The Philadelphia Eagles: It's Time to Start Cutting

Now that the draft is over and the first mini camp has taken place, it’s time for the Eagles to start purging themselves of players they no longer need. This will stop the team from wasting time on players that will not make the roster come training camp, allow them to focus on and prepare the new arrivals for the upcoming season. Of course I understand that getting rid of these guys so early may lessen the environment of competition within the camp setting, but it will get younger players much needed practice reps so that their game readiness will come all that much faster.

The first guy that comes to mind is the much maligned Reggie Brown, who in three years has gone from a NFL starting wide receiver, to injured backup, to someone who is completely and utterly expendable. Everyone had hope for Reggie coming out of Georgia and he actually looked good with Jeff Garcia throwing him the ball. Unfortunately, he has underperformed at every other point in his game. He is currently behind DeSean Jackson, Kevin Curtis, Jeremy Maclin, Jason Avant, and Hank Baskett on the depth chart. And for a guy who doesn’t play special teams, I think it’s time to say goodbye. As of this past mini camp however, one would think that the Eagles love Brown, having Offensive Coordinator Marty Mornhinweg praise him for catching the football during practice. We’ll see how long this lovefest lasts.

The Winston Justice travesty can go on no longer. Once a potential 1st round draft pick out of USC, Justice has been nothing short of a disappointment. The only memory that any Eagle fan will have of Winston Justice is the number of sacks he gave up to the New York Giants’ Osi Umenyiora: Four, all by himself. In that fateful game on the 30th of September in 2007, the Giants sacked the QB a total of 12 times, so it wasn’t just Justice. To Osi, it was like a video game. To Winston, it was the end of a one time promising career. It had been rumored that Justice was being shopped in a potential trade for Anquan Boldin. I can only imagine what the Cardinals thought they were getting.

Why the Eagles traded a fourth round pick for Lorenzo Booker still goes unexplained. The Eagles and Andy Reid say it was because it was like getting a third rounder and there was some value in the trade. I say they really wanted Brian Westbrook-lite. Too bad Booker is more like Ryan Moats-lite. The Eagles have B-West, they have Shady McCoy, and that third RB spot can go to some undrafted rookie like Rashard Mendenhall’s brother, Walter who has 2 inches and twenty pounds on Westbrook. There is absolutely no need for Philly to keep Booker on the roster, unless they put off admitting they were wrong. He wasn’t great on special teams, and he doesn’t add anything to the passing game so….see you later.

These guys could make a team somewhere else, so they should be given that opportunity sooner than later. In fact, I hope that Justice gets a job in the NFC East. They are still under contract with the Birds, to the organization can do what they will with them. Regardless, the writing is on the wall and their names have been removed from their lockers, so let’s forget about the past and move forward, with better players, a better team, for I doubt Eagle fans will be regretting any of them go a year from now.

The Philadelphia Eagles: Sticking With McNabb?

The Philadelphia Eagles are consistently moving forward, or at least that is what they’d like us to believe. Last weekend’s draft may have been an indication that they are doing just that, but not in the way that would make Philly fans particularly happy. It could be very well possible that the Eagles are gearing up for the post-McNabb era by drafting young players that will be well ingrained in the system when they turn the reigns over to Kevin Kolb. Or maybe the Eagles are willing to let McNabb remain in control and are simply surrounding him with more offensive options. In either case, one of the two QBs will probably be on another roster come the 2010 season.

Let’s first look briefly at what they have done this offseason. They replaced the two offensive tackles on the offensive line. They added a much needed fullback. They picked up a safety to replace a local legend. They added a wideout, a running back, and potentially a decent tight end through the draft in addition to picking up an established cornerback through a trade. One might say that the Eagles addressed their needs, but didn’t go all out to go for it all. This is a valid point considering that they could have had Tony Gonzalez and/or Anquan Boldin on the squad for a couple draft picks. The fact that they didn’t leads fans to believe that the team is getting ready to move on without McNabb.

But are the Eagles really ready to give up on winning with McNabb and give the ball to a guy who has played virtually the same amount of NFL football as my grandmother? That would be one of the biggest leaps of faith any franchise could take. It’s not even clear if it’s worked out in Packerland with Aaron Rodgers. So if the Eagles are looking to go that direction, 2010 ain’t lookin’ so good. First of all, Kolb’s contract is going to be up and they’ll have to give him a new deal, with starter’s money. He won’t get the 100 million dollar contract, but either way, he may not be worth whatever salary they’ll pay him.
The additions of Maclin & McCoy surely points to a youth movement, but I think they will end up with McNabb as their guy in the end. The Eagles need the experience and the skill to put up as many W’s as possible, and Kolb can’t do that for them. So the Birds add to what may be a more defined running game, the throw in a guy that can only enhance the receiving corps and at the same time take some pressure off the team’s new star in DeSean Jackson, and they address the issues that possibly held them back last year. Should it happen again, they probably won’t have Quintin Demps trying to cover Larry Fitzgerald.

This isn’t rocket science, or brain surgery. It’s even easier than trying to manage the salary cap. This is all simple common sense. The Eagles want to at least compete and maybe, just maybe, even win. They’re not going to blow things up, even though at some point they should. Instead they want to transition. They want to go from Westbrook to McCoy (right), McNabb to Kolb, just like they’ve done with the linebackers and defensive backs in the past. The problem with the current plan though is that McNabb and B-West might still be too good to transition away from. So what do you do in the meantime? Do you resign Kolb and let him sit or do you let him go and draft a replacement later on? McCoy we know will at least get some playing time and Brian knows that it is his job to keep LeSean off the field.

Regardless what the Eagles’ plans are, it won’t change much this year. McNabb and Westbrook will both be the starters and McCoy and Maclin (left) will play their roles, whatever they might be. Kolb, though will be lucky if he gets any meaningful snaps and might be looking to find a job he can really compete for. But should he stick around we might end up having a Philly style Montana-out-Young-in, albeit a poor man’s version.

To Anquan or Not To Anquan

Should the Eagles trade their remaining first round pick for Arizona’s Anquan Boldin? A good number of Birds fans would say yes. I say hold on there Sparky. Boldin would most certainly improve the wide receiving corps, that I have no doubt. But I feel that he wouldn’t really improve the team overall, especially when you have no one to back up Brian Westbrook in the backfield. No, leave Anquan out West. Work with what you have on the outside, which isn’t all that bad by the way, and go out and get what you really need…a running back.

Just imagine if you will…You have Anquan Boldin on one side, DeSean Jackson on the other and Kevin Curtis fitting perfectly in the slot. Brian Westbrook is in the backfield. McNabb takes the snap, goes play action faking the handoff. Westbrook takes off only to be met at the line and on the tackle gets his knee twisted. Oh no! He’s hurt. In comes his backup, not Knowshon Moreno or Beanie Wells, but the wonderful and talented Lorenzo Booker! Can you see the dropoff yet? Now you can say that there is a loss of talent between the first and second string of receivers, but when your big weapon, and B-West is still your big weapon, goes down, the offense begins to look a whole lot less scary.

The 21st pick isn’t even guaranteed to get you Anquan straight up. A 3rd or 4th rounder would almost certainly have to be included as well, so it is unlikely that after the Jason Peters trade, that the Eagles will give up one pick let alone a couple. They have holes and depth that needs to be addressed. Take safety for instance. Right now there’s Jones, Mikell, Demps, and maybe J.R. Reed, but really, using a 3rd round pick for this position would be a good idea.

Some would say that you could throw in a player. Really? Like who? Sheldon Brown plus the 21st pick is too much. And I can tell you now that there isn’t much of a market for Reggie Brown or Hank Baskett, not when the guy involved is better than those two guys combined. The first round draft pick is really the only chip the Eagles can dangle in front of the Cardinals. It is unlikely they’ll take a player the Eagles are willing to give up.

So I’ll say to Eagles fans, you must live without Anquan Boldin, and (I hate to say it this way) make due with what we have at the moment, which isn’t Thrash/Pinkston (pictured) or Johnson/Small. For once in a long time, receiver isn’t our biggest need; it may be a need, but not our biggest one. We need a complimentary back, we need a tight end, and we need a defensive end, all before we need a receiver. And while it might be flashy, with some razzle dazzle pop, adding Boldin will not necessarily be the answer.

The Eagles Bring Some Intrigue to Their NFL Draft

The Philadelphia Eagles have made the upcoming NFL Draft a bit intriguing for Philly fans. Nearly everyone in America knew that they were going to pick an offensive lineman with one of their two first round picks, and in essence they did with trading the 28th pick in the draft to the Bills for 2-time All-Pro Jason Peters. It won’t be know until the season starts whether Peters is the solid replacement to Tra Thomas that the Eagles organization thinks that he is or the guy who gave up the 11+ sacks last year, at least according to some stat geeks. Regardless though, this trade with Buffalo only increases a great deal of speculation on what will happen with their 21st pick.

At this point, I have no clue, but I suspect that they will draft a defensive lineman. I would be happily surprised if they picked a running back like Knowshon Moreno (left) or Beanie Wells (right) to complement Bryan Westbrook, but my gut tells me that they will leave that for the second or third round and get a second tier back. My eyebrows will also be raised a bit if they pick up Brandon Pettigrew (below) should he fall that far. No, look for the Birds to go ho-hum and select Tyson Jackson out of LSU and stick him in a rotation with Victor Abiamiri.
But what if….what if the Eagles see what’s coming down the road…an aging Westbrook, a young QB entering his third year, a dynamic wideout that makes defensive backs buckle. What if they see the opportunity to pick up that third piece to the offensive puzzle? A guy that will create a reason for safeties to move up and play the run, or a tight end that needs double coverage. This pick could be the one guy who will take us truly to the next generation of Philadelphia Eagles, the post McNabb, post Westbrook, and reluctantly, the post Dawkins Eagles.

To me, either Moreno or Wells will do, for that matter you can add Pettigrew too, but I would rather see one of the two top RBs in an Eagles uniform next season. Philadelphia replaced both of their offensive tackles with guys who are arguably better at run blocking than pass blocking, but that might not mean much since that was the case with Thomas and Jon Runyan. We will know just what they will do this Saturday. Perhaps this Eagles regime has seen the light, or perhaps not. Maybe they will finally understand what the fans mean when they say “playmaker,” or maybe they’ll risk ruining the franchise just to prove that their philosophy is right.

The other option they have of course is to trade their pick. I won’t give them the ability to trade out of the first round, but instead send it to Arizona for Anquan Boldin. That will enable the Eagles to slide Kevin Curtis inside where he belongs and solidify what will be the best receiving group, dare I say it, in the NFL. It wasn’t too long ago when Eagle fans had to bear witness to James Thrash and Todd Pinkston, but now on the precipice of what could be the last chance for Donovan and Andy Reid to make it back to the Super Bowl together, the Eagles might be prepared to go all out offensively, not unlike they did with T.O., only without all the drama.

The suspense is building and we might end up with something exciting or horribly disappointing. I am trying to think positive and believe that they will pick someone who will make the immediate impact and will help make the enigma that is DeSean Jackson, better. If only I could will them to select someone other than a lineman and to stimulate the fan base. Although they haven’t acknowledged that they are rebuilding, the letting go of Brian Dawkins, Tra Thomas, and realistically Jon Runyan strikes another chord. Let’s make it official and draft the replacement to the guy who has been most important player on the team for the last couple of years, and get the best running back available to take over the reigns for B-West.

In other news regarding the Philadelphia Eagles….Cornerback Sheldon Brown wants out, especially after Joselio Hanson’s new contract. Brown has been the most consistent DB since the departure of Troy Vincent. Also, does anyone get the feeling that the Eagles are scared that Shawn Andrews might leave the game? Andrews missed all of last year and it was questionable whether or not he still wanted to play football. To try to ensure that he comes back the Birds signed his brother Stacy at the opening of free agency. Now they trade for his college roommate in Peters. Stay tuned, Philly might be signing two of his uncles, a second cousin, and his 3rd grade crush, just to make sure he’s back on the O-Line in ’09.

Eagles Free Agency Update

The Eagles aren’t exactly burning up the Free Agent Trackers around the web, signing on a few guys to replace long time Eagle players that the administration has decided to jettison. To play the potential role of Correll Buckhalter’s stand-in will be Eldra Buckley, a 5-9 running back claimed off waivers, who has spent the past two seasons on the Charger’s practice squad and has gained zero game experience. If he even makes the every day roster Buckley will be nothing more than a special teams body and will do nothing to the actual run game. Now, to be fair, I could be mistaken and this guy could be the second coming of Heath Sherman, but in actuality Brian Westbrook can rest easy knowing that his job is secure, unless Heath decides to come out of retirement.
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n other news, the Eagles are expected to talk with former Seattle fullback Leonard Weaver. Weaver is considered one of the best, if not the best fullback on the open market. Last year he rushed for 130 yards, but more importantly in an Andy Reid offense, caught 20 balls for 222 yards. The 2008 Eagles had no true fullback to lead block for B.West as they tried defensive tackle Dan Klecko in the role. I like Klecko, but he should stay and add depth to the D-Line and let a real fullback play. This would be a good pickup for the Birds and I hope that this is not a case where Weaver will take a Philly offer back to the Seahawks and resign with Seattle. I wouldn’t be surprised if that was the case. Then, of course, the Eagles will come out and say that they tried to sign a fullback but he decided to resign with his current team, so they’ll have to try, um, Jason Avant at fullback. It will be Randy Moss all over again and the contentious combo of Andy Reid and Joe Banner.

More talk is being made about how Andy Reid is handling the loss of veteran starting players from his team. Generic statements have been released to the media, but anyone who believes that those are Andy’s words are fooling themselves. Previously during the Stacy Andrews welcoming party, Reid refused to discuss the Dawkins departure. More recently, Tra Thomas has come out and said that he hasn’t spoken to his former head coach since just before Free Agency started up. No one expects Andy to be handing out hugs, but his communication skills or lack thereof only will only add to the public image dilemma the Eagles are facing in the real world outside the Novacare complex.

The Philadelphia Eagles Are In Trouble

The Eagles are in trouble, plain and simple. They have purged themselves of not one or two, but four starters and two important backups this free agency season and have found the administration the focus of negative media coverage from every direction. They have done little to garner public support in their decision making and have replaced replaced their losses with what looks to be a decent safety and a potentially decent offensive tackle. The depth chart is beginning to wear thin in a couple of areas and the Eagles have failed to produce any more viable options to show that they can remain competitive going into next season and fewer reasons why the fans shouldn’t run ownership out of town.

Tre Thomas, the eleven year vet and the only man who has truly protected Donovan McNabb’s blindside has agree to terms with the Jacksonville Jaguars. The next guy in line would have been Winston Justice, but if anyone has heard of him, it is because he was manhandled and abused by the New York Giants defensive line. If he is the man for the job, the Kevin Kolb will be the starter by the time the bye comes around because Number 5 will be broken and near dead. Behind Justice, there was last year’s 7th round pick, King Dunlap, who may or not be a player. Dunlap was a monster for his first couple years in college, but fell off the face of the Earth in his senior year. If he can regain some semblance of a NFL tackle, he will take the place of Justice on the roster when he invariably gets cut.

Then there is the case of running back. It is no secret that Brian Westbrook is the team’s best player at that position. Now, there is no question that Lorenzo Booker is not as good as Correll Buckhalter, and thereby an inadequate backup. If the Eagles expect B.West to last the season, they will need to get someone, either via the draft or free agency, to spell him from time to time. The organization claims that Brian will be better on the field since he will be overall healthier than he was in 2008, but how long can that last when he is the only ground option.
Jeff Laurie, who only speaks when the team is either doing well or there is exceedingly good news, has been in an ongoing battle over an eight million dollar suit from the city of Philadelphia. The Eagles have a counter-suit going saying that they lost eight million dollars when a Pre-Season game with Baltimore was canceled because the field at Veteran’s Stadium was in shambles. The political action group, ACORN, has a small rally outside Laurie’s suburb home, fighting for city. It turns out, that eight million dollars would help keep the libraries that are forced to close due to budgetary constraints open.

Joe Banner, went on talk radio last week and essentially lied his way through an interview regarding the Brian Dawkins saga. He stated that he wished he only had a chance to talk to Brian and maybe he could have swayed him to stay or that a deal still could have been worked out. Brian said his agent was in contact with the team three times before he signed with the Broncos and that there was never an indication that Banner wanted to talk or change the deal he had put on the table. Sunday night, Banner said just that, that he wasn’t going to match the offer Denver made, which tells me that Banner had no intention of giving Dawkins a better deal and was only doing a media tour because of the public backlash of Brian’s departure. Oh, by the way, no one has heard a peep from Coach Andy Reid during this whole mess.

And now, most recently a story has come out about just how weasel-like the organization can be read
http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/eagles/20090309_Gonzo___Cold_Eagles_sure_are_thin-skinned.html to see how they fired a part-time employee with a disability because he loved the team he worked for. If every company was like this, unemployment would be 75% and the remaining workers would be so frightened little robots. For six years, Dan Leone, who suffers from a potentially debilitating illness called transverse myelitis, was an exemplary worker. Then the Eagles let Brian Dawkins leave for Denver, and to vent Dan vented on a Facebook page. One of team’s upper management saw this posting and well, one thing led to another and Dan “could no longer be trusted.” The post wasn’t even up that long as Dan realized his mistake and removed it, but the wheels to his firing were already rolling. Soon he found out that there would be no warning, no slap on the wrist, and no understanding, just a firing squad from a team with no backbone and the arrogance previously unknown to mankind.

Not only have the Eagles screwed up with their on the field business, they are doing the same off the field. Their PR department must have been bought on the cheap like everything else, because they are slipping into an area saved for those like Marge Schott and Leona Helmsley. All we need now is some insider trading and a sex scandal and we’ll have the most eclectic bunch of guys possible running our team.