Eagles Blog

Mike Florio + Jimmy Kempski? The end must be near.

Jimmy Bama ripped on NFL Network’s Heath Evans for his attempt to backtrack from his idiotic criticisms of Chip Kelly right after his hiring a year ago. Evans tried to blame his editors for the horrible piece. Jimmy would have none of that.

Blaming your editors for horrible work is garbage, especially when you’re on video basically saying the same exact things you said in your article.

Heath Evans, just stand there in your wrongness and be wrong and get used to it.

Classic Jimmy takedown. It got Florio’s attention.

He may not want to throw anyone under the bus at NFL Network, but Evans nevertheless did.

And Evans didn’t do it very smoothly.  As Kempski points out, Evans offered the same criticisms of the Kelly hire on the air after he was hired by the Eagles that were contained in an article written about Kelly being hired by the Browns.

It’s enough to make some Eagles fans strongly believe that Evans is one of the worst analyst hires in pro football history.

You know how awful Heath Evans is when you see that Florio and Jimmy Bama were on the same page. Let’s just hope this doesn’t happen again.

Here are Jimmy’s thoughts on what he saw Tuesday.

• During 1-on-1 pass rush drills (LBs and safeties vs TEs and RBs), the best pass blocker of the bunch was Georgia TE Arthur Lynch. The best pass rusher was Christian Jones of Florida State. Telvin Smith of Florida State struggled to get any pressure at all. Smith has been working out at LB for the South team, but his size and build (6’3, 218) say he’s a safety. Smith made it clear to me in an interview that he does not want to play safety. He needs to re-think that. To his credit, Smith did have a nice forced fumble today.

• The best receiver here, in my opinion, is Jordan Matthews of Vanderbilt. He had the catch of the day. It was semi-diving catch about 30 yards down the field along the sideline. He has had some drops, which is a concern, but his raw ability is clear as day.

Good stuff.

Jimmy is down in Mobile with me. Here is his take on what he saw Monday.

He got a bit of a scoop. Check this out.

According to a source, Miami OT Seantrel Henderson was removed from the Eagles’ board completely. In 2010, Henderson was the #2 high school prospect in the country, according to Rivals.com. The Eagles have a recent history of drafting, signing, and trading for players who were formerly elite high school prospects. However, his career at Miami has been marred by suspensions and other character concerns. Chip Kelly seems to place a high value on player interviews.

A snippet from one of Kelly’s post-draft press conferences last year:

“There were a couple kids at the combine that just were kind of off the charts when we interviewed them. Two of them we had the opportunity to take. Bennie Logan was one of them and Matt Barkley.”

Obviously, the Eagles drafted both Logan and Barkley. The Senior Bowl is often the first opportunity that teams get to interview some players. The Eagles may not have liked what they heard from Henderson.

Jimmy also has a picture of Trent Murphy’s giant hand. His fingers are like 6-inches long. Crazy.

Rick Gosselin does STs rankings for all 32 NFL teams each year. His rankings are generally credited as the way to judge your team’s performance. So where did the Eagles finish this year?

19th.

Not bad, but certainly not good. Lots of room for improvement. The Eagles must get better going into 2014.

The Top 4 teams:  NE, SF, KC and Dallas.

Chip Kelly.

The Maxwell Club chose him as Coach of the Year.

Not bad for Joe College.

Erik Chinander was the Asst DL coach for the Eagles this year. He just got a new job. He’ll be the LBs coach for Oregon.

https://twitter.com/ZBerm/status/423600300323139584

Congrats to Erik.

One group has chosen Shady as NFC Offensive Player of Year.

https://twitter.com/Eagles/status/423514940540866560

Evan Mathis is headed to the Pro Bowl.

Party at PFF tonight.

From Twitter.

The 2011 rookies at the front of the contract renegotiation line: http://t.co/zVM3b2uYq4

— Michael Tanier (@MikeTanier) January 14, 2014

@MikeTanier No Danny Watkins?

— Tommy Lawlor (@lawlornfl) January 14, 2014

@lawlornfl His escalator clause was replaced with a fireman's ladder clause.

— Michael Tanier (@MikeTanier) January 14, 2014

Several teams have tried to set up an interview with Tom Gamble to get him to be their GM. Sounds like he’ll be staying put for now.

My sense is that Eagles VP Tom Gamble fully plans to stay in Philly. He believes in Chip Kelly's program, not ready to bolt after 1 year.

— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) January 14, 2014

People inside don't think he really wants to deal with that situation. Family is here. Think he stays MT @penseur76 latest on Tom Gamble?

— Reuben Frank (@RoobCSN) January 14, 2014

This is terrific news, assuming it is accurate.

Why would Gamble stay? I’ve read that his father Harry is ill. By staying in Philly for another year, Tom can spend time with his family and help them out. There will be other GM openings,

Tom staying helps the Eagles. He probably has the most extensive Pro Personnel background of anyone on the staff. That will be critical as the team makes free agency plans. Tom also was in SF when they built up a great 3-4 defense. Howie and the majority of the scouts know the 4-3, but the 3-4 is still new to them. It can take time to adjust to finding the right fits to the new scheme.

One of the problems is that most schools still run the 4-3. That means you are projecting a lot of DEs to OLBs, DTs to DEs and OLBs to ILBs. That can be tricky. Having a veteran 3-4 personnel guy like Gamble in the mix is a good thing.

Tom Gamble isn’t some irreplaceable personnel guru, but he is smart, experienced and he’s got a good eye for talent. You want to keep guys like that around as long as possible. The Eagles have some young guys in the personnel department. Gamble can use his experience to help them out, as scouts and in administrative roles.

Eventually I’m sure Gamble will leave for a GM role. He deserves it. If the Eagles are lucky, they’ll get another year or two out of him.

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