Eagles 2021 Offseason

[nycphils]

I only watched until halftime but I can’t worry too much about the Patriots 2nd string beating the crap out of our 3rd/4th string, which is what appeared to be happening - running roughshod over Hassan Ridgeway and T.Y. McGill.

[phillychuck]

I hate to tell you but Ridgeway and McGill are our 2nd team tackles, not 3/4s.

[bkeich]

Devonta Smith did a nice job getting open. Nothing downfield.

Sippos had a nice kickoff.

Singleton and Edward’s with tons of tackles. Partially because no one else on defense made any plays.

No one on defense can cover anyone. Basically zero plays defended by the secondary. Our pass defense was still better than the run defense.

In his 3rd season, JJAW might be the worst draft pick of the last 20 years. He can’t even get on the field with the 4th string. He is that far down the depth chart, he only plays special teams in the preseason. Basically, a 2nd round pick that is a “camp body”.

I really hope we don’t see Nick Mullens playing against 1st team defenders. He is atrocious against 3rd team guys, can’t imagine the word to describe what he does against 1st team guys. Hopefully we pick up a project 3rd team QB from someone’s cuts and release Mullens. Honestly, I would rather see Lane Johnson playing QB

NE needs a kicker.

[xogfog]

With one more meaningless preseason game left, I'll take my first crack at a 53 man projection:

QB (2) Hurts, Flacco
RB (4) Sanders, Howard, Scott, Gainwell
WR (5) Smith, Watkins, Reagor, Ward, Fulgham
TE (3) Ertz, Goedert.Rodgers
OL (10) Mailata, Seumalo, Kelce, Brooks, Johnson, Dillard, Clark, Herbig, Driscoll, Opeta
DL (9) Graham, Cox, Hargrave, Sweat, Kerrigan, Ridgeway, Williams, Barnett, Jackson
LB (7) Wilson, Singleton, Taylor, Edwards, Bradley, Avery, Stevens
S (4) McLeod, Harris, Wallace, Epps
CB (6) Slay, Nelson, Maddox, McPhearson, James, Scott
K Elliott
P Siposs
LS Lovato

NFI: OL Dickerson
PUP: TE Jackson

Practice Squad: LB/DE Ostman, DT McGill, WR Hightower, TE Stoll, T Toth, RB Huntly, LB Johnson, DT Tuipulotu, DE Bailey, DB Arnold, RB Holyfield, S Riley, CB Jacquet, S Adams, TBD, TBD

Notes:
I think Ertz stays on the team at least until the trade deadline if the team is not doing well, or for the whole season if he and the team are playing well. Jackson hurting his back sealed that. At least if they do trade him at the deadline, Jackson would be able to come off the PUP to be the 3rd TE.

I kept seven linebackers because I view Stevens as a LB/S hybrid.

When Dickerson is ready to play, he will probably take Opeta's or Herbig's spot on the roster.

If they trade Dillard, then I suspect Pryor would make the team, I don't think they can put Pryor on the practice squad.

[LegoDoom]

Hate to say it, but it is really noticeable that our play callers don’t have any experience.

4th down, 1:15 to go, let clock run down hoping for them to jump, call timeout with 10 seconds left on play clock. Either run it down or dont, they obviously won’t jump with that much left on the play clock.

Once again, very tired defenders get left on the field and can’t get off on the snap. Rotation is all screwed up.

It is preseason, but hate seeing bad habits. Coordinators need preseason too and ours look like they need a lot of practice.

I watched it again and have to disagree. You are saying the Eagles should have quickly tried a 4th down attempt and if they failed, then they'd give the Pats over a minute to score on the Eagles side of the field. Or, run the clock down, try to draw an offsides, and then punted?

I think there is a solid argument for trying to draw the other team offisdes in the first 10-15 seconds of a 2 minute drill and then calling a timeout to give your team a chance to score with ~45 seconds left. If the 4th down attempt fails, then giving the Pats ~30 seconds left to score seems like a good trade-off.

[bkeich]

I would say either run the clock all the way down OR keep in hurry up. What they did was in between, ran it down, but left 10+ seconds on the play clock when they called timeout.

[nycphils]

hate to tell you but Ridgeway and McGill are our 2nd team tackles, not 3/4s.

Well, probably not anymore!

[LegoDoom]

I guess we'll just disagree. 45 seconds from ~midfield with a timeout is plenty of time to score. If they fail on 4th down, then giving the Pats 35 seconds instead of 65 seconds is better. Just because it looks like an in between decision does not make it incorrect.

[Squire]

I like your 53. I think I would keep Tuipulotu on the 53 over Craig James. I also think think Huntley might make the 53.

The good news is that we have hardly had any camp injuries. The bad news is that that makes it harder to make the 53.

I think when Dickerson is ready he takes Opeta's spot. Herbig graded out too good last year.

[LegoDoom]

I agree about Herbig.

[phillychuck]

Based on the camp as it stands now I agree with Squire, that 53 makes sense. I think they might find a way to keep Huntley, but they can probably waive him and get him to the PS. He was good in camp, but he hasn't shown much vs other teams (maybe they haven't given him many reps, though...). I also think there are people who are in jeopardy--Fulgham is likely to be gone if he doesn't show anything this coming week, possibly for a waiver-wire pick-up.

An Ertz trade would obviously shake things up.

I'm not sure where they stand on Opeta vs Pryor vs Toth (who got a lot of praise for how he played against the Pats) vs. picking someone from the wire.

Unless they are planning to swing Maddox to safety sometimes or in case of injury they are going to have to find another safety (Riley?) and open up a spot for him; Stevens really hasn't seen a snap at safety all camp (at least that's been reported).

That 53 will be challenged on special teams in terms of punt coverage--there really are no gunners on it.. I think JJAW may also find a spot if he keeps making plays on teams.

[xogfog]

Bradley is a good special teams player. Huntley is a good kick returner, but 5 running backs are a lot to keep and WR is too premium a position to waste a spot on a special teams specialist. I'm not saying JJAW isn't a good special teamer, but he needs a change of scenery more than just about anyone not named Dillard on the team. He is a wasteland as a WR here.

[xogfog]

If don't think you'd have any trouble getting Tuipulotu to the practice squad, but if you were going to keep a 5th DT instead of a 6th CB, I would keep McGill.

[phillychuck]

Agree on McGill. He has shown ability, although he's older at 28 than you'd ideally prefer for a back-up. They still need a gunner or two on the roster...those guys are usually backup safetys or cornerbacks. James, Scott, Epps, Wallace? Bradley, Edwards, and Taylor are solid special teams depth...

[bkeich]

Looks like one of the most likeableEagles of the past decade may be done. Vinny Curry had his spleen removed from a rare blood disorder and will miss the season. Might be wise to just call it a career at this point, a guy that was always underrated, he has been a solid player for the Eagles and a class guy.

[bkeich]

I can’t think when I have ever seen such a thin team. If you look just at our starters, we could win 10 (especially with our schedule), but I think that is a mirage.

We have no depth. The defensive secondary has 4 NFL players and a bunch of &&&&. We have 2 linebackers. Even our normal DE depth isn’t really as deep as it was.

We do have 2 TE, but our WR are pretty “hopeful” with only Smith a likely plus player. QB is a Hope and prayer. RB gets pretty light after Sanders. Our OL has 5 good players and then a huge drop off.

If we don’t have any injuries this is a fairly good team. If we have some the drop off to our backups is deep at almost every position.

The salary cap disaster was tough on this team, and probably will be again next year. We were counting on an uncapped year (it was a good bet, but didn’t happen) and now I think we have some real issues.

I fear this is going to be a VERY frustrating season.

[zambonir]

I would rather win four or five games than win the East with 8 or 9. Especially if they're still QB-shopping.

[schillingfan]

I expect nothing from the eaglles this year and hope they get a high draft pick.

[Squire]

I'm actually cautiously optimistic about the Eagles this year for the following reasons and others:
1. We have had a historic amount of injuries pretty much every year under Pederson
2. I think our existing roster was undercoached the last two years and is better than they played
3. Wentz was really really bad last year. Hurts being league average would be a huge upgrade
4. I really liked our draft.

[allentown]

I will be thrilled to be proven wrong, but I would be stunned if Hurts was league average this season, which is why I'm pessimistic on the Eagles. His problems have persisted in training camp, specifically holding the ball too long and making too many inaccurate throws. The preseason running game and receiving game by our RBs have been surprisingly poor. TEs good, especially if they actually keep Ertz to start season. DeVonta very promising, but Reagor hasn't stepped up and Fulgham seems to have taken a step back. Watkins has looked plus, but need to see him in real games. I agree with Bkeich about no depth. We don't have a real #3 QB and Flacco hasn't impressed as #2. Any injury among starting and nickel DBs will really hurt. The DL rotation seems weaker than in recent seasons. An injury really hurts there. Dillard looked bad and is hurt, so after the starters OT could be a problem. The OL has three older stars coming off injury problems in Kelce, Brooks, and Johnson. It's a weak division, but we said the same about the Phillies.