16 minutes ago, Alphagrand said:

Why do you say Hurts has an amazing impact on the run game, and is the ultimate equalizer?  Is it because he’s the one doing the heavy lifting in the run game?

The threat of him as a runner is always going to have the attention of LBs, DL, and sometimes safeties in the RPO/read option. That alone makes the running game super hard to stop. So many times last season we saw the defense concerned about Hurts, which allowed the RBs to have lanes in the middle of the field. Or key in on the RBs and Hurts just took off with nothing but green in front of him. That combined with a dominant OL makes this running game virtually unstoppable.

1 hour ago, LeanMeanGM said:

@ManuManu

When are you going to post your late day 3/UDFA TE big board? 

Lol. You know, I haven’t thought about it since I think we’re good with bottom of the roster types. I assume if we add one, it’s round 3-5. 

 

1 hour ago, ManuManu said:

Lol. You know, I haven’t thought about it since I think we’re good with bottom of the roster types. I assume if we add one, it’s round 3-5. 

 

I'd be surprised if we draft a TE

15 hours ago, RLC said:

If the goal is unstoppable offense, Bijan at 10-15 and Washington at 30 would be the way to go. Washington would be a great TE2 and can be TE1 *when* Goedert inevitably goes down. Bijan would immediately be the best RB we've had since Westbrook (sorry Shady).

More so, there is a congruency in the offense as a whole. We become very clearly a power, ball control offense. Our base is 12 personnel. Washington becomes a "TE1B” as a receiving option but instrumental in our run game.

Bijan would have, by far, the best group of 7 blockers in front of him in the NFL. Bijan has good vision, solid power, and enough explosiveness to exploit wins to create chunk plays. Hurts as a run threat creates the hesitancy in a defense to cause damage. Brown and Smith are pretty much perfect to convert the 3rd and 5 type situations that this type of offense would see.

I’m not sure if that’s the direction we want to go, or if it’s a winning strategy in general. It’s not really the "meta” in the NFL. It’s harder to come back from a deficit and more plays on offense means more plays to stall out a drive. Generally we have passed early to get a quick lead and then put teams away with the run game, and this would be a greater commitment to run early and often.

But I also don’t think many defenses are built to handle that kind of old school, punch you in the mouth type of offense. Washington should be an elite level blocking TE, almost like an extra OT, while still being a reliable possession receiver. Goedert as the "weak link” of the in the box blocking is a pretty sobering thought. Just not sure if it’s realistic, because if you draft Bijan and Washington early you are basically committed to running the ball 35 times per game.

52 minutes ago, pgcd3 said:

I'd be surprised if we draft a TE

Agreed.

This is more a mental exercise for me. But if we are looking for unique players, Washington is one such guy.

40 minutes ago, TEW said:

More so, there is a congruency in the offense as a whole. We become very clearly a power, ball control offense. Our base is 12 personnel. Washington becomes a "TE1B” as a receiving option but instrumental in our run game.

Bijan would have, by far, the best group of 7 blockers in front of him in the NFL. Bijan has good vision, solid power, and enough explosiveness to exploit wins to create chunk plays. Hurts as a run threat creates the hesitancy in a defense to cause damage. Brown and Smith are pretty much perfect to convert the 3rd and 5 type situations that this type of offense would see.

I’m not sure if that’s the direction we want to go, or if it’s a winning strategy in general. It’s not really the "meta” in the NFL. It’s harder to come back from a deficit and more plays on offense means more plays to stall out a drive. Generally we have passed early to get a quick lead and then put teams away with the run game, and this would be a greater commitment to run early and often.

But I also don’t think many defenses are built to handle that kind of old school, punch you in the mouth type of offense. Washington should be an elite level blocking TE, almost like an extra OT, while still being a reliable possession receiver. Goedert as the "weak link” of the in the box blocking is a pretty sobering thought. Just not sure if it’s realistic, because if you draft Bijan and Washington early you are basically committed to running the ball 35 times per game.

I think everything you say is true and there is NFW the Eagles do it.  And I realize that you don't think they will either. 

I expect the best O or D lineman as most on here expect too. 

Haven’t wanted a prospect more than Anderson Jr in decades

1 hour ago, pgcd3 said:

I'd be surprised if we draft a TE

I wouldn’t. We had Ertz and picked up Goedert in the 2nd. Two really good TEs will me available 20-30 range, both are somewhat unicorns, add depth, versatility, and Goedert is signed for the next 3 seasons, with an out in 2. 

7 minutes ago, jamiller said:

I think everything you say is true and there is NFW the Eagles do it.  And I realize that you don't think they will either. 

I expect the best O or D lineman as most on here expect too. 

Yup.

More of an interesting thought experiment than anything likely to happen. But it would definitely be intriguing if we did go that route.

Where do people expect Mims to go?

I’m seeing him in mocks everywhere from very late first round all the way to the fifth.

He’d be an interesting 3rd-5th round pickup if we are looking to replace Quez.

1 minute ago, TEW said:

Yup.

More of an interesting thought experiment than anything likely to happen. But it would definitely be intriguing if we did go that route.

I was all excited the last time we ran a lot of 12 but that ended up sucking, lol.  It was like watching a bunch of old guys play ball. 

 

 

1 minute ago, TEW said:

Where do people expect Mims to go?

I’m seeing him in mocks everywhere from very late first round all the way to the fifth.

He’d be an interesting 3rd-5th round pickup if we are looking to replace Quez.

This WR class is the worst I’ve seen in a while. I predict that Tank Dell is the 2nd best WR from this class after JSN when all is said and done.

1 minute ago, jamiller said:

I was all excited the last time we ran a lot of 12 but that ended up sucking, lol.  It was like watching a bunch of old guys play ball. 

 

 

That’s the thing — the more we go to power running football, the more necessarily we become a one dimensional, uninspiring offense.

That’s not to say we wouldn’t put up points or win games, but the entire offense becomes less dynamic by design both in play calling and in personnel groupings.

On the other hand, maybe we open things up with a new #3 WR and a RB like Gibbs or Achane, and suddenly everything becomes ultra explosive.

That to me is the most interesting part of this offseason. I want to see where we go from here. We have the QB, the OL, two good WRs and a TE. What we do at RB is going to tell us a lot.

5 minutes ago, Texas Eagle said:

This WR class is the worst I’ve seen in a while

Agreed.

But there are some decent role players and a couple mid to late round high upside prospects. The top of the draft is abysmal though.  

5 hours ago, Sack that QB said:

I agree, I don't think Bijan's impact would be that great. Not because he isn't great but because the OL and Hurts have such an amazing impact on the run game, I think it makes any RB we have look so good that when Bijan comes here it would kinda look relatively the same.

I think you'd see a much greater difference with Sanders vs Bijan on a team without a competent OL.

To me our run game with Sanders vs Bijan is like comparing a 7/10 looking woman with a 9/10 looking woman. Without makeup you're going to notice a difference.

But bring that 7/10 and 9/10 woman to a top of the line Hollywood professional makeup artist and stylist team and once they get done with both girls, they're both going to look very close in terms of attractiveness. You might have a slight preference to the 9/10 girl, but it's not going to be nearly as drastic than they'd look without the makeup artist and stylist.

The Eagles OL and Hurts are the ultimate equalizer in that regard. I think the greater the OL you have, the less drastic your RB upgrades are going to be because they open up such consistent holes and block down field so well that there isn't going to be a ton of meat left on the bone to make it worthwhile. Sure there will be some plays here and there, but not enough to make it worth taking them over another more important position. Perhaps another OL that can keep that running game and pass protection dominant so they can continue to have a dominant running game without needing to invest big $ in a RB.

That's one underrated aspect of keeping this OL great. As long as they're great, they're saving you millions of dollars at the RB position. It allows them to more easily manage their cap.

Look at our RB game splits by average. This is simply wrong. 

5 hours ago, pgcd3 said:

To an extent, in your analogy your 7 of 10 was a 2nd rd pick RB. Sure that's not pick 10 but it's not just any old guy either

I’d say more like 3rd round, but yeah, someone with real talent.

42 minutes ago, TEW said:

Agreed.

But there are some decent role players and a couple mid to late round high upside prospects. The top of the draft is abysmal though.  

I don’t think there’s any first round talent at WR, but I think Hyatt and Addison will have solid NFL careers.  Quentin Johnston is a boom-or-bust prospect — he could catch a ton of deep balls or be invisible in the NFL.

I like Josh Downs if he lasts until late 3rd round.

7 hours ago, RememberTheKoy said:

Not even sire how Henry would work in a read option shotgun style scheme.  He's more of a line up under center and run it style RB.  Reminds of of bringing DeMarco Murray into Chip Kelly's offense.

He still is a very good player. With that kind of guys decent coaches find ways to use them.

6 hours ago, Sack that QB said:

The threat of him as a runner is always going to have the attention of LBs, DL, and sometimes safeties in the RPO/read option. That alone makes the running game super hard to stop. So many times last season we saw the defense concerned about Hurts, which allowed the RBs to have lanes in the middle of the field. Or key in on the RBs and Hurts just took off with nothing but green in front of him. That combined with a dominant OL makes this running game virtually unstoppable.

It has been stopped but then the deep ball became an option. Still pretty nice.

2 hours ago, TEW said:

That’s the thing — the more we go to power running football, the more necessarily we become a one dimensional, uninspiring offense.

That’s not to say we wouldn’t put up points or win games, but the entire offense becomes less dynamic by design both in play calling and in personnel groupings.

On the other hand, maybe we open things up with a new #3 WR and a RB like Gibbs or Achane, and suddenly everything becomes ultra explosive.

That to me is the most interesting part of this offseason. I want to see where we go from here. We have the QB, the OL, two good WRs and a TE. What we do at RB is going to tell us a lot.

Hell yeah.

My wet dream nuclear option is adding Smith-Njigba to the slot and Gibbs at RB (after double trade down?)..

Is that the perfect draft? Maybe not. But damn, the offense would be insane.

Last night I posted in response to the argument for drafting Robinson based on the fact that if he averaged Miles Sanders 2022 season, he would be near the top of Eagles all-time Eagles rushers, only being behind Shady by a few hundred yards.  The counter argument to that is why use pick 10 on that guy when a guy like Shady was picked at 53?  

4 minutes ago, bpac55 said:

Last night I posted in response to the argument for drafting Robinson based on the fact that if he averaged Miles Sanders 2022 season, he would be near the top of Eagles all-time Eagles rushers, only being behind Shady by a few hundred yards.  The counter argument to that is why use pick 10 on that guy when a guy like Shady was picked at 53?  

Right

can anyone give me examples where a high pick was well used on a rb in recent history?

14 minutes ago, ToastJenkins said:

Right

can anyone give me examples where a high pick was well used on a rb in recent history?

Not a lot.

Josh Jacobs is the most recent 1st rounder who has been good.

Otherwise, CMC in 2017.

7 hours ago, Texas Eagle said:

This WR class is the worst I’ve seen in a while. I predict that Tank Dell is the 2nd best WR from this class after JSN when all is said and done.

I think it may be Quentin Johnston but he is so much boom or bust, who knows.

8 minutes ago, RLC said:

Not a lot.

Josh Jacobs is the most recent 1st rounder who has been good.

Otherwise, CMC in 2017.

I think CMC is a good comp. The Panthers likely aren’t disappointed in the outcome of that pick. The Cowboys might not even be disappointed with drafting Zeke over Ramsey until you factor in Henry being available at their pick in round 2. Were the Chargers disappointed with Gordon? Jacobs was fairly disappointing until last year, but he was also a late first-rounder. Fournette was a disappointment. Barkley hasn’t been worth the second pick. 

Robinson is a prospect on the level of Zeke and Barkley, or close enough to it. The nice thing is it won’t require a top 4 pick to select Robinson. Instead he likely will be available at pick 10 in what is regarded as a fairly weak draft. If the draft falls poorly, pick 10 could basically be the same as pick 20 in other drafts.

That’s honestly the best defense of drafting Robinson at 10. This draft stinks and we’d be getting an elite talent talent instead of some B-minus types at higher valued positions. 

I’m still not in favor of drafting Robinson at 10 and don’t believe the Eagles would consider it either.