I think you could say Bill Barnwell is impressed by the Eagles.
Find out why he calls the Eagles offseason “truly great”.
Great might be strong for me, but I’m definitely in that ballpark. Really love the moves so far and how it has set the team up for the draft.
Tony Pauline offers this nugget on the Eagles and Arkansas players:
“Chris Gragg/TE/Arkansas & Knile Davis/RB/Arkansas both being worked out by Philadelphia Eagles tomorrow..”
Gragg had a great showing at the Combine and is the kind of athletic TE Chip Kelly could love. He lacks ideal size, but makes up for that with his athleticism.
Davis is hard to figure. He didn’t impress in 2012, but had good workouts. He looked like a star in 2010, but then got hurt and hasn’t been the same since. If you go off recent tape, he’ll be a late pick.
NFL Draft analyst Rob Rang offered his thoughts on the Eagles acquisition of
Arrelious Benn. Here’s one key quote:
“Benn is a big-bodied receiver with surprising ability to make defenders miss after the catch. In Kelly’s offense, he could prove a very effective fit, especially considering the playmakers surrounding him.”
I think Rang is right on the money with his logic. Good read.
Believe it or not, Jake Long did not sign with the Rams. He arrived Tuesday evening. He spent all day Wednesday going through an extensive physical. His agent was in town Thursday and went to dinner with Rams executives (also Jake I assume). This morning Jake left St. Louis with no deal and “several other teams still interested”.
Could the Eagles be one of those teams? They’ve added a lot of guys already, but no one ate up huge cap space.
The Eagles will not have Training Camp at Lehigh this summer. The team will instead hold some practices at the NovaCare facility and some other practices over at The Linc. Those at LFF will be open to the public.
This is a Chip Kelly move to be sure. If he truly does want to implement his program in an all-encompassing way, staying by the NovaCare is important. Allows him to better control what the players eat, how/when they work out, and things like that.
Lehigh is an amazing place and I’m sad to see the Eagles not be there, but this move will make TC more accessible to people like me who don’t live in Philly.
Per Adam Caplan, Raiders DE Matt Shaughnessy will visit the Cardinals and then the Titans. If nothing works out, the Eagles could come after that.
He is 6-5, 285 and played RDE last year. He started all 16 games. In the first 3 years he started a total of 13 games. I think he would come here to be the 5-tech DE. I’m not sure he’s a great fit, but could be good value if the price is right.
South Carolina RB suffered a devastating knee injury last year. He had already suffered a bad injury in the past and decided enough was enough. He was heading to the NFL. Lattimore, 5-11, 221, is very talented, but his injury history will greatly affect his value. On Thursday he was in Philly. We don’t know if he was there to meet with the Eagles or for another reason.
My bet is that the Eagles did bring him in for a visit. The primary reason you would do this is to get a final look at him and truly assess his value. If Lattimore slides in the draft, at what point is he too good to pass up? You need to have the answer to that question before the draft.
Interesting note from Jeff McLane:
“Eagles were in on CB Keenan Lewis, as I mentioned earlier. Offered him a deal more than what he ended up taking from Saints to return home.”
Lewis signed with the Saints. He’s from Louisiana and obviously wanted to get back down there. Can’t really blame him.
“Barwin only player on Eagles roster with pro OLB exp. in 3-4. On passing downs, dropped back 13.6% of the time last year, per ProFootballFocus”
“Barwin guarantee is $8 mil, I am told. $13.5M, three-year, $36m for 6.”
A 3-year deal for that money is fine with me. Very reasonable for such an athletic, talented young LB. Inconsistency is the reason he’s not getting a better deal.
The Eagles added LB Connor Barwin. The deal is being reported as 6 years, $36M. We need to wait and see what the real numbers are. Remember that a year ago Demetress Bell signed a 5-year, $35M deal. That turned out to be just a 1-year deal in essence.
What does this mean? I really don’t know. We need to hear the team’s comments about what they expect Barwin to do. If he’s here as the SAM, that is fine. If he’s here primarily as a pass rusher, that’s a head-scratcher.
The length of the deal will tell us how this affects Brandon Graham, Vinny Curry, and the possible drafting of Dion Jordan or Ziggy Ansah.
Several people have asked about trading Trent Cole. We’ll see. He’s not a real valuable commodity right now so keeping him may be the best option.
