Eagles Blog

Here’s why.

I’m pretty sure that photo says it all.

John Goodman (no, not that one) was a DE for 5 years in the NFL. He faced some great OTs in his days. Goodman raves about Lane Johnson and his natural ability.

“He’s the type of guy that can punch and end and still get off and cover a blitzing safety or ’backer up the field. He’s got the ability to get to the second — or even third — level. That’s going to be one of his strengths, getting downfield, because he’s so athletic and so fast.”

Sounds good, huh? One small problem. Goodman is biased, since he is Johnson’s father-in-law.

“He was hands-down the best OT in the Big 12 and because he wasn’t promoted and played long enough he was second, third team type. Anybody that knew his potential knew there wasn’t a better offensive tackle in the Big 12. He used that as motivation. He went out there at the Senior Bowl and rose to the challenge, played the whole game and didn’t bail out after one series like Fisher did.

“He went and played the whole game, played like it was his last game. That’s what he’ll do. He wasn’t out there to protect himself. He was out there to compete. He’ll do the same thing [in the NFL].”

I tend to agree with much of what Goodman says, but you can’t ignore the relationship when discussing his comments. Goodman gave Johnson the ultimate compliment when he compared him to Anthony Munoz, arguably the best OT of all time. If Johnson can be 80 percent of what Munoz was, the Eagles will have made a great pick.

Jason La Canfora offers his take on the Jairus Byrd situation and where things stand.

Contrary to a report, Bills safety Jairus Byrd has not requested a trade, but, according to a source close to the situation, he would welcome a change of scenery at this point as he plays out the 2013 season on the franchise tag. Sources said the Bills sought further clarity from the NFL about his status, inquiring as to whether, if he were traded, if a new team could possibly alter his contract.

The word back from the NFL Management Council was as expected. As a franchise player, no changes to Byrd’s contract could be made by any team after the July 15 deadline to extend the contract of a franchise player. So given that any team that acquired Byrd would essentially be only renting him for the season, with Byrd eligible for unrestricted free agency unless he was franchised again (at a 20 percent raise), trade talks haven’t really gotten off the ground.

Teams will not part with what Byrd — a playmaking safety just entering his prime — is worth, given the uncertainty about his future with their club. Byrd is currently dealing with foot injuries, and will not face New England in the season opener Sunday. It’s only logical to wonder if he had contract security beyond this season if he might be more willing to extend himself medically to play.

The sides could not get close on an extension this summer, with Buffalo floating offers worth about $7 million a season, sources said, which is similar to the franchise tag value. Regardless, it would be difficult to see Byrd back in Buffalo in 2014 at this point. With the trade deadline now pushed back, perhaps the Bills assume a pick for him at some point if they believe it is worth slightly more than the compensatory pick his departure would net them, particularly if the rebuilding team struggles early on.

With the trade deadline now at the midpoint of the season, trading Byrd then would cost the team acquiring him only half of his $6.92M salary, and would also cut his cap number in half, which would increase the number of teams able to assume the contract.

It feels like a trade is becoming more and more remote. Byrd will walk in free agency next year. Maybe that’s the time to target him. Also, you can see how his foot holds up and if that affects his long term value.

New pre-game video is out. No humor in this one. The Eagles as a heavy metal band…

And #69 can sure thrash.  Continue reading →

Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie shared some thoughts on Chip Kelly and what he’s looking for from Kelly this year.

“I just think it’s not in wins and losses,” Lurie said in an interview with The Inquirer. “It’s absolutely instilling a culture in the program that he brings to it, a sense of preparedness, a pride in being the best you can be for the fans and the team, and winning every day – winning the day, each day. And whatever happens, happens.”

Here’s more from the Zach Berman article.

It’s Lurie’s responsibility to monitor the relationship between Kelly and general manager Howie Roseman, and Lurie described it as “incredibly collaborative” and a “really healthy situation.” While Kelly watches film and evaluates talent, Lurie noted, Kelly realizes scouts are devoted full-time to that and respects their roles. Lurie wanted Kelly to have final say on the 53-man roster because of Kelly’s head-coaching experience, but also to ensure the organization has a balance of power.

“It made sense to balance the player personnel and head coaching, and empower them both, and force a complete collaboration,” Lurie said. “That was the strategy behind it. You didn’t have to force it. Happened naturally.”

So far, so good with the honeymoon.

The Eagles kept 3 OLBs, but in reality 2 of them are really just DEs in disguise. Connor Barwin is unique and Bob Ford writes about how valuable that makes him to the Eagles defense.

“It can get really complex,” Barwin said. “We can do all kinds of stuff with the nickel and the safeties, and move me to left or right. It’s just a versatility thing that I can rush and can drop. Those other guys, Cole and BG, are definitely capable of dropping. There are coverages they can do and you put them in the best situation to succeed.”

It’s nice of Barwin to be supportive of Cole and Graham, but he’s being generous. They might have a good play here or there. The problem is that you can’t consistently count on them to be good in coverage.

One of the things we heard Chip Kelly wants is for the QB to get the ball out quickly.

Remember when Chip Kelly said he wanted the ball gone in 1.6 seconds? Michael Vick's average time to attempt in preseason was 3.16 seconds

— Pro Football Focus (@PFF) September 3, 2013

As we saw this summer, Vick threw the ball more downfield than we expected. He mixed in some short throws as well, but there were plenty of 20-yard pass targets. What we don’t know is if this was by design or not.

Nick Foles didn’t throw any deep balls and limited his throws in the 15-20 yard range. He threw mostly short, quick passes.

Vick holding onto the ball is something to keep an eye on, but we can’t make too much of a preseason stat since Kelly hadn’t designed specific gameplans.

The QBs of all 32 teams…

depicted as the team’s nickname.

Sam Bradford is the best. Peyton Manning is 2nd place.

Brilliant.

We all know the Eagles will run an up-tempo offense this year. Chase Stuart from Football Perspective did some research to look into the Eagles pace from this summer.

Go read the piece to see all the data he put together. Really good stuff. Here is his conclusion.

The Patriots ran nearly 1200 plays while operating the fastest offense in the NFL last year, but we can’t forget that they have a future Hall of Fame quarterback running the show. Part of running so many plays is having an efficient quarterback who can convert on third downs, traits that Michael Vick has never consistently displayed. Other factors involved in running a lot of plays are bad — Detroit had 1,160 plays last year, the second most in the league, despite an average pace in normal situations. But the Lions threw 295 incomplete passes and were in hurry-up mode on the 4th quarter of lots of games in 2012. The Eagles defense looks to be terrible, which might mean lots of plays in the fourth quarter, but it will also likely limit the number of plays the offense will get to run (unless the defense gives up a lot of short drives, the other team will be able to bleed the clock). Forcing three-and-outs on defense is a great way to get more plays, but that doesn’t seem in the cards for the Eagles in 2013.

On the other hand, it would be naive to think Kelly was showing us everything — or close to everything — in the preseason. And this neutered version of the Kelly offense, while not operating at an otherworldy pace we’ve never seen before, still operated at an extremely fast pace, one that would challenge the Patriots for the league lead. Kelly’s tempo is for real, but running 1200 plays involves more than tempo. It involves efficiency on both sides of the ball, which may not happen for Kelly until 2014.

Stuart is right that you must keep moving the chains in order for the offense to be successful. 3 and outs are going to kill your pace no matter how fast you try to go.

Old friend Quintin Mikell has a new home. He’ll be playing for the Carolina Panthers. That reunites him with Ron Rivera and Sean McDermott. Rivera was with Mikell for a short time in Philly, but McDermott coached him for years.

I know some fans would have liked to have seen the Eagles bring Mikell back, but age has caught up with him. The Panthers lost S Haruki Nakamura to IR and Mikell can step in as a backup for them. I’m sure he’ll have familiarity with the system.

Mikell came into the league as a UDFA in 2003. He has had a terrific career and is one of those guys who makes the NFL look good. He’s a credit to the game of football, on and off the field.