Quote

10 reasons the Giants will be a dumpster fire this season

This week, all week long, we're taking a negative look at each of the teams in the NFC East, in detail. On Monday we roasted the Dallas Cowboys. Today we'll poke fun at the New York Giants.

To note, we will not be talking about the positives of any of the Eagles' NFC East rivals, because, well, that's no fun. This will be 100 percent vitriolic. And yes, we'll get to the Eagles as well at the end of the series.

1) The Giants are a laughingstock and their owner doesn't know what he's doing

If you think I'm not going to make fun of the 2021 Giants because they hired a new head coach and general manager, you are sorely mistaken. Hilarious things happened with this disgraceful team last season, and they need to be laughed at. So let's review the highlights (or lowlights if you're a Giants fan) in chronological order:

• Training camp: Offensive coordinator Jason Garrett had this odd interaction with the media.

It's hard to say if he was demanding to be called "coach," or if he was giving reporters a lesson in manners by urging them to respond after he said that it was good to see them. Either way, what a weirdo talking that way to grown men and women.

• Week 1: Joe Judge set the tone for what was to come in the Giants' 2021 season, when he challenged a non-challengeable play. 

He thought a Broncos receiver stepped out of bounds before getting into the end zone, except he clearly scored and it probably took the NFL all of 2 seconds to confirm the TD. The officials ignored Judge's complaints from the sideline, so Judge threw his challenge flag as the Broncos were attempting the PAT, because he's a gigantic crybaby who was unhappy that he didn't get to have his say before the officials moved the game forward.

The PAT was good, but you could hear whistles on the TV feed during the kick, because they reacted to Judge throwing the flag.

Initially, the referee announced that you can't challenge a scoring play because they're automatically reviewed, etc., but then they also had to discuss whether the PAT had to be re-kicked. It seemed that they ultimately decided (without actually saying so), "No, screw that crybaby. He's not going to benefit here by forcing a re-kick." So the PAT just counted even though referees were blowing their whistles during the play. Lol. It's kinda slow and boring, but you can watch the whole thing here:

 

• Week 2: In a primetime game on Thursday night, Washington missed a field goal at the end of regulation, giving the Giants a win. Oops, but no wait, Dexter Lawrence jumped offsides, giving the then Football Team another chance for the win. On the second attempt, they didn't miss. It was an instant "piss the game away" classic.

Some Giants homers tried to push the idea that Lawrence didn't jump offsides. He did.

 

Lawrence also tried to claim that he felt he didn't jump early, though his attempt to stop moving forward in the video above proves otherwise. Whatever. Who cares.

Anyway, many made the point at the time that Judge's messaging throughout his entire Giants' coaching tenure was that his team was going to be all about discipline, and in the first two weeks of the season he temper tantrum-challenged a non-challengeable play and one of his players jumped offsides on a game-deciding field goal attempt.

Side note: Kenny Golladay was caught by cameras yelling at Jason Garrett during this game.

• Week 3: After the Falcons kicked a game-winning field goal to beat the Giants, there was a loud bang in the hallway of the press box. Apparently owner John Mara had kicked a couple of trash cans. 

Ryan Dunleavy of the New York Post snapped a picture of them. The side-by-side combatant pictures of the frowny-faced Mara and the fallen trash cans — as if they are celebrities who were dating but are now going through a rough breakup — is Pulitzer worthy.

 

Seriously, that's my favorite image of the 2021 season.

 

• Week 14: Prior to a home game against the Cowboys, the Giants, who were 4-9 at the time, announced that its fans would be treated to "Fan Appreciation Day." Oh? How would they be appreciated? 

With a free medium Pepsi!

https://twitter.com/DanielJonesMVP/status/1539205302423257088?s=20&t=dhFW02LAOvgMEUynLp4VzA

Except, when some fans tried to get their medium Pepsi, they were told that only the season ticket account holder could collect on the medium Pepsi offer, not just anyone with a ticket. In other words, if you owned several season tickets, under one account, you only got one free medium Pepsi.

• Week 17: Then there was Judge's press conference rant after a Week 17 loss to the Bears, during which he said the Giants "ain't some clown show organization," in addition to making up some nonsense about players around the league begging to play for him:

 

I have some advice here for anyone of you reading this, not just Joe Judge and the Giants: Whether you think you’re involved in a clown show or not, never actually say out loud, "This ain't some clown show.” It will only make others suspect that a clown show is afoot.

• Week 18: And finally, in his coup de grace against Washington, Judge had the offense run QB sneaks on second and third downs from inside their own five yard line. Here's the second sneak:

 

I love that there was a clear false start by Devontae Booker on that play, and the officials just ignored it because who cares. After the game, Zack Rosenblatt asked Judge about the sneaks.

 

Did you listen? "We wanted to give ourselves room for the punt," he said. "We did that. We gave ourselves room for the punt." 🤣🤣🤣

Free idea for any enterprising Giants fans: You know how Eagles fans wear "PHILLY SPECIAL" t-shirts with X's and O's of the play call? Like this?

You should make your own "ROOM FOR THE PUNT" t-shirts. A mockup: 

That idea, my friends, is on the house.

 

Since 2017, the Giants are tied for the worst record in the NFL with the New York Jets, at 22-59 (0.272), with a point total differential of -530. Judge is gone, and so is Dave Gettleman, way later than he should have been. But before Judge, there was Pat Shurmur, who was an even worse head coaching hire, and before Shurmur there was Ben McAdoo. Since 2016, Mara has hired four head coaches or general managers and they've all been outright disasters.

Giants fans are already sold on new GM Joe Schoen and new head coach Brian Daboll, just as most were once upon a time with Gettleman, McAdoo, Shurmur, and Judge.

In the NFC East, Mara is overshadowed by the reprehensible Dan Snyder and the attention-seeking Jerry Jones, and so his badness has flown under the radar. He's probably best known for spearheading the NFL's extremely unpopular emphasis on eliminating taunting. He's responsible for calls like this:

He should probably also be getting more scrutiny for fielding the worst team in the NFL the last half decade.

 

Oh man, I still have nine to go? 

2) Was Brian Daboll the best coaching candidate for this job?

 

Daboll has been credited with helping develop Josh Allen from an uber-talented but raw prospect into the elite quarterback he has become. He has also coordinated an offense that has finished with the following rankings since he became the Bills' OC in 2018:

Bills O under Daboll	DVOA - offense	DVOA - pass	DVOA - run
2018	31	31	29
2019	21	20	19
2020	5	3	22
2021	10	13	9

As you can see, there's tangible improvement. Part of that has been the stable coaching staff that has been in place in Buffalo, but probably the bigger reason is that they have gotten much better players over that span..

Daboll has also had three short stints as the offensive coordinator of three other teams in a span of four years:

Brian Daboll other OC jobs	DVOA - offense	DVOA - pass	DVOA - run
2009 - Browns	24	29	13
2010 - Browns	21	22	16
2011 - Dolphins	20	18	28
2012 - Chiefs	31	32	23

Those four teams went a combined 18-46. The quarterbacks who started for Daboll during those years were Brady Quinn, Derek Anderson, Colt McCoy, Jake Delhomme, Seneca Wallace, Matt Moore, Chad Henne and Matt Cassel.

Daboll had success with the ultra-talented quarterback in Allen (though it took some time). He did not have success with the less talented quarterbacks that he has worked with. So I guess that raises the question, "Are Daniel Jones and the Giants' offense more like Josh Allen and the Bills' offenses, or closer to the other quarterbacks and the offenses Daboll coached at his other stops?" That's for you to decide, but I'm going to go out on a limb here and suggest that Buffalo's good players are the biggest reason Buffalo is good.

In many ways, Daboll is like two of the Giants' last three failed coaching hires, in that they were considered quarterback gurus. Ben McAdoo was Aaron Rodgers' quarterbacks coach before the Giants hired him as their offensive coordinator, and once in the building, he was reportedly thought of as "a young Andy Reid." Shurmur's biggest selling point to the Giants in 2018 was that he coaxed a great season out of journeyman Case Keenum in Minnesota in 2017.

Daboll is also kinda-sorta the Giants' second consecutive "Bill Belichick hire," after they whiffed on Judge. Daboll got his start in the pros under Belichick in 2000 as a defensive assistant and coached in New England for a total of 12 years.

So, you know, there are parallels. Of course, Daboll was chosen over former Dolphins head coach Brian Flores, who somehow led the Dolphins to a 24-25 record over the last three seasons despite being dealt an often-dreadful roster. His aggressive defensive scheme often confused and battered opposing quarterbacks and helped serve as something of an equalizer against more talented teams. He was a surprise firing at the end of Miami's 2021 season.

Thinking he had a real chance for the Giants' head coaching job prior to an interview, Flores received a text from Belichick, who congratulated him on earning the Giants' job, except, uhhhhh, boomer Belichick got his Brians confused, and thought he was texting Daboll.

 

Oooooof.

Flores subsequently sued the NFL, the Giants (for allegedly setting up a sham interview), the Dolphins (for a litany of offenses), the Broncos (again, alleged sham interview), and later the Texans (dropped from consideration for a coaching job because of the lawsuit). If you're into all that legal mumbo jumbo, it's all here.

Maybe Daboll will be a good head coach. It's impossible to predict. But to me, it's smells a lot like the "same old same old."

3) They don't have good players

The Giants haven't had a player make First-Team All-Pro since 2016. 

In the last three seasons, they have only had two players make the Pro Bowl:

1. James Bradberry, 2020
2. Evan Engram, 2020

Good Lord, how did Engram get in? Anyway, both of those guys are on other teams now. Of the players still on the Giants' roster, they only have four Pro Bowl appearances among them.

Golladay, Williams, and Gano all made their Pro Bowls while playing for other teams.

I guess it shouldn't come as a surprise that the worst team in the league over the last five years doesn't have many players to be celebrated.

4) The Giants don't think much of Daniel Jones anymore

Daniel Jones showed some promise early in 2021. In his first four games he completed 66.7 percent of his passes, he averaged almost 300 passing yards per game, he averaged 8.2 yards per pass attempt, and he ran for 188 yards and 2 TDs.

Over his last seven games before he was lost for the season with a neck injury, he, uh, wasn't able to keep up that level of play.

Daniel Jones, 2021	Comp-Att (%)	Yards (YPA)	TD-INT	Rating
First 4 games	96-144 (66.7%)	1184 (8.2)	4-1	98.3
Last 7 games	136-217 (62.7%)	1244 (5.3)	6-6	75.9

Some of those INTs were egregiously bad. Like this: 

Or this: 

Or this: 

Or this: 

Lol, who was that last one even intended for? His center?

In January, Mara said the Giants have done everything possible to screw Jones up, which is certainly true. Whether the Giants truly think he can play is another story. They obviously have their doubts, as they did not exercise his fifth-year option, an obvious but telling decision.

5) The wide receivers are underachievers

The Giants had some downright sad production from their wide receivers in 2021:

Giants WRs	Rec	Yards	TD
Kenny Golladay	37	521	0
Kadarius Toney	39	420	0
Sterling Shepard	36	366	1
Darius Slayton	26	339	2
John Ross	11	224	1
Collin Johnson	11	105	0
Dante Pettis	10	87	1
C.J. Board	4	51	0
Pharoah Cooper	4	33	0
David Sills	2	17	0
TOTAL	180	2163	5

In fairness, they had Jones, Mike Glennon and Jake Fromm throwing to them, and they had Joe Judge calling QB sneaks in second and third down from inside their own five yard line.

Still, if you combined the Giants' 10 receivers into one mega-receiver, combining all of its stats, it would have ranked 40th in the NFL in receiving touchdowns, and would have only out-gained Cooper Kupp by 216 yards.

Last offseason, the Giants signed Golladay to a four-year deal worth $72 million, and $40 million guaranteed. At the time, that contract tied him with the Chiefs' Tyreek Hill and the Browns' Odell Beckham Jr. as the sixth-highest paid wide receivers (based on AAV) in the NFL. The Giants gave Golladay that contract even after an injury-riddled 2020 season in which he had 20 catches for 338 yards and two TDs. Yes, I know, Gettleman is gone.

Toney had a monster game against the Cowboys, catching 10 passes for 189 yards, before getting ejected for throwing a punch:

.

For one week Giants fans had reason to be interested in a promising young player. It was short-lived, as Toney had 19 catches for 139 yards (7.3 YPC) the entire rest of the season. He then skipped voluntary workouts in April.

6) How about at tight end? Anyone there to take some of the pressure off of the receivers?

Pro Bowl tight end 😂  Evan Engram left for Jacksonville. While he was often a drop machine, he was still the best tight end the Giants had. So who's left?

Well, the Giants drafted Daniel Bellinger out of San Diego State in the fourth round. Otherwise, they have Ricky Seals-Jones and someone named Jordan Akins. Does that do anything for anyone?

7) The cornerbacks have very little experience

Adoree Jackson is a fine as a starting cornerback, though I'm not sure he's a true CB1 that you can count on to mirror each opposing team's best receiver. Jackson aside, all of the Giants' other cornerbacks have a combined 14 career NFL starts. None of them individually have more than 4 career starts.

Also, who is starting at safety opposing Xavier McKinney? Julian Love? Rookie fourth-round pick Dane Belton? 😬

😎 The offensive line still probably won't be good

Giants fans are PUMPED that their offensive line is finally fixed after the Giants added Evan Neal and Joshua Ezeudu in the draft, as well as Jon Feliciano and Mark Glowinski in free agency. The offensive line is projected to look like this in 2022:

LT	LG	C	RG	RT
Andrew Thomas	Joshua Ezeudu	Jon Feliciano	Mark Glowinski	Evan Neal

Settle down, guy/gals. The line is better (hard to get much worse), but it has a ways to go. 

Glowinski scored a three-year deal worth $18.3 million this offseason. While I understand the desire to fix the offensive line immediately, I'd be looking for players who can grow with the team as it begins its journey back from rock bottom. I would not be signing a 30-year-old like Glowinski, who may or may not even be a great short-term fix, much less a long-term solution.

Feliciano, meanwhile, formerly played for Daboll in Buffalo, so I get wanting a center who already knows the offense, but again we're talking about a 30-year-old Band-Aid here.

As for the rookies, Neal may very well become a stud. We'll see. He could also struggle as a rookie, as Thomas did. Ezeudu will have to win the starting job in camp, and if he does, again, we'll see.

But the one thing that is certain is that the Giants will have almost no continuity whatsoever along their line, which is a pretty big deal in the NFL.

9) I guess we should mention Saquon Barkley

It sucks that Barkley will probably never be the same runner that he was as a rookie, because he was so fun to watch:

The unfortunate reality is that after returning from a torn ACL suffered early in the 2020 season, thus having ample time to recover, Barkley averaged just 3.7 yards per carry and 6.4 yards per reception in 2021.

10) There are so many other really bad teams

Wait, why is that a bad thing? Well, for the Giants' future beyond the 2022 season, it's not great. There are only two acceptable outcomes for the Giants in 2022:

1. If they're somehow good 😂
2. If they're like 3-14 and they land the first or second overall pick in the 2023 NFL Draft.

If they improve this season and they're merely "regular bad" as opposed to the laughingstock embarrassment they were in 2021, they may not be in a position to land a top quarterback in 2023.

The Giants aren't the only really bad team out there. You also have the Bears, Falcons, Panthers, Seahawks, Lions, Texans, Jets, and arguments could be made for others. They're all strong contenders for high draft picks.

There are also currently five teams with two first-round picks in 2023. They are, in order of 2022 draft positioning:

1. Lions
2. Texans
3. Seahawks
4. Dolphins
5. Eagles

Every one of those teams could have a need for a quarterback next offseason, and will have maneuverability to trade up.

Teams that have enough talent to at least be mediocre without an ideal quarterback are thought to be in "NFL purgatory." Somehow, even with having the worst record in the NFL over the last five years combined, the Giants have picked higher than fourth overall just once during that span (and they took a running back, lol). They could be picking outside the top five or so again in 2023 even if they're awful. That's not purgatory. The Giants wish they were in purgatory. They're in more of an "NFL Extended Stay Hell."

 

 

These "dumpster fire" pieces are among the best parts of the offseason. 

The Giants one continues to deliver  

i guess ill do OCs job today....

Quote

10 reasons the Commanders will be a dumpster fire this season

GEOFF BURKE/USA TODAY SPORTS

Jack Del Rio tells one of his players about how Elon Musk owned AOC on Twitter again, and how a bunch of "cucks" in the replies were mad.

This week, all week long, we're taking a negative look at each of the teams in the NFC East, in detail. Today we'll take a look at the five alarm tire fire that is the Washington Commanders. 

To note, we will not be talking about the positives of any of the Eagles' NFC East rivals, because, well, that's no fun. This will be 100 percent vitriolic. And yes, we'll get to the Eagles as well at the end of the series.

---

🔥 DUMPSTER FIRE SERIES 🔥

Cowboys | Giants

---

1) Carson Wentz is mentally soft

Wentz was the best player in the NFL in 2017, leading the Eagles to an 11-2 record before he tore his ACL and LCL, making way for Nick Foles to win the Eagles' first ever Super Bowl.

Wentz was not ready for the start of the 2018 season after spending all offseason rehabbing his knee, but he took over as the starter once again in Week 3 that season. Wentz's numbers looked good on paper, but he clearly wasn't the same player he was the year before. He would eventually suffer a back injury late in the season, and watch again as Foles led the Eagles into the playoffs, winning a wildcard round game against the Bears.

The Eagles won an absolutely dreadful NFC East in 2019, but in the first round of the playoffs, he was concussed on a first quarter cheap shot by Jadeveon Clowney, and had to give way to Josh McCown to finish the game. The nine snaps Wentz played in that game remain his only NFL playoff experience.

In 2020, Wentz had a disastrous season, going 3-7-1, before being pulled during a game against the Packers in favor of Hurts, who provided a spark, earned the opportunity to start another game, and then beat the 10-2 Saints in his NFL starting debut. Wentz never saw the field again as an Eagle. In the 12 games that Wentz played, he was arguably the worst starter in the NFL, posting the following numbers.

Carson Wentz	Stat	Rank
QB rating	72.8	34th (among 35 qualifying QBs)
TD passes	16	20th
INTs	15	Most in the NFL
Fumbles	10	Second-most in the NFL
Sacks taken	50	Most in the NFL
YPA	6.0	33rd (among 35 qualifying QBs)
Completion %	57.4%	34th (among 35 qualifying QBs)

He nearly achieved the "Triple Frown," for most INTs, fumbles, and sacks, despite being benched for the entire final quarter of the season.

During the 2021 offseason, angry about the benching and the fact that the Eagles had selected Jalen Hurts in the second round of the 2020 draft, Wentz no longer wanted to play for the Eagles. Wentz himself even said that he began thinking of getting out of Philly while standing on the sidelines in Green Bay after he was benched. At no time did he ever take any real accountability for his own poor play, and his immediate reaction to (deservedly) being pulled from a game was to quit on his team.

By obliging Wentz's trade request to the Colts, the Eagles were willing to take on $33,820,611 in dead money on their 2021 salary cap, which at the time was the biggest dead money hit in NFL history by a country mile. Somehow the Eagles were able to get first- and third-round picks in return from Indianapolis.

Wentz really couldn't have possibly hand-picked a better situation, as the Colts had a good offensive line, arguably the best running back in the NFL, a (modest) upgrade in wide receiver talent, a talented defense, and a head coach with whom he felt a special connection in Frank Reich. Off the field, Wentz said that the "culture and values" fit his vibes. 

He still failed.

On paper, Wentz's stats in 2021 looked decent enough, as he threw 27 TDs vs. 7 INTs. He made the occasional spectacular throw, but those moments of encouragement were overshadowed by his continued inability to make the "layup" throws, and his penchant for playing "hero ball" to his team's detriment. Hero ball to his team's detriment, you say? What does that mean? Well, for example:

 

Wentz was 1 for 4 for 2 yards, 0 TDs, and 2 INTs when he attempted left-handed passes in 2021. #AdvancedStats. I can already hear the gears turning in Commanders fans' brains, making an argument between his left-handed and right-handed splits, ignoring that he will never stop making these dumb plays because he has no intention whatsoever of changing the reckless way he plays, and he probably never will.

In the video above, the left-handed pick-six he threw against the Titans was hilarious in that Wentz stans defended it as "a smart play," because a safety would have ended the game whereas with a pick-six the Colts would get the ball back, as if Wentz had computed this while he was being thrown to the ground because he hadn't thrown the ball away sooner. But I digress.

 

 

 

With a 9-6 record heading into their final two games of the 2021 regular season, the Colts were near-locks to make the playoffs, needing only one win over the Raiders or the bottom-feeder Jaguars to punch their ticket to the postseason. Instead, largely due to a pair of bad performances by Wentz, the Colts lost both games and were eliminated.

Against the Raiders, he missed a wide open T.Y. Hilton on a play that likely would have ensured a Colts win.

 

 

The loss to the Jaguars Week 18 was particularly devastating, as Wentz completed 17 of 29 passes for 185 yards, 1 TD, and 1 INT, though the numbers didn't adequately convey how ineffective he was. He also lost a fumble on a vintage "2020 Wentz" play in which he tried to throw a shovel pass instead of just eating a sack.

At the NFL Combine, Colts general manager Chris Ballard could barely muster a kind word while answering a bevy of questions about Wentz. Owner Jim Irsay has not tried to hide that he absolutely despises Wentz, as he has taken shots at his former quarterback at every opportunity. Of course, that ramped up post-trade, but it was also pretty evident while Wentz was still on Indy's roster.

It's like Howie Roseman and the Eagles tossed a Wentz grenade into Lucas Oil Stadium and watched the carnage from afar.

 

It felt like Wentz was destined to be outright released by the Colts, but the stupid idiot Commanders swooped in and coughed up the following package of draft picks for him: 

 

1. A 2022 third-round pick
2. A 2023 third-round pick that can become a second round pick if Wentz hits fairly attainable playing time benchmarks
3. The Colts and Commanders swapped second round picks in 2022. (The Colts moved up from pick 47 to pick 42.)

 

The Commanders also took on Wentz's salary in full, lol. He'll have the sixth-highest salary cap number in the NFL among quarterbacks in 2022, at $28,295,118.

The funny thing is that the Commanders know Wentz is soft, or Ron Rivera wouldn't have felt the need to assuage his feelings by assuring him that Sam Howell, a player they drafted in the fifth round, was just a developmental guy.

 

 

Since Daniel Snyder bought the team in 1999, 25 different quarterbacks have started for Washington. They are Brad Johnson, Jeff George, Tony Banks, Shane Matthews, Patrick Ramsey, Danny Wuerffel, Tim Hasselbeck, Mark Brunell, Jason Campbell, Todd Collins, Donovan McNabb, Rex Grossman, John Beck, Robert Griffin III, Colt McCoy, Kirk 'Kurt' Cousins, Alex Smith, Mark Sanchez, Josh Johnson, Case Keenum, Dwayne Haskins, Kyle Allen, Taylor Heinicke, Ryan Fitzpatrick, Garrett Gilbert, and coming soon, Wentz.

What will 2023 bring? Probably some new scrub.

2) JaQ Del Rio's players probably don't respect him

In case you missed it, Del Rio referred to the former president's attempted coup to overthrow the United States government on January 6 as a "dust up" that is unworthy of serious scrutiny. 

Simultaneously, he offered a "whatabout" pointed at Black Lives Matters protesters who had seen enough of racial inequality and police brutality in America after George Floyd's murder in 2020.

"I see the images on the TV, people's livelihoods are being destroyed, businesses are being burned down... no problem," Del Rio said about BLM protests during the summer of 2020. "We have a dust up at the Capitol, nothing burned down, and we're gonna make that a major deal." 

 

 

Del Rio was fined $100,000 by Rivera for his comments, and Del Rio deactivated his Twitter account. Rivera was clear to note that he's a big First Amendment guy, and that Del Rio was only fined because he caused a distraction within the confines of the team. Via John Keim of ESPN:

 

"This is not about the fact he exercised his right to free speech," Rivera said. "This is about what impacted this football team. I believe in the First Amendment very strongly.

"It's a very serious question and topic, but at the end of the day, it did impact us. That's why I did what I did."

 

Del Rio's Twitter account has been a cesspool of right wing conspiracy theories for years. In the past, his players could probably just dismiss him as an idiot. But this time, he pissed off players enough that Rivera felt that some kind of punishment was a necessity.

Players don't have to like coaches. Some coaches demand a lot of their players physically or mentally, and the players don't like it. Some players don't like how much playing time they're getting, or how they're being used within the scheme. That happens at every level of football, and is just a basic part of sports. When dislike becomes disrespect, that's a bigger problem, particularly for a figure as important as the head of the defense.

 

• MORE NFC EAST
• 10 reasons the Cowboys will be a dumpster fire this season
• 10 reasons the Giants will be a dumpster fire this season
• Ranking every Eagles wide receiver ever

 

The strength of this team in 2021 was supposed to be the defense, but the Commanders finished 27th in defensive DVOA. Frankly, Del Rio is lucky he wasn't fired, because he isn't a good enough coach to be worth all this non-football attention.

3) Chase Young may not be ready for the start of the season

Young is the Commanders' most physically gifted player. After a good rookie season, he only had two sacks through the first nine games of the 2021 regular season, when he tore his ACL in a November 14 win over the Buccaneers. He missed the rest of the season, obviously. 

Young will likely be placed on the PUP list prior to the start of training camp, and if he stays on PUP to begin the season, he would have to remain there for at least six games.

Whenever he is ready to play again, Young may not have the same explosiveness initially that he had pre-injury. 

The Commanders are thinner along their defensive line than they have been the last couple of years as well, after losing Matt Ioannidis and Tim Settle in free agency.

4) The linebackers stink

The Commanders' best linebacker is... um... Cole Holcomb? He's the only definite starter at linebacker, it appears. And then the other starting spot will be a battle between 2021 first-round linebacker Jamin Davis, who disappointed as a rookie, and a borderline 53-man roster-worthy guy in David Mayo.

I'm not sure there's a team in the NFL that would trade their linebacker situation with Washington's.

5) The wide receiver situation is dicey, as always

Terry McLaurin is a stud who is now rich, but beyond him, as always, there are only question marks.

Curtis Samuel only played in five games last season, and had just six catches for 27 yards. Samuel signed a three-year contract worth $34.5 million last offseason, a questionable decision at the time that now looks awful. Samuel missed time during Washington minicamp with "overall soreness." So did I.

Jahan Dotson is a rookie (who I actually like quite a bit), but a rookie nevertheless, and he's going to be counted on to contribute immediately.

6) Logan Thomas may not be ready for the start of the season

Like Young above, Thomas tore an ACL last season. Thomas' occurred on December 5, which was Week 13 against the Raiders, ending his season. He also had a hamstring injury earlier in the season that cost him six games.

If Thomas isn't ready for the start of the regular season, the Commanders are down to John Bates, a good blocker but not yet much of a threat as a receiver, and rookie Cole Turner, who was basically a big receiver at Nevada.

With a questionable receiving corps, the Commanders really need Thomas to be the player he was in 2020, when he had 72 catches and 6 TDs. That's probably not happening.

7) They got worse along the interior of their offensive line

Brandon Scherff quietly played out his rookie contract in full, including his fifth-year option, and was then franchise tagged twice. In his first opportunity to hit the free agent market, Scherff signed a three-year deal worth $49.5 million with the Jaguars.

In his seven years in Washington, Scherff made five Pro Bowls and was named a First-Team All-Pro in 2020. 

They also cut Ereck Flowers, opening up two holes at guard. 

One of those holes was filled by Andrew Norwell, who has started 111 games over an eight-year NFL career. He formerly played for Rivera in Carolina from 2014-2017, because of course he did.

They also added Trai Turner, who has started 104 games over an eight year NFL career. He formerly played for Rivera in Carolina from 2014-2019, because of course he did.

Norwell may be a slight upgrade over Flowers, but losing Scherff is huge blow.

😎 Scott Turner hasn't shown much as an offensive coordinator

In three years as an offensive coordinator, Turner hasn't ever finished in the top 20 in overall offensive DVOA or passing DVOA.

Scott Turner	Offensive DVOA	Passing DVOA
2019 (Panthers)	27	31
2020 (Commanders)	32	32
2021 (Commanders)	21	22

Good luck, Carson.

9) Their cornerback depth and safeties aren't great?

I don't know, who cares? Let's just get to Snyder already.

10) I mean, Dan Snyder is just suuuuuch a POS 💩

I don't even know where to start, but by the time you read this, there will be three or four new bombshell accusations made against Dan Snyder. My apologies for omitting them here. In other words, if you think I've missed something below, you're right! For the purpose of achieving some reasonable level of brevity, we'll try to just focus on rounding up Snyder's most recently reported sinister misdeeds.

Back in 2020, The Washington Post published a bombshell report in which more than a dozen women alleged sexual harassment and verbal abuse by former team employees of Washington's football organization. This marked the beginning of the investigation of Snyder and the R-words/Football Team/Commanders, as it pertained to the pattern of sexual misconduct within its walls and elsewhere.

Snyder mostly avoided any direct hits within the 2020 piece, aside from allegedly ordering one of his sales executives, a former (male) cheerleader in college, to do cartwheels for his enjoyment. Snyder was also criticized for not doing more to create a workable environment for his female employees.

An internal investigation of Washington's workplace culture ensued, led by D.C. attorney Beth Wilkinson. The initial result of that investigation, in July of 2021, was a $10 million fine for Snyder by the NFL. The findings of the investigation were never made public.

The NFL's refusal to publicly release the findings led to the House Committee on Oversight and Reform to launch its own investigation of the Commanders' organization, in October of 2021.

A week ago today, the Committee released "new evidence of Snyder's role in creating a hostile workplace and his efforts to undermine investigations." 😬

First, from the Committee's memo in regard to Snyder's role in creating a toxic workplace:

• "Mr. Snyder’s former Chief Operating Officer, David Pauken, testified at a Committee deposition that when Mr. Snyder learned that a member of the team’s coaching staff had groped a public relations employee, Mr. Snyder refused to take action against the coach and instead directed that the victim 'stay away from the coach.'"

• "Mr. Pauken explained that Mr. Snyder fired female employees who engaged in consensual relationships with male members of the team’s football operations.  Describing one such situation, Mr. Pauken explained, 'The female employees were fired, the male employee was — there were no repercussions other than he was restricted from additional sex with the cheerleaders.'"

• "A former long-time employee described how the team’s culture 'glorified drinking and womanizing,' and recalled an instance when Mr. Snyder had pressured him to drink excessively.  He explained that employees were afraid to speak out 'because they had seen so many others lose their jobs.'"

While we're at it, we should probably remember this report from The Washington Post from 2020, in which cheerleaders posed in the Dominican Republic for a video released for sale to the public that contained no nudity, but a second video was allegedly created for team executives with "the good bits," without the cheerleaders' consent. 

Next, here's the evidence the Committee found that shows Snyder launched a shadow investigation to discredit his accusers in the eyes of the NFL:

• "Lawyers for Mr. Snyder used their shadow investigation to create a 100-slide dossier with private emails, text messages, telephone records, and social media posts from journalists, victims, and witnesses who had made credible public accusations of harassment against the Commanders."

• "During the Wilkinson investigation, Mr. Snyder and his lawyers sent private investigators to the homes of former cheerleaders, offered hush money to try to dissuade them from cooperating with the investigation, and gathered thousands of emails from former Commanders President Bruce Allen in an effort to 'demonstrate that Bruce Allen had created a toxic environment at the Washington Commanders.'"

 

• "Mr. Snyder’s lawyers had direct access to the NFL and the law firm conducting the investigation, and secretly shared information from their shadow investigation in an apparent attempt to influence the Wilkinson investigation."

The "dossier" noted above is extremely creepy.

And finally, the Committee "uncovered information" that casts doubt on the NFL's claim that the internal investigation into the toxic workplace was independent.

• "The NFL initially allowed Mr. Snyder to investigate his own team, including his role in the toxic work environment, and only took over the investigation after multiple public reports revealed that Mr. Snyder was personally implicated in sexual misconduct."

• "After the League took over the investigation, the NFL and the Commanders entered into a common interest agreement that gave Mr. Snyder a back-channel to make confidential presentations to the NFL and block the release of information."

 

• "A retainer agreement between the NFL and the law firm handling the internal investigation established that a written report of the findings would be completed at the conclusion of the investigation, but NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, in a break with previous practice, changed course and requested oral briefings instead, further ensuring the findings would not come to light."

In regard to the bullet point above noting Snyder's personal implication in sexual misconduct, The Washington Post reported last Tuesday that a former employee accused Snyder of groping her on one of the team's private planes.

 

An employee of Washington’s NFL team accused owner Daniel Snyder of sexually harassing and assaulting her in April 2009, three months before the team agreed to pay the woman $1.6 million as part of a confidential settlement, according to legal correspondence obtained by The Washington Post.

The woman accused Snyder of asking her for sex, groping her and attempting to remove her clothes, according to a letter sent by an attorney for the team to the woman’s lawyer in 2009. The woman alleged the assault occurred in a private, partitioned area at the back of one of the team’s private planes during a return flight from a work trip to Las Vegas.

 

Snyder denied the woman’s allegations, the letter states, and a team investigation accused her of fabricating her claims as part of an extortion attempt. But Snyder and the team eventually agreed to pay her a seven-figure sum as part of a settlement in which she agreed not to sue or publicly disclose her allegations.

 

The $1.6 million payout had been reported by The Washington Post in 2020, but the allegations were not known until this latest report.

In the Committee's memo, links to full transcripts of depositions were included, and sure enough, some interesting stories emerged. Like this:

 

And this:

 

 

 

Oh, and he's also being investigated for using "two books" to track finances.

In summary, Dan is in some trouble. And again, there's plenty more that we could have rounded up here.

The Committee initially kindly invited Snyder to a deposition, but he was like, "Oh hey Committee. How's it going? I'd really love to talk with you guys and be super cooperative and junk but I'm out of the country. Such a bummer. I'm sure we'll hook up soon, tho. 👍"

And then when the Committee said, "Oh that's OK, we don't need you be in person. It can be over Zoom," Snyder was like, "Ahhhh, yeaaaah, see, I'm on my boat, and the reception here... gee whiz, it's just not that great."

So then the Committee subpoenaed Snyder, and he was like, "Ooooh, yeah, I'm really sorry, but that date just isn't going to work for me. Hope you guys are good!"

Apparently you can track the movements of Snyder's yacht, on which Snyder is essentially hiding out until, what, this all blows over?

 

I honestly kinda feel bad for Commanders fans. They love football, like the rest of us, and it causes them to kid themselves about maybe enjoying each upcoming season (as it would with most fan bases).

But deep down they already know what the outcome is going to be before it begins, and it has to be utterly exhausting following along as this creep little owner takes advantage of everyone in his path while putting a crap product on the field every year.

 

this might be my new favorite gif

Quote

The Commanders also took on Wentz's salary in full, lol. He'll have the sixth-highest salary cap number in the NFL among quarterbacks in 2022, at $28,295,118.

Can't miss the eagles one, right @OCEaglefan?

Quote

10 reasons the Eagles will be a dumpster fire this season

This week, all week long, we're taking a negative look at each of the teams in the NFC East, in detail. Today we'll finish out the series with the Philadelphia Eagles. 

1) Are we discounting the possibility of regression from Jalen Hurts

Prior to the start of the 2021 season, the general consensus was that Jalen Hurts had one season to prove beyond a doubt that he was "the guy" at quarterback for the Eagles, and that if he didn't, the team would either be aggressive in trying to trade for a star vet, or they would select a quarterback in the 2022 NFL Draft.

As it turned out, the Eagles did indeed have interest in trading for Russell Wilson and Deshaun Watson, but their interest was not mutual, as neither Wilson nor Watson wanted to come to Philly. It was also an extremely weak quarterback draft class, as only one was selected in the first two rounds (Kenny Pickett at 20th overall).

And so, the Eagles had no choice but to throw their full support behind Hurts for the 2022 season, but make no mistake, they were shopping for an upgrade, and they set themselves up to be able to draft or trade for a quarterback in 2023, as evidenced by their seeking out of an extra first-round pick in 2023, which they were able to extract from the Saints.

The Eagles like Hurts, of course, or they wouldn't have selected him in the second round of the 2020 NFL Draft. However, the reality is that they drafted him to be a competent backup to the injury-prone Carson Wentz, and then, yada yada yada, Wentz was gone, and Hurts was what was left. When the Eagles picked Hurts, the plan certainly wasn't for him to be the Eagles' starting quarterback in 2021.

Hurts had some impressive games, but he was inconsistent, and he left a bad final impression. If you followed us during the 2021 season, you know that we kept a "stock up - stock down" weekly progress report on Hurts. It looked like this:

 

1. Week 1: Eagles 32 at Falcons 6 📈
2. Week 2: 49ers 17 at Eagles 11 😐
3. Week 3: Eagles 21 at Cowboys 41 📉
4. Week 4: Chiefs 42 at Eagles 30 📈
5. Week 5: Eagles 21 at Panthers 18 😐
6. Week 6: Buccaneers 28 at Eagles 22 📉
7. Week 7: Eagles 22 at Raiders 33 📉
8. Week 8: Eagles 44 at Lions 6 😐
9. Week 9: Chargers 27 at Eagles 24 😐
10. Week 10: Eagles 30 at Broncos 13 📈
11. Week 11: Saints 29 at Eagles 40 📈
12. Week 12: Eagles 7 at Giants 13 📉
13. Week 13: Eagles 33 at Jets 18 🪑
14. Week 15: Washington 17 at Eagles 27 📈
15. Week 16: Giants 10 at Eagles 34 😐
16. Week 17: Eagles 20 at Washington 16 📈
17. Week 18: Cowboys 51 at Eagles 🪑
18. Wildcard round: Buccaneers 31 at Eagles 15 📉

 

The tale of the tape:

📈 = 6 games

📉 = 5 games

😐 = 5 games

🪑 = 2 games

If we're being real, there were only six games out of 18 last season in which you could really feel better about Hurts as a long-term answer than you did before the day began.

Because of his athletic ability, Hurts can make plays with his legs that only a small number of quarterbacks in the league can make. He has also widely been praised for his intelligence and leadership qualities. However, his two biggest concerns entering the 2021 season were his accuracy, as well as his decision-making and willingness to make quick, decisive throws from the pocket. Those concerns remain.

In the playoffs in Tampa, Hurts threw wildly all over the field, missing receivers long, short, left, right, and everything in between. He also failed to pull the trigger on passes to receivers who were wide open for potential big plays, like here:

Ultimately, the Eagles' season ended partly because Hurts' most concerning preseason attributes showed up in a big way in their final game.

Going forward, it feels like Eagles fans/media/team personnel are nearly unanimous in their belief that Hurts will improve in his third NFL season. I believe the possibility for regression is being underestimated. 

Wait, regression, as in, he could go in the wrong direction? Sure, why not? It happens. Certainly, Tampa did not respect the Eagles' ability to beat them through the air. They made Hurts stay in the pocket, or if he was going to escape, they made sure it was to his left, where he is clearly not comfortable.

That's Hurts 👆. Can't go left.

 

Opposing teams now have a full season's worth of Hurts' tape and tendencies to figure out how to make life difficult for him, and he'll have to prove he can adjust.

2) Jonathan Gannon's defense got wrecked by good quarterbacks

The Eagles' defense in 2021 was fine against bad quarterbacks, but they barely made the good ones break a sweat. A visual:

Opposing QB	QB rating vs. Eagles
Dak Prescott, Cowboys (Week 3)	143.3
Patrick Mahomes, Chiefs	131.1
Justin Herbert, Chargers	123.2
Tom Brady, Buccaneers (Playoffs)	115.2
Derek Carr, Raiders	113.6
Tom Brady, Buccaneers (Week 6)	102.1
Jimmy Garoppolo, 49ers	100.6
Daniel Jones, Giants	94.0
Jared Goff, Lions	90.6
Zach Wilson, Jets	83.9
Garrett Gilbert, WFT	81.9
Taylor Heinicke, WFT	81.6
Teddy Bridgewater, Broncos	79.2
Trevor Siemian, Saints	74.4
Matt Ryan, Falcons	71.6
Jake Fromm / Mike Glennon, Giants	46.8
Sam Darnold, Panthers	44.5

*Week 18 practice squad game omitted.

 

The good/great quarterbacks performed better against the Eagles than the bad ones, which, you know, makes sense. However, the Eagles made life far too easy on the good quarterbacks, who picked apart the Eagles' soft coverage defense with ease. The super basic way of putting it is that they took what Gannon's defense gave them until the ball was in the end zone. It often looked like this:

Five quarterbacks completed at least 80 percent of their passes against the Eagles last season.

QB	Att-Comp (%)	Yards (YPA)	TD-INT	Rating
Dak Prescott, Cowboys	21-26 (80.8%)	238 (9.2)	3-0	143.3
Patrick Mahomes, Chiefs	24-30 (80.0%)	278 (9.3)	5-1	131.0
Tom Brady, Buccaneers	34-42 (81.0%)	297 (7.1)	2-1	102.1
Derek Carr, Raiders	31-34 (91.2%)	323 (9.5)	2-1	113.6
Justin Herbert, Chargers	32-38 (84.2%)	356 (9.4)	2-0	123.2

How uncommon is that? Well, between 1950-2020, the Eagles allowed just 6 quarterbacks to complete 80-plus percent of their throws (min. 25 attempts), per ESPN Stats & Info (via Tim McManus). 

Those five games against "The 80 Percent Club" occurred within the first nine games of the season, by the way. After Herbert, the Eagles pretty much faced trash offenses the rest of the way, largely handled them, and they made the playoffs as the 7 seed.

Waiting for them in the first round of the playoffs was Tom Brady. In the lead up to that game, I remember most believing that the Eagles' defense had made all the necessary fixes and that they'd be more competitive against Brady this time around. Wrong ❌. The Bucs got out to a 31-0 lead, with Brady put up big numbers, even with the Bucs taking their foot off the gas as early as the third quarter.

The Eagles have better players this year on defense, but that won't matter much if Gannon keeps playing these foofy soft shell defenses against good quarterbacks.

3) Could the Eagles maybe try beating one good team this season?

The Eagles beat one team with a winning record last season. A list of the teams they beat:

Week	Team	Record	DVOA	Point differential
1	Falcons (Matt Ryan)	7-10	30	-146
5	Panthers (Sam Darnold)	5-12	27	-100
8	Lions (Jared Goff)	3-13-1	29	-142
10	Broncos (Teddy Bridgewater)	7-10	18	+13
11	Saints (Trevor Siemian)	9-8	14	+29
13	Jets (Zach Wilson)	4-13	26	-194
15	Commanders (Garrett Gilbert)	7-10	22	-99
16	Giants (Mike Glennon / Jake Fromm)	4-13	31	-158
17	Commanders (Taylor Heinicke)	7-10	22	-99

Those teams had a combined record of 53-99-1, with a combined point differential of -896. I mean, look at these quarterbacks.

The only team the Eagles beat that had a winning record was the Saints, who were missing Alvin Kamara, Michael Thomas, Terron Armstead, Ryan Ramczyk, Andrus Peat, and their starting quarterback.

Yeah yeah, you can only play who is on your schedule. Of course, the Eagles lost to every other team on their schedule. They're clearly better than the worst teams in the NFL. They were also clearly not on the level of the good teams they faced last year.

It's worth noting that the Eagles have an easy schedule again in 2022, at least on paper. However, racking up a lot of wins against awful opponents might not be what's best for the long-term interests of the team. You can get a false sense of reality about the talent on roster, which is potentially dangerous particularly in the case of Hurts, who will be eligible for a contract extension next offseason. Long-term mistakes can be made on false positives.

4) The Eagles had good injury luck; their opponents did not

The 2021 Eagles lost a few key starters early in the season in Brandon Graham and Brandon Brooks, but otherwise did not lose anyone of major importance for long stretches of time. Their opponents often had major injury issues.

The following are the bottom 10 injury luck teams in the NFL in 2021, according to Football Outsiders:

Team	Adjusted games lost (to injury)
Colts	96.5
Raiders	101.6
Saints	107.0
Commanders	107.4
Giants	109.2
Broncos	118.1
49ers	119.5
Lions	122.4
Jets	158.5
Ravens	191.2

The Eagles played 10 of their games in 2021 against those teams. They were 7-3 in those games.

The following is a week-by-week look at the notable players who were deactivated against the Eagles last season (omitting their meaningless Week 18 game against Dallas):

Week	Opponent	Notable inactive players
1	Falcons	No noteworthy absences.
2	49ers	CB Jason Verrett, CB Emmanuel Moseley, CB Ambry Thomas, LB Dre Greenlaw, RB Raheem Mostert, RB Jeffrey Wilson
3	Cowboys	DE DeMarcus Lawrence, RT La'el Collins, WR Michael Gallup, DT Neville Gallimore, S Donovan Wilson
4	Chiefs	DE Frank Clark,  CB Charvarius Ward, CB Rashad Fenton, LB Willie Gay
5	Panthers	RB Christian McCaffrey, LT Cameron Erving, LB Shaq Thompson, CB Jaycee Horn, CB Stephon Gilmore
6	Buccaneers	TE Rob Gronkowski, LB Lavonte David, S Antoine Winfield, CB Carlton Davis, CB Sean Murphy-Bunting
7	Raiders	TE Darren Waller, LG Richie Incognito, RG Denzelle Good, CB Trayvon Mullen, LB Nicholas Morrow
8	Lions	C Frank Ragnow, LT Taylor Decker, CB Jeff Okudah, CB Ifeatu Melifonwu, DE Romeo Okwara, WR Tyrell Williams
9	Chargers	CB Michael Davis, CB Asante Samuel Jr., RT Bryan Bulaga, RG Oday Aboushi, LB Kenneth Murray
10	Broncos	Edge Bradley Chubb, LT Garrett Bolles, RT Bobby Massie, RG Grahamn Glasgow, WR KJ Hamler
11	Saints	QB Jameis Winston, RB Alvin Kamara, WR Michael Thomas, LT Terron Armstead, RT Ryan Ramczyk, LG Andrus Peat, DB Chauncey Gardner-Johnson
12	Giants	LB Blake Martinez, WR Kadarius Toney, WR Sterling Shepard, CB Logan Ryan, S Jabrill Peppers, C Nick Gates, LG Shame Lemieux
13	Jets	LT Mekhi Becton, S Marcus Maye, DE Carl Lawson, RB Michael Carter, DT Sheldon Rankins
15	Commanders	QB Ryan Fitzpatrick, QB Taylor Heinicke, QB Kyle Allen, DE Chase Young, RG Brandon Scherff, CB Kendall Fuller, TE Logan Thomas, C Chase Roullier, C Tyler Larson, S Cam Kurl, WR Curtis Samuel
16	Giants	QB Daniel Jones, CB Adoree Jackson, LB Blake Martinez, WR Sterling Shepard, S Jabrill Peppers, C Nick Gates, LG Shame Lemieux, CB Darnay Holmes
17	Commanders	QB Ryan Fitzpatrick, DE Chase Young, DE Montez Sweat, CB William Jackson, S Landon Collins, RB Antonio Gibson, TE Logan Thomas, RT Sam Cosmi, C Chase Roullier, LG Ereck Flowers, RB J.D. McKissic, WR Curtis Samuel
WC	Buccaneers	WR Chris Godwin, WR Antonio Brown, RB Leonard Fournette, CB Sean Murphy-Bunting, RB Ronald Jones, CB Richard Sherman

 

A minimum of 22 (!) players with at least 1 career Pro Bowl to their credit missed a game against the Eagles last year.

Again, look at the quality of Saints players who were missing against the Eagles last year, or how absurdly depleted the Commanders were in both Eagles matchups. Those games were gimmes that otherwise would have been far more competitive. Hell, the Eagles needed a last minute Rodney McLeod INT to beat a Commanders team missing 11 starters.

Oh, and a total of 21 cornerbacks are on that list, and the Eagles rarely made those teams pay through the air.

5) The Eagles aren't the offense they want to be

The Eagles will say that they don't care how they win, as long as they win, which is no doubt a true statement. However, they have communicated in the past that they feel that the way to win Super Bowls is to have a deadly passing attack.

Heading into the 2021 season, it seemed clear that the Eagles' offensive personnel was better suited toward a run-heavy attack. They had a great run-blocking offensive line, a quarterback who could make plays with his legs, and young, unproven receivers. The Eagles' staff could certainly could see what we all saw, too.

Still, through the first six or so weeks of the season, they tried to be something they weren't set up to be, which was an offense built around the passing game. It did not go well, and after the first month and a half of the season, they transitioned into the most run-heavy offense in the NFL. That version of the offense got them to the playoffs.

Teams like the Titans, Ravens, and 49ers are fine with owning that kind of identity, but make no mistake — that is not what the Eagles want to be, long-term.

Heading into 2022, they for sure want more balance, at a minimum. It will be a juggling act between (a) the continued evaluation of Hurts as a passer, (b) keeping guys like DeVonta Smith, A.J. Brown, and Dallas Goedert happy with their target allotments, and (c) knowing when to lean heavily on their rushing attack to win games in the short-term.

There will always be second-guessing after losses in Philly, but that has the potential to ramp up significantly in 2022 when things don't go right.

6) Game-planning and play calling concerns

Over the last six games of the season in 2021, the Eagles got out to slow starts in every game.

1st quarter scoring	Eagles	Opponent
Week 12: At Giants	0	3
Week 13: At Jets	7	12
Week 15: Washington	0	10
Week 16: Giants	0	0
Week 17: At Washington	0	10
Wild card round: At Buccaneers	0	14
TOTAL	7	49

They lost to the Giants Week 12, never being able to get on track offensively. In Weeks 15 and 17, they were able to weather the storm against the aforementioned severely depleted Commanders, but it took a while. If Washington didn't have like 15 players on the COVID list, maybe the outcome of one (or both?) of those games are different. Against a good team in the playoffs, and with a roster not constructed to be able to throw all day, the Eagles were all but eliminated by the first few minutes of the third quarter after getting down early.

At some point during the 2021 regular season, Nick Sirianni handed off play calling duties to offensive coordinator Shane Steichen. It feels like the general belief is that Steichen did a good job calling plays and the staff as a whole did a good job with their late-season game plans, based on the Eagles' 6-1 record to close the season (omitting the meaningless Week 18 game).

Did they though? If the Eagles had played better teams (even average ones) and came out flat the way the did every week down the stretch, they're probably not winning those games.

7) They face some difficult scheduling quirks

The Eagles have gotten favorable scheduling the last few years, and they (along with the rest of the NFC East) have an easy schedule in terms of strength of opponents. BUT... they have two significant disadvantages in 2022.

• They have road games on three straight weekends, a major disadvantage that schedule makers try to avoid. Oh, and they occur late in the season, in Weeks 14, 15, and 16. Oh, and the third game of that three-game stretch occurs on a short week of rest against the Eagles' most dangerous divisional rival, the Cowboys, and on Christmas Eve, no less.

• Four of their eight road games are on short rest. 

 

1. The Week 16 Christmas Eve Cowboys game above
2. Week 3 against the Commanders
3. Week 9 against the Texans
4. Week 11 against the Colts

That's the most in the NFL.

😎 The safeties

Anthony Harris and Marcus Epps will likely start, and the team added Jaquiski Tartt for depth. There are worse safety groups in the NFL, but this is obviously not a position of strength.

I've seen the safety position be hand-waived away as not all that important because the Eagles played a lot of soft shell coverages last season, which makes the safeties' jobs easier. Of course, if they play a lot of soft shell coverages against good quarterbacks again in 2022 they have much bigger problems, as explained in reason No. 2 above.

9) The punter

This poor punter. After the Eagles added players to almost every other positional group this offseason, there's been little left to focus on, so the heat has been turned up on Arryn Siposs, who was a shankopotamus machine at the end of the 2021 season.

Earlier this offseason, special teams coordinator Michael Clay spoke with Philly media. The Eagles got a Pro Bowl caliber season out of kicker Jake Elliott and they had recently added a world record-threatening hurdler with potential return ability, and Clay's first four questions were about the punter, lol.

That's not a criticism of my colleagues, to be clear. I missed that presser, but if I had been there, it would have been five or six straight questions about the punter.

10) The 2022 Eagles have some "Dream Team" vibes

The Eagles have made a lot of notable additions this offseason. On the defensive side of the ball, there's edge rusher Haason Reddick, CB James Bradberry, DT Jordan Davis, LB Nakobe Dean, and LB Kyzir White. On offense, of course, they traded a first-round pick for WR A.J. Brown.

The last few offseasons, the Eagles have been sort of an afterthought. This offseason, the hype is back and Eagles fans are confident. The vibes:

I get the excitement, but it does feel just a smidge premature. We don't really know about the quarterback yet. Or the head coach. The defensive coordinator might be bad. They didn't beat a single good team last year, they had major injury luck (both ways), and they don't really want their offensive identity to be what it probably should be. 

And yet, the city is basically like, nah f*** all that.

There are few things more obnoxious than confident Eagles fans. I say this with love, of course. Please don't hurt me or my family, thanks.

 

 

We’ll that was a downer.

 

@paco was on vacation. Missed the last two 

4 hours ago, OCEaglefan said:

@paco was on vacation. Missed the last two 

I don’t remember approving any vacation time

Hurts SZN

 

 

 

Sounds like things are going well in DC

Quote

 

ASHBURN, Va. (AP) — Ron Rivera doesn’t mind the chirping and taunting coming from Washington Commanders players during training camp.

The veteran coach just wants it to turn into something useful.

Following the second practice of camp that was full of barbs mostly from the defense, Rivera thinks his young team is still figuring out how to handle those moments. He sees it as another stage in the maturation process, which is happening in the aftermath of getting fined $100,000 and the team being stripped of two offseason workouts next year for excessive contact on the field during the spring.

"There is a fine line: We don’t want it to be destructive as much as we want it to be constructive,” Rivera said Thursday. "If you beat somebody, that’s great. You may woof a little bit, but then go up and tell him how you beat him, tell him why you beat him, tell what they need to do to be better, and that’s what we’ve got to get to.”

Rivera, who’s in his third season with Washington after coaching the Carolina Panthers for nine years, believes he has evolved with NFL rules that limit practice time and have made hard-hitting two-a-days a thing of the past.

"Going through this process, learning how to adapt and adjust, I’d like to believe we’ve done it right,” Rivera said. "Granted. I got in trouble in the spring, but it took 12 years for me to get in trouble, I guess, so I think I’d like to say that I adapted for the most part doing the things that we need to do.”

Rivera was incensed by one particular hit during organized team activities June 8 to the point he stopped practice to lecture his team. Safety Jeremy Reaves made significant contact with second-year receiver Dyami Brown during practice without pads. While Rivera disagreed with the league’s assessment, he continually reminds players about maters of safety during practice.

"Sometimes things happen,” he said. "Guys run into each other. I try to make a point of it. I try to emphasize it during OTAs and minicamp that we’re supposed to keep our heads out of it.”

Contact wasn’t an issue Thursday, though it’s not difficult to imagine some of the trash-talking escalating in the coming weeks when players put the pads on and the physicality increases. Players didn’t even stop jawing at each other — mostly playfully — when practice ended.

"That’s just the competitive nature of the game, just having fun and competing against each other — even after, walking off the field still talking trash,” veteran cornerback Kendall Fuller said. "That’s just the nature of the game and everybody having fun.”

Rivera is fine with fun as long as things don’t get out of hand. He also cautioned players that this early in camp mismatches are going to happen and to not overreact to big plays.

"I circled them up and told them that,” Rivera said. "I said, ‘Listen guys, understand what I have to balance. I want to see you guys excel, but at the same time we’re not game-planning, so we’ve got to understand how to practice, how to work with each other, how to connect, how to understand what it takes for us all to grow and develop, and that’s the balance.’”

 

 

https://www.espn.com/blog/philadelphia-eagles/post/_/id/33002/eagles-gardner-minshew-spent-the-offseason-in-an-old-prison-bus-focused-on-super-bowl-or-bust

Philadelphia Eagles' Gardner Minshew spent offseason in old prison bus, focused on 'Super Bowl or bust'

 

 

On 7/29/2022 at 3:00 PM, The_Omega said:

https://www.espn.com/blog/philadelphia-eagles/post/_/id/33002/eagles-gardner-minshew-spent-the-offseason-in-an-old-prison-bus-focused-on-super-bowl-or-bust
 

Here's an exclusive picture of Minshew in training:

22 minutes ago, toolg said:

still can't believe sometimes that ^ is this guy...

5 hours ago, wholesale_Melvin said:

still can't believe sometimes that ^ is this guy...

Lazlo also doesn't return Tupperware 

Remember this trade?

Quote

  Philadelphia → New Orleans (PD). Philadelphia traded two first-round selections (16th and 19th overall) and a sixth-round selection (194th overall) to New Orleans in exchange for first, third, and seventh-round selections (18th, 101st, and 237th overall) as well as a 2023 first-round selection and a 2024 second-round selection.

 

Well the player they selected with that pick, Trevor Penning, has been involved in physical altercations for 3 straight practices now and was kicked out yesterday.

 

 

20 minutes ago, paco said:

Remember this trade?

 

Well the player they selected with that pick, Trevor Penning, has been involved in physical altercations for 3 straight practices now and was kicked out yesterday.

 

 

And Kamara court case is coming up. Let's hope for a suspension 

40 minutes ago, DaEagles4Life said:

And Kamara court case is coming up. Let's hope for a suspension 

New Orleans → Philadelphia (PD). Philadelphia traded two 2022 first-round selections (16th and 19th overall) and a sixth-round selection (194th overall) to New Orleans in exchange for 2022 first, third, and seventh-round selections (18th, 101st, and 237th overall) as well as a 2023 first-round selection and a 2024 second-round selection.

 

Skeet skeet skeet