9 minutes ago, TEW said:

Call me a contrarian, but I’m starting to think 40 times are the most UNDERrated combine measurement.

It’s just so predictive at so many positions. If a player kills it on his 40, you basically know they have the physical talent to make it.

More so, the hundredths of a second mean a lot. There actually is a BIG difference between a 4.38 and 4.43. Those 5 hundredths of a second end up being responsible for a lot of points.

It’s basically ubiquitous across positions. 

Nah so much of the game is about change of direction and balance

11 minutes ago, ManuManu said:

What positions are the 40 predictive for?

Technically none, but the thresholds for 40 times on CBs are very real.

A 4.3 CB is not close to a lock in terms of being good, but a 4.6+ CB is very likely to be bad.

5 minutes ago, ManuManu said:

What positions are the 40 predictive for?

Football is a really poor sport for data and real statistics, unlike baseball.  People have tried, but there are just too few repetitions and too many variables.

But just look at Eagles draft picks:

Good picks:
Cox: great 40
Johnson: great 40
Desean: great 40
Kelce: great 40
Sweat: great 40
 

Bad picks:
Barnett: terrible 40
Reagor: disappointing 40
Dillard: great 40
JJAW: ordinary 40
Sidney Jones: ordinary 40

 

That's not nearly enough evidence to say it matters, but the Eagles have done better for themselves drafting athletes who have impressed in the 40.

9 hours ago, Random Reglar said:

Quez is a field stretcher and if he isn't, what function does he serve?   That's a great 40 time.

I mentioned earlier, few weeks ago, that the Eagles should upgrade at the position of "fastest guy"
I thought maybe Achane,  with a 4.32 40 as a running back.   Mitchell East Carolina 4.37 and 1.48 10 split.  

Quez doesn't make plays... mostly because he's a pop tart.

Did I read correctly that there won't be a rule change to stop our rugby scrum play?

9 hours ago, Random Reglar said:

Quez is a field stretcher and if he isn't, what function does he serve?   That's a great 40 time.

I mentioned earlier, few weeks ago, that the Eagles should upgrade at the position of "fastest guy"
I thought maybe Achane,  with a 4.32 40 as a running back.   Mitchell East Carolina 4.37 and 1.48 10 split.  

Well, there's 2 sides of that coin.  Quez doesn't run great routes, doesn't track well, has unreliable hands....yet he has made some plays and is a starting 3rd option WR in the NFL.  And his 40 time demonstrated exactly why he's capable of being in the NFL.  

40 time cannot, should not, and has not been used to suggest that Quez is better than AJ Brown.  But it did get Quez Watkins drafted as a raw WR who couldn't do anything else...and it accurately reflected speed that he definitely has, which also made him pretty damn impactful for his draft status.  

Having read much draft speculation, I can confidently say that there are at least 45 players who are locks to be selected in the first round.

Lawlor likes Viliami Fehoko a lot for the Eagles.

21 minutes ago, judunno said:

Quez doesn't make plays... mostly because he's a pop tart.

Buttered???

 

2 hours ago, Utebird said:

I thought that was odd as well, and only thing I could think of was RPO, and I thought who submitted that rule?

RPO is such a big part of the college game and the Pros now why would anybody submit a rule trying to make it illegal, if that was it's purpose???

That’s an odd proposal but unless drafted very tightly, it picks up more than RPOs. Forward handoffs have been part of the game before RPOs.

1 hour ago, pgcd3 said:

If Nakobe Dean wasn't named Nakobe Dean would anyone be so eager to hand him the MLB job as a 3rd rd pick who didn't show much last season?

I was a big Dean fan in college but didn't like his prospects for the NFL that much due to his size and lack of any true explosive athletic traits.  With that being said, the one game he was pressed to go in to on defense, he played 15 snaps and had 6 total tackles with 1 TFL.  It's a very very small sample size but it goes hand in hand with the kind of player he was at UGA.  Dean is an incredible smart, instinctive football player and a tremendous leader with a nose for finding the ball.  I don't have visions of him being the next London Fletcher or Sam Mills but given his pedigree I'm more than willing to give him a chance this year.  Excited to see what he can do when given the keys to the defense and all of the reps in practice.  He's going to get guys lined up, he's going to force accountability and he's going to be around the ball. 

57 minutes ago, eagle45 said:

The present issue at safety is that Edmunds/Evans/Blankenship are all box safeties who will be targeted in coverage.  If 2 of those 3 are in the defensive backfield, it's going to be bombs away over the top.  If we are investing unending first round picks in the DL, I'd prefer not to require even one safety that is a glorified linebacker in coverage who needs to live in the box, but 2 such safeties will be a real liability.

I wonder if they have plans for Maddox as the deep safety, although that will leave them in need of a different solution for several games per season.

A healthy Justin Evans...if there is such a thing...has excellent ball skills.  I think he's more than capable of playing deep.  Everything you see in his college tape and limited Tampa Bay snaps shows that he can cover and break on the ball very well.

Evans is either going to start and surprise us all or he's not making the 53.

31 minutes ago, eagle45 said:

Football is a really poor sport for data and real statistics, unlike baseball.  People have tried, but there are just too few repetitions and too many variables.

But just look at Eagles draft picks:

Good picks:
Cox: great 40
Johnson: great 40
Desean: great 40
Kelce: great 40
Sweat: great 40
 

Bad picks:
Barnett: terrible 40
Reagor: disappointing 40
Dillard: great 40
JJAW: ordinary 40
Sidney Jones: ordinary 40

 

That's not nearly enough evidence to say it matters, but the Eagles have done better for themselves drafting athletes who have impressed in the 40.

I'd say that a fast 40 is predictive of better athleticism 

Guys that run faster tend to jump higher and further as well 

Speed doesn't always correlate to strength or quickness.

Having said that if it was all about 40s then John Ross should have been the best damn football player that ever lived as he has the record for 40 at the combine.

I think coaches get enamored with speed because it can't be taught and as the axiom goes speed kills.

And we've seen With plenty of guys throughout the year that it takes more than speed to be good at football, but speed can help a football player be a better football player.

I don't think 40s should be disregarded but at the same time I think at times teams give too much credence to them.

I mean look at Dawkins RAS score compared to Edmonds( just signed)

Edmonds athletically scored very high Dawkins scores are pretty average to below average.

One is a hall of famer and the other well he's been pretty average to below average so far.

Can't measure heart, grit, work ethic, determination and all those other superlatives.

 

53 minutes ago, ToastJenkins said:

Nah so much of the game is about change of direction and balance

Yup, look at a guy like Westbrook, not a great 40 at his size so how was he able to succeed?

Great balance, great change of direction and great acceleration. Guy could stop on a dime and reach top speed in an instant, that's really tough for a D to account for 

While CBs need to meet a certain threshold for 40 time if they can't turn their hips( change of direction) then who cares if the run a 4.3 in a straight line.

Listening to Adam "things are fluid" Caplan last night and he said that the Eagles views Blankenship as a 3rd or 4th Safety. They like him a lot just not as a starter. Edmunds was brought in to play more of the Epps role and that the other S is still TBD. Take it for what it's worth.

Reading between the lines and IF Caplan's info is solid that would mean that the other starting S is going to either be Evans, a draft pick, or maybe even someone they sign or trade for down the road ala Bradberry/CJGJ from last offseason. This actually makes sense because as a lot of us were saying yesterday, Edmunds and Blankenship as a starting safety tandem doesn't make a lot of sense based on their skillsets. 

Somewhat draft related (twerking alert)

Then:

 

Now, after beating cancer:

 

 

7 minutes ago, T-1000 said:

Listening to Adam "things are fluid" Caplan last night and he said that the Eagles views Blankenship as a 3rd or 4th Safety. They like him a lot just not as a starter. Edmunds was brought in to play more of the Epps role and that the other S is still TBD. Take it for what it's worth.

Reading between the lines and IF Caplan's info is solid that would mean that the other starting S is going to either be Evans, a draft pick, or maybe even someone they sign or trade for down the road ala Bradberry/CJGJ from last offseason. This actually makes sense because as a lot of us were saying yesterday, Edmunds and Blankenship as a starting safety tandem doesn't make a lot of sense based on their skillsets. 

Yeah, not to be cliche, but I mean, it’s March. 

 

15 minutes ago, T-1000 said:

Listening to Adam "things are fluid" Caplan last night and he said that the Eagles views Blankenship as a 3rd or 4th Safety. They like him a lot just not as a starter. Edmunds was brought in to play more of the Epps role and that the other S is still TBD. Take it for what it's worth.

Reading between the lines and IF Caplan's info is solid that would mean that the other starting S is going to either be Evans, a draft pick, or maybe even someone they sign or trade for down the road ala Bradberry/CJGJ from last offseason. This actually makes sense because as a lot of us were saying yesterday, Edmunds and Blankenship as a starting safety tandem doesn't make a lot of sense based on their skillsets. 

The only notable "free safeties" that fit that bill are guys like Budda Baker and Kevin Byard. This is also a weak S class, so I'm not sure what to plan is then.

5 hours ago, Utebird said:

At the time no one had a problem with the pick 

Fred X was coming off a huge rose bowl win where he had over 200yards against one of the top rated corners In the nation( Jamar Fletcher) also a bust...

Fred X was coming off a good combine and most mocks had him going middle of the 1st Round.

So it's not like it was an egregious reach or anything, Mitchell just ended up sucking.

Personally as a Utah fan I wanted Reid to take Steve Smith in the 2nd but for some reason he didn't listen to me 🤷‍♂️

 No way FredX was a "bad” pick IMO but it’s depressing to see the receivers we passed up in that draft to take him. But then the next year we got Lito, Sheldon and Bwest in the same draft.

10 hours ago, Outlaw said:

Chad Reuter’s latest mock on NFL.com has us trading down with the Vikings for them to grab Levis. We get their 1st and 3rd rounder this year and next year’s 1st. 

With the 5 picks in the first 3 rounds he has us taking:

#23: Adetomiwa Adebawore, DL Northwestern

#30: Brian Branch, S Alabama

#62: Jack Campbell, LB Iowa

#86: Anthony Bradford, G LSU

#94: Tuli Tuipulotu, DL USC

Can’t say I’d be upset about this. Adebawore crushed it at the Senior Bowl (which we know the Birds place high value on historically) and ran a 4.49 40 at 282 pounds. He’s an amazing athlete and the Eagles are hosting him for a top 30 visit. Him and Tuli give you inside/outside capability as well. Branch and Campbell to me would be day 1 starters at S and LB, and Bradford is likely the primary backup at both G spots (or if Kelce needs Jurgens to play a little C this year) and takes over RG next year when Jurgens moves to C. 

I like it a lot.  Not sure about Bradford, but that is mostly because I haven’t heard his name up to now.

4 minutes ago, RLC said:

The only notable "free safeties" that fit that bill are guys like Budda Baker and Kevin Byard. This is also a weak S class, so I'm not sure what to plan is then.

Amos, McLeod, Byard, trade, Evans, draft pick........

5 minutes ago, Original Sin said:

 

Only one of those top 10 won the SB and they did it relying heavily on free agents  (Shaq Barrett, JPP, Brady, Gronk, AB, Lenny, Suh, Jensen)

Interesting choice there. Maybe Jalen left him out of the special handshake clique.

1 minute ago, SkippyX said:

Only one of those top 10 won the SB and they did it relying heavily on free agents  (Shaq Barrett, JPP, Brady, Gronk, AB, Lenny, Suh, Jensen)

Yep - looks like little to no correlation here. Interesting especially in light of the Rams strategy between 2017-2021.