Eagles 2019 Offseason

[phillychuck]

Gotta find a young up-and-coming Joe D. Howie can maneuver, but he's best with a good evaluator.

[Purduke]

An aside that is fractionally Eagles related. Was watching the Prefontaine Classic today and one of the Women's High Jumpers was Randall Cunningham's 21 year old daughter Vashtai. Turns out she is the leading high jumper in the US and #5 rated in the world according to Track & Field.

[allentown]

The Wall Street Journal has an article about the early labor negotiations underway between NFL owners and their players' union,

The Billion-Dollar Question Hanging Over NFL Labor Talks

The proposal to exchange 2 pre-season games for 2 more regular season games has been proposed before, but some of the details here are very interesting. May just be chum to let the players think they've won a key issue, which the owners don't really care as much about as they say they do, but:

1) This change would boost salary caps for each team by $15 million.
2) The players legit concerned about health/injuries, especially since contracts not guaranteed and pensions/retiree health benefits don't accrue until after 3 years of service, which is longer than the average NFL career with a 16-game season, so...
3)The owners have proposed that no player would be allowed to appear in more than 16 games a season
4) We talk about the benefits of more managerial decision making by NL than AL rules, but this change would really change the strategy of NFL coaches and GMs. Which games to you sit your key players -- if you sit them in the first 3/4 of season a significant risk that they could have played the 16 allowed games, but injury plus rule limits them to fewer games; if you sit the QB for a game do you sit your key skills guys or do you play them with the backup QB and let the top QB play without the top receiver or top RB?

Sounds like this proposal is DOA, but the strategic implications are intriguing for both head coach and GM (do you spend more on backup QB and keep an extra high $ receiver or RB on roster?)

[bkeich]

Which games to you sit your key players -- if you sit them in the first 3/4 of season a significant risk that they could have played the 16 allowed games, but injury plus rule limits them to fewer games; if you sit the QB for a game do you sit your key skills guys or do you play them with the backup QB and let the top QB play without the top receiver or top RB?

Sounds like this proposal is DOA, but the strategic implications are intriguing for both head coach and GM (do you spend more on backup QB and keep an extra high $ receiver or RB on roster?)

If I was a coach:

I wouldnt even bother sitting players until game 10 or so. They will probably be hurt at some point, dont sit them healthy until it is so late that you must.

If I were a GM:

I guess the first thing I would push if I was the NFL would be an additional 5-10 man inactive list for players that would be sitting.
2nd thing would be to exempt K, P and LS (that they could play 18). That way you dont have to carry a 2nd one of them.

I agree, I dont think this is a real proposal by the NFL, but more of a "well, we gave in on this, so..." type negotiating ploy.

If I was were the players:

1) Make 20% of all moneys guaranteed for the life of the contract. You can cut me, but you have to pay 20% of what is on the books (existing contracts exempted because they werent created with this in mind). Some NFL Contracts are actually intentionally written with bogus seasons added on at the end that the team does not ever plan to use just to spread the signing bonus over longer (basically borrowing from the future)
2) A higher floor for salaries of teams that are way, way under.
3) A minor league, even if it was just 6-8 teams.

The Eagles have been clearly planning for their to be a strike. They have pushed their salary cap hit into the season before the strike, which they assume will be uncapped. Genius if right, but we could be in grave, grave trouble if there is an agreement before then.

[xogfog]

Eagles bring back Darren Sproles for yet another year. That's 7 running backs on the roster. I guess they are not really sold on Boston Scott being the next Sproles, they still want the original.

[bkeich]

I wonder if Miles Sanders just came down with a season ending boo boo

[xogfog]

Eagles sign S Johnathan Cyprien, pending physical. Cyprien missed last season after tearing his ACL in training camp. If healthy, it might be a real good under the radar signing for a couple reasons. Cyprien can also play LB, so more of a hybrid than Sendejo, and if Sendejo is waived, the Eagles will get a 4th round compensation pick back for next year.

[bkeich]

Seems like an abnormal number of cuts/additions at the bottom of the roster this year. I think that is 3-4 in the last week, almost certainly all guys with no real chance of making the roster (except for Scandrick).

I wonder if the staff is being more proactive in the first weeks of camp or if we are getting more injuries that are causing these moves.

Nothing other than an oddity really, these are the guys that are #80+ on the roster

[bkeich]

I Cody Kessler is not an option. He really is not a good QB. I think I might have a better arm.

Matt Pryor is playing himself off the team. Hope he has a better game, he might be on the bubble now.

Dillard stood out as doing well. They emphasized a very smart play he made that is really a veteran move to give the DE a Lane inside on a screen.

Maliata was beat a couple times, but if he gets his hands on a DL that guy is done for the play. He out muscles everyone.

I really hope Sudfeld didn’t break his left wrist, it looked bad.

Josh Adams also playing himself off the roster. Odd to have your leading rusher this far down the depth chart.

Hall had a great game. Sweat looked pretty good also

I really like Vinny Curry. He hated leaving and clearly is just happy to be back. I hope he succeeds. I honestly wonder if they offered him a 4 year contract at the league minimum if he wouldn’t sign it just hoping to stay on the team

Josh Hawkins proving that having a ton of tackles can be bad. It is because he can’t cover anyone. There are no mandatory cuts after the first preseason game, but you might as well cut him now.

Refs are in preseason mode also. Titans 3rd TD was not a catch, his foot was clearly OB.

Thorson clearly nervous. His first throw one of the worst you will ever see. 2nd throw dropped. 3rd pass 10 feet over the receivers head and easily picked. If he was a reliever you would pull him and tell him today wasn’t his day

If Sudfeld is hurt we might need to see if Lane Johnson has any interest in taking some reps at QB​

Does Trayvon Hester make the team just so he can block FGs?

Announcers are right, it is time to call Josh Johnson. He isn’t great, but he is better than Cody Kessler and Thorson might end up on the practice squad

A lot of good things, and some guys that really showed they don’t belong. Whoever #14 is he should be cut immediately after short arming a slant pass. Our 3rd and 4th team defense was awful for the most part.

[bkeich]

Indeed Sudfeld did break his left wrist and is having surgery this week.

For some reason Pederson was quoted as saying they will not add a QB and they are comfortable with the backups they have. I can only guess he had a head injury that made him forget what happened yesterday, Thorson was awful, but it was his first action and Cody Kessler is simply not an NFL QB (not even sure he would be a good HS QB).

Hopefully Sudfeld will be back fairly quickly, but this really hurts him as he was going to get the majority of the playing time in the next 3 games.

It also all but guarantees that the team will be 0-4 in the preseason from what I saw yesterday and that the offense will get very few reps in these games since we dont have a QB on the roster other than Wentz, who hopefully wont play very much.

[Lawman]

Sudfeld out 6-8 weeks, but at least it's his non-throwing hand.

Wentz needs to stay healthy.

[bkeich]

Thorson looking much better this week. Very strong arm, needs to learn a little touch, but there is hope as that is what he was known for in college.

I know we need healthy QBs, but find two off the scrap heap and release Kessler. Only threw 3 passes, only one he completed was behind the line of scrimmage. Threw two passes less than 10 yards downfield and “out” and both lacked the arm strength to be completed. He can be cut.

Now we need 2 QB To get through the preseason.

[bkeich]

I am 52 years old and was slow when I was a teenager. I think I could make the Eagles as a WR if they promised to have Hawkins (#48) cover me on every play. Wow does he stand out as not able to cover anyone.

My memory of the preseason:
Week 1 : starters play 1 series
Week 2 : starters play 1 quarter
Week 3 : starters play 1 half
Week 4 : starters rest.

Are the starters going to play at all this preseason?

Dayshawn Hall once again the star of the game. Funny part is he celebrated his 2nd sack and almost screwed up not getting back to lineup in time. He actually slid back onside just as the ball was being snapped, funny, but something tells me the coaching staff was less amused.

TJ Edwards, undrafted LB seemed all over the place. Maybe not making the team, but he is going to be on someone’s practice squad.

Orlando Scandrick answering the question of why he was available at the start of training camp. Had a 3rd quarter missed tackle that was one of the worst efforts you will ever see.

Malialta not even mentioned or seen despite playing a lot of time. Always a good sign. This kid might really be special, he is strong in a different way than other humans. (One false start)

Going to be sad to see Josh Adams cut. I think he can play.

Will Tye looked like a long term player a couple years ago. What happened, he is completely uninteresting now

[bkeich]

Doug Pederson with a really nice interference challenge. Not really sure it should have been reversed (to interference), but I like him trying out the new rule in the preseason.

I would like the calls in the season to be much clearer. It should be for egregious mistakes, not just “it looked like interference”.

[Purduke]

I thought it was a horrible reversal. The one good thing about the reversal (other than it helped the Eagles win a preseason game) was that it had to alarm the NY crowd into realizing how dangerous thing this challenge can be. There is a much better likelihood of a questionable challenge reversal costing somebody a game in 2019 than there is of an outright blown interference call during the game.

And what happens come post -season when some LT sumoes some DE who is already 4\5's by him without getting a penalty call and the QB completes a TD pass. "Oh my God did you see that -- that was more egregious than any pass interference flub all season" so why is one penalty reviewable and not all of them? And God help us if we start reviewing holding calls.

Oh, and I have no idea who the Eagles will be bringing in as an additional QB, but I'll repeat what a said after free agency. Bring in Josh McKown.

[bkeich]

Oh, and I have no idea who the Eagles will be bringing in as an additional QB, but I'll repeat what a said after free agency. Bring in Josh McKown.

That is a good ideas as any. We need a better veteran backup than Kessler, who really doesnt belong in the NFL.

McKown isnt a bad idea at all, a super veteran. Keep in mind that Wentz is still pretty young, smart and talented, but young (NFL games wise) and Thorson is a nice project QB, he has the physical tools and was successful in college, he just needs the game to slow down to be a serviceable backup, maybe even a good one.

I completely agree, this rule was to fix egregious errors, not the "it looked like interference". They really need to emphasize this to the replay officials.

[phillychuck]

Make Kessler a coach--he was supposedly great in the room with the other QBs, especially during film work. Seems like a guy who knows what to do but doesn't quite have the arm to make the throws.

[Squire]

Eagles signing QB Josh McCown to a 1 year deal

[phillychuck]

Makes so much sense. Just let Kessler go, or, as I wrote above, make him a player-coach.

[Squire]

Kessler’s like 26. I don’t think he wants to be a player coach. Too many injured QBs