Eagles 2019 Offseason

[xogfog]

With the 2018/2019 season in the books this offseason looks like there may be a lot of turnover of the roster. There is need at virtually every position.

The Eagles own free agents are:

QB Foles
RB Ajayi
RB Sproles
WR Tate
WR Wallace
WR Matthews
TE Rodgers
G Warmack
LB Hicks
LB Reynolds
LB Warrilow
LB Alexander
CB Darby
DE B. Graham
DT Nata
S C. Graham
S Maragos

The Eagles have the 25th pick in the first round, they also have 2 second round picks. They don't have a 3rd round pick (traded for Tate). They should receive a few compensatory picks (for Burton, Allen and Robinson).

With Brooks tearing his Achilles, he's going to miss a good part of next season, so the OL is possibly the biggest need going into the offseason.

I expect Wentz to be back to his 2017 form, being two years past the ACL. I think they need to bring Peters back for one more year. I don't expect any big trades or free agent splashes, but I put nothing past Howie.

There is a lot of age on the DL and there are a lot of sentimental decisions to make, but the main need is to keep the ployoff and championship windows open while Wentz is in his prime, which will be tough to do once he gets his payday.

[Lawman]

Philadelphia Eagles (Eagles)

[Lawman]

I don't see Peters coming back. I think, on offense, the biggest needs are OL depth and RB. I think I'd bring Ajayi back on a 1 year, incentive laden deal.

I'm not sure I see most of the FAs you name as being all that crucial to bring back (Floes and B. Graham excepted).

[allentown]

I'd say we need offensive line starters. We have Lane Johnson and Kelce. I don't expect anything from the injured Brooks and don't expect Peters to be back. Is Seumalo starter quality on a playoff team? Wisnewski isn't. Vaitai isn't starter quality. At a minimum, we need 2 starting OL. The first rounder needs to go to OL. One second rounder to RB.

[xogfog]

Unfortunately, where the Eagles are picking in the first round, the type of OL picks available there are not usually year one starters. If they want a o lineman that can play year one, you might get a guard there. But not a tackle. You need to get a free agent or trade for a starting tackle, or trade up in the draft. That's why I'd bring back Peters for one more year. He played pretty well this year while battling back and quad issues. He also is a great tutor for Mailata, who might be a stater by 2020 and could use another year of study behind Peters.

[el-pietro]

Anonymous quote saying Wentz was the problem in the dressing room this season.

PhillyVoice (thephillyvoice)

Exclusive: Sources inside Eagles paint Carson Wentz as 'selfish,'...

Zach Ertz refuting that in no uncertain terms.

Zach Ertz (ZERTZ_86)

[Squire]

fletcher cox (fcoxx_91)

Fletcher Cox weighing in as well

[el-pietro]

Comparison from that article between Wentz and Luck

Ask yourself who had the better season: Wentz (279-for-401, 3,074 yards, 21 TDs, 7 INTs, sacked 31 times) or Andrew Luck (430-for-639, 4,593 yards, 39 TDs, 15 INTs, sacked 18 times)?

Those look like very similar numbers to me. 69.6% completion for Wentz. 67.3% for Luck. 7.67 YPA for Wentz. 7.19 YPA for Luck.
3 TDS per INT for Wentz. 2.6 for Luck. The only metric Luck beats him on is TDS per attempt. Luck has a TD every 16.4 attempts. Wentz every 19.1. But Luck pays for that in Interceptions.

[phillychuck]

Sources are likely to be the fired coaches. Don't know how much you can trust that.

Also, on the Wentz/Luck comparison, you can see that Wentz takes too many sacks. That can be an O-line issue, a scheme issue, an audible calling issue, or a Wentz movement in the pocket issue. Eminently fixable.

[Squire]

Lane Johnson (LaneJohnson65)

Lane Johnson with something to say

[el-pietro]

They have given themselves an out in this story. If Wentz and the Eagles are good next year it will be because Foles is gone and Wentz has gone back to who he was in 2017. Not because he will be fully recovered from injuries, with better offensive weapons and a healthy OL.

The subjects interviewed for this story gave the impression that Wentz changed after his injury. With Foles more than likely gone next season and nothing but open space ahead to rehab and spend a full training camp as QB1, there seems to be a good chance he'll be his dynamic self again — both on the gridiron and with his teammates.

“He has to return to who ‘Carson Wentz’ is," a source told PhillyVoice. "That comes with relaxing and not forcing things. It also comes with being able to take constructive criticism. He has to learn that it’s not always about him and that’s partly what hurt this team this year. We know what type of player he can be, and who he normally is. He needs to realize it’s the Philadelphia Eagles not the Philadelphia Carsons.

[el-pietro]

I'm sure there are some elements of truth within this story, maybe Wentz did overcomplicate plays, maybe he didn't fully trust his knee, maybe he did target Ertz a bit too much, but I'm not taking too much truth from an article full of anonymous quotes from a writer who appears to have an issue with Carson Wentz.

JSantoliquito on Twitter

Edit: Brooks echos Fletcher Cox' sentiments.

Brandon Brooks on Twitter

If we wait a little bit we will be able to figure out who the sources are through process of elimination.

[allentown]

Apart from the obviously lingering knee injury and then playing through the back problem, the problem with Wentz this year was too many plays for significant losses. Part of it is Wentz (he hasn't learned when he needs to throw the ball away) and part was Pederson (too many fake handoffs deep where Wentz then turned back in the direction from which he had come and suddenly there was a defensive lineman right in his face. I think Wentz would benefit from elimination of plays where he has to spend the initial second plus facing away from the receivers downfield. He can't pick up his targets quickly enough under those circumstances to avoid the sack, nor was he quick enough to avoid the sack in his 2018 physical condition. Pederson set him up for failure on quite a few snaps. The play calls were a bit different for Foles, and it was not just simplification.

[nycphils]

Sources are likely to be the fired coaches. Don't know how much you can trust that.

Obviously, I can’t tell for sure if the story is fully accurate or not. However, unless you believe the reporter is outright lying, your conjecture isn’t remotely the fully accurate story:

Over the past two months, PhillyVoice spoke with more than a half dozen players, plus other sources close to the team, who all requested to remain anonymous

[saycheese]

Part of this is perception. Wentz didn't have bad a year. He didn't have an MVP year like he was having in 2017 either. Still I will take 21-7, 102 passer rating and a 69% completion rate in 11 games. Did he miss passes yes he did, so did Foles, was he sacked more than Foles yes he was. However we have to look at the fact that is o line was pretty banged up through the middle of the season, guys were playing with a bunch of injuries. Still a fair to criticize he held the ball a little longer than he should at times. Some folks say he targeted Ertz too much. The stats say Foles actually targeted Ertz more. Its all perception. Based on the fact this guy came back from a major injury I think he played pretty well.

[zambonir]

Skimming the article it doesn't seem like it's actually that big a deal, and it kind of does blame the coaches as much as Wentz, inasmuch as it says Reich and DeFillippo were able to keep him in line and Groh wasn't. But "star QB sometimes acts like a star" and "inexperienced QB still has a lot to learn" doesn't strike me as that big of a bombshell.

[Squire]

I think it is a nonsense story. If your pool of potential sources is the 80 or so players on the team during the year (53 +injured guys + practice squad guys) + coaches, I'm like 100% certain that any reporter could find 4-6 guys who would be willing to say (anonymously of course) that the #2 overall soon to be 100 Million dollar very openly religious quarterback is a selfish primadonna. It would be a story if you couldn't find 4-6 guys to say that (anonymously of course).

[phillychuck]

The other team leaders reacting to the story the way they have sort of indicates the "sources" were not representing most of the team. Sort of the definition of sports "fake news", or what we used to call "Let's you and him fight" stories. What squire wrote above is how I'm taking it.

[EastFallowfield]

The idea that the writer didn't put both QBs target stats in the story makes it questionable, receivers were targeted more by one or the other, but it's all about Ertz.

Ertz targets per game:
9.28 with Foles
9.63 with Wentz

Alshon was targeted more by Wentz than Foles.

[EastFallowfield]

The writer who wrote the Wentz expose's earlier take on Carson:

The Eagles Just Became The Cleveland Browns, complete with Von Hayes reference.