November 17, 20231 yr 1 hour ago, weko said: Dean was not a good risk in the 3rd round. That's where you get starters. He's too small and unathletic, too slow. That's why the league passed on him. You can take a chance on a LB with his skill set in the 6th or 7th rounds, maybe late 5. Howie got caught up in the Georgia story line. Never should have spent a 3rd round pick on Mingo. Not to soon to say he can't play. Love Steen at a LT but we have maybe the best LT in football ahead of him. Hopefully he can play RT. He doesn't look like a guard but maybe he will by next training camp. Another 3rd round pick who right now has no way to contribute unless Mailata gets hurt or he can spell Lane. RG will be a 2nd or 3rd round pick in April. Eagles selected Dean in hopes he would be a starter, but taking players who have been known to have injury issues in later rounds isn’t new to the Eagles. Who can forget Sidney Brown? I recall during the Dean draft pundits kept commenting how he kept sliding and asking who would take him? For the most part it didn’t seem like he fell because of his size rather it was due to his injury. Overall I don’t like that they handed him the job, and it may prove put that Dean was a bust in the end, but clearly the Eagles viewed him as a starter at that pick just like they views Sidney Brown as a starter. I agree with your viewpoint though. Nothing annoys me more than the Eagles trying to get cute and take project players or role players with any of their first three picks. Those guys need to be starters within the first two seasons of their careers. Drafting Andre Dillard, but never giving him the opportunity to play for an example is the kind of wasted pick that irks me.
November 17, 20231 yr 2 hours ago, time2rock said: Yep, his 2023 season is almost certainly done. Just because his eligibility to return starts on a certain date doesn't mean he will (but I like to include that info regardless). Right now I don’t think there’s much we can debate on if this guy. There’s a possibility he doesn’t play again. As such I hope the Eagles do not waste time waiting for Dean. This next off-season linebacker needs to become a position they thru and solidify. Enough of the one year contracts. Get a player we can count on to be productive, play in most games, and be around for more than just a season or two. The same applies for the safety position although Blankenship seems pretty solid although he also can get banged up.
November 17, 20231 yr 16 minutes ago, EazyEaglez said: Eagles selected Dean in hopes he would be a starter, but taking players who have been known to have injury issues in later rounds isn’t new to the Eagles. Who can forget Sidney Brown? I recall during the Dean draft pundits kept commenting how he kept sliding and asking who would take him? For the most part it didn’t seem like he fell because of his size rather it was due to his injury. Overall I don’t like that they handed him the job, and it may prove put that Dean was a bust in the end, but clearly the Eagles viewed him as a starter at that pick just like they views Sidney Brown as a starter. I agree with your viewpoint though. Nothing annoys me more than the Eagles trying to get cute and take project players or role players with any of their first three picks. Those guys need to be starters within the first two seasons of their careers. Drafting Andre Dillard, but never giving him the opportunity to play for an example is the kind of wasted pick that irks me. Sidney Jones
November 17, 20231 yr Author 19 minutes ago, EazyEaglez said: Right now I don’t think there’s much we can debate on if this guy. There’s a possibility he doesn’t play again. As such I hope the Eagles do not waste time waiting for Dean. This next off-season linebacker needs to become a position they thru and solidify. Enough of the one year contracts. Get a player we can count on to be productive, play in most games, and be around for more than just a season or two. The same applies for the safety position although Blankenship seems pretty solid although he also can get banged up. There are needs all across the roster. I agree with you on LB and probably S (perhaps Brown becomes that guy opposite Blank). We could use some young top talent at CB to start grooming to eventually replace Slay and Bradberry (perhaps Ricks is one but certainly not a definite yet). Imagine how much someone like WItherspoon would help (I had him at the very top of my wish list ... but he went ahead of our pick and really can't complain about Carter). RB is a need for sure and it would be wise to grab our RT of the future. And WR3 is a need as well ... we are awful thin after Brown and Smith (feelings on Quez are irrelevant ... he is a FA after the season as is OZ and Julio).
November 17, 20231 yr 6 hours ago, EazyEaglez said: Most will try to say that it’s not a big deal and that he was a good risk. I don’t disagree with that assessment, but he should have never just been anointed the starting job without proving his worth. The Eagles threw a lot of picks at the Georgia group but if we are being honest so far only Carter and Davis have worked out. It’s not a big deal and he was a good risk. That Carter is already amazing is the big exception that just proves he’s a super star. Davis is excellent and his importance for us underrated. 100% confident Nolan Smith will be very good for us too. Ringo has been good on special teams. What do people expect? Every draft pick playing perfect from year one? Not every pick works out and to get worked up over it after what has obviously been very successful drafts seems stupid to me.
November 17, 20231 yr Dean was a standout and a leader on a historically great college football defense. I have no problem taking a flyer on him in Round 3. He redshirted his rookie season, then got an unfortunate injury in year 2. It's far from over for him. He could still easily pan out.
November 17, 20231 yr 3 hours ago, Infam said: It’s not a big deal and he was a good risk. That Carter is already amazing is the big exception that just proves he’s a super star. Davis is excellent and his importance for us underrated. 100% confident Nolan Smith will be very good for us too. Ringo has been good on special teams. What do people expect? Every draft pick playing perfect from year one? Not every pick works out and to get worked up over it after what has obviously been very successful drafts seems stupid to me. Like I mentioned I’m not upset over them picking him. I don’t like how they just anointed him as the starter.
November 17, 20231 yr 6 hours ago, time2rock said: There are needs all across the roster. I agree with you on LB and probably S (perhaps Brown becomes that guy opposite Blank). We could use some young top talent at CB to start grooming to eventually replace Slay and Bradberry (perhaps Ricks is one but certainly not a definite yet). Imagine how much someone like WItherspoon would help (I had him at the very top of my wish list ... but he went ahead of our pick and really can't complain about Carter). RB is a need for sure and it would be wise to grab our RT of the future. And WR3 is a need as well ... we are awful thin after Brown and Smith (feelings on Quez are irrelevant ... he is a FA after the season as is OZ and Julio). Agreed. There’s a bunch of needs on this roster. Howie has his work cut out for him, but I feel like he’s going to work it out.
November 17, 20231 yr 1 hour ago, EazyEaglez said: Howie has his work cut out for him, but I feel like he’s going to work it out We say this every year, especially going into this season. 8-1 sir!
November 17, 20231 yr 44 minutes ago, Bwestbrook36 said: We say this every year, especially going into this season. 8-1 sir! Yes it’s true, but Howie’s gonna need to "nail the draft” this time! 😂
November 18, 20231 yr 5 hours ago, Kz! said: Dean was a standout and a leader on a historically great college football defense. I have no problem taking a flyer on him in Round 3. He redshirted his rookie season, then got an unfortunate injury in year 2. It's far from over for him. He could still easily pan out. The other thing that's funny to keep reading are the replies where people keep calling Dean, "unathletic" and "slow." Daniel Jeremiah: "When you talk about the center of your defense and having that intelligence, the toughness, the leadership, he’s got all that stuff in spades. I think he’s outstanding. He can cover. You see him mirror backs. He’s a real crafty blitzer. In my notes I wrote this guy does everything fast. There’s nothing he does that isn’t fast. He’s probably the greatest disparity in terms of how I have a guy graded and where I have him going because I can’t get a feel for where he’s going to go in the first round. He’s a top-10 player for me.” ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Mel Kiper Jr. on why Dean would possibly fall in the draft: https://www.on3.com/college/georgia-bulldogs/news/2022-nfl-draft-mel-kiper-explains-why-nakobe-dean-could-drop-second-round-georgia-bulldogs-devin-lloyd-linebacker/ "We talked about running backs being not phased out completely, because you still had a couple running backs in the first round last year, right? You might not have any this year, but linebacker, that off-ball linebacker, it’s hard to find a spot. And they are being a little bit phased out, or at least the value not nearly what it used to be. We used to have linebackers galore going in the first. If you put one of those two to the Eagles, and you don’t put a linebacker like that to the Patriots — I don’t know where you go from 20-32, unless you’re mocking trades. Then you got one dropping into the second round.” While Kiper sees the Philadelphia Eagles and New England Patriots as potential landing spots, he believes Dean could be in for a long night if one of those two teams pass up on the chance to draft him. Nevertheless, Mel Kiper believes one team will be elated to draft Nakobe Dean — it just may come later than the Georgia star originally anticipated. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By Lance Zierlein: Overview Explosive, three-down linebacker with the demeanor and quickness to become a volume tackler while holding down third-down duties at a high level. Dean's play recognition is a work in progress, which limits reaction time and forces him to deal with more blockers than he'll see as he gains more experience. Quick feet and plus agility will bring him to ball-carriers at a high rate but a lack of size and length means he'll need to fine-tune his approach as a tackler to make sure he finishes what he starts. He might lack measurables, but he has the toughness and technique to see a boost in his performance once his play becomes more proactive. Strengths Explosive athlete with access to instant acceleration. Piled up impact stats in the major categories. Rarely voids gap by running around a block. Fearless to attack and fit a gap with force. Hand snap to meet and play off the blocker. Agility and quickness for effective lateral flow. Patrols with excellent track-down speed/range. Runs through the ball-carrier. Athletic ability to cover backs out of the backfield. Feet to match man routes or burst to targets from zone. Blitzes get home thanks to timing, burst and leverage. Weaknesses Built like a stocky back, lacking ideal size and length. Instincts and play diagnosis are just average. Triggers on an incomplete read. Tardy response allows climbing blocks a chance. Can be swallowed up when lingering on second level. Traffic seems to find him in lateral pursuit. Average stopping power and length as open-field tackler. Inconsistent to body-up and finish. Sorry ... this guy is not slow nor unathletic. He just needs to improve at covering players at the NFL level --- something that is expected and should happen with experience. The other myth that cracks me up is that Dean came into the NFL with an injury history. He never missed a game in college. Kiper got it right when he projected Dean could fall in the draft because off ball LBs aren't valued like they used to be and many teams were already set at the position.
November 18, 20231 yr Dean is at that point in his career where it's wrong to give up on him but it's wrong to bank on getting anything out of him.
November 19, 20231 yr On 11/17/2023 at 8:47 AM, EazyEaglez said: Eagles selected Dean in hopes he would be a starter, but taking players who have been known to have injury issues in later rounds isn’t new to the Eagles. Who can forget Sidney Brown? I recall during the Dean draft pundits kept commenting how he kept sliding and asking who would take him? For the most part it didn’t seem like he fell because of his size rather it was due to his injury. Overall I don’t like that they handed him the job, and it may prove put that Dean was a bust in the end, but clearly the Eagles viewed him as a starter at that pick just like they views Sidney Brown as a starter. I agree with your viewpoint though. Nothing annoys me more than the Eagles trying to get cute and take project players or role players with any of their first three picks. Those guys need to be starters within the first two seasons of their careers. Drafting Andre Dillard, but never giving him the opportunity to play for an example is the kind of wasted pick that irks me. Dilliard was a panic pick. The fo never thought he would fall so they never did their due diligence. We never interviewed him or did background work. Howie had Stoutland quickly do a last minute phone interview with Dilliard on draft day as he fell. They found out quickly in training camp he couldn’t play and did not have the right attitude and temperment for the nfl.
November 19, 20231 yr Dean's main problem is he isn't strong enough yet to hit a guy and jar a ball loose in coverage. I feel like he has been in the right spots but he is matched up on bigger, stronger guys and they're able to complete catches with the tight coverage. Blankenship has the same issue, he looks like a child against some of these guys and the ball isn't coming loose. They're both in year 2 and after a couple more pre-seasons spent in the gym they'll be able to be more effective in these situations. Unfortunately the secondary is decimated in the slot and the third safety position (Brown just came back and is a rookie) so it magnified the problem
November 19, 20231 yr 3 hours ago, weko said: Dilliard was a panic pick. The fo never thought he would fall so they never did their due diligence. We never interviewed him or did background work. Howie had Stoutland quickly do a last minute phone interview with Dilliard on draft day as he fell. They found out quickly in training camp he couldn’t play and did not have the right attitude and temperment for the nfl. That doesn’t make me feel better about the pick. 😂
November 20, 20231 yr 23 hours ago, EazyEaglez said: That doesn’t make me feel better about the pick. 😂 It was a horrible panic pick. Howie got caught completely unprepared and should have just passed. Got seduced by his positional value. They knew right away in training camp he couldn't play. It happens sometimes you draft a guy high who can't play at all, but usually you do due diligence before selecting a 1st rounder. Unusual for Howie to be so unprepared
November 20, 20231 yr 1 hour ago, weko said: It was a horrible panic pick. Howie got caught completely unprepared and should have just passed. Got seduced by his positional value. They knew right away in training camp he couldn't play. It happens sometimes you draft a guy high who can't play at all, but usually you do due diligence before selecting a 1st rounder. Unusual for Howie to be so unprepared Let’s be honest though. Howie has had some clunker high round pickes from Danny Watson, to Sidney Jones, and Marcus Smith. Dillard isn’t exactly worse than those guys and who can forget Jalen Reagor? I mean there was an obvious better choice there and Howie went the whole "I’m the smartest guy in the room” route and took that bum. There’s a reason why so many of us were glad to see Howie in the basement at first.
November 21, 20231 yr This guy has already proven he gets hurt when playing the big boys. The guy is small by NFL standards. He is NOT an NFL middle linebacker. Bottom line- he can't stay on the field, due to injuries.
November 21, 20231 yr 52 minutes ago, Talonblood said: This guy has already proven he gets hurt when playing the big boys. The guy is small by NFL standards. He is NOT an NFL middle linebacker. Bottom line- he can't stay on the field, due to injuries. lol. I'm sure his size is the reason he sprained his Lisfranc.
January 1, 20241 yr Bump time Running yards per game since Dean has been out injured 168 vs Chiefs 173 vs Bills 146 vs 49'ers 138 vs Cowboys 100 vs Seahawks (but Walker looked great) 106 vs Giants 221 vs Cards Run yards allowed in games Dean played 76 vs Pats 89 vs Jets 45 vs Dolphins 84 vs Washington 73 vs Dallas While he was struggling in coverage, he was a factor in the run game. They've been far worse since he has been out and I'm guessing the numbers are also pretty bad when Cunningham is out. TJ Edwards early in his career was really good in the run game but also a liability in coverage. I still think a lot of his coverage problems came down to size and strength vs bigger TE's.
January 1, 20241 yr Can we get Carlos Emmons and Jeremiah Trotter back? Or even better ... Seth Joyner, Byron Evans, William Thomas
January 1, 20241 yr 6 hours ago, Mat said: Bump time Running yards per game since Dean has been out injured 168 vs Chiefs 173 vs Bills 146 vs 49'ers 138 vs Cowboys 100 vs Seahawks (but Walker looked great) 106 vs Giants 221 vs Cards Run yards allowed in games Dean played 76 vs Pats 89 vs Jets 45 vs Dolphins 84 vs Washington 73 vs Dallas While he was struggling in coverage, he was a factor in the run game. They've been far worse since he has been out and I'm guessing the numbers are also pretty bad when Cunningham is out. TJ Edwards early in his career was really good in the run game but also a liability in coverage. I still think a lot of his coverage problems came down to size and strength vs bigger TE's. The Dean and Cunningham injuries have pretty much crippled this defense. Does Dean have any chance of returning?
January 1, 20241 yr Good numbers against the run. But he was injured at draft time which is why he fell, and already injury problems. This front office will cling to guys like him & Maddox. They should've kept Kyzir White. Nolan Smith is just another pass rush specialist. They need to invest in a solid, reliable LB to add to the group (prefer 2!).
January 1, 20241 yr 1 hour ago, opa-opa said: The Dean and Cunningham injuries have pretty much crippled this defense. Does Dean have any chance of returning? Why even bother at this point?
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