Eagles Blog

Let’s see what some of my fellow hacks have to say.

Sheil Kapadia

He has both Greg Salas and Russell Shepard making it. That would shock me. But it would also reward 2 guys who were terrific at Training Camp.

Tim McManus

He clearly copied off Sheil’s paper. Tim has both Salas and Shepard making it as well. What do they know that I don’t?  Tim also has Jordan Poyer making it. He might make the initial cut, but I don’t think he’ll be on the roster for long if he makes that cut.

Geoff Mosher

He has the Eagles with 11 OL. That would shock me.

Reuben Frank

He had 8 DL making it, including Joe Kruger. Oops.

Jeff McLane / Zach Berman

Apparently they copied from Sheil as well. Both had Salas and Shepard making it. Both also had Poyer.

The Eagles made some moves.

Cut:

LB Everette Brown
QB Dennis Dixon
DL Antonio Dixon
DL David King
QB G.J. Kinne
OL Matt Kopa
CB Trevard Lindley
WR Ifeanyi Momah
WR Will Murphy
OL Dallas Reynolds
LB Adrian Robinson
OG Matt Tennant

The Eagles also put Joe Kruger on IR. That’s great news. He has a minor shoulder injury. That will heal soon enough and won’t affect the future. Kruger is only 21 years old and still has good potential. He simply must get bigger and stronger. While on IR, he cannot practice with the team, but he can sit in on meetings. He can work out. He’ll be in a much better position to challenge for a spot next summer.

The cut of Momah is kind of surprising. I figured they’d wait as long as possible with him, but this may be a sign that they simply don’t think he can play in the NFL. Or maybe this is a deceptive move, hoping teams will think the Eagles are down on him when they do still have hopes of putting him on the practice squad.

You can see my roster projection here.

One of the downfalls of the Eagles late in the Reid era was too much self-worshipping. “We’re a great team.” Or maybe “We’re a great (offense or defense).”

“Our goal and expectation is to win the Super Bowl.”

“Dream team.”

And so on.

One of Chip Kelly’s biggest victories so far is keeping the players focused on here and now. Sheil Kapadia offers up more info.

And finally, Kelly explained the Win The Day mantra that became so popular at Oregon and now has made its way into the Eagles’ locker room.

“Just about embracing the process and that’s what it’s all about,” Kelly said. “I think too many people see too far down the road. You can talk about championships all you want, but if you don’t take care of what you’re supposed to be taking care of today, it doesn’t matter what your long-term goal is.

“Just really making sure that you’re focused no matter what your long-term goals are, to be on the short-term and what can I get accomplished today? Maybe we just weren’t smart enough to look long-term. We can control what we can control today and if we do it, go to bed, get up tomorrow and do it again. It’s about being consistent with your behavior and I think too many times, everybody talks about the big picture. But they neglect to look at what the small picture is. It’s an accumulation of things on a daily basis that gets you to where you are a year from now. It’s not try to jump to a year from now. It’s take care of what you can today and what you can control is just today.”

I love it. Focus on today and quit dreaming about the future. Take care of your business right now and the big picture will play out better than if you ignore today and just stare down the road.

One of the tough questions for Chip Kelly and Howie Roseman is what to do with OT Dennis Kelly. Reporters were able to speak to Kelly today and get an update on his situation. Tim McManus has the details.

The last time we spoke with Dennis Kelly, he said that he hoped to be back on the practice field around the start of the regular season and was “very confident” that he would avoid being placed on injured reserve.

On Tuesday he said he was “pretty confident” that the IR is not in his future. And it looks like his return date is still a ways off.

Kelly, who had back surgery to repair an L2 disc earlier this month, said he will be re-checked by doctors on September 16. He could be cleared to return to football-related activities then.

Currently the 6-8, 321-pound tackle is able to do some cardio and a little bit of agility work. The big thing will be regaining strength and getting back into football shape. Even if there are no setbacks, that could take some time.

What does Kelly do with Kelly?

Dennis is a promising young OL and you hate the thought of wasting the whole year if he’s going to be ready by late Sept. / early October. Then again, what if the injury is a nagging issue and Kelly isn’t full go for half the season? Are you wasting a valuable spot?

I’m guessing Kelly makes the roster, but if they run into early injuries, he could get shifted to IR due to necessity. He seems like a luxury item at this point.

Chip Kelly has final say on the 53-man roster. All coaches should have control of who makes the team and who doesn’t. But that isn’t the case. Good stuff here from Zach Berman.

Kelly is the only new hire this offseason who has final say on the 53-man roster. That includes Andy Reid in Kansas City, where general manager John Dorsey has the final decision on the 53-man roster.

In Cleveland, where Kelly was also a candidate, Joe Banner has final say on the 53-man roster.

When Roseman was asked directly about who has final say on the 53-man roster when camp opened, he evaded the question.

“We don’t get into the decision-making here,” Roseman said. “We do that together. We spend a lot of time together as a staff. We spend a lot of time together, Chip and I, and all those things have really worked out. We’ve had discussions. It’s OK to have debate and discussions. We go forward together as one.”

Though it’s true that Kelly and Roseman work together, it’s relevant to know who has the final say on a decision. There will be players released or kept on Saturday who were Roseman’s draft picks, or players released or kept that played for Kelly at Oregon and Kelly has a prior relationship with.

And if the partnership between the head coach and general manager continues for as long as they believe it will, then there will be decisions that will be looked back on in a few years as either good or bad decisions.

Crazy to think Joe Banner controls the roster in CLE. Very smart man, but not a football guy. Great business mind. Knows more football than he’s given credit for, but I just don’t see him controlling the roster.

Remember when Stewart Bradley got hurt in December of 2010 vs Dallas and Jamar Chaney took over as MLB? He played well. The next week he was flat out terrific vs the Giants. Brian Baldinger was ready to put him in Canton.

Chaney regressed after that, but was solid.

Then 2011 came and Juan Castillo had the brilliant idea to build the LB corps around Chaney and moved him to SAM as some S/LB hybrid that would be a star. Oh boy, was that a great idea.

Casey Matthews flopped at MLB so Chaney moved back to the middle. He was highly inconsistent there. The team added DeMeco Ryans and Mychal Kendricks in 2012 so Chaney went to WLB, where he struggled to find a home. He was eventually benched.

After the PIT game, I wrote on Twitter that I had invented a new drinking game. Every time Chaney is in the wrong gap on a run play, you drink. Warning…you need lots of beer.

Jamar didn’t find that so amusing and let me know that he graded out at 86 percent. Okay. I followed up by asking what the coach downgraded him for. My guess…being in the wrong gap too often. Jamar never responded to that.

Jamar has talent. He’s a better athlete than people realize. He was a star in the SEC in college. He just needs someone to put him at one spot and leave him there. I wish him well.

I’m glad he’s gone. Watching him frustrated me to no end, even if many of the problems were due to crappy circumstances and not his own doing.

The Lions cut veteran Safety Chris Hope. He isn’t as good of a STs player as some other guys on their roster so they felt he wasn’t worth keeping around as a backup. Hope is a tough, physical player. He played all 16 games last year, but was just a backup for them. He’ll turn 33 in 5 weeks.

Hope could be added as a replacement for Kenny Phillips. Hope is 6-0, 208 and could help the run defense. He’s never been great in coverage. You could try to play him on run downs and Nate Allen in passing situations, but that kind of platoon system always sounds better in theory than it looks in reality.

They also cut CB Myron Lewis. He is a big DB that many saw as a CB/S tweener. Bill Davis has had some success with those guys in the past. Lewis was the 67th overall pick in 2010. Tampa cut him 2 weeks ago and he wasn’t able to stick in Detroit.  He’s played in 28 games and has one career start.

Ronnell Lewis, no relation, could also be a potential target. He played DE for the Lions, but at 6-2, 253 didn’t have ideal size. Lewis was a 4th round pick in 2012 so it is somewhat surprising they gave up on him so quickly.

The Eagles need OLB depth. Travis Long, Everette Brown and Adrian Robinson have virtually no shot at making the roster. It would be nice to add a young player who could push for a roster spot.

Lewis played both DE and LB at Oklahoma, never fully developing at either spot. I had a hard time getting a feel for him. I did think OLB was his more natural position.

Les Bowen didn’t like what he saw from Michael Vick on Saturday night.

Four days after Chip Kelly ended his quarterbacking competition, naming Michael Vick the starter, Kelly got a strong whiff of the 2011-12 Vick, in the sticky breeze wafting off the St. John’s River.

“I wouldn’t use the word ‘regress,’ ” when assessing Vick, Kelly said, which numbered Kelly among a rare few. Vick threw a terrible, back-foot, no-chance interception to kill a drive. He missed Brent Celek for a touchdown, and on another play, the fact that he had already been sacked – after holding onto the ball about half an hour – was the only thing that kept Vick from being charged with intentional grounding, which would have taken the Eagles out of field goal range, before Alex Henery hit from 45 yards.

“When I look at my performance tonight, I think I did some good things out there. It’s not always going to be perfect,” said Vick, who took seven first half hits, almost none of them on runs. “I’m not perfect. I can do better. There’s a lot that I learned tonight.”

Even when Vick was making good plays – and there were quite a few – it really didn’t look like he was running Kelly’s offense. Vick almost never threw in rhythm; he stood and waited, then scrambled, taking a hit, sooner or later. The idea he can stay healthy for 16 games playing this way, even with that extra 5 pounds of muscle Vick touts, seems farcical.

Vick’s stats — 15 for 23, 184 yards, a touchdown to Riley Cooper, that pick, plus 53 rushing yards on 7 carries – didn’t tell the whole story. His only touchdown drive covered just 21 yards, after a Connor Barwin interception, the Eagles’ first of the preseason. Given how precise and crisp Vick was in the first two preseason games, Saturday’s struggles against an unheralded team came as an unwlecome surprise.

Les is pretty good with words. I wonder if he’s ever considered starting a blog or something like that.

Reuben Frank posted his 10 observations on the Eagles-Jags game. He had a couple of good nuggets.

7. Jason Avant has caught more passes than the previous year every season he’s been in the NFL (7, 23, 32, 41, 51, 52, 53), and I’d be shocked if that doesn’t happen again. We don’t talk about him enough, but Avant is quietly having a tremendous preseason, and in this offense, he could put up huge numbers. His one-handed catch Saturday was ridiculous.

1. In his first game since Chip Kelly named him the Eagles’ opening-day quarterback, Michael Vick put up OK numbers: 15-for-23 passing, 184 yards, one TD, one INT, 7-for-53 rushing. But he just didn’t look as fluid or as smooth as he did in the first two preseason games. He hung onto the ball too long in the pocket, his decision making was sketchy, and he was just tentative running the offense. Vick reverted back a little, trying to be great on every snap instead of just letting the game come to him and taking what the defense gives him — which is what he did to win the job in the first place. Vick actually delivered the ball really well for the most part but tried to do too much when there was nothing there. That has to stop. He put up 16 points on eight drives, and the only TD he engineered came on a 21-yard drive (although Bryce Brown’s fumble at the goal-line killed a good drive).

Can’t argue with Roob on those points.

Very cool story from a Jacksonville writer on Gus Bradley and the interview process. As you may remember, he was the Eagles second choice to Chip Kelly.

Bradley estimated he interviewed for 5-6 hours at Lurie’s house.

“I really enjoyed it,” he said. “We had great conversations. They said, ‘Gus, we’re going to keep you overnight. Just go to the hotel and stay there.’”

Bradley talked to his agent, Jimmy Sexton, who told him the Jaguars were sending a plane to the Philadelphia area. Because there was no offer in place from the Eagles, Sexton advised Bradley to plan on getting on the plane.

At 6 a.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 16, Bradley flew to Jacksonville.

“I was supposed to be at the stadium at 10 a.m., but I got here at 9:20 and started a meeting with [GM] Dave [Caldwell],” Bradley said. “Right away, I thought, ‘This is really cool. I like this guy.’ It was awesome.”

When owner Shad Khan joined the meeting, Bradley’s intrigue with the Jaguars grew even more.

“I thought, ‘This feels more like ME,’” he said. “The next thing I know, it’s almost 4 p.m. and I was supposed to know about Philly at noon. I looked at my phone and it said, ‘Jeffrey Lurie, Jeffrey Lurie, Jeffrey Lurie, Jeffrey Lurie.’ I was like, ‘Oh, shoot.’ He knew I was down here.”

Bradley and Lurie connected and Lurie told him the Eagles had hired Oregon coach Chip Kelly.

“I felt like that’s who they wanted in the first place – that’s what I sensed anyway,” Bradley said.

You can’t help but like Gus. I wish him well.