Trea Turner's August was so good, he caught up and passed Bogaerts in every batting category except batting avg and OBP. 

Hits: 145 to 134
HR: 21 to 16
Runs: 84 (now 85) to 61
SLG: 0.446 to 0.406
SB: 25 to 14
OPS: 0.757 to 0.742

2B: 30 to 22
3B: 5 to 0
 

And even as bad as Turner was going... only 8 GDP to Bogaerts' 20 (which leads the NL).  Turner does have more Ks than Bogaerts.  

And Turner ADDS to his stats with another blast.   

And as bad as Turner was until this past month... Carlos Correa has been just as bad, if not worse than Turner was playing pre-August 4.   Correa has grounded into 29 DPs, to lead all of MLB.

Pache managing to return hot.  

Phillies are quickly getting a log jam in CF with Marsh, Rojas, Pache and Crawford.   Some moves will be made.

 

 

Phillies are just having batting practice tonight.   🤣

@mattwill

You know I don’t care much for predictions as the NFL season is long and what twists and turns, injuries, slumps and breakouts may occur are yet to be determined but it is a tradition, so here goes.

For years I would just predict all wins through the Super Bowl.  That was kind of nonsense.  Last year I focused on what we didn’t know and had the most negative prediction.  I will focus on known and unknown this year.  Put me down for 11-6 Eagles.

Known, NFC champion schedule and harder conferences, at least on paper before games start  

Unknown Going from an experienced OC to an inexperienced one.  Recall that when Nick was calling offense he was pass heavy.  Shane is a run heavy coach. Hated Shane’s jet sweeps and his screens.  Thought he failed to utilize the backs in the passing game until towards the end of the season using Gainwell. Kempski’s moronic take that Scott is not a pass catcher aside, I expect Johnson uses the backs more in screens and in the passing game. I expect teams will be better equipped for the sneaks.

Unknown Desai, McDonald, Eliot.  Who knows what the defense will be?  Were some blitzes in PS though not much.  I expect a lot of zone but more varied and less quarters.  Lost a lot of starters so lots of room for change.  Suspect we are going to see a lot of heavy five men fronts.  But only guesses at this point.

Known  Clay returns and nothing I have seen convinces me we will see better STs with Elliott being the outlier to that (he looked damn good in PS).

Some known, some unknown. OL has the top four returning.  Replacement is Jurgens.  Lighter than Seumalo and that is a bit of a concern because Kelce is light too.  But apparently Jurgens is strong as an ox (I caution that Opeta was a bench press leader at the Combine).  Depth less secure than last year.  Health is important.  Back up C playing G is a bit concerning from how injury could impact things .

Some known, some unknown. RB, two returning, two new.  Is Gainwell or Swift the starter?   Is Penny back?  Running game didn’t look particularly good in PS but that really is kind of the way the Eagles treat those games.  IMHO, Jalen running less necessitates the passing game utilizing the RBs to open up the running game.  

Known QB as long a Hurts is healthy and doesn’t slump.  Played like a guy with a red shirt all TC (that’s a compliment).  Mariota scares me.  The apparent inaccuracy was blatant.  Apparent because he was playing with less receivers but blatant because so was McKee.  But McKee had to play against the cut CBs. Still Mariota sailing throws was a concern.

Known WR as long as healthy.  OZ is an upgrade from Pascal.  Smith looks even better. Quez was having a good camp pre hammy.  Nice having two #1 WRs.  Calcaterra is a bigger Pascal with better hands.  Oops, he’s a TE. Depth is the same as last year unless someone really thought Covey was a WR last year.

Known  TE, same as last year plus Albert O.  

Unknown FB, on sneaks, the left buttocks was played by Pascal.  Who takes that role this year.  I am thinking Penny.  Or randomly regular, Nolan Smith.

Known but a ?  Sweat and BG.  Sounds like BG has figured out maintenance of his body.  Barnett doesn’t sound like he had a good TC.  And two flags for idiocy in practice.  The question mark is he recovered, can he be better than the old guys they had the last two years and can he park the idiocy.  Of concern with Patrick Johnson, jack of all trades, master of none, is can he do more than bull rush, which seemed his only move in PS.  Suspect that was what he was working on to improve.  Think we will see some Milton and Street at Big DE, maybe even some Cox and Carter but that’s an unknown.

Known Edge Reddick’s thumb is a little concerning but otherwise…. Smith is the real deal and Patrick a proven albeit unimpressive in comparison known. As AR would say, we’re good there.

Known DT.  Them boys need to tout Mazi because they are a distant fourth in DTs in the NFCE.  No one has the depths of the Eagles. Hargrave who?  Amazing the Eagles lost a double digit sack DT and look like they upgraded the position   I have faith in Davis.  Biggest question for me is if Marlin T picks up where he left off when he was injured.  I was on the verge of needing to be able to spell his name.

Complete unknown LB.  Heck I learned more about VanSumeren this summer than the three who made it.  Ellis needs to tackle better but can cover, which is good because Cunningham struggles with coverage.  Dean is a complete unknown at this point as a pro.  We’ll see.  My biggest concern about this team.

Known with a ?  Slay and Bradberry are back.  Maddox too but is his toe?  I think depth may be weaker.  Lost McPhearson.  Goodrich made the team on hustle and over concern about Maddox.  Not convinced he is a huge upgrade to Scott.  I am not ask impressed by Ricks as PFF but he outplayed Ringo.  Jobes looked solid.  Ringo a disappointment.

Unknown S Blakenship immediately a starter.  Suggestion by Beats he had a strong camp.  Brown must have read Tatum’s book, They Call Me Assassin.  I will put up with his rookie mistakes, just start him.  Edmunds is the best WIL on the team but not great at high S, which is limiting but he will be great in the three nickel S package.  Evans, I just don’t see it.  As much as I disliked Wallace over the years, I thought he looked better than Evans in PS and is a known commodity on STs.  I hate body throwing tackling. Wrap him up and put shoulder into the ground with him between it as Coach Green always said  

Unknown except Elliott STs.  P and PR aren’t good enough to avoid risking waivers on them.  Lovato was off on snaps in PS, unless that was testing the Ps.  Lane discipline in PS was awful and tackling not much better. Lost from an albeit bad STs group from last year are Bradley, McPhearson, Wallace, Epps, Blakenship, K Johnson, Edwards,,Pascal. Dillard and likely Jurgens as blockers on FGs and PATs. So who are going to be "coached” by Clay to block and cover?  Who are the gunners?  Hell is the PR even Covey?  

The unknowns make me feel like 6-11 is as likely as 11-6 but the knowns make me feel like  20-0 is as likely as 11-6.  I will stick with 11-6.  Oh and the wildcard is a sweep of the cowpads and 49ers no matter how many times the Eagles have to play them.

 

 

 

 

2 hours ago, jojodancer said:

But why do we keep calling Siposs a mediocre punter? Just about every site I have seen he is bottom 5. Puntanalytics is a little more favorable and he is bottom third of league. Mediocre is too nice here. 

Because the difference between ranks ten and 32 at P in the NFL is miniscule based on those sites criteria, gross yards, net yards, inside the twenty percentage, touchbacks.  Two yards or less on a 100 yard football field is 2%. Percentage inside the twenty is garbage.  Heck one of my complaints about Sisposs is how rarely he is inside the ten and not even rarely the five.  These don’t always measure the punter alone.  Time from snap to kick not measured were kicking from, not measured. Between the numbers, not measured. Hang time not measured.  Didn’t realize when you referenced stat nerds, you meant yourself.  

2 hours ago, Wentz_Era said:

The playoff game against Tampa?  The one where the entire team failed to show up?

Yep. Sisposs was one of the worst. Everyone screwed the pooch that game.

13 minutes ago, BigEFly said:

Because the difference between ranks ten and 32 at P in the NFL is miniscule based on those sites criteria, gross yards, net yards, inside the twenty percentage, touchbacks.  Two yards or less on a 100 yard football field is 2%. Percentage inside the twenty is garbage.  Heck one of my complaints about Sisposs is how rarely he is inside the ten and not even rarely the five.  These don’t always measure the punter alone.  Time from snap to kick not measured were kicking from, not measured. Between the numbers, not measured. Hang time not measured.  Didn’t realize when you referenced stat nerds, you meant yourself.  

I am trying to look at the basic stats and trust my eyes at the same time. The general feeling of a punter and how clutch he is or isn't is overlooked here. As a fan, you just kind of know if a guy is good or isn't. The general stats surely don't back up Siposs. And my eyes don't. What else is there? Why are we turning this into rocket science? It's ridiculous! The guy is bottom 5. I rather be closer to 15 or 10. Coverage units not being good make this position even more important to win on the margins. Why are we going to even look at this with a fine toothed comb if you are going to say 32 and 10 are almost the same? Just throw away all that bunk and trust my eyes on situational punting. And the keys which I am looking for in a punter here, is flipping the field and leg strength, which Siposs lacks greatly.

29 minutes ago, BigEFly said:

@mattwill

You know I don’t care much for predictions as the NFL season is long and what twists and turns, injuries, slumps and breakouts may occur are yet to be determined but it is a tradition, so here goes.

For years I would just predict all wins through the Super Bowl.  That was kind of nonsense.  Last year I focused on what we didn’t know and had the most negative prediction.  I will focus on known and unknown this year.  Put me down for 11-6 Eagles.

Known, NFC champion schedule and harder conferences, at least on paper before games start  

Unknown Going from an experienced OC to an inexperienced one.  Recall that when Nick was calling offense he was pass heavy.  Shane is a run heavy coach. Hated Shane’s jet sweeps and his screens.  Thought he failed to utilize the backs in the passing game until towards the end of the season using Gainwell. Kempski’s moronic take that Scott is not a pass catcher aside, I expect Johnson uses the backs more in screens and in the passing game. I expect teams will be better equipped for the sneaks.

Unknown Desai, McDonald, Eliot.  Who knows what the defense will be?  Were some blitzes in PS though not much.  I expect a lot of zone but more varied and less quarters.  Lost a lot of starters so lots of room for change.  Suspect we are going to see a lot of heavy five men fronts.  But only guesses at this point.

Known  Clay returns and nothing I have seen convinces me we will see better STs with Elliott being the outlier to that (he looked damn good in PS).

Some known, some unknown. OL has the top four returning.  Replacement is Jurgens.  Lighter than Seumalo and that is a bit of a concern because Kelce is light too.  But apparently Jurgens is strong as an ox (I caution that Opeta was a bench press leader at the Combine).  Depth less secure than last year.  Health is important.  Back up C playing G is a bit concerning from how injury could impact things .

Some known, some unknown. RB, two returning, two new.  Is Gainwell or Swift the starter?   Is Penny back?  Running game didn’t look particularly good in PS but that really is kind of the way the Eagles treat those games.  IMHO, Jalen running less necessitates the passing game utilizing the RBs to open up the running game.  

Known QB as long a Hurts is healthy and doesn’t slump.  Played like a guy with a red shirt all TC (that’s a compliment).  Mariota scares me.  The apparent inaccuracy was blatant.  Apparent because he was playing with less receivers but blatant because so was McKee.  But McKee had to play against the cut CBs. Still Mariota sailing throws was a concern.

Known WR as long as healthy.  OZ is an upgrade from Pascal.  Smith looks even better. Quez was having a good camp pre hammy.  Nice having two #1 WRs.  Calcaterra is a bigger Pascal with better hands.  Oops, he’s a TE. Depth is the same as last year unless someone really thought Covey was a WR last year.

Known  TE, same as last year plus Albert O.  

Unknown FB, on sneaks, the left buttocks was played by Pascal.  Who takes that role this year.  I am thinking Penny.  Or randomly regular, Nolan Smith.

Known but a ?  Sweat and BG.  Sounds like BG has figured out maintenance of his body.  Barnett doesn’t sound like he had a good TC.  And two flags for idiocy in practice.  The question mark is he recovered, can he be better than the old guys they had the last two years and can he park the idiocy.  Of concern with Patrick Johnson, jack of all trades, master of none, is can he do more than bull rush, which seemed his only move in PS.  Suspect that was what he was working on to improve.  Think we will see some Milton and Street at Big DE, maybe even some Cox and Carter but that’s an unknown.

Known Edge Reddick’s thumb is a little concerning but otherwise…. Smith is the real deal and Patrick a proven albeit unimpressive in comparison known. As AR would say, we’re good there.

Known DT.  Them boys need to tout Mazi because they are a distant fourth in DTs in the NFCE.  No one has the depths of the Eagles. Hargrave who?  Amazing the Eagles lost a double digit sack DT and look like they upgraded the position   I have faith in Davis.  Biggest question for me is if Marlin T picks up where he left off when he was injured.  I was on the verge of needing to be able to spell his name.

Complete unknown LB.  Heck I learned more about VanSumeren this summer than the three who made it.  Ellis needs to tackle better but can cover, which is good because Cunningham struggles with coverage.  Dean is a complete unknown at this point as a pro.  We’ll see.  My biggest concern about this team.

Known with a ?  Slay and Bradberry are back.  Maddox too but is his toe?  I think depth may be weaker.  Lost McPhearson.  Goodrich made the team on hustle and over concern about Maddox.  Not convinced he is a huge upgrade to Scott.  I am not ask impressed by Ricks as PFF but he outplayed Ringo.  Jobes looked solid.  Ringo a disappointment.

Unknown S Blakenship immediately a starter.  Suggestion by Beats he had a strong camp.  Brown must have read Tatum’s book, They Call Me Assassin.  I will put up with his rookie mistakes, just start him.  Edmunds is the best WIL on the team but not great at high S, which is limiting but he will be great in the three nickel S package.  Evans, I just don’t see it.  As much as I disliked Wallace over the years, I thought he looked better than Evans in PS and is a known commodity on STs.  I hate body throwing tackling. Wrap him up and put shoulder into the ground with him between it as Coach Green always said  

Unknown except Elliott STs.  P and PR aren’t good enough to avoid risking waivers on them.  Lovato was off on snaps in PS, unless that was testing the Ps.  Lane discipline in PS was awful and tackling not much better. Lost from an albeit bad STs group from last year are Bradley, McPhearson, Wallace, Epps, Blakenship, K Johnson, Edwards,,Pascal. Dillard and likely Jurgens as blockers on FGs and PATs. So who are going to be "coached” by Clay to block and cover?  Who are the gunners?  Hell is the PR even Covey?  

The unknowns make me feel like 6-11 is as likely as 11-6 but the knowns make me feel like  20-0 is as likely as 11-6.  I will stick with 11-6.  Oh and the wildcard is a sweep of the cowpads and 49ers no matter how many times the Eagles have to play them.

I love this new (or newly dicovered three dots menu.  I was able to share your comment above with myself via e-mail.

2 hours ago, Iggles_Phan said:

OZ for me as the punt returner.  And, he can actually play in the slot.

Well there is the curse of Greg Lewis to give us caution but I concur and it fits Franklin’s excellent post about not elevating the same two three weeks in a row and then facing a twofold roster decision.

11 minutes ago, BigEFly said:

Well there is the curse of Greg Lewis to give us caution but I concur and it fits Franklin’s excellent post about not elevating the same two three weeks in a row and then facing a twofold roster decision.

If OZ had never returned punts before in his life, like GLew, then I'd say it's the same thing.  

He did kickoff returns at Virginia two years... and punt returns his freshman year.   In Atlanta, he was their punt returner for about half the season in '21.  And frankly, given that he can have a role offensively, I'd settle for him literally just catching the ball.  Anything more than that is gravy.  But he looked comfortable there in his limited opportunities in preseason.

Let's take our nerd glasses off for a second here. As an Eagles fan, how many times have you come away thinking. Wow, Siposs really made a difference in today's game. In a good way? I don't remember once in 2 years. How many times did he seem to make a clutch punt, in a key spot, whether it was a coffin corner punt inside the 10 or a boomer to flip the field? Again, don't remember many. I seem to remember only his crappy punts. 😁 One overriding one in the Superbowl, as a matter of fact.

2 hours ago, FranklinFldEBUpper said:

Game day inactives? I believe we can dress 48 guys so long as one is an eighth offensive lineman and one is a third quarterback. Since you need one spot for a *holder* and another spot for a punt returner to account for two elevations off the practice squad, that leaves you with seven guys on the roster who will not be in uniform on Sunday.

Here’s what I’m thinking. Last year we routinely dressed three running backs, so that may be the preference this year as well. That might leave Penny and Scott in a battle for the last spot. Since Scott is the presumed kick returner, that would give him an edge. So that leaves Penny as the first candidate.

They definitely won’t dress four tight ends, so I think O is a lock to be inactive. Calcaterra is another candidate too of course but I suspect they’d prefer to dress him.

They will certainly inactivate a backup offensive lineman, and I have a hunch it’ll be Steen despite his recent draft pedigree. Not ready yet. Nothing wrong with giving him the experience of watching from the sideline early in the year. Opeta has played in games before and is probably more dependable at this point in time. And they seem to like Johnson. 

So that’s three on offense. Penny, O, and Steen. Though Penny is far from a certainty. That leaves four on defense, five if you want Penny in uniform.

We only have three defensive ends, so they all dress. That leaves you with six defensive tackles. Street and Tui are the obvious two. I’ll say both at this point, but they may not want to go that thin. But it’s a numbers game and you have to find places to go light.

We only really have three traditional linebackers (Dean, Elliss, and Cunningham) so they’ll all dress. Do you dress all three edge rusher slash linebackers? Reddick obviously plays, so do you inactivate P Johnson or Nolan Smith? You’d think they would prefer Smith to play, so Johnson would be the obvious choice. But it’s plausible they might give Smith another week to get right. Still, I would predict Johnson sits.

That leaves one more inactivation in the secondary. I think all four safeties dress, so one of the three deep reserves at corner sit. So which of Ringo, Ricks, and Goodrich sit? I guess it’s Ringo and Ricks who play while Goodrich sits. But maybe they play Penny and sit Ringo or Ricks.

It’s not necessarily clear cut, and it’s obvious that these are tough decisions. I guess I’ll go with Penny, O, Steen, Street, Tui, P Johnson, and Goodrich. And I also think it’s 50-50 they activate Ward over Covey this week. They might do neither while clearing a uniform for Penny and asking Zaccheaus or Jobe to return punts. 

I think Goodrich plays over Ringo primarily because, unlike last year, when Wallace and CJGJ both had nickel experience in college, he is the only nickel available and Maddox’s  toe may not be fully right at this point.  Ringo disappointed in PS and frankly, I thought Goodrich looked better on coverage teams.  Although Ringo’s speed screams gunner, his agility doesn’t.  

I have Street starting over Ojomo because of his big DE versatility but rotating with Marlon T, dependent on the team we face because, like Milton Williams, Street is a little light. 

P Johnson is a hard one for me. I suspect he is our #4 DE and #4 ILB in addition to our #3 SAM.  He comes down to a STs decision as does Ricks.  As I see it, PJ offers more on D at this point.  Didn’t he block on punt teams last year.  

Can we change the thread title disclaimer to "no politics or punters" please? 

Just now, DEagle7 said:

Can we change the thread title disclaimer to "no politics or punters" please? 

Are you kidding?  Punters are one of the few players that actually puts the 'foot' into football. 

1 hour ago, mattwill said:

I don't believe the 3rd QB has to be one of the 46/48 actives.

A club must have two bona fide quarterbacks on its 47/48-player game day active list to designate an Emergency Third Quarterback. A club cannot designate an Emergency Third Quarterback if it has three or more bona fide quarterbacks on its 47/48-player game day active list.

That’s the way I understood it.  3rd QB is a 49th that can only play if the first two went out because of injury or suspension. 

20 minutes ago, Iggles_Phan said:

If OZ had never returned punts before in his life, like GLew, then I'd say it's the same thing.  

He did kickoff returns at Virginia two years... and punt returns his freshman year.   In Atlanta, he was their punt returner for about half the season in '21.  And frankly, given that he can have a role offensively, I'd settle for him literally just catching the ball.  Anything more than that is gravy.  But he looked comfortable there in his limited opportunities in preseason.

Agree.  Didn’t realize he returned punts that much in Atlanta but they were miserable to watch in 2021.  My use of NFL Network game replays and NFL + condensed games is governed by how many college games I have on DVR from the last weekend and how many I didn’t see are being replayed by the sports networks and how good/bad the NFL teams playing are.  Recorded games, like Condensed games take about 35-45 minutes to watch unless, with college, I want to rewind to watch a specific player or play again.  Other than the Eagles, I don’t watch a lot of games live and with the Eagles, a lot of the time I am a little behind so I can fast forward through commercials and half time.  

56 minutes ago, jojodancer said:

I am trying to look at the basic stats and trust my eyes at the same time. The general feeling of a punter and how clutch he is or isn't is overlooked here. As a fan, you just kind of know if a guy is good or isn't. The general stats surely don't back up Siposs. And my eyes don't. What else is there? Why are we turning this into rocket science? It's ridiculous! The guy is bottom 5. I rather be closer to 15 or 10. Coverage units not being good make this position even more important to win on the margins. Why are we going to even look at this with a fine toothed comb if you are going to say 32 and 10 are almost the same? Just throw away all that bunk and trust my eyes on situational punting. And the keys which I am looking for in a punter here, is flipping the field and leg strength, which Siposs lacks greatly.

I am done with discussing punters per the parameters suggested by Franklin a few pages back.  I did try to get an idea of your "eyes” with trying to understand your "meh” comment about McCollum on the PS.  I told you why I liked the PS signing but all you offered in return was commenting on the length of my expressed viewpoint.  I gather what my eyes see when observing the game my not be the same as yours.  Let’s leave it at that, shall we?

10 minutes ago, BigEFly said:

Agree.  Didn’t realize he returned punts that much in Atlanta but they were miserable to watch in 2021.  My use of NFL Network game replays and NFL + condensed games is governed by how many college games I have on DVR from the last weekend and how many I didn’t see are being replayed by the sports networks and how good/bad the NFL teams playing are.  Recorded games, like Condensed games take about 35-45 minutes to watch unless, with college, I want to rewind to watch a specific player or play again.  Other than the Eagles, I don’t watch a lot of games live and with the Eagles, a lot of the time I am a little behind so I can fast forward through commercials and half time.  

I might have misread that on Pre-football-reference.  Either way, he's got way more experience than GLew did.  . That might have been Andy's worst coaching decision ever.

@LeanMeanGM

Now, given that Spads and the folks at PE.com aren’t perfect on posting the roster.  Last year after release we never saw Noah Elliss and Toth when resigned to PS never showed,   I mention that because Sermon isn’t showing on the IR list.

They bring in Drue Chrisman for a visit? 

Ah yes the Phillies blowing a 8-1 lead. Must be September 

28 minutes ago, BigEFly said:

I am done with discussing punters per the parameters suggested by Franklin a few pages back.  I did try to get an idea of your "eyes” with trying to understand your "meh” comment about McCollum on the PS.  I told you why I liked the PS signing but all you offered in return was commenting on the length of my expressed viewpoint.  I gather what my eyes see when observing the game my not be the same as yours.  Let’s leave it at that, shall we?

I could give 2 craps what Frankling suggested. Bunch of crappy topics talked about here all the time with 100 lines to read in the post. You just roll with it bro. Instead of whining.

37 minutes ago, BigEFly said:

Agree.  Didn’t realize he returned punts that much in Atlanta but they were miserable to watch in 2021.  My use of NFL Network game replays and NFL + condensed games is governed by how many college games I have on DVR from the last weekend and how many I didn’t see are being replayed by the sports networks and how good/bad the NFL teams playing are.  Recorded games, like Condensed games take about 35-45 minutes to watch unless, with college, I want to rewind to watch a specific player or play again.  Other than the Eagles, I don’t watch a lot of games live and with the Eagles, a lot of the time I am a little behind so I can fast forward through commercials and half time.  

I wouldn't call it that much.

He had a total of 3 Punt Returns And 2 Kick Returns.

Maybe they'll go into the game with OZ and see how he does And if he's not cutting it they can elevate covey.

33 minutes ago, BigEFly said:

@LeanMeanGM

Now, given that Spads and the folks at PE.com aren’t perfect on posting the roster.  Last year after release we never saw Noah Elliss and Toth when resigned to PS never showed,   I mention that because Sermon isn’t showing on the IR list.

Yea. They were randomly not showing Le’Raven Clark for some reason either until  today. Beats me.