The Eagles have to make a decision about the future of the QB position. This isn't about our feelings for Donovan McNabb or Kevin Kolb. This is about what is best for the Philadelphia Eagles. I like both guys, but of bigger concern to me is the team. I'm an Eagles fan first and foremost.
The Eagles don't owe McNabb for his great career. The Eagles don't owe Kolb because he wants to get on the field. The Eagles have to figure out what is best for the organization, with a balance of the present and future. If this was a 5-game decision, McNabb would be your guy with little question. This is more like a 5-year decision and that is what complicates the situation. The focus of this discussion is Donovan. He's the veteran player who we know the most about. We can judge and evaluate him based on his track record. With Kolb we have to speculate.
One of the keys in getting into this is figuring out how to judge Donovan. The main argument for keeping Donovan is that he's a proven player and a star QB. We then have to judge him against those types of players. The question isn't whether McNabb is good. He is. The question is whether he's so good, i.e. special, that you have to keep him and continue to build the team around him. This may seem like a high standard, but I guess that is the point. Is McNabb a good QB who can get us a Wildcard berth or is he better than that?
DONNIE THE WINNER
Let's examine the situation a bit. We aren't going to use his whole career. We all know that McNabb was a great player who carried this team on his back at times early in his career. There's no way we make the playoffs in 2000 without him running the show. McNabb is a different player now. We have to deal with where he is at this time. Let's focus on the last 4 years.
Record: 32-21-1
2006: 5-5
2007: 8-6
2008: 9-6-1
2009: 10-4
He is a winner. You can't question that. Now let's go inside the numbers to look at the quality of the wins.
2006 - Only impressive win was vs Dallas, 38-24. McNabb tore his ACL and missed last 6 games.
2007 - Best win was late in the year at Dallas, 10-6. Not our best team. McNabb was coming off ACL.
2008 - Several good wins- PIT, ATL, NYG, DAL + playoffs. Hurting McNabb is the fact we played great D in those wins. We allowed 6, 14, 14, 6, 14, and 11 points in the victories.
2009 - Best win was 45-38 shootout over NYG. Only victory over winning team was ATL, but Matt Ryan and Michael Turner missed the game.
Notice that only 2 of the games really required lots of points. In each of those games we got a defensive TD. We also scored on big plays. Sometimes defensive breakdowns were key. These weren't games where McNabb just surgically picked the D apart.
What about some losses / non-wins.
2006 - Bad loss to Tampa on 62-yard FG. Only put up 6 points in loss to JAX.
2007 - Only put up 12 points in loss to WAS. RZ struggles cost us in loss vs CHI.
2008 - Tie vs CIN was bad. Offense shut out at BAL, but McNabb only played 1st half. Only scored 3 points in key game vs WAS at end of year.
2009 - Loss at Oakland ended up being costly at the end of the year. Only scored 9 points, but did miss 2 FGs.
Can Kolb duplicate McNabb's level of winning? We showed in 2002 and 2006 that we could win some games without McNabb. The '02 group won with a young QB getting the benefit of outstanding defense. The '06 group won with a veteran QB getting the benefit of great offense. Notice that we won with different kinds of QBs and in different ways. We mostly win because of the team that has been built up over the years.
Joe Flacco led the Ravens to the playoffs in each of his first two years. Matt Ryan led Atlanta to consecutive winning seasons for the first time in club history. Mark Sanchez has the Jet in the AFC title game. These guys each benefited from strong defense and a good running attack, but it doesn't help McNabb's argument about being a winner to see these youngs guys having that kind of success. He may not have the running game those guys do, but he's got a good defense and some pretty gifted skill players. McNabb no longer has to carry the Eagles on his back week in and week out. His job now is to run the offense and then come up big in key games.
Let's shift the discussion to big games and the playoffs. McNabb deserves his share of credit for our success. He doesn't turn the ball over and makes enough plays for us to win. Sounds simple, but it really isn't. You have to make some clutch throws and really limit mistakes. We don't beat NY or MIN in 2008 without some key pass completions. McNabb was able to flip the field with some key 3rd down passes and help out the defense. There is no specific stat for that, but it is a big part of winning defensive battles.
The flip side of this is that McNabb hasn't had many great games in the postseason. Here are his best performances:
2004 - Div Rd - MIN - home - W - 21-33-286 ... 2 TDs, 0 INT
2003 - Div Rd - GB - home - W - 21-39-248 ... 2 TDs, 0 INT ... 11 runs for 107 yds
2002 - Div Rd - ATL - home - W - 20-30-247 ... 1 TD, 0 INT ... 4 runs for 24 yds
2008 - NFCCG - ARZ - away - L - 28-47-375 ... 3 TD, 1 INT ... 2 runs for 31 yds
2004 - NFCCG - ATL - home - W - 17-26-180 ... 2 TDs, 0 INT ... 10 runs for 32 yds
2001 - WC Rd - TB - home - W - 16-25-194 ... 2 TDs, 1 INT ... 4 runs for 57 yds
2008 - WC Rd - MIN - away - W - 23-34-300 ... 1 TD, 1 INT
You can see that McNabb is solid. When he plays well, we win. The problem is that he's struggled in our losses. He threw 3 picks in the SB and in the loss to CAR. He wasn't good in losses to NY, STL, and TB. He was putrid in the loss to Dallas this year. The one time he did play pretty well in a loss was the title game at Arizona last year. Even then, an inconsistent 1st half hurt us and helped dig a big hole for us (24-6).
Donovan is 8-2 in the Wildcard and Divisional rounds. He is 1-4 in NFC-CGs. He is 0-1 in the SB. All the losses aren't on him. No one would dispute that. At the same time, if he is a special QB you would think he would have had done something in one of those games to carry the team on his back. John Elway had "The Drive". Joe Montana had a handful of incredible drives/plays. Those are HOFers, but even guys like Eli and Big Ben have great SB drives in the last couple of years.
On the surface those numbers look pretty impressive. What you have to factor in is that the game of football has changed. The rules constantly are being shifted to aid the offense. Receivers are more advanced. Coaches are more aggressive with the passing game. There are quite a few really good QBs. Donovan just had the 3rd highest rating of his career this season. It wasn't good enough to crack the Top 10 in the league, though.
The old benchmarks are gone. You wanna be special now you need to have a rating of 100. Or throw for 4,000 yards. Or 30 TDs. Or complete 65 percent of your passes. 8 yards per pass attempt used to be really good. This year that was only 7th best in the league.
Where does Donovan rank among QBs? Is he a Top 5 QB? No.
Peyton Manning
Drew Brees
Aaron Rodgers
Phillip Rivers
Tom Brady
Those guys have separated from the pack.
Is he in the Top 10? I don't think so.
Ben Roethlisberger
Brett Favre
Kurt Warner
Tony Romo
Matt Schaub
Eli and Donovan are just outside the list for now. Things change from season to season, but that's the way it looks right now. I'm sure some will argue that he should be 9th or 10th. Romo finally broke through and played well in some big games. Go check out Schaub's numbers if you think I'm overrating him. Everyone is entitled to an opinion, but I'm being unbiased here and studying facts. The numbers tell you that Donovan is good, but not a special player anymore.
Let's go inside the numbers. We're Eagles fans and we watch every snap of every game. One of the things that hurts McNabb is his inconsistency. He'll have a terrific game and then a dud. He's even streaky within games. In 2008 he had several games at midseason where he started ice cold. This year he would start hot and finish ice cold. In the final two regular season games Donovan was 13 of 35 in the 2nd half. Both defenses were good, but 13 of 35 in crucial games? Not good. The crazy thing is that he started the Denver game 15 of 19. He was red hot and led us to a big 1st half.
In the last 6 games of the year McNabb completed less than 60% of his passes 5 times. He threw 8 TDs and 5 INTs. When we needed Donovan to come alive and get hot he did just the opposite. In 2008 things were the other way around. There he struggled at midseason and then got hot down the stretch. That carried over to the playoffs. In the final 9 quarters of 2009/the WC game Donovan led us to 1 TD. I know Dallas has a good defense, but that is almost hard to believe. All players can be streaky, but that was a nightmarish time to get ice cold.
One of my biggest frustrations with McNabb is our Red Zone play. It isn't all him of course. We need to run the ball more. We don't have the biggest or most physical skill players. Still, we have too many weapons to struggle the way we do. Marvin Harrison and Torry Holt aren't big, physical guys. They caught TDs based on precision passes and good routes. Donovan is a QB that needs to see his receiver open. He doesn't anticipate plays with any regularity. Normally this is a trait of young QBs, but some guys never grow out of it. This is good and bad. It keeps McNabb from throwing many INTs, but it also keeps him from making some RZ throws.
Let's look at McNabb's 22 TDs.
Westy - 4 yds - CAR - Shovel pass. Simple play.
Celek - 9 yds - CAR - TE screen. Simple play.
Maclin - deep ball - TB - Pretty good throw.
Maclin - deep ball - TB - Good throw.
Weaver - 20 yds - TB - Short throw and then ran it in. Simple play.
DJax - 57 yds - WAS - Underthrown deep ball. Catchable, but DeSean had to slow down and wait for it.
Celek - 17 yds - NYG - Good throw on a seam route. Put the ball up high where Celek could get it.
DJax - 54 yds - NYG - Pretty good deep ball.
Maclin - 23 yds - NYG - Good throw to Maclin down the left side.
Celek - 11 yds - DAL - McNabb started to run and Brent came wide open for an easy pass.
Maclin - 5 yds - SD - Jeremy lost the DB and was wide open for an easy throw.
Celek - 6 yds - SD - Good throw.
Avant - 13 yds - CHI - Delay screen. Simple pass. Did have good touch.
DJax - 48 yds - CHI - Deep ball was underthrown and DeSean had to slow down.
DJax - 35 yds - WAS - Pretty good deep ball.
Weaver - 4 yds - ATL - Pass was down low, but Leonard made a good catch.
Celek - 8 yds - NYG - TE screen. Simple play, but well executed.
DJax - 60 yds - NYG - Pretty good deep ball.
DJax - 19 yds - SF - McNabb drifted left, then hit DeSean on a crossing route. Wide open. TD.
DJax - 2 yds - DEN - DeSean was wide open on shallow cross.
Celek - 47 yds - DEN - Celek was wide open due to DEN blown coverage. Ran down the sideline.
Avant - 15 yds - DEN - Got lucky with Avant catching ball deflected off of Safety. Not smart throw.
Most of those plays involve a simple play or a wide open receiver. The only deep balls where our guy was covered were the passes to Maclin vs Tampa Bay. Compare that to the TDs that Favre threw in the playoff game vs Dallas. 2 of the deep balls went to Rice when he was pretty tightly covered. The throws were perfect and the catches spectacular. That's how you beat a good defense. Great execution.
My goal in reviewing the TDs was to see how many of the throws involved anything special. Not many. Most of those TDs could have been made by any talented NFL QB.
McNabb did make some big plays and great throws this year. He and Avant connected on some sensational plays. As impressive as that is, execution in the Red Zone is a better way to judge a QB. Those are the critical plays that can win and lose a game. Donovan threw 12 RZ TDs in 14 starts. He only completed 45% of his throws. The good news is that he didn't throw any picks. Is it enough that he's safe in the RZ? I don't think so. RZ struggles have cost us games in the last couple of years. Avoiding turnovers and making sure you get at least a FG is a way to win games, but it won't win you championships.
One of my other beefs with Donovan involves running. He won't do it much anymore. Donovan ran 37 times this year. Carson Palmer ran 39 times. Donovan is still good at it. His 27-yard run on 3rd/25 vs Denver was a great, great play. The problem is that Donovan has gotten it in his head that he should only be a pocket passer. Why waste a god given talent like mobility? Don't you think Peyton Manning would run if he could? Heck yes.
Accuracy has always been an issue with McNabb. There is a joke about age that 60 is the new 40. When it comes to completion percentage, 65 is the new 60. Donovan used to be a guy stuck at 57 or 58 percent. Now he's been over 60 percent 3 years in a row. Unfortunately standards have changed. 8 guys this year completed more than 65 percent of their throws. Set aside completions. How often do we watch players have to stop or slow down to reach back for a pass? Too often. One of the early tradeoffs for McNabb's scrambling was inaccuracy. A guy with busy feet isn't as likely to be a pin point passer. Now he's a slightly more accurate passer, but we get much less running. We're not getting the best of either world.
One of the arguments people like to make for Donovan is that he's never really had a strong running game to work with. The stats definitely tell you that we don't run enough. I think the combination of Andy Reid, Marty Mornhinweg, and Donovan makes the problem worse. Those guys are way too quick to abandon the run. Also, McNabb is a streaky passer. When he's cold they like to let him keep throwing in the hopes he'll heat up. When he's red hot they like to leave the ball in his hands. A more consistent, but less dynamic QB is probably a better fit for them as playcallers.
Is Donovan still an elite QB? No. He doesn't put up crazy numbers. He isn't an overly efficient passer. He doesn't take off enough to be considered a regular running threat. Donovan is "just" a good, solid QB.
CORN ON THE KOLB
We don't have much info to work with when it comes to Kevin. He'd played in a handful of games prior to this season. People love to talk about the fact he was awful vs Baltimore in 2008. All anyone remembers was Ed Reed's pick that went 3,000 yards for a TD. Check out the numbers in that game. Remember that McNabb and Kolb each played a half. And the game stayed tight until the mid 4th. Don't think Kevin was facing a bunch of scrubs.
McNabb: 8-18-59 yards, 2 INTs, 1 run for 7 yards
Kolb : 10-23-73 yards , 2 INTs, 3 runs or 12 yards
Neither guy played well. That was Kevin's first extended playing time. McNabb was in his 10th year as a starter. You sure couldn't tell the difference from looking at the stats.
This year Kevin got to start 2 games. He played pretty well against the Saints. I know a lot of people think he put up big numbers strictly vs the prevent defense. Not so. The halftime score was 17-13 in their favor.
1st half stats ... 14-22-196, 1 TD, 0 INTs...rating of 107.4
2nd half stats .. 17-29-195, 1 TD, 3 INTs...finished game with rating of 73.2
That is one heck of a 1st half by Kevin. Things fell apart after halftime. Westy got hurt and was ineffective. McCoy was just getting used to the NFL. The Saints scored 14 quick points and we then got into catch-up mode. That is when Darren Sharper and his guys are at their best. Kevin certainly didn't help matters. He forced some passes and just didn't play as well as needed against a top team.
The next week Kevin played very well in the win over Kansas City. He was 24-34-327, 2 TDs in the air and 1 on the ground. He was accurate. He made good reads. His passes had pretty good velocity. The Chiefs had a poor defense, but Kevin did what you are supposed to do in that case. He gained a lot of yards and scored a lot of points.
The biggest weakness Kevin showed in both games was passing over the middle. He had a habit of throwing to guys and not to where they are going. When you have a receiver running a crossing route you need to lead him with the ball. Kevin struggled with that. A young guy making his first couple of starts has to adjust to the speed of the game. Hitting receivers on the move is one of the toughest areas to adjust to because of how fast the game is at the pro level. I think Kevin will solve this problem over time.
We have no idea how Kevin would play over the course of a 16-game season. He was a 4-year starter in college. That shows durability and productivity, both good signs. I haven't seen anything from him that would concern me about his ability to play well over the course of a long season.
During the 2 games he started the sidelines went crazy everytime Kevin had a big play or TD. You got the sense that the other players like him. The oddest thing was seeing how excited Sheldon Brown was for Kevin. If a veteran leader like Sheldon gets that into the success of a young guy it sure makes you think that this is a guy with plenty of locker room support.
MISC
The best argument for McNabb right now is his track record and the fact he consistently wins. He went 10-3 this year with Jamaal Jackson as the starting Center. 2 of the losses came on the West Coast and the other came vs Dallas. The losses came by a total of 16 points.
Losing Jamaal did hurt the offense. The line wasn't as good as it needed to be and that hurt Donovan in the final 11 quarters of the season. At the same time, it wasn't like McNabb got completely overrun when those games were competitive. The blocking fell apart in the 2nd half when we had to throw and they could pin their ears back. Donovan just played poorly in the 1st half of each game.
Maybe the ultimate question should really be this...can we win the Super Bowl with Donovan McNabb? I've always thought we could, but I'm starting to have my doubts. When you think of SB wins and QBs you think of game-winning passes. Those are plays that come in the Red Zone. The QB puts the ball out there and gives his guy a chance to make a play. Teams don't run TE screens or the shovel pass with the game on the line. You have to rely on the QB getting back, reading the defense, getting the ball out quickly, and accurately. Sometimes you need a great, pin point throw. I just don't know if Donovan can do that.
I haven't really discussed age very much. I do have to point it out in one regard. In the last 15 years 3 QBs have won the SB at age 30 or above - John Elway (37,38), Peyton Manning (30), and Brad Johnson (34). The first 2 guys are among the greatest QBs in NFL history. Brad obviously won playing with a great defense. The majority of QBs in that stretch won the SB between the ages of 24-29. Donovan will turn 34 next November. That doesn't mean he can't win the SB, but you do have to consider the long odds.
I know if Donovan returns next year that we'll win 9-12 games. He'll throw for 3,000 yards and 20 TDs. We might win a playoff game. Or 2. I just don't know if we can beat a good team in the NFC-CG or SB should we get to that level. As good as McNabb was in the 2nd half of the title game last year he still relied on big plays to Curtis, DeSean, and Celek. You aren't going to win a lot of big games relying on big plays. You need slants, digs, and quick outs. Then hope you can mix in a big play.
A non-football factor is the contract situation of the QBs. McNabb, Kolb, and Vick all are entering the final year of their contracts. In a pure football world this wouldn't be a huge issue. When you factor in fans and the media it becomes a big deal. Every time McNabb has a bad game the questions will start about whether the team should go ahead and turn the reins over to Kolb since it is his team in the future. If McNabb makes an innocent comment about next year the Philly media will dissect it and run straight to the other players, looking for the most controversial angle possible.
SUMMARY
Keeping all 3 QBs is a possibility for 2010, but I think you are playing with fire. You're just delaying choosing a QB to commit to. Maybe the locker room stays harmonious, but maybe not.
I think the Eagles need to commit to one of the QBs in this offseason. McNabb will likely be facing the final deal of his NFL career. You can bet he'll want something like $10M a year and a $15-20M signing bonus. If the Eagles think he's the guy then go ahead and pay up. Then deal Kolb. Draft a QB to develop for the future. Can McNabb last 3-5 years? Maybe. We don't see any major signs of lost physical ability. He's not as fast as he used to be, but he's still strong as an ox and has a powerful arm. McNabb is still very elusive in the pocket. His level of play could begin to decline this year, 2011 or 2015.
I think the thing to do is give Kevin Kolb the starting job and a contract extension. He will turn 26 in August. He's entering the prime of his career. DeSean and Mac are going to be entering the prime of their careers this year or the next. LeSean is in a similar situation. Celek too. You do lose the veteran leadership and wisdom of McNabb, but you have a nucleus that can play together for the next 5 years. It isn't likely that Donovan will still be as good in 2011 or 2012. Maybe he is the exceptional player that does stay at a high level. That is the risk you take with him. The risk with Kolb is whether he can become a top flight starter in the NFL or will he be a middle of the road QB.
The Eagles have a hard decision to make no matter how you look at it. There is risk involved. Drew Bledsoe was a sacred cow for the Pats back in 2001 when he got hurt. Tom Brady stepped in and never gave the job back. Drew had some success in Buffalo and Dallas, but wasn't a special QB anymore. Jim Kelly was a veteran QB in the mid 90s who started to lose his A-game. The Bills let go of him and gave the job to their young guy, Todd Collins. Todd sat for 2 years, prepping for his chance. He struggled as a starter and was off the team following that year. The Bills have been looking for a QB ever since. Getting rid of a franchise QB can be a dangerous thing, but other times it is the right thing to do.
Dealing Donovan would be awkward. He's iconic. I've seen a lot of guys play QB in my time as an Eagles fan, but Donovan has been our guy for 11 years now. And we've had a great run with him. I don't want you to think I'm running him off casually. I've been writing this piece for more than a week. I've thought long and hard about this situation. This is not a knee-jerk reaction to the Dallas debacles. The safe move is to keep McNabb, but I don't think it is the smart move.
One of the benefits of choosing Kolb as the starter is that you can trade McNabb and strengthen the overall team that much more. I'll write about trades and potential teams in another thread. This one is long enough as is. For now, it is time to make the change and go with Kolb in 2010. You'll have a core of young offensive players that can stay together for years.
Posted: Wed Jan 20, 2010 2:48 pm Post subject: McNabb v. Kolb Article
Tommy, great write-up! I think you make a great point in highlighting that McNabb is no longer a "special" QB. He's middle of the road.
There were a ton of QBs who had much better seasons this year and McNabb posted one of his best. Is McNabb going to play much better than he did this season? Given his age and history, probably not.
I truly don't think it would be that difficult for Kolb to equal or surpass next seaseon the numbers Donovan posted in '09. For as much as AR and MM like to pass it, I think the Eagles need more consistency in the passing game and not so many cold streaks. The offense goes absolutely stagnant when Donovan is off and as you pointed out the HC and OC are very resistant to changing up the gameplan to allow Donovan and the offense to get into a rythym.
Thanks for the great evaluation of the QB situation!
The Eagles have to make a decision about the future of the QB position. This isn't about our feelings for Donovan McNabb or Kevin Kolb. This is about what is best for the Philadelphia Eagles. I like both guys, but of bigger concern to me is the team. I'm an Eagles fan first and foremost.
DONNIE THE WINNER
Let's examine the situation a bit. We aren't going to use his whole career. We all know that McNabb was a great player who carried this team on his back at times early in his career. There's no way we make the playoffs in 2000 without him running the show. McNabb is a different player now. We have to deal with where he is at this time. Let's focus on the last 4 years.
Great Post, let me play Devils Advocate with some of your observations.
Record: 32-21-1
2006: 5-5
2007: 8-6
2008: 9-6-1
2009: 10-4
He is a winner. You can't question that. Now let's go inside the numbers to look at the quality of the wins. There is no such thing as a non-quality win
2006 - Only impressive win was vs Dallas, 38-24. McNabb tore his ACL and missed last 6 games.
2007 - Best win was late in the year at Dallas, 10-6. Not our best team. McNabb was coming off ACL.
2008 - Several good wins- PIT, ATL, NYG, DAL + playoffs. Hurting McNabb is the fact we played great D in those wins. We allowed 6, 14, 14, 6, 14, and 11 points in the victories.
2009 - Best win was 45-38 shootout over NYG. Only victory over winning team was ATL, but Matt Ryan and Michael Turner missed the game.
[color=]Since when does winning 11 games amount to nothing, You can nit pick every teams wins if you like. You could say that N.O. beat an Eagles team without McNabb. Does that invalidate Brees as a QB or the Saints season?[/color]
Notice that only 2 of the games really required lots of points. In each of those games we got a defensive TD. We also scored on big plays. Sometimes defensive breakdowns were key. These weren't games where McNabb just surgically picked the D apart.
"Joe Flacco led the Ravens to the playoffs in each of his first two years."
Flacoo didn't lead anything. He was along for the ride on the defese and running game. All he had to do was not turn the ball over.
"Matt Ryan led Atlanta to consecutive winning seasons for the first time in club history. "
Ryan is a good QB and will be very good. It also helps to have an almost 2000 yd back to keep the pressure off and a HOF TE this year with Gonzalez. He had many sophmore struggles and was considered to have taken a step back this year.
"Mark Sanchez has the Jet in the AFC title game."
You could quarterback the Jets for all that Sanchez has done.
"He may not have the running game those guys do, but he's got a good defense and some pretty gifted skill players".
A good defense? Where? Not a dominant 3 and out D. Not a critical stop D. Not a stop the other team from running out the clock D. Not in the last two years at least.
"The flip side of this is that McNabb hasn't had many great games in the postseason. "
A great game is the game in which you get the W. Rothlesberger and both Mannings have won Super Bowls with mediocre performances
"Donovan is 8-2 in the Wildcard and Divisional rounds. He is 1-4 in NFC-CGs. He is 0-1 in the SB. All the losses aren't on him. No one would dispute that. At the same time, if he is a special QB you would think he would have had done something in one of those games to carry the team on his back. John Elway had "The Drive". Joe Montana had a handful of incredible drives/plays. Those are HOFers, but even guys like Eli and Big Ben have great SB drives in the last couple of years".
What is Drew Brees, Phillip Rivers, Tony Romo's, and Matt Schaub's playoff record? All "better" QBs. When they lose or better yet, don't make the playoffs, who's fault is it? The team's perhaps?
"On the surface those numbers look pretty impressive. What you have to factor in is that the game of football has changed. The rules constantly are being shifted to aid the offense. Receivers are more advanced. Coaches are more aggressive with the passing game. There are quite a few really good QBs. Donovan just had the 3rd highest rating of his career this season. It wasn't good enough to crack the Top 10 in the league, though."
Good point, until this year, can you point out McNabbs dominant receivers during this period. This year, he had weapons. Celek, a first yr starter, Maclin, a rookie, who often ran poor patterns or shied away from contact but none the less dangerous, and DJac who while explosive, was limited to certain patterns because of his lack of size and physicality and who could be schemed out of games unlike true number 1 receivers.
"Where does Donovan rank among QBs? Is he a Top 5 QB? No.
Peyton Manning
Drew Brees
Aaron Rodgers
Phillip Rivers
Tom Brady
Those guys have separated from the pack."
Brees, Rodgers, and Rivers have combined to win 2 playoff games, both by Brees. What did Rodgers and Rivers do to win playoff games in which they were favored? Rivers did nothing and Rodgers blew his game with an overthrow of a wide-open receiver and a fumble to lose in OT.
Is he in the Top 10? I don't think so.
Ben Roethlisberger Didn't make playoffs with a great D and running game
Brett Favre First good year in last 6
Kurt Warner The absolute best when he's protected
Tony Romo An accident waiting to happen
Matt Schaub Not yet but has the No 1 target in NFL with A. Johnson
"Eli and Donovan are just outside the list for now."
Eli? What? Average as grits, especially with the run game and O-Line that he has.
"The numbers tell you that Donovan is good, but not a special player anymore."
Very true. McNabb is no longer special w/o his running ability. He is not a great QB. Sometimes very good, mostly above average, but has frequent streaks of plain awful play. He is not clutch, nor is he a leader. But his biggest problem is that he is not a Philly kind of personality. People take every bad throw or loss personally, as if McNabb did something to their sister. No QB in the NFL is judged on every throw like McNabb. For every poor throw, he makes a great one. For everytime he misses a guy in stride, he hits one in stride but people only notice the ones he misses, like tose are in neon.
Let's look at McNabb's 22 TDs.
Westy - 4 yds - CAR - Shovel pass. Simple play.
Celek - 9 yds - CAR - TE screen. Simple play.
Maclin - deep ball - TB - Pretty good throw.
Maclin - deep ball - TB - Good throw.
Weaver - 20 yds - TB - Short throw and then ran it in. Simple play.
DJax - 57 yds - WAS - Underthrown deep ball. Catchable, but DeSean had to slow down and wait for it.
Celek - 17 yds - NYG - Good throw on a seam route. Put the ball up high where Celek could get it.
DJax - 54 yds - NYG - Pretty good deep ball.
Maclin - 23 yds - NYG - Good throw to Maclin down the left side.
Celek - 11 yds - DAL - McNabb started to run and Brent came wide open for an easy pass.
Maclin - 5 yds - SD - Jeremy lost the DB and was wide open for an easy throw.
Celek - 6 yds - SD - Good throw.
Avant - 13 yds - CHI - Delay screen. Simple pass. Did have good touch.
DJax - 48 yds - CHI - Deep ball was underthrown and DeSean had to slow down.
DJax - 35 yds - WAS - Pretty good deep ball.
Weaver - 4 yds - ATL - Pass was down low, but Leonard made a good catch.
Celek - 8 yds - NYG - TE screen. Simple play, but well executed.
DJax - 60 yds - NYG - Pretty good deep ball.
DJax - 19 yds - SF - McNabb drifted left, then hit DeSean on a crossing route. Wide open. TD.
DJax - 2 yds - DEN - DeSean was wide open on shallow cross.
Celek - 47 yds - DEN - Celek was wide open due to DEN blown coverage. Ran down the sideline.
Avant - 15 yds - DEN - Got lucky with Avant catching ball deflected off of Safety. Not smart throw.
Most of those plays involve a simple play or a wide open receiver. The only deep balls where our guy was covered were the passes to Maclin vs Tampa Bay. Compare that to the TDs that Favre threw in the playoff game vs Dallas. 2 of the deep balls went to Rice when he was pretty tightly covered. The throws were perfect and the catches spectacular. That's how you beat a good defense. Great execution.
My goal in reviewing the TDs was to see how many of the throws involved anything special. Not many. Most of those TDs could have been made by any talented NFL QB.
Accuracy has always been an issue with McNabb. There is a joke about age that 60 is the new 40. When it comes to completion percentage, 65 is the new 60. Donovan used to be a guy stuck at 57 or 58 percent. Now he's been over 60 percent 3 years in a row. Unfortunately standards have changed. 8 guys this year completed more than 65 percent of their throws. Set aside completions. How often do we watch players have to stop or slow down to reach back for a pass? Too often. One of the early tradeoffs for McNabb's scrambling was inaccuracy. A guy with busy feet isn't as likely to be a pin point passer. Now he's a slightly more accurate passer, but we get much less running. We're not getting the best of either world.
Is Donovan still an elite QB? No. He doesn't put up crazy numbers. He isn't an overly efficient passer. He doesn't take off enough to be considered a regular running threat. Donovan is "just" a good, solid QB.
Winning 11 games isn't meaningless. That's why I said a few times that Donovan's best quality is that he's a proven winner. He wins games.
Judging the quality of wins is important, though. There's the stat sheet and the eyeball test. We won 11 games this year, 9 in 2008. Which team was better?
This year we benefited from a weak schedule. We played ATL with no Ryan. We played DEN at the end of the year when they were struggling. We played the Bears when they were in the middle of a 4-game losing streak. We played 5 games against teams with 5 wins or less.
We did our job, which was to win the games (except OAK of course). But the quality of the wins showed up eventually though. We struggled against Dallas, a good team, in crucial games late in the year/playoffs.
The 2008 team was battle-tested and had some good wins. That showed when we got to the playoffs.
_
Here is something else I wrote in regard to the post...
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ADDENDUM
You don't need Kolb to become an elite QB to get back to the SB or to win the SB. You need Kolb to be the "right" QB. Donovan was a superstar at his apex. I certainly don't project Kevin to be that kind of player. At the same time, he could end up being an even better fit for us. Donovan had to carry the team early on. Kevin would simply have to get the ball to the weapons (DeSean, Mac, Brent, Shady, Avant, etc.). Donovan still has his old instincts (make big plays). Kevin has never been a guy to create special plays based on his physical ability. He just isn't that kind of QB. He's here to run the offense and let our stars do their thing. I do believe that Kevin will be a good starting QB. I would not consider trading Donovan just for the sake of making change. You don't deal away franchise QBs casually. You replace them with someone you believe in. I do believe in Kevin. Obviously I can't guarantee that he'll work out, but he is a player I've liked since his days at Houston. The Eagles will only make this move if they believe that Kevin really is the guy to lead the team for the next several years.
Keep in mind that Donovan will get dealt or leave some time in the near future. The question isn't whether to move on from Donovan, but really when, 2010 or '11 or '12. Beyond that? And who do you give the job to. If you switch to Kolb now you can still trade Donovan and add a quality resource (good player or pick(s)). You also give the starting spot to a guy who has been in the league for 3 years and who's gotten a little time under his belt. Kevin should be as ready.
I certainly understand that some Eagles fans don't believe in Kolb. If so, sticking with Donovan makes perfect sense. However, change is a part of football. It is hard to say goodbye to heroes and embrace change, but think about this. Jeff Garcia has the same number of playoff wins as our QB as Randall Cunningham. We didn't break through and win the NFC until after Troy, Bobby, and Duce left. We love our star players, but the world doesn't end when they leave. Tennessee didn't win a National Title until after Peyton Manning left. The Giants didn't win a SB until after Tiki left. The Colts didn't win a SB until after Edgerrin James left.
We'll all find out in the next 4 to 6 weeks what the team will do. No matter what choice the Eagles make, I sure hope it turns out to be the right one.
Great, well thought out, write up but I would like to point out a couple of things. I think you severly down played the struggles of the o-line this year. Continuity on the o-line is very important and that really showed in the final two against dallas. Jackson started 70+ games in a row. Also you never mentioned anything about dropped passes, I know every qb has to endure that, but It seems it has been a real problem in eagles losses over the years. After getting over the disappointment of losing twice to dallas, and really thinking about the game. I didnt think 5 was to blame for the losses. It seems dallas knows what we are going to do, and although jackson and maclin are good/great receivers, they can be taken out of games quite easily by a good d. Also think we need a change in offensive philosophy. I still think mcnabb gives the eagles the best chance to win in 2010. Starting kolb (basically a rookie) could really be throwing away a great chance for this team to build on what they started this year. Way too much credit and blame go to NFL qb's. It is a team sport and the team really has shown its weaknesses in very important games. (if our d played better against az last year in the nfc title game, I really believe that we would have beaten pittsburgh last year, then would we be talking about this?))
The Eagles made it official today...Brian Westbrook will be released on March 5th. I wasn't the least bit surprised by this. I wrote about the possibility in my column for PE.com just the other day:
Quote:
LeSean McCoy is the starting running back at this point. I don't know if Brian Westbrook will return. I have my doubts. He reportedly is due a big salary. He also is coming off an injury-plagued season. These are not good news for an aging runner, even one who has been as great for us as Westbrook has. NFL teams have to make decisions with their brains and not their hearts. That is a nasty reality of professional sports, especially in the modern age.
Actions speak louder than words. We went to Dallas for a playoff game and our franchise RB had one touch. That said it all. Westy was as good as done. People will point out that he took that play for 27 yards. It looks good in the gamebook. However, re-watch the play. Westy was all alone in space. That play should have gotten us more yards. I love Brian Westbrook to death, but that play showed that he simply no longer has the wheels that made him Westy, hero to all under-used RBs.
Why cut a guy who still averaged 4.5 ypc, is a good receiver, and good blocker? Simply put...Westy is a descending player. He struggled in 2008. His final numbers looked okay, but were padded by good games against weak defenses. He had 2 surgeries prior to 2009 that we hoped would ease nagging lower leg injuries. That didn't seem to happen. Then the concussion problem came out of left field. His injury situation got worse, essentially. He's aging and expensive. Not good. He's breaking down physically. Not good.
I blame Tra Thomas. Westy had a great year in 2006 and 07. He opened '08 in good fashion. He ran for 91 yards against the Rams. He had 103 total yards at Dallas and scored 3 TDs. We then hosted Pittsburgh. Brian ran to the left side. Tra had fallen down and Westy went to jump over him. One foot came down on Tra's leg and that led to a badly sprained ankle. Brian missed the next game. He came back vs WAS and got a rib broken. That cost him another game. He just wasn't the same after that. Brian put up big numbers against ATL and ARZ, but those defenses were terrible. Brian had super-highways to run though as he piled up 44 carries and 277 yards in those games.
There is an adage in football that it is better to get rid of a player a year too early than a year too late. The Eagles handled this situation well. They gave Brian 2009 as a bounce back year. It didn't happen. Now it is time to move on.
I'm sure some will wonder about why the Eagles didn't simply talk to him about a lower salary. This wasn't about just saving money. It is time to cut the cord, so to speak. Westy was a great player for us. He was truly a complete back. Unfortunately RB is a young man's position. LeSean McCoy is now the RB. We need to bring in players to put around him. Westy would have been an odd fit as a role player. It might have been a slap in his face to even ask if Brian wanted to play for less and be a role player on a team that he helped to some lofty heights.
Now Brian can talk to other teams and see if he's able to find a home for 2010. I wish him the best, as long as he's not in Dallas.
Some favorite memories? Back in 2003 we started off 0-2. The next game was in BUF, following a bye week. Andy realized that young Mr. Westbrook needed to be a bigger part of the offense. We had a lead late in the game and were trying to eat some time off the clock. Brian took a handoff and raced 62 yards for a TD. 2003 was also the year of his great punt returns. He had the one vs the Giants that won us an ugly game, 14-10. That may have saved our season. He later had one vs SF where he put an incredible fake on a defender.
There was a run at DET in 2004 where Westy went up the middle and actually knocked a tackler back. I remember watching that play over and over...wow. You just didn't see Brian do that. Against GB he put on a show as a receiver. Brian caught 11 passes for 156 yards and 3 TDs. Watching him run the wheel route was a thing of beauty.
The last 7 games of 2006 were magical. Brian ran for 714 yards on 142 carries (5.0 ypc). He really carried the offense in that stretch. That was the best combination of him and the OL playing at a high level in his time as an Eagle. The highlight of that year was his 71 yard TD run vs SF early in the year. Westy used one of the most violent stiff arms I've ever seen. He just tossed away the defender and trucked on into the end zone. Freakin' Earl Campbell.
2007 was statistically his best year. I have 2 really good memories from that year. The first is the Miami game. Donnie got hurt and AJ replaced him. Westy became the offense in that game. He had 32 carries for 148 yards. That was one of the few times when we just fed him the ball like a true RB. The other great memory is the Dallas play. Westy broke free up the middle late in the game. We led 10-6. Brian went down at the 1-yard line and we ran out the clock for the win. He was ordered to do that by Runyan, but Westy was smart enough to listen and then do it.
2008 wasn't a pretty year, as I mentioned earlier. The one game where Brian came through against a good team was at the Giants. We fed him the ball more than any other game in his career. Westy had 33 carries for 131 yards. He also caught 6 passes for 72 yards. He had a 30 yard TD run and 40 yard TD catch in the game. That was my first hint that Antonio Pierce was getting old. There was also the long screen pass in the playoff game against Minnesota. We had the lead, but that long TD play sealed the game.
2009 was sadly forgettable.
I loved watching Brian Westbrook play for us. I loved his style of running. He wasn't the biggest or fastest, but he was very instinctive and had the ability to find a crease in the defense. Brian was great because he could catch and block better than he could run. He was just one of those guys who could make something special happen any time he touched the ball. Remember the Seattle game in 2007? We trailed 28-24 late. Andy Reid put Westy in as the punt returner. He got the ball and did his usual magic. Next thing you know he was running free down the field. He got us inside the Red Zone and gave us a chance to win. Unfortunately things didn't work out as hoped, but Westy showed his electric ability on that punt return. Simply put, he was a special player.
I'm going to really miss #36, but that's only fitting. The thing he did maybe best of all was make people miss him. This time it will be Eagles fans instead of opposing defenders.
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Peace in the Middle East? No problem. Who killed Kennedy? Easy answer. Fix world hunger? Done. Cure cancer? On my way back from lunch.
Figure out Julius Peppers? Oh boy. That's a tricky one.
Talking about Peppers is complicated. How can a guy be dominant and an underachiever at the same time? That's pretty hard. But that's also what Julius has done, to a certain extent. Let's take a look at each side.
THE GOOD
Julius has been in the league for 8 years. He has 81 sacks, 6 INTs, and 30 FFs. Those are very impressive numbers. You can't overlook that kind of production. Julius is 6'7, 283. He is one of the biggest DEs in the league. He is the most athletic. Think about that for a second...biggest and most athletic. That is a very rare combination. Julius has never played in a scheme that was overly creative. He gets moved around somewhat, but the Panthers aren't known for running an exotic defense. Peppers' numbers are due to his effort and production. He hasn't played with any front seven guy that would remotely be considered special. Reggie White had a much more dominant first 8 years in the league, but he played with Clyde Simmons, Jerome Brown, Seth Joyner, and Byron Evans. Put Peppers in that group and he would likely be a different kind of player. Reggie also was part of Buddy Ryan's 46 Defense that terrorized offenses. Buddy gave him favorable matchups by alignment.
Julius has been the Panthers best defensive player during his tenure. He's carried the defense, to a certain extent. Even when he doesn't make plays he either occupies blockers or at least had an impact on the offensive gameplan. Look at the rankings in his tenure:
They averaged finishing 10th in PTs and YDs Allowed. Pretty good totals for an 8 year period.
THE BAD
Julius played LDE for the first 6 seasons. In 2007 his play fell dramatically. Peppers only had 2.5 sacks. He only had 30 solo tackles. That was his final year at LDE. The Panthers moved him to the right side, where he feels most comfortable. You have to understand Peppers' background. He was a star basketball player in HS. He played both sports at UNC. He was dominant in football, but "only" pretty good in hoops. Julius made the business decision and played football. I've always had the feeling that if the money was equal he would have chosen basketball. That is a sport where you can run around and really use your athletic ability. As a LDE a lot of his time was spent in the trenches dealing with combo blocks from TE and RTs. Basketball is a contact sport. Football is a collision sport.
Moving to RDE was the best thing Peppers could do in terms of spending more time in the open. That side has less clutter. Peppers had to face better blockers (LTs), but that was okay. It meant less time being the Point of Attack on run plays. It also meant going up against blockers that had a tendency to be more athletes than maulers.
Since moving to RDE Peppers has posted good numbers. He has 25 sacks and 10 FFs in 32 games. Not too shabby. He is happy playing more in space where he can run around and be more of an athlete.
Why is this bad? You shouldn't have to put a guy with his talent into a comfort zone to get maximum production. I understand trying to get favorable matchups. This is different. This is about making the player happy.
THE UGLY
Julius is monster-sized DE that wishes he was Dwight Freeney. My rule of thumb is that guys should always be what they are. Big guys should play big. Fast guys should play fast. Effort guys should play with a great motor. And so on. Julius is big and athletic. You normally only get half the bargain with him, the athletic side. Remember Reggie's famous hump move? Reggie used his athletic ability to get pressure off the edge. When blockers started cheating outside he would use the move. Reggie would use their own momentum and just toss them aside. That left him an inside lane to the QB. I haven't seen Julius display a physical style of play with any consistency. The point in paying this guy elite money is because he is both big and athletic. It would be nice to get both in return.
Peppers will disappear at times. We all know guys can get shut down by good blocking and/or a gameplan. The point is that if Peppers is truly a special player this shouldn't happen to him for multiple games in a row. Guys with that kind of ability shouldn't be held in check for long.
There are motivation questions with Peppers. He's never given the indication that he's got a burning desire to win a SB or be great. Trent Cole may struggle against a good LT, but there will be no question of his effort. The stat sheet may be blank, but you know the man did everything in his power on every snap. Will Peppers sell his soul to win? Would he at least give his soul for a glass of beer?
Will Peppers play at a high level after getting the mega-contract he wants? The team that signs him will be giving out one of the highest contracts in NFL history.
TAPE TIME
I watched a couple of game tapes from 2009 to see what our beloved Mr. Peppers in action. I put in the season opener between Philly and Carolina. Peppers numbers from the game look great. He had 5 tackles, a sack, 2 pass deflections, and a FF. Wow, huh? No, not really. The sack came after halftime when the game was already decided. That was also the FF. Peppers did have a couple of impressive deflections. He was not much of a factor in the 1st half, when the Eagles were coming up with big play after big play. Trent Cole made key plays that helped the Eagles build a big lead. Peppers made his plays once the game was out of reach. Hollow numbers.
I then watched the MIN game. His stat line was only 1 tackle, 1 sack, and 1 PD. Doesn't sound like much of a game. Go ask Brett Favre about the game. He'll tell you that Peppers was dominant. Absolutely dominant. He hit Favre numerous times. He got in Favre's face numerous times. Peppers was a disruptive force all game long. The Vikings (Favre, AP, Sidney Rice, Percy Harvin, etc.) only scored 7 points that night. Great game.
SUMMARY
The Julius Peppers from the season opener is the guy that I don't find compelling. He made some plays, but didn't impact the game. The Julius Peppers from the Vikings game is a guy I'd basically give a blank check to. The problem is that those happen to be the same guy. Where's Einstein when we need him?
One thing I will say in defense of him is that too often people judge Julius as they would every other DE. I'm as guilty of this as anyone. The problem is that things come so naturally and easily to him that he can look casual at times. Fans will get on him about being lazy, but I don't know if that is truly the case. We all love effort players because we can see how hard they work. Peppers is the rare player who makes things look easy. I remember talking to someone about Priest Holmes running style. He would go left and just sort of glide into the end zone. It looked so easy. Holmes did a great job of reading blocks and running with patience so they could develop. He also had timing, balance, and body control. Those touchdowns may have looked easy, but a lot more was involved than appeared to the naked eye.
The Eagles covet DEs. They've given big contracts over the years to Hugh Douglas, Jevon Kearse, and Darren Howard. They traded up to draft Jerome McDougle. They gave good FA contracts to backup players ND Kalu and Chris Clemons.
The Eagles will go after Peppers. Aggressively. I think he's just too tempting for them to pass on. Guys like Peppers rarely hit the open market. You either trade for him or draft him. Now all you needs is a briefcase full of cash. At least I assume that is how players are paid.
Will the Eagles get into a bidding war if Washington jumps in with Daniel Snyder's checkbook? That I don't know. The Eagles are value-oriented. At some point they will have to decide if Peppers is a luxury or necessity.
If the Eagles do manage to land him it will be as our LDE. Cole is in place on the right side. Peppers will have to know that he'll get moved around. A lot of our defensive players are used creatively. I'm sure this fact isn't lost on Peppers. The Eagles are reportedly on his short list of teams that he's willing to sign with. Andy Reid and Sean McDermott have worked with Peppers at the Pro Bowl. I can't say that they have a strong relationship, but there is at least something in place.
The one key thing I left out of the discussion is Peppers age. He is 30. Normally that isn't good. Peppers isn't normal. He is arguably the greatest athlete in the history of pro football. Normal standards do not apply to guys like him. Reggie was 30+ as a Packer. How'd he do? Julius could play at a high level for 5 years or hit the proverbial wall in 2011.
He could offer significant impact for the Eagles defense. Right now teams have to account for Trent Cole. The other defensive linemen win some battles, but aren't feared rushers. Peppers would change that. Teams would have to mix up their double teams to address both he and Cole. They would also have to account for Peppers when he lined up as a DT or as The Joker. You can bet he'd be all over the place to create mismatches and confusion among the blockers.
If you get a chance watch the first half of the game against the Giants in week 16. Peppers was a dominant force (until the Giants finally quit playing in the 2nd half)
I waited to post this because there was so much uncertainty on what was going to happen and what players would be available. We now know have a little bit more knowledge about what is going on with the Eagles and 31 other teams.
IDEAL SCENARIO
Keep in mind that what I want and what the Eagles want don't always match up. My plans never fail, of course. Remember, this is an ideal scenario. Things won't work this well, but a boy can dream, right?
* Trade McNabb to Buffalo for the 9th overall pick.
I know this has been discussed ad nauseam. If we got an offer like this I'd hate to see the Eagles pass on it. I do think Kevin Kolb is ready. The Bills do have interest in McNabb. The question is how aggressively they'll go after him.
* Trade Michael Vick for a 3rd rounder.
I'm skeptical that we can get a pick this high, but I know at least one team is seriously talking to the Eagles at this point.
* Trade Trevor Laws for a draft pick.
I still think very highly of Trevor, but the bottom line is that he's not an ideal fit for our 2-gap style of DT play. The draft is deep at DT so why not move him and brink in a big/and or power guy who does fit what we like to do.
FA SIGNINGS
* DE Aaron Kampman
* RB Justin Fargas
* LB Ryan Fowler
* QB AJ Feeley
I know most people really want Julius Peppers at DE. I fully understand that. Kampman is less talented and coming off an ACL injury. Why take him over Peppers? The best way I can phrase it is this...I trust Aaron's knee more than I trust JP's head/heart. Kampman is a guy that I trust will do everything in his power to be ready to go by September. He is a guy that will sell out on gameday to make every play possible. You win a lot of games with guys like that.
Fargas ran all over our sorry butts when the Raiders beat us in October. He is 6'1, 220. He runs hard and plays like a man on a mission. Imagine what he might do on a team that actually wins and plays in the occasional big game. Ideal complement to Shady McCoy.
Fowler is 6'3, 250. He has played SAM and MLB. He is a solid STs player. I'd add him as the backup in the middle and a guy who could jump over to SAM if needed.
Feeley is contractually obligated to sign with the Eagles every few years. If we do deal Donnie and Mike we'll need a quality backup QB. Feeley knows the system and can still be an effective player here and there.
THE DRAFT
1 - (from BUF) ... FS Eric Berry - 6'1, 211 - Tennessee
1 - ................... CB Kyle Wilson - 5'10, 190 - Boise State
2 - ................... OG John Jerry - 6'5, 328 - Ole Miss
3 - (from SEA) .. DT Cam Thomas - 6'4, 330 - UNC
3 - (Vick deal) ... trade for 2011 2nd Round pick
3 - ................... OT Jared Veldheer - 6'8, 312 - Hillsdale College
4 - (from NYJ) ... QB Jarrett Brown - 6'3, 225 - West Virginia
4 - ................... SS Kurt Coleman - 5'10, 190 - Ohio State
5 - (Laws deal) .. WR Marcus Easley - 6'3, 219 - UConn
6 - ................... WR Blair White - 6'2, 209 - Michigan State
7 - (Comp) ....... RB James Starks - 6'2, 218 - Buffalo
7 - (Comp) ...... LB Nate Tripplett - 6'3, 250 - Minnesota
Berry is an elite FS prospect. He can cover, hit, tackle, and make plays. He could go in the Top 5, but could also slide a bit if a couple of teams take QBs. Eric should challenge for the starting spot from the first day he arrived.
Wilson is the kind of experienced, talented CB that could play as soon as needed. He is a complete player.
Jerry played both RT and RG at Ole Miss. He is big and strong, but moves okay. He is effective pulling and blocking on screens. Jerry would offer insurance in case Stacy Andrews had any further issues.
Thomas is a big, powerful guy. He had a solid year, but then really stood out at the Senior Bowl. He has the potential to be a good starting DT. He's got to learn to play more consistently. Thomas could have some time to develop behind Patt and Bunk.
Veldheer is from a D2 school, but he has serious NFL potential. He has good feet and looks like an NFL player. He could develop for a year or two and then challenge for a job on the OL. Jason Peters is very talented, but will get hurt. It would be good to have a potential backup at LT better than King Dunlap.
Jarret Brown only started for one season at West Va. That's because he was sitting behind Pat White. Brown has the potential to develop into a starting QB. He has good size, strength, and athletic ability. He throws the ball really well. Brown just needs a couple of years of good coaching.
Why take another S? That would allow us to take Macho Harris and have him challenge Joselio Hanson for the Nickel CB spot. Hanson struggled late in the year. Kurt Coleman is an experienced, talented guy that might adapt to the NFL pretty quickly. He could challenge Mikell for his spot in a year or two.
I think Kevin Curtis is a lock to be released. That means we'll need to add a WR. Marcus Easley is a really talented young guy. He had one breakout season at UConn. He is big and fast. Reminds me of where Miles Austin was coming out of college. We've had good luck at coaching up talented guys in the last few years.
RB James Starks impressed the heck out of me last summer when I began watching tape of key Seniors. Unfortunately he hurt his shoulder and missed the season. Starks is big at 6'2, 218. He runs behind his pads and has some pop. He also can be elusive and has some speed. Starks just had a very good workout at the Combine.
I had us take a raw, talented WR earlier. Now it is time to add a polished player. Blair White has great hands and is a terrific route runner. He had a great showing at the Combine and looked more athletic than I anticipated. He has good size at 6'2, 209.
I do think we need to add a LB to the mix. Nathan Tripplett is big at 6'3, 250. He ran a 4.70 at the Combine, good speed for such a big guy. He's a bit raw, but could play SAM or possibly in the middle.
Here is the projected roster after these moves (top 60 or so guys):
WR Desean Jackson ..... Jason Avant .................. Blair White
WR Jeremy Maclin ......... Reggie Brown ............... Marcus Easley
TE Brent Celek ............. Cornelius Ingram ........... Martin Rucker
FB Leonard Weaver
RB LeSean McCoy ......... Justin Fargas ................ Buckley / Starks
QB Kevin Kolb .............. AJ Feeley ...................... Jarrett Brown
LT Jason Peters ............ Jared Veldheer .............. King Dunlap
LG Todd Herremans ...... Mike McGlynn ................ Max Jean-Gilles
OC Nick Cole ................ Jamaal Jackson ............ D Reynolds / AQ Shipley
RG Stacy Andrews ....... John Jerry
RT Winston Justice ....... Fenuki Tupou
RE Trent Cole ............... Darren Howard
DT Brodrick Bunkley ...... Cam Thomas
DT Mike Patterson ......... Antonoio Dixon ............ Victor Abiamiri
LE Aaron Kampman ....... Juqua Parker ................ Chris Clemons
WB Will Witherspoon ..... Akeem Jordan
MB Stewart Bradley ....... Ryan Fowler ............... Joe Mays
SB Moise Fokou ............ Chris Gocong .............. Nathan Tripplett
SS Quintin Mikell ........... Kurt Coleman
FS Eric Berry ............... Quintin Demps
CB Sheldon Brown ....... Kyle Wilson
CB Asante Samuel ........ Dimitri Patterson
NB Joselio Hanson ........ Macho Harris
P Sav Rocca ................. Durant Brooks
PK David Akers
LS Jon Dorenbos
Again, this is an ideal situation for me. It isn't likely to happen quite like this. I don't know if the Eagles have the same thoughts on these guys as me.
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Now let's talk about what is going to happen.
* THE QB SITUATION
Don't believe anything you hear from anyone (except me of course). McNabb and Vick are available in trade. Donovan is only available to a team that is willing to pay a steep price. Andy won't settle for the best offer. He'll get what he thinks is a fair deal or Donovan will stay.
* LDE
The Eagles want Julius Peppers. It sounds like the Bears are going to sign him. I don't know if the Eagles like Kampman at all. We do know they tried to trade for Derrick Burgess back in September. He could still be of interest. If nothing works, there is always the draft.
* CB
The Eagles gave up 27 passing TDs last year. Unacceptable. FS is part of the problem, but CB is even bigger. Sheldon had his struggles. Joselio was shredded by Dallas late in the year. We need to get younger and faster. It won't surprise me to see the Eagles add a pair of CBs. They might even go for one in FA.
* FS
Rolle is over-priced. No thanks. OJ Atogwe is a player I like, but I have no idea what the team is thinking. We might have to find someone in the draft. I've asked around to see what the team is thinking, but I haven't heard anything. The Rams may have done us a huge favor by tendering Atogwe low. We can go after him now without having to give up any compensation.
* C
Jamaal Jackson's agent said he won't be back on the field til mid-August. That could very well mean he starts on the PUP list and misses the first 6 weeks. Nick Cole will be given the first chance to win the job. Mike McGlynn spent a lot of time at C last summer. I've asked about him, but no one is saying anything, good or bad. Dallas Reynolds impressed me last summer, but is completely unproven. AQ Shipley spent all year on the Steelers Practice Squad. They let him walk when the season was over. That's not the most encouraging sign. The Eagles could add a player in FA or possibly go after someone in the draft. Our M.O. is to promote from within, but the Eagles may covet some other player out there.
* RB
I'm assuming the Eagles want a veteran to add to the mix, but this draft class is a good, deep group of RBs The Eagles could decide that the smart thing to do is draft someone. Ben Tate of Auburn is my favorite RB. Toby Gerhart of Stanford is a guy that intrigues the heck out of me. One veteran RB that could be interesting is Rock Cartwright of WAS. He is a good KOR and very good #3 runner. We could add him and a rookie.
MISC ITEMS
* Expect the Leonard Weaver extension to get done soon.
* Ellis Hobbs got a 1st round tender. I don't know what to make of that.
* The Eagles love Cornelius Ingram so they could go into the season with him as the only backup on the roster.
* I know most people find this stuff kind of boring, but the hiring of Bobby April and Dick Jauron has gone over very well with the incumbent players. Ted Daisher rubbed some guys the wrong way. April is a very good technical coach, but also gets his guys to buy into STs in a big way. Jauron has a good reputation and the players seem excited to work with him. Brian Stewart had some challenging situations last season, but I get the feeling he just wasn’t a good fit for us.
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This trade caught me completely off guard. I hadn't heard a word about this. There is a lot of stuff to talk about so let's get to it.
Good move. This is a weird offseason. You have to be aggressive and creative to find players this year. Tapp is a solid DE. This isn't a high impact move that thrusts us to the top of the NFC or anything like that. It does make us a better team.
Tapp is now the likely frontrunner at LDE. We still have Juqua Parker there. Both guys have started and had success in the league. Tapp is younger, bigger, and more talented. He should be the starter. Parker is best when he's able to come off the bench. Think of it this way. Tapp is a better starter than we had in 2009. Improvement. Parker is a better backup than we had in '09. Improvement.
Clemons was not a lock to make the team in 2010. Really, this deal is a 4th round pick for Tapp. While this draft is talented and deep, the DE class isn't great. Tapp is far and away better than any prospect who would have been available in the 4th round.
By acquiring him, we can now focus on the back seven with our early picks. That is good news. We need help at CB, S, and LB. We can now focus our resources on those positions, if the right players are available. We don't have to reach for a LDE.
Tapp has been up and down in his young career. Here are the numbers:
Darryl has played LDE and RDE in his career. Most of his time was spent on the right side. He was a full time starter in 2007 and posted really good numbers. Injuries slowed him a bit after that and he also lost time with the arrival of Lawrence Jackson. The reason the Seahawks dealt him is that he wasn't a great fit for what Pete Carroll wanted to do in the next few years. Tapp was not a guy anyone was looking to get rid of because of his ability or attitude. The vibe out of Seattle is that he'll do well with the Eagles.
I am going to watch some tape of Darryl so I can post some notes on his play in the last few years. For now I'll leave you with the notes I had on him coming out of college.
Quote:
Notes on Darryl Tapp
Goes about 6'1, 256. Very good college player, but is not a naturally gifted athlete. Gives terrific effort. Relentless. Thick-ish build. Good swim move. Spin move. Quick off the ball. Good inside move. Plays with good leverage. Makes his share of plays vs the run. Lines up at a really wide angle. Can shed blocks. Seems to make a lot of tackles. Gets the most out of his ability and works as hard as any player in CFB. A lot of people want to compare him to Dwight Freeney because of similar size, but that is a bogus comparison. Dwight was an explosive athlete who wowed the scouts and coaches at his Pro Day. I don't see Tapp being anywhere near that level of athlete. Effort is great, but the lack of explosive ability is a concern.
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Let's talk some more about Darryl Tapp. I popped in the first couple of Seattle game tapes I came across. I wasn't looking for his best game or anything special. I just wanted to see how Tapp played in a couple of average games. Here goes:
* Quick off the ball, but not explosive. Darryl isn't athletic enough to consistently beat LTs.
* He plays both sides, but looks more natural at LDE. He can beat RTs.
* Good awareness. Tapp comes off the ball under control and reads the play as he's on the move. This keeps him from getting burned on screens and draws.
* Lots of 4-point stance. Not many guys do this, but Hugh, Trent, and Juqua have all done it for us.
* Very good motor. He will make hustle plays, both in the run game and pass game.
* Uses his hands/arms well at times. Good shoulder dip. Re-directs well. Poor spin move...brutally slow. Lose that from the arsenal.
* Effective when he has to drop in pass coverage because of a zone blitz.
* Not a "run around" guy. Darryl will battle blockers to hold the point of attack. He lacks ideal size, but plays with good leverage and is tough. He is able to shed blocks and find the ball.
I saw about what I expected. Darryl was a solid player for Seattle. Nothing more, nothing less. He was miscast at RDE. He just doesn't have the burst that it takes to get by LTs. He was a try-hard guy on that side who made plays with effort. LDE is a whole other story. I think he is a starting caliber player on that side. I also think Darryl is an ideal fit for our system. He is a good run defender, which is something we like in our DEs. He's still a solid pass rusher. We can use him creatively if desired, but I think he'll mainly stay at LDE.
Darryl is young (25) and durable (64 straight games). He brings youth and toughness to the DL. He is not an impact player that offenses will fear. Darryl does make the front line better. He and Juqua will battle for the starting job. I'm sure the coaches will give Tapp the inside track. They'd love a young guy to get that job so that he could possibly hold it for several years.
While Darryl lacks great production, it will be interesting to see how his numbers are affected by playing in our system. Seattle doesn't do the exotic blitzing we do. That creates some mismatches and some easy opportunities for guys in the front seven. Darryl's numbers could also go up due to the fact he's playing at LDE with Trent Cole on the opposite side. In Seattle he benefited from Patrick Kerney being the other DE, but Tapp still had to beat the LT to get to the QB. As I said earlier, he lacks that kind of ability.
In my offseason writings I never mentioned Tapp as a target. Seattle placed a 2nd round tender on him. Darryl isn't worth a pick in that range. I assumed they wanted to keep him and it would require that kind of compensation. The Eagles got him at a good price (Clemons and our late 4th). Darryl is a very good acquisition at that price.
We no longer go into the draft needing a LDE. We could still take one if the right player falls to our pick. The Eagles covet D-linemen and won't pass on a talented pass rusher. I do think we'll concentrate on the back seven, the group that really needs work (27 TD passes allowed).
We still do have Victor Abiamiri in the mix. He's not 100% healthy right now and wasn't for much of the 2009 season. If he were to emerge this year or some draft pick were to light it up we could always make Tapp a backup DE. We don't have such a big investment in Tapp (trade or money wise) that we will feel obligated to have him as the starting LDE.
Darryl doesn't have a high ceiling. I don't see him coming in here and turning into a 12-sack, disruptive force. I do think his numbers will go up and that he can be an improvement over Parker. Tapp fits our system and he's also our kind of player (high motor, overachiever type).
Bonus points to anyone who gets the reference in the title.
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The key is the number of picks in the first 5 rounds. Those picks you expect to make the team or seriously challenge for a roster spot. You want 6th and 7th rounders to challenge as well, but don't have the same expectations.
Let's talk about trading up. Why do it? The Eagles believe in acquiring top flight players when possible. The thing to do is identify special players and target them. Here are the guys that I think are special:
FS Eric Berry
FS Earl Thomas
DT Ndamukong Suh
OG Mike Iupati
RB CJ Spiller
There are some fringe guys. Rolando McClain might be special to 3-4 teams. Brandon Graham could be special to teams who are okay with his size. These won't be the top ten picks necessarily because the need for LTs and QBs can throw things off. These players all did special things during the year in terms of production and have the traits that project well to the NFL. They do have issues. Iupati isn't a gifted pass blocker. Spiller isn't a great inside runner. McClain has average speed. Graham is a bit shorter than you'd ideally like. Etc. Derrick Morgan has the measurables, but not the production to fit this category. His numbers were good, but not great. I'm not sure how that will affect his value. Is he still the #1 DE or does that lower him just a tad?
You can bet the Eagles will work the phones and try to land a pick to take one of these players. The question is how steep a price we're willing to pay. If you want to eat steak you don't expect hamburger prices. The Eagles will give value to get value, but they won't pull a Ditka and overpay.
PROBABLE DEPTH CHART
WR DeSean Jackson....Jason Avant
WR - Jeremy Maclin .... Hank Baskett ...... Chad Hall
TE - Brent Celek ......... Cornelius Ingram .. Martin Rucker
FB - Leonard Weaver
RB - LeSean McCoy .... Mike Bell ............ Eldra Buckley
QB - Kevin Kolb .......... Mike Vick
LT - Jason Peters .......... King Dunlap
LG - Todd Herremans ... Mike McGlynn
OC - Nick Cole ............ Jamaal Jackson .... Dallas Reynolds
RG - Stacy Andrews .... Max Jean-Gilles
RT - Winston Justice .... Fenuki Tupou
DE - Trent Cole ........... Juqua Parker
DT - Brod Bunkley ....... Trevor Laws
DT - Mike Patterson .... Antonio Dixon
DE - Darryl Tapp ......... Victor Abiamiri
WB - Ernie Sims ........... Akeem Jordan
MB - Stewart Bradley ... Joe Mays
SB - Moise Fokou ........ Alex Hall
SS - Quintin Mikell
FS - Quintin Demps ...... Marlin Jackson
CB - Ellis Hobbs ........... Geoffrey Pope
CB - Asante Samuel ..... Dimitri Patterson
NB - Joselio Hanson ..... Macho Harris
P - Sav Rocca
K - David Akers
LS - Jon Dorenbos
NEEDS
QB - There is a spot for a developmental prospect. Kolb is the starter now, but the Eagles would be wise to bring in someone to groom as a backup. They did that with AJ Feeley back in 2001 and it worked very well.
RB - Shady McCoy is the primary back. Mike Bell is his backup now, but is only hear on a 1-year deal. The Eagles need to find a young RB to add to the mix. Brian Westbrook was an incredibly complete player that you didn't want to take off the field. He ruined the RB-by-committee approach of the past. I'm guessing the Eagles would like to get back to that. You could see them draft a RB and sign one as a UDFA. The depth at FB is fine.
TE - I don't think the team needs to add anyone, but the class is so deep that good players may be available late. It would be great to see the Eagles add someone with a bit of size and/or blocking ability. Alex Smith did a good job in 2009.
WR - Depth. The team is set with the top four guys. There is a need for someone to become the primary backup on the outside for the next few years. Hank Baskett is in place now, but is not a long term answer. Jason Avant needs to stay in the slot. Should be a Day 3 target.
OT - King Dunlap has yet to show he can be trusted at LT. There is a need for someone to come in and challenge him. If you remember last year, any time Jason Peters got hurt it caused several players to move and the overall line struggled. Getting a reliable backup at LT would change all that.
OG/C - Jamaal is coming off an ACL tear and won't be ready until late summer at the earliest. We do seem to like Nick Cole. We have plenty of interior bodies right now. I think we'll look to add someone if a talented guy is on the board, but this class of interior linemen is weak. Adding bodies for the sake of making a move would be dumb. You can always go the UDFA route. We'd all love an upgrade if the right player is available.
DE - I've projected us going after pass rushers in a couple of mock drafts. People questioned my thinking. I know we have Trent Cole and that we added Darryl Tapp. We're still one injury away from Juqua Parker going back to a starting role. Eric DeCosta of the Ravens will tell you to always get the pass rusher when you can. Ernie Accorsi will tell you to get the pass rusher. I know we have other needs, but good depth at DE can be crucial. We're okay, but could be better.
DT - The mystery position. We like our starters, but won't rule out adding a talented player. This is a deep group of DTs and there are players of every size, shape, and skill set you want. It will be interesting to see what we do here. We could add a starting caliber player, a backup, or a role player (Nickel DT).
LB - The additions of Ernie Sims and Max Hall may have taken us out of drafting a LB in the first 4 rounds. We have 6 bodies that the coaches seem to like. Omar Gaither is coming off a foot injury. I'm not sure what his timetable is. He could be 7. We could take someone late. I think this will be a prime UDFA spot.
S - We need a talented FS. If we miss out on someone early on then we may shift our focus to SS and find a young guy to backup up Quintin Mikell. There are a handful of good FS targets, but there are quite a few SS prospects we could like.
CB - We need at least one CB. We must go get a CB early. Ellis Hobbs is penciled in at the RCB spot, but he must be challenged by a quality rookie. I think we need to either draft another CB or go after a top level UDFA.
STs - I think we're fine at P and K. Jon Dorenbos has become a good LS. We have a great PR. KOR is somewhat of a mystery. Hobbs and Demps are very good, but might be starting for us on defense. I'd like to add another KOR to the mix. We can then let the best man get the job.
PLAYERS WHO COULD GET DEALT
OG Max Jean-Gilles
DT Trevor Laws
QB Mike Vick
PROSPECTS --- VISITS / SPECIAL INTEREST
Guys who came to Philly
QB Zac Robinson, Oklahoma State
RB Toby Gerhart, Stanford
RB Jonathan Dwyer, Ga Tech
RB James Starks, Buffalo
RB Deji Karim, Southern Illinois
RB Charles Scott, LSU
WR Danario Alexander, Missouri
TE Tony Moeaki, Iowa
OG John Jerry, Ole Miss
OT Bryan Bulaga, Iowa
OT Jared Veldheer, Hillsdale
DE Jerry Hughes, TCU
DE Chris McCoy, MTSU
DE/LB Dexter Davis, Arizona State
DE Jeff Fitzgerald, Kansas State
DE Daniel Te'o-Nesheim, Washington
DE Jamie Kirlew, Indiana
DE Eric Moncur, Miami
DT Brian Price, UCLA
LB Arthur Moats, James Madison
LB Jamar Chaney, Mississippi State
LB AJ Edds, Iowa
S Eric Berry, Tennessee
CB Kyle Wilson, Boise State
CB Joshua Moore, Kansas State
CB Walter Thurmond, Oregon
CB David Pender, Purdue
CB Javier Arenas, Alabama
PLAYERS WHO GOT VISITS FROM COACHES
QB John Skelton, Fordham
QB Armanti Edwards, Appalachian State
RB Charles Scott, LSU
RB Shawnbrey McNeal, SMU
OC Ted Larsen, N.C. State
OG Mike Iupati, Idaho
OT Jared Veldheer, Hillsdale
OT Selvish Capers, West Virginia
DE/OLB Jason Worilds, Virginia Tech
DT Linval Joseph, East Carolina
DT Jay Ross, East Carolina
CB Devin McCourty, Rutgers
RS Robert McClain, Connecticut
PLAYERS WHO WE SHOWED SPECIAL INTEREST IN
QB Tim Hiller, Western Michigan
WR Marcus Easley, Connecticut
OC Joe Hawley, UNLV
OT Rodger Saffold, Indiana
OT Ed Wang, Virginia Tech
OT Chris Campbell, Eastern Illinois
OT Anthony Davis, Rutgers
OT Jeraill McCuller, N.C. State
DE Ricky Sapp, Clemson (said we're showing the most interest of any team)
DE Sergio Kindle, Texas
DT Sean Lissemore, William & Mary
DT Earl Mitchell, Arizona
S Mike Newton, Buffalo
S Anthony Levine, Tennessee State
An EMB poster named eagles nut and some very diligent fans compiled most of this info. Kudos. There is a detailed thread in the draft section. Here's the link:
Because the Eagles are so specific I'm trying to list players that I think have a likelihood to be on the Eagles draft list. I will be omitting good players.
1st Round
RB: CJ Spiller, Ryan Mathews
TE: Jermaine Gresham
WR: Demaryius Thomas
OT: Bryan Bulaga, Russell Okung, Trent Williams, Anthony Davis
DE: Derrick Morgan, Brandon Graham, Jerry Hughes
DT: Ndamukong Suh, Gerald McCoy, Dan Williams, Jared Odrick
S: Chad Jones, Akwasi Owusu-Ansah, Major Wright, Reshad Jones
CB: Amari Spievey, Chris Cook
4th Round
RB: Charles Scott, James Starks, Deji Karim
WR: Emmanuel Sanders, Andre Roberts
OT: Chris Scott, Ramon Harewood
OC: Matt Tennant, Reggie Stephens
DE: Daniel Te'o Nesheim, Jammie Kirlew
DT: Arthur Jones, Jeff Owens, Earl Mitchell
LB: AJ Edds, Perry Riley, Travis Goethel, Jason Beauchamp
ILB: Jamar Chaney, Lee Campbell
CB: Myron Lewis, Javier Arenas, Walter McFadden
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All-GE99 Team (my favorite non-1st rounders)
WR Andre Roberts - The Citadel
WR Taylor Price - Ohio
TE Dennis Pitta - BYU
FB Matt Clapp - Oklahoma
RB Ben Tate - Auburn
QB Armanti Edwards - Appalachian State
LT Chris Scott - Tennessee
LG Shelley Smith - Colorado State
OC Matt Tennant - Boston College
RG Jon Asamoah - Illinois
RT Kyle Calloway - Iowa
DE Daniel Te'o-Nesheim - Washington
DT Lamarr Houston - Texas
DT Al Woods - LSU
DE Jammie Kirlew - Indiana
WB Sean Lee - Penn State
MB Lee Campbell - Minnesota
SB AJ Edds - Iowa
SS TJ Ward - Oregon
FS Kurt Coleman - Ohio State
CB Amari Spievey - Iowa
CB Walt McFadden - Auburn
Out of this list I want the Eagles to get 4 players...guys I covet (more or less)
RB Ben Tate
RB Charles Scott
WR Andre Roberts
TE Tony Moeaki
OT Jared Veldheer
OL Chris Scott
DE Jerry Hughes
DE Brandon Graham
DE Daniel Te'o Nesheim
DT Torrell Troup
DT Al Woods
LB Sean Lee
ILB Lee Campbell
FS Eric Berry
FS Earl Thomas
SS Kurt Coleman
CB Kyle Wilson
CB Kareem Jackson
CB Devin McCourty
_
1st Round - DE Brandon Graham - Michigan
2nd Round - FS Nate Allen - USF
3rd Round - DE Daniel Te'o-Nesheim - Washington
4th Round - CB Trevard Lindley - Kentucky
4th Round - LB Keenan Clayton - Oklahoma
4th Round - QB Mike Kafka - Northwestern
4th Round - TE Clay Harbor - Missouri State
5th Round - DE Ricky Sapp - Clemson
5th Round - WR Riley Cooper - Florida
6th Round - RB Charles Scott - LSU
7th Round - LB Jamar Chaney - Mississippi State
7th Round - DT Jeff Owens - Georgia
7th Round - SS Kurt Coleman - Ohio State
GENERAL NOTES
The 2010 draft was short on 4-3 pass rushers. If you wanted them you had to target certain players and be aggressive. The Eagles moved up to pick 13 and took Graham. They did give up a pair of third round picks, but were able to keep both of their second round picks. That was crucial. The Eagles wanted at least a pair of pass rushers. In the 3rd we took Daniel Te'o-Nesheim. That was early for some, but if you pass on Teo you are looking at choosing from Corey Wootton, Everson Griffen, Greg Hardy, and George Selvie. That would have been awesome 2 years ago, but those players each have major concerns. You had to be aggressive if you wanted 4-3 DEs. The Eagles targeted players and got them.
That's the key to understanding the Eagles 2010 draft class. DE was made the priority. I know many people felt like CB should have been the top of the list. I wanted a DE more and that's why I was so enamored with the thought of taking Jerry Hughes at 24. The Eagles felt like Graham was the key guy to try and get. The deal worked out and we got him. Howie Roseman played the situation right. Target players early, then fall back and mass draft. We wanted a DE. We also wanted a FS and CB. We weren't able to get the CB we wanted, but did get a high quality FS.
I like the draft class quite a bit. I'd love it if I was more comfortable about CB. The Eagles chose quite a few players that I really liked. They added productive, proven players. We've had the luxury of mixing in projects in previous drafts, but the current roster needed guys that fit certain roles.
I know a lot of people have questions about CB. I don't have good information for you right now. The Eagles liked Joe Haden and Kyle Wilson quite a bit, but I didn't hear them associated with many of the mid-level corners. I'm doing some checking to find out if we got burned by someone grabbing a target or if we just didn't like the class and felt like Trevard Lindley was the next best thing to Haden/Wilson/McCourty/K. Jackson.
I wasn't surprised that the Eagles took such a large class. This roster was set as far as starters, but had lots of holes on the depth chart. I think we needed to bring in a slew of bodies. Moving back and adding picks in the 3rd, 4th, and 5th rounds was smart. This isn't me rationalizing what the Eagles did. I talked on a podcast prior to the draft about the Eagles possibly moving back to get even more picks. The middle of the draft was loaded with solid prospects and we needed to get a lot of them.
We didn't take any offensive linemen. I was surprised. Some were shocked. Actions speak louder than words. This goes to show that Reid and Juan Castillo do believe in Nick Cole and Stacy Andrews. The pre-draft comments about those guys wasn't BS hype. We really think Nick can be a good staring Center and that Stacy will bounce back and play well in 2010. My only disappointment at O-line was not adding someone to push King Dunlap for the backup LT spot.
This was the first draft with Howie Roseman as GM and Sean McDermott as Defensive Coordinator. What did we learn? Not all that much, as far as I can tell. We drafted 3 DEs. We also lost 3 (Babin, Clemons, and Howard). We did make sure to replace them, even after the addition of Darryl Tapp. There was a focus on the DE spot. We drafted a pair of Safeties, but we let Sean Jones go and moved Macho back to CB. That created spots for the guys. WLB is the most interesting spot in my mind. We traded for Ernie Sims last week and then drafted a player similar in size and skill set in the 4th round. Neither LB is the physical type we've liked in recent years (neither guy will be mistaken for Takeo Spikes). In this respect we seem to be focusing on speed, range, and coverage ability.
Howie did a lot of trading (good call, Michael Silver), but I didn't see any unusual patterns in the way we did things. I don't know if we missed out on any players that we wanted. Heckert was a master of knowing who would go when and where. Howie seemed to do okay, but we'll find out in the next month or so if the team missed out on anyone.
TRENDS
5 of 13 picks came from the SEC.
All 13 picks were Seniors.
7 guys came from Senior Bowl. Scott had invite, but was hurt.
3 guys were at the Shrine Game.
Several guys had great Combine or Pro Day workouts.
4 guys have injury history.
We focused on defense. 9 of 13 picks went to that side of the ball.
How he fits in: Graham comes to the Eagles to challenge for the LDE spot from day one. He won't be given a starting job. Brandon will have to earn it. The team traded for Darryl Tapp in the offseason. Incumbent starter Juqua Parker is still in the mix. He's started the last two years for us and won't give up his job without a fight. Graham is a good fit for our system. He's both quick and fast. He plays with good leverage. He is relentless in pursuit of the quarterback. He can make plays based on talent and effort. Graham can play either left or right end. He occasionally slid inside to tackle for Michigan. Graham is the kind of player you can plug in immediately as a rotational pass rusher. He can also help fill the Darren Howard role of Nickel DT.
Draft Value: Was he a good at pick 13? Yes. I know some fans and some in the media think that the Eagles reached in going after Graham this early. Not so, from what I've heard. I did some digging over the weekend and word in NFL circles is that several teams would have taken Graham or moved up for him. The Eagles obviously knew teams were interested and decided that the trade-up for Graham had to be done if they truly wanted him. They did, and now he's an Eagle.
How he fits in: I think the coaches will give Allen a chance to start right away. Macho Harris is reportedly moving back to cornerback. That leaves Quintin Demps and Marlin Jackson as competition for the free safety job. Allen doesn't have their NFL experience, but he's a more polished player than Demps and is healthier than Jackson. Allen seems like a very bright guy. I think he'll bury his nose in the playbook and keep it there until he knows the scheme inside-out. Few rookies have a chance to start for a team that was in the playoffs the previous year. Allen has that chance and I'm sure he'll want to take advantage of it.
Draft Value: Most people thought of him as an early 2nd round pick, right where the Eagles took him.
How he fits in: Another pass rusher to add to the mix. Teo is versatile and should be good on STs so that will help his case to be active on gamedays. Any impact he offers on defense will come mostly through effort. Teo did play DT in some passing situations at UW. The Eagles might try him inside as well. After Darren Howard's release we do have a need for an inside pass rush in the Nickel and Dime units.
Draft Value: Teo was taken earlier than most people expected. I had him rated as a 4th round target for the Eagles. Taking him at #86 wasn't unreasonable. The Patriots had showed a lot of interest in him and they had 2 picks shortly after 86. The Eagles felt like Teo was too valuable to take a chance on sliding down to the 4th round.
How he fits in: Because our RCB position is so unsettled, Lindley will have a chance to win the job. I don't expect him to do that. I think Lindley is a player that will need coaching and some time to develop. He is a very experienced SEC player and that will help his transition to the NFL, but his technique will need work. He got by on natural ability more than anything else at UK. I don't know how smart of a guy Lindley is. We saw last year that a bright guy like Jeremy Maclin was able to make a very quick transition to the NFL despite having a big learning curve. Lindley won't get on the field unless he earns it. CB isn't a position where you can let players learn on the fly.
Draft Value: I had Lindley rated as a "late round player". I figured he'd go in the mid-5th. Being an SEC corner with okay size and speed won't let you fall too far, but I was surprised that we took him in the early 4th. Lindley wasn't my preference at that point. I think the Eagles saw a player with the potential to be pretty good if he takes well to NFL coaching. Lindley does seem like a high character guy that will work hard to make it in the NFL. Let's hope so.
How he fits in: I think Clayton could have starting potential down the line, but for now he is here as a Nickel LB and STs player. We'll have to see how he does against blockers to know if he can ever be a starter at the NFL level. I think he could be a terrific role player. Clayton excels in coverage, an area that hurt us in 2009. We'll likely use Ernie Sims and Stewart Bradley in the Nickel. If Clayton shows that he can be a playmaker he could earn time as a rookie. He set the OU record for FFs in a season with 6 in 2008 so he can make things happen. Clayton ideally becomes a more athletic version of Ike Reese - Nickel LB, great STer, and the top backup at all 3 LB spots.
Draft Value: Clayton's value was a mystery to me. Early on I was dismissive of him because he only listed at 220 pounds. I figured he was the typical Sooner LB/SS tweener (see Nic Harris). The more I watched Dominique Franks, Gerald McCoy, and Trent Williams I kept noticing this one LB making play after play. He then had a great showing at the Combine and got my attention. I was still unsure of where to put him because I wondered if he was starter material. Where do you list Nickel LBs? Probably the 5th round. I have no problem with the Eagles taking him where they did because we needed a player like him and he's got such good upside.
How he fits in: Mike is here to be the #3 QB this year and the backup beyond that. Why take a QB so early? As much as we like Kolb, he still is an unknown in terms of a season long performance. We also need to see how durable he is. Mike gives us a legit backup QB to develop. If Kolb proves to be as good as we hope, we can trade Kafka in a couple of years and maybe land a solid pick.
Draft Value: I figured Kafka would go in the 4th round. Good value.
How he fits in: We have a star TE in Brent Celek. Cornelius Ingram is #2, but is coming off 2 straight summers with a torn ACL. I think Harbor is here as an insurance policy for Ingram. That said, Harbor is different that Celek and Ingram. Those guys are really good pass catchers, but Harbor gives us RAC ability. Remember the TE screens with L.J. Smith (his lone good play)? Harbor is the kind of player who can catch a short pass and then make stuff happen after the catch. He also has the best strength of our TEs and could develop into the best blocker (which is sort of like being the tallest of the Keebler elves). You also wonder if Ingram won't be more of a TE/WR hybrid.
Draft Value: The Eagles considered taking Tony Moeaki in the 3rd round, but moved back and then went DE. Harbor has a similar skill set to Moeaki, but was available a round later. I had Clay pegged as a 5th round type of prospect, but I have no problem with him going in the late 4th. I was only able to watch one game tape of his this year. The Eagles obviously were able to study 4 years worth of tape. They also saw him up close at the Shrine Game.
How he fits in: I think he is here to take on the Chris Clemons role of being backup DE, situational rusher, and playing the Joker spot. That is when we go to a 3-man DL and have a DE stand up as the MLB. Sapp is athletic enough to handle that role. He had one of the fastest times of any LB at the Combine. He can really run. I listed him at OLB over at ScoutsNotebook because I don't think he can be a starting DE in the 4-3. I just don't see enough strength or physicality. Brandon Jacobs would use him as a hood ornament. I thought for sure he'd be a 3-4 OLB.
Why he slid: Tore his ACL late in 2008. Didn't miss a game this year. Production was solid (14 TFLs, 2 FFs), but obviously teams had questions about his knee. I had Sapp rated as a 2nd round LB. Could be very good value if his knee checks out. Sapp said prior to the draft that the Eagles had shown the most interest in him so this wasn't a case of us taking a flier on a star player with a bad knee. We spent a lot of time with him and must have felt like he was a good fit for us and worth the risk once you got to the 5th round. Remember, that's the same round where we took Ingram last year.
How he fits in: Cooper is what the Eagles needed - a WR with size. Hank Baskett is here on a 1-year deal. He's not guaranteed to be here beyond that. Cooper is a good STer. He is good in the Red Zone. He knows how to beat press coverage. He can catch the ball in traffic. He's actually better at difficult catches than easy ones (trade him to WAS?). With the big 3 already in place we needed a guy who will do the dirty work, while also bringing a different skill set to the table. Riley fits the bill.
Why he slid: I thought he could go as early as the 3rd round. People talk about his lack of speed, but the guy runs 4.55 at 222 pounds. That's hardly slow. I do think he's better downfield. I'm not sure how good of a short and intermediate receiver Cooper is. Can he get open by running crisp routes and selling his fakes? Very good value in the 5th.
How he fits in: Scott is our power back of the future. Mike Bell has that role for 2010. Scott will need to play well this summer to earn a roster spot. Nothing is guaranteed for a 6th round pick. I think Scott will do fine. There will be comparisons to Tony Hunt, who failed as our power back of the future. Hunt was 233 pounds at his Pro Day and was awful in the agility drills. He had a 4.72 short shuttle and a 7.39 3-cone drill. Look at Scott's numbers. You can see he's got much better footwork and agility. Scott also spent time as a backup at LSU. He played some FB. He played on STs. He will understand that he's not coming here to be the feature runner.
Draft Value: I figured Scott could go as early as the 4th round so I was ecstatic to get him in the 6th. I'm sure the injury from this year didn't help his value. He also looked a little stiff in some of the Combine drills. That's okay for me since I'm not projecting him as our starting RB. Scott is here to be a downhill power runner. That is something he can do.
How he fits in: Chaney comes to the Eagles to be a backup and STer. In college he played WLB and MLB. I think we'll have him battle Joe Mays for the backup MLB spot. We do like versatile LBs and in time he could get some reps on the weakside. Chaney should be a standout on STs with his ability to run and tackle.
Why he slid: He suffered an ankle injury in the 2008 opener and missed the rest of the year. There are some questions about how good his ankle is and whether it can hold up to the grind of the NFL. I thought Chaney would go in the 4th so he was a worth a risk in the 7th.
How he fits in: We've got a good 3-man set-up with Patt, Bunk, and Dixon. Trevor Laws has to wake up and play his tail off. Owens is here to push him. Jeff isn't substantially bigger than Laws, but is much more physical and powerful. Jeff can hold the point and shed blocks.
Why he slid: I figured Jeff would go late, but to get him at the bottom of the 7th was a surprise. He tore his ACL and missed 2008. The injury likely affected his value.
7th Round - SS Kurt Coleman - Ohio State
5'10, 192
4.56
34.5 VJ
10-2 BJ
6.81
4.15
Key stats: last 2 years - 80 solo tackles, 9 INTs, 4 FFs, 2 sacks
How he fits in: Kurt has a shot to be the backup SS. Quintin Mikell is fine for now, but we do need to develop someone behind him. I'm sure many think playing a smaller guy there is odd, but you don't need a 215-pound thumper at SS anymore. Find a guy with man cover skills who can hit and tackle and you've got a prospect. Coleman is tough for his size. He plays smart and just has a knack for making plays. I think he'll be a starter in the NFL. Very underrated player.
Why he slid: Smaller DBs that only run in the 4.55 range aren't coveted players. I had him rated as a 4th to 5th round target. Getting him in the 7th round is like having Santa visit on Feb. 5th and leave a bonus gift. Kurt is my favorite pick of the whole group.
Possible Post-Draft Depth Chart - Top 60 or so players
WR DeSean Jackson ... Jason Avant ............ Chad Hall
WR Jeremy Maclin ...... Hank Baskett ........... Riley Cooper
TE Brent Celek ......... Cornelius Ingram ........ Clay Harbor / Martin Rucker
FB Leonard Weaver ... Dwayne Wright
RB LeSean McCoy ..... Mike Bell ................... Eldra Buckley / Charles Scott
QB Kevin Kolb .......... Mike Vick .................. Mike Kafka
LT Jason Peters ........ King Dunlap
LG Todd Herremans ... Mike McGlynn (also C)
OC Nick Cole ............ Jamaal Jackson .......... Dallas Reynolds
RG Stacy Andrews ..... Max Jean-Gilles ......... Shawn Murphy
RT Winston Justice .... Fenuki Tupou
RE Trent Cole ........... Juqua Parker ........ Daniel Te'o-Nesheim ..... Ricky Sapp
DT Brodrick Bunkley ... Trevor Laws ......... Jeff Owens
DT Mike Patterson ..... Antonio Dixon
LE Darryl Tapp .......... Brandon Graham ..... Victor Abiamiri
WB Ernie Sims .......... Akeem Jordan ......... Keenan Clayton
MB Stewart Bradley ... Joe Mays .............. Jamar Chaney
SB Moise Fokou ........ Alex Hall
SS Quintin Mikell ....... Kurt Coleman
FS Nate Allen ........... Quintin Demps ........ Marlin Jackson
CB Ellis Hobbs ........... Trevard Lindley ...... Geoff Pope
CB Asante Samuel ..... Dimitri Patterson
NB Joselio Hanson ..... Macho Harris
P Sav Rocca
K David Akers
LS Jon Dorenbos
_________________________________
UDFAs
OT Austin Howard - Northern Iowa
OT Jeraill McCuller - NC State
OG Zipp Duncan - Kentucky
QB Joey Elliott - Purdue
FB Chris Zardas - UMass
RB Keithon Flemming - West Texas A&M
WR Pat Simonds - Colgate
WR Kevin Jurovich - San Jose State
WR Blue Cooper - Tenn-Chattanooga
DT Charles Alexander - LSU
DE Eric Moncur - Miami
CB David Pender - Purdue
CB Josh Morris - Weber State
CB Devin Ross - Arizona
=========================================
OT Austin Howard - Northern Iowa 6'7, 333
Interesting player. Backup TE in 2006. Then started there in 2007. Moved to LT and started there both in 2008 and 2009. Made some I-AA All-American teams in 2009. Solid workout at his Pro Day. Per Gil Brandt, he ran 5.41, had a 9-1 BJ, 8.10 3C, and did 19 reps. Big guy who really looks the part. Shows athletic ability. Strong run blocker on some plays. Has real potential. One big problem...he isn't a knee-bender. That really hurts his game and his value. Way too upright. If you can get him to bend, Howard could be a viable OT prospect. He has good size and natural gifts. Late rounder or UDFA.
How he fits in: Will be the #3 LT. Project for Juan Castillo, but has Practice Squad potential.
OT Jeraill McCuller - NC State 6'7, 322
Big, physical RT. Started 4 games in '07 and then all of 2008 and '09. Active, aggressive player. Finds someone to block. You will see plays where he blocks multiple guys. McCuller has a real mean streak and it serves him well. Very good run blocker. Has the strength and power to move guys off the ball. Outstanding down blocker. Can really cave guys in. Actually gets his shoulder into some blocks and will put defenders on the ground. Able to pull and block on the 2nd level, but isn't adept at it. Marginal pass blocker. Good awareness. He's not smooth, but has a pretty good kick slide. Doesn't have ideal foot quickness to be a strong pass blocker. Also is too upright. Gets off balance at times.
How he fits in: #3 RT. McCuller has NFL ability. If he can prove to be an effective pass blocker he could challenge for a roster spot. I don't think that is likely. Definite PS material. Some will wonder about him at OG, but McCuller goes 6'7 and is a bit upright. DTs could get under his pads and give him fits. I'm not sure he can play inside.
OG Zipp Duncan - Kentucky 6'5, 300
Began his career at DE and then shifted to TE. Started at OG for 2 years before moving to LT as a Senior. More upright than you'd like. Not a huge guy. Has a medium build. Looks comfortable out in space on screen passes. Doesn't re-direct well. Does a good job of getting into his pass sets. Needs to anchor better. Gives too much ground against bull rushers. Can be an effective run blocker when he gets off the ball well and keeps his pads low.
How he fits in: Backup OG prospect. He's got NFL potential.
QB Joey Elliott - Purdue 6'3, 215
1-year starter. Posted good numbers. Threw for 3,026 yards and 22 TDs. Completed 62% of his throws. Arm is okay. Passes lack top velocity, but generally are on time and on target. Has some mobility. Won't wow you with moves, but able to slide around the pocket and look for receivers. Has solid mechanics. Throws should be tighter. They have too much wobble. Passes to the right side go out almost side-arm. Puts good touch on his swing passes. Looks like sound decision-maker. Gets the ball out quickly. Throws a ton of short passes.
How he fits in: Could be a #3 QB in the NFL, but most likely a camp body.
FB Chris Zardas - UMass 6'0, 238
2-year starter. Solid I-AA player. Effective blocker. Lacks ideal pop, but will attack his targets. Solid receiver. Caught 20 career passes. Good runner. Averaged more than 5 yards per run for his career and had 7 TDs. Shows some athletic ability. Will play on STs.
How he fits in: Camp body.
RB Keithon Flemming - West Texas A&M 5'10, 208
Began his career at Wyoming. Transferred to WT and ran for more than 1,000 yards in 2007. Injuries affected his numbers the next couple of seasons. Flemming still managed to run for more than 1,300 yards and 25 TDs combined in his final 2 seasons. Also caught 77 passes. Dislocated his elbow just before the start of the '09 season. That caused him to miss the first 6 games. Team went 1-5. He returned and they went 6-0 down the stretch. Valuable player. Real effective on screen passes. Has good hands and runs well in traffic. Physical N-S runner. Not the most nimble or athletic guy, but he runs hard and doesn't hesitate. Broke a lot of arm tackles against D2 competition. We'll see how that works at the NFL level. Has excellent balance and good lower body strength. Looked okay at the Texas vs The Nation AS game.
How he fits in: We love RBs who are good at screen passes, but I don't think Flemming has the athleticism needed for RB in the NFL.
WR Pat Simonds - Colgate 6'5, 220
Big WR had a great Senior year going 66-1012-14. Has very good hands. Makes some really tough grabs and catches the ball well in traffic. Limited RAC ability. Played in the Shrine Game and showed potential, but you could also see his limitations. Doesn't appear to have the quickness or burst to play in the NFL.
How he fits in: Andy always believes in bringing at least one big WR to camp. Mike Gasperson was here for several years. I don't know if Simonds will be as good as him. It is all about athletic ability with Pat.
WR Kevin Jurovich - San Jose State 6'0, 190
Very good college receiver. Runs excellent routes and shows a real feel for how to get open. Jurovich missed all of 2008 with mono. In his first game of 2009 he went up against USC. Kevin caught 5 passes for 64 yards. He looked pretty good. He showed good quickness and agility. He has good hands. Former Safety made the conversion to WR and posted big numbers, catching 160 passes and 11 TDs in just 2 years of action. Has an outside shot at the NFL. Is he fast enough?
How he fits in: Legit prospect who could challenge for the #6 WR spot. Should be an outstanding practice player. He'll burn his share of backup CBs with good moves and will likely make some tough catches.
WR Blue Cooper - Tenn-Chattanooga 6'2, 185
Plays the flanker position for UTC. Okay size, but lacks speed. Possession receiver. Does have good hands. He can go up and really pluck the ball. Knows how to get open, but lacks the quickness and body control to beat good coverage. Had a great Senior year, catching 84 passes and scoring 7 TDs. The problem is that he averaged less than 10 yards per reception. Camp body.
How he fits in: Camp body.
DE Eric Moncur - Miami 6'1, 237
2008 was supposed to be his Senior season, but things went horribly wrong. His mother passed away early in the year and Eric had injury issues as well. He ended up redshirting. Moncur played in '09, but once again battled injuries. He has shown flashes of real potential. Eric is a gifted edge rusher. He's quick off the ball and athletic. Despite irregular playing time Moncur had 10 sacks and 18 TFLs in his career. Late rounder at best because of the durability concerns.
How he fits in: Good UDFA signing. The guy knows how to get to the QB. Always take a look at those players and see if you have a place for them on your roster. Clearly lacks functional NFL size, but could be a situational player. I don't know that he's athletic enough to play SAM. I think of Eric as a pass rusher. He faces an uphill battle, but doesn't lack talent.
DT Charles Alexander - LSU 6'4, 300
Quality SEC player, but a limited pro prospect. Just doesn't stand out in any area. Alexander can get penetration and be disruptive, but he has to time the snap right. Doesn't show the kind of strength or power to consistently shed blocks. Limited playmaker at LSU. Had 6.5 TFLs in his career.
How he fits in: Camp body, but we'll see how he takes to pro coaching. SEC defensive linemen always have a fighting chance.
CB David Pender - Purdue 6'0, 180
3-year starter. Big CB with good cover skills and some athletic ability. Pender broke up 3 passes in the upset of Ohio State, including the final play of the game. Broke up 32 passes in his career. Doesn't have good hands. You can see that in his low total of only 3 career INTs. Solid tackler. Had an excellent showing at the Combine. Good athlete for a big CB. Late round guy, but has NFL potential.
How he fits in: I valued him as a draft prospect and think he has a chance to win a roster spot. He has the size and speed of an NFL corner. David must play consistently and be technically sound.
CB Josh Morris - Weber State 5'11, 186
Looks the part. You see him line up and move around a little and he just looks like an NFL type of CB. Had a great Junior season when he picked off 5 passes and broke up 9 more. As a Senior people didn't throw his way. WSU plays a lot of man coverage and Josh shows the ability to shadow receivers all over the field. He has good feet and looks athletic. He's confident and aggressive. With less throws coming to his side he only had 2 INTs and 5 PDs as a Senior.
How he fits in: Might be a small school guy, but he has potential. I get the feeling he'll make some plays at TC.
CB Devin Ross - Arizona
Productive CB. Broke up 25 passes and picked 4 off in the last couple of seasons. Not the smoothest or most agile CB. Sort of a springy, jumpy guy. Plays off a lot of the time. Gets a good break on the ball. Has okay size and speed. Outstanding hitter and tackler. Attacks his targets aggressively. Had 61 solo tackles in 2009, an exceptionally high total for a CB. Part of that is the ball coming his way, but part of that is him having a good motor and getting to the ball a lot.
How he fits in: Might not have the speed to play in the NFL. Only runs in the 4.6 range. That's not good at CB. I do love tough, competitive players like Devin. He might lack the ability for the NFL, but effort will never be a problem. He will make it as hard as possible for Howie and Andy to cut him.
__
Last edited by Tommy_Lawlor on Wed Apr 28, 2010 1:04 pm; edited 3 times in total
OT Austin Howard - Northern Iowa
OT Jeraill McCuller - NC State
OG Zipp Duncan - Kentucky
QB Joey Elliott - Purdue
FB Chris Zardas - UMass
RB Keithon Flemming - West Texas A&M
WR Pat Simonds - Colgate
WR Kevin Jurovich - San Jose State
WR Blue Cooper - Tenn-Chattanooga
DT Charles Alexander - LSU
CB David Pender - Purdue
CB Josh Morris - Weber State
CB Devin Ross - Arizona
_
Let me say this and trust me there are a lot of kids out there who can play the game. Keithon will probably shock a lot of people. Surely you have to find it interesting he made it to a camp having his senior season marred by injury. His stats are a bit average but take into mind he played running back in the air raid offense. Running backs usually aren't the focus or star players in that offense. He also has been a punt returner and kick returner. He tied a NCAA record and scampered 99 yards from scrimmage. Against D2 talent I would say he done exceptionally well. He led all rushers in the Texas vs The Nation game. He went from 4th on the depth chart to being the starting running back for the game in a week. Starting over Deji Karim and a couple of other guys that are on NFL rosters. I say to you there is some kind of talent there and it just may be NFL talent. I told him many times he reminded me of Brian Westbrook from Philly while he was playing in college. Big shoes to fill and I probably shouldn't say that here but I'm his toughest critic and he loves the underdog role and plays with a chip on his shoulder. His road to the NFL has been a hard one. He took probably one of the hardest roads to get there I have seen and is very humbled by his experience. I could go on and on but I would only be talking and I'm sure on a message board it's more like everyone is from Missouri "Show Me". Keep an eye on the sleeper to make the squad. Being he came from the air raid offense and number one passing offense in the nation he would have to know how to protect the QB. I think that's a big part of the game we tend to overlook as fans sometimes when rating players. Protect...protect...next play fake protect slip into a screen and C-Ya
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