Eagles Blog

Free agency negotiating starts this weekend.  Teams can’t make deals until Tuesday, though.  We’re likely to hear a lot of good rumors this weekend.  With that in mind, here are some good resources:

Unofficial list of FAs from NFL.com

Evan Silva of Rotoworld lists his Top 50 FAs (Silva is good source of info)

Albert Breer lists his top 85 FAs (in tiers)

Peter King lists his Top 50 (wasn’t impressed with his list/info)

Chris Wesseling lists players who will be overpaid next week (Chris is another good source of info)

And a great place to find out who played where or who has holes…Ourlads depth charts.

Jordan Raanan of NJ.com has a report up today involving the Eagles and free agent Safety Dashon Goldson.  Per the report:

“The Eagles are expected to have interest in the free-agent safety, according to multiple league sources.”

Expected is the key word.  This doesn’t say Goldson will be a priority target.  This really is more connecting the dots…Eagles need S help…Goldson is on the market…and the Eagles hired Tom Gamble, who helped bring Goldson to SF. 

Goldson makes a ton of sense, but I do wonder if the Eagles will go hard after him. He is a good player, coming off of 2 very good years.  The problem is that Goldson isn’t an impact type of player, but will require big money.  Goldson isn’t a game-changer.  He’s a notch below.  That still makes him better than anything the Eagles have, but you do want to be careful in FA about overpaying players and then having false expectations. 

Goldson isn’t going to cure the secondary.  He can make it better.  He might make more sense for a good secondary that is trying to be great, where he’d have talent around him. 

After the last few years, I don’t think I’ll be mad at the Eagles no matter who they sign or what they do.  Safety must be upgraded in a big way.

Bill Davis ran the Cardinals defense in 2009 and 2010. One of his best players was SS Adrian Wilson.  The Cards cut Wilson today.  Should the Eagles have interest in Wilson? 

I’ll need to watch tape to evaluate his play, but Wilson’s cover skills have never been great.  He is best used as a box Safety and blitzer.  He has 25.5 career sacks and can be devastating when he hits QBs.  Wilson had 3 sacks in 2012.  He remains a punishing hitter and tackler. 

The Eagles could use a veteran Safety and physical presence.  There is a definite argument to adding him.  The downside is that he will turn 34 in October and is a descending player.  He’s probably best off trying to land with a contender on a 1-year deal.  Still, I admit the thought of signing him and drafting a Safety with some size is appealing.  The rookie could learn from Wilson for a year.  Wilson would also be able to help teach Davis 4-3 Under scheme, assuming that’s what the Eagles do use in 2013. 

Just as important a question as should the Eagles have interest in Wilson is whether Wilson would have any interest in the Eagles. It will be very interesting to see what kind of market there is for Wilson.  He’s got very limited cover skills, but is a good run defender and blitzer.  He’s a smart veteran. I would think plenty of teams would be willing to take a chance on him.  The Cards wanted younger and cheaper so that’s why they’re making the move.

Stats. 

My personal favorite Adrian Wilson moment comes from 2005.  Adrian Wilson blitzed and rookie RB Ryan Moats attempted to block him.  Instead, he became a hood ornament on the Adrian Wilson Express.  Wilson then crushed Mike McMahon, causing Eagles fans everywhere to feel bad for approximately 0.0 seconds.

Peter King had an item in his recent MMQB suggesting that the Eagles should go after WR Danny Amendola in free agency.  Brandon Lee over at BGN put up a post on the subject.  My initial reaction to King’s idea is…dumb.  We’ve already got Jason Avant.  Why go spend money for Amendola?  You’d have to cut Jason to do that.  You’d be losing a good blocker and team leader.

There is an argument to be made.  Amendola is 2 years younger.  Avant has not been much of a Red Zone weapon since Donovan McNabb left.  He had 8 TDs in 4 years, but only a pair of TD catches in the last 3 seasons.  Amendola had 3 TD catches in 2010 and 2012.  He only played 1 game in 2011 before getting injured and missing the rest of the season.

You could also point out that Michael Vick has struggled to consistently take advantage of Avant as the slot receiver, RZ or otherwise.  You could see a noticeable difference when Nick Foles became the QB this year.  Avant had 22 catches in the 4 games he played with Foles as the starter.  Avant had 31 catches the rest of the year.  If that’s the case, does investing in Amendola make sense right now?  Should you see what happens at QB and then go for a slot receiver next year?

What about Damaris Johnson?  He has the potential to be a very good slot receiver.  He showed a lot of promise last year.  Might be smart to see what he does this year.

One thing I do like about Amendola is that he will block.  He’s not the biggest guy in the world, but he’s tough, physical, and plays hard.  He’s like a smaller, faster version of Avant.

I’d pass on him, but the idea wasn’t as dumb as I first thought.

Scout Brett Veach is leaving the Eagles to take a job with the KC Chiefs.  Veach worked as an assistant to Andy Reid for a year so having him follow Big Red to KC comes as no surprise.  The timing of the move isn’t great, but also isn’t the end of the world.  Scouts have done 95 percent of their work by this point.  The only thing left is to attend Pro Days and report on workouts.  There are also pre-draft meetings.

I’m a big fan of Veach’s.  I’ll be writing about him in a longer piece over at Iggles Blitz.  Veach covered the southeast region for the Eagles.  That’s the most important area to scout (SEC + some ACC).  It will be interesting to see who replaces Veach.

Arizona QB Matt Scott had his Pro Day today out in Tucson.  The Eagles were not in attendance.  Don’t let that fool you.  Per Daniel Berk of the Arizona Daily Star:

“Matt Scott seemed pleased with his pro day workout. Flies to Philly on Mon and will work out for Eagles later this month. ”

“Scott said he is hearing mostly from Eagles, Chargers, Cardinals, Bills and a few others.”

This makes total sense.  Scott is an athletic QB and would be much like the QBs that Kelly had in Oregon.  He’s also good value.  Scott won’t go early, although Tony Pauline reported that after a great showing at his Pro Day, Scott could go as early as the 3rd round.  Most people had Scott pegged as a late round target.  I recently did a mock draft where he fell to the Eagles in the 6th round.  Oops.

Appears the Eagles are checking out WRs at TCU.

Per Charean Williams of the Dallas Morning News:  “28 teams at TCU’s Pro Day, including 3 position coaches. Eagles WRs coach, Steelers and Dolphins LBs coaches.”

https://twitter.com/NFLCharean/status/309713861001498624

There are 2 possible targets.  Sky Dawson is a Senior.  He was 34-455-1 last year. Also has experience as a KOR and PR. 

Josh Boyce is a Junior.  He was 66-891-7 last year.  Boyce, however, had recent surgery and was there on crutches.  Boyce was very fast at the Combine so he didn’t need to time well. 

TE Corey Fuller is also a Senior and someone the Eagles could check out as a UDFA target.

Les Bowen says the Eagles have already called to inquire about Winston, who was the starting RT for the Chiefs last year.

Word is, the Eagles were one of the first two teams to reach out to Drew Rosenhaus, who represents Winston, and so many other former Miami Hurricanes. The other team to express immediate interest apparently was the Texans, who drafted Winston in the third round in 2006. He has been incredibly durable, starting every one of the 96 NFL games scheduled since he became a fulltime starter in 2007.

I have not yet had a chance to watch tape of Winston so I can’t comment on his play right now.  I didn’t anticipate the Eagles being interested due to his age.  Winston’s agent is Drew Rosenhaus, who is tight with Howie Roseman.  It is possible Roseman made the call just to see what kind of deal Winston is looking for rather than to express serious interest.  Stay tuned on this one.

Ian Rapoport has a video up for NFL.com where he discusses the Eagles and Nnamdi.  His basic info is what we already know.  The Eagles will probably cut Nnamdi, but might still try to trade him.  No issues with that.

Then Ian mentions that if Nnamdi is cut teams will have another solid CB to look at as a free agent.  Is Nnamdi still a solid CB?  The interviewer makes the joke that “we’ll have to update our best available lists” if Nnamdi and Elvis Dumervil get cut.  Dumervil is still a good pass rusher (11 sacks last year), but I don’t see Nnamdi anywhere close to being on a best available list…unless it involves sampling Grey Poupon or pointing at Kurt Coleman.

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The Chiefs cut RT Eric Winston.  This move makes it very likely, if not certain, they’ll go OT with the top pick.  My money is on them going with Eric Fisher from CMU instead of Luke Joeckel.

Prior to the arrival of OL coach Howard Mudd in 2011, Reid and Juan Castillo loved to draft big guys with long arms.  They want players who anchor well and can run block.  Reid rarely took natural pass protectors.  Fisher has some RT experience in his past.  He has slightly longer arms than Joeckel.  And he anchors better.  Fisher is the better run blocker of the two.

We’ll find out in 50 days, but Fisher is my guess.

If Luke Joeckel is on the board, you have to wonder if the Eagles are willing to pass him up.

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