t a dog person cause i could see the judges giving him a harsher sentence cause it was a woman and her dog. 

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

 

I agree with you 100% on this take with brown. I love that kid before the combine. he was my favorite safety to watch. I think he’s gonna be good with time. Might take some time as a rookie to get acclimated to the league and new role. I think brown can do a lot of different things. My concern like you is I don’t think any of these guys’ specialty is playing deep safety. It’s why I keep saying they should really go get John Johnson because I think he’s a perfect fit with any one of the other three that you wanna start. I don’t think edmunds is a deep safety. If he were he’s likely not a FA or if he was a FA making more than what we gave him. I think asking Brown as a rookie is asking a lot. Maybe he can do it but I’m not sure as a rookie it works out as well as they think. And I don’t think that is Blankenship’s best role. 

There seems to be a disconnect between what HonestNFL says about what the Desai secondary is, vs what it seems like they are trying to do.

They are bringing in all zone CBs. That doesnt match so well with single high looks. I dont think theres going to be a ton of single high deep safety skills needed.

1 hour ago, Outlaw said:

They're actually mirror twins. Read it in an ESPN article. Sydney is right handed, Chase left. Their hair curls in opposite directions, etc. Pretty cool stuff.

And one plays offense and the other defense.

 

 

1 hour ago, garingovt2000 said:

As a PSU Fan I can't believe Sean Clifford got drafted.  He even went ahead of McKee

Probably to become the new Taysom Hill.

1 hour ago, FranklinFldEBUpper said:

I blame Dawkins for that. He didn’t have to get on that plane to Denver while there were still negotiations going on with the Eagles. Furthermore, he didn’t have to act like getting on a plane meant that it was a requirement to sign a contract once he got there. Absolutely loved the guy as a player, but that doesn’t mean I blindly endorse everything the guy did. 

I think there’s blame on both parties. After they lost their NFC championship game to the Cardinals, I think the Eagles are ready to move on and get younger. I think they liked some of the prospects they had at safety and probably overrated their talent. Also, they didn’t bring back tra Thomas or Jon Runyan either. They were just ready to move on. I think they viewed that last season as they got hot at the right time and last hurrah and that team as constructed with those older guys weren’t good enough anymore to consistently be a contender. So they wanted to get younger and more athletic and go into a new era of eagles football. What they missed on the evaluation was how beloved Brian Dawkins was in the city and locker room, the leadership that he brought. 

Dawkins didn’t have to go to Denver either. He could have stayed with the Eagles at a reduced price.  I don’t think the Eagles out right just did not offer him a contract. He just didn’t get the contract he thought he deserved at the end of his career. I can understand that you want to make as much as you possibly can when you’re at the end. But he made that decision even if the eagles helped him in making it. He could’ve been a 1 team his entire career and he chose to go elsewhere. 

41 minutes ago, Allhaildawk said:

Pretty silly. Would you move to Denver for two years for 12 million? 

I moved there for 9 years for free.

41 minutes ago, ManuManu said:

 

So quite possible at 27, Ruggs might return to the NFL.  

2 minutes ago, paco said:

I moved there for 9 years for free.

It's a wonder you ever made it back - what with all the snow

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

With the Nolan Smith pick, somebody asked why Smith was falling on draft night. I said  i don’t think he’s falling as much as he was over projected by a lot of people. I don’t think he was a top 10 pick on a lot of peoples boards. I think he was more in the 15 to probably 30 range for a lot of teams. But picks 15-35 this year were all very closely graded imo and i think a lot of teams took need over BPA in that range. I also think his sack total at Georgia and coming off a pectoral injury probably didnt help him. I do think if guys like Johnson, Carter and maybe Gonzalez were off the board at 10 then i do think smith was in play with a couple of other guys. I haven’t heard the Eagles try to move up, but I imagine they probably did and some teams didn’t want to move down or they felt the cost was too much. To be honest if Smith didn’t fall the 30 i tend to think the titans would’ve tried to move into 30 to get Will Levis. There were rumors they were talking to other teams about moving down. I think that team specifically they were talking to was the Titans. And it makes sense because the Titans moved into the second pick in the second round to get Will Levis. But like you said love to take the chance at 30 over 10 

 

My theory is that Nolan has limited value to 4-3Over teams, as he isn't built like a base end on early downs and hasn't proven his value as a pass rush specialist on $ downs.  Likewise, for 4-3U or 3-4 teams without a stacked roster and a slavish (and warranted) devotion to the OL/DL - you are looking for immediate/easily projected pass rush (e.g., McDonald) rather than the assorted things that Nolan is really good at now.  If we didn't have Reddick and Sweat onboard we might be in a different mindset - as is we get to enjoy the potential upside.

1 minute ago, mikemack8 said:

It's a wonder you ever made it back - what with all the snow

While it never, ever stopped, there was enough of a break for us to make a run for it.

11 minutes ago, HazletonEagle said:

There seems to be a disconnect between what HonestNFL says about what the Desai secondary is, vs what it seems like they are trying to do.

They are bringing in all zone CBs. That doesnt match so well with single high looks. I dont think theres going to be a ton of single high deep safety skills needed.

Gonna have to wait and see what desai actuslly does. If they don’t run as much single high with the zone corners they brought in then yeah you’d be accurate. However, if they do single high a good amount of the snaps then i have concerns with any of those 3. I think brown can do it over time but as a rookie i think our expectations need to be tempered. I think sheil had stats saying brown played in the box 56% of the time last year for Illinois.  

I feel much better about us losing to NO now. Even if the pick was 7 or 8, we’re still taking JC

2 minutes ago, Aerolithe_Lion said:

I feel much better about us losing to NO now. Even if the pick was 7 or 8, we’re still taking JC

Howie was trying to trade up all the way to Sea's pick. Even if we had a top-5 pick, we were going to take Carter.

2 minutes ago, Aerolithe_Lion said:

I feel much better about us losing to NO now. Even if the pick was 7 or 8, we’re still taking JC

Idk i hate losing to the saints and if we win we still didn’t have to give up a pick to acquire Carter. 

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

Gonna have to wait and see what desai actuslly does. If they don’t run as much single high with the zone corners they brought in then yeah you’d be accurate. However, if they do single high a good amount of the snaps then i have concerns with any of those 3. I think brown can do it over time but as a rookie i think our expectations need to be tempered. I think sheil had stats saying brown played in the box 56% of the time last year for Illinois.  

Syd Brown played well as a FS during the senior bowl week - overall, the roster still points to a Fangio 2-high zone scheme... which is fine with me, if the CBs are a bit more aggressive situationally.

2 hours ago, ManuManu said:

I find it really interesting that we haven’t heard any leaks about other teams laying in the weeds for Carter. All we’ve heard is that Vegas and Arizona weren’t interested in him. Before the draft there were mixed reports about Seattle either not letting him slip past 5 or not on their board. At best, Detroit preferred a running back and a high 2nd round over him. The Bears must not have been all that interested since they took a cheap trade down with us.

The character and "doesn't love football" concerns must be pretty huge with Carter - you do not take one of the top 3 talents of a draft completely off of your board unless those concerns are huge and there are credible reports that at least several teams did exactly that.  So the Carter pick has the chance to be a grand slam home run but it also has the chance to be a complete and utter bust on a Danny Watkins level.

 

2 minutes ago, Waiting4Someday said:

Syd Brown played well as a FS during the senior bowl week - overall, the roster still points to a Fangio 2-high zone scheme... which is fine with me, if the CBs are a bit more aggressive situationally.

I think playing FS for a week isn’t enough for me to feel confident he can do that as a rookie. I do think over time he’d be fine. He’s a smart player and learns well. but i do think if you expect him just hit the ground running at the nfl level and not have struggled  then the expectations might be too high. Like most rookies i think ups and downs are gonna hit. Long-term I think he’s gonna be fine at whatever they want to do with him. I think the short term as a rookie you might wind up with some issues cause he is still a rookie. 

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

I think playing FS for a week isn’t enough for me to feel confident he can do that as a rookie. I do think over time he’d be fine. He’s a smart player and learns well. but i do think if you expect him just hit the ground running at the nfl level and not have struggled  then the expectations might be too high. Like most rookies i think ups and downs are gonna hit. Long-term I think he’s gonna be fine at whatever they want to do with him. I think the short term as a rookie you might wind up with some issues cause he is still a rookie. 

My guess is that we roll with Edmunds and Reed (barring any Howie magic), and he gets worked in.

14 minutes ago, BayAreaLennie said:

The character and "doesn't love football" concerns must be pretty huge with Carter - you do not take one of the top 3 talents of a draft completely off of your board unless those concerns are huge and there are credible reports that at least several teams did exactly that.  So the Carter pick has the chance to be a grand slam home run but it also has the chance to be a complete and utter bust on a Danny Watkins level.

That doesn’t love football concern I think was less concern than what happened with that drag racing/friend dying. The reason why I say part of this is, I think there’s guys in the league that probably don’t love football. They like it, they do it because of the lifestyle and money that it brings. And it beats having another job but they’re not making nearly as much money. So might not do it for love of the game as much as love of money which also some guys are motivated enough by that to keep going. I don’t see Carter like Ben Simmons in that he just does it cause he can support his lifestyle. I tend to think  Carter doesn’t love practice similar to Allen Iverson, but loves game Day 

That to me is what really dropped him in this. Because all the news that came out when it happened was he left the scene. imo left a lot of people viewing him in really awful light as a person. Then followed by his underwhelming pro where he was out of shape.  

Didn’t help that the coaches didn’t give him raving reviews either. I think a lot of organizations would be very concerned hearing a guy who’s a top 3 talent in all of college football and could’ve been no. 1 pick at some point and coaches weren’t raving about him. Most coaches rave about their players especially when they’re that good. They want the honor of him potentially being the top pick. It’s a feather in their cap.