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Posts Tagged ‘Andy Reid’

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EAGLES “STAY” OR “GO” TIME IS APPROACHING, WHO WILL YOU VOTE FOR?

In Philadelphia Eagles on December 28, 2012 at 11:22 am

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We thought this would be a good time to get the fans to sound off about who you will vote for in the upcoming Philly.com Eagles “Stay” or “Go” vote that they hold after every sports season. With no playoffs again this year, and changes likely to begin next Monday, we thought this would be a good time to begin the discussion.

 

On January 8, 2012 Philly Pressbox posted an article based on the fan vote coming off of the 8-8 season in 2011. See the following link. 

 

https://phillypressbox.wordpress.com/2012/01/08/eagles-stay-or-go-fan-vote/

 

To summarize that fan vote, we the fans voted to keep 21 of the 22 starters, Asante Samuel being the only player we wanted to get rid of and the Eagles did that. We also voted to keep the kicker, punter and long snapper. Overall the fans were very happy with the players but unhappy with the staff. We voted that Andy Reid, Marty Mornhinweg, Juan Castillo, Howie Roseman and Joe Banner all needed to go. Banner was gone first and then Castillo by mid-season.

 

As the Eagles sit 4-11 with the season finale Sunday against the Giants in New York, who will you vote for to “stay” or “go” after this miserable season??

 

A few names to ponder as a reminder:

Offense: Vick, Foles, Edwards, McCoy, Brown, Lewis, Polk, Havili, Igwenagu, Jackson, Maclin, Johnson, McNutt, Avant, Cooper, Gilyard, Celek, Harbor, Dunlap, Bell, Herremans, Reynolds, Kelce, Scott, Mathis, Kelly, Watkins, Peters.

 

Defense: Graham, Jenkins, Cox, Cole, Hunt, Landri, Thornton, Curry, Tapp, Dixon, Patterson, Kendricks, Ryans, Chaney, Jordan, Matthews, Rodgers-Cromarti, Asomugha, Anderson, Coleman, Marsh, Boykin, Hughes, Allen, Sims.

 

Specialist: Henery, McBriar, Dorenbos

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View from the Philly Pressbox – What Really Happened to the Eagles?

In Philadelphia Eagles on December 2, 2012 at 9:23 am

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WHAT REALLY HAPPENED TO THE EAGLES??

 As we sit here on Sunday morning of week 13 with the Philadelphia Eagles preparing to play the Dallas Cowboys the Eagles are sitting at 3 wins and 8 losses, tied with the Carolina Panthers for the worst record in the NFC. Carolina beat the Birds last week so technically they are in last place. How did a team with such high hopes fall so far, so fast??

 Michael Vick – Vick is not an elite QB in the NFL. Frankly, I wasn’t a big fan when he was running around making plays in Atlanta. Early in the season he turned the ball over game after game that not only kept the offense from scoring but put the defense in bad situations that they couldn’t handle.

 The offensive line – We knew the injury to Jason Peters in the off season was going to be a big loss; I’m just not sure we knew how big. The rash of injuries to Jason Kelce, Danny Watkins and Todd Herremans has been devastating. Those injuries have kept LeSean McCoy from doing anything this season, 750 yards rushing, after his Pro Bowl year in 2011. Obviously, the lack of protection didn’t help Vick either.

 The receivers – DeSean Jackson, Jeremy Maclin and Brent Celek have all struggled. They have 45, 41 and 43 catches respectively for 700, 528 and 504 yards. I’m not a huge fan of Jackson to begin with; he’s not an elite receiver especially if he can’t get down the field. Maclin seems to be running cautiously over the middle after getting hit hard a few times. As for Celek, I like the way he plays but every ball that has been off of him has ended up in a defenders hands. Overall, this group has underachieved. Some it could be them; some could be the lack of QB protection and some of it the QB’s themselves.

 Trent Cole and Jason Babin – These two Pro Bowlers have done nothing all season. Babin’s play and attitude got him run out of town. I wouldn’t expect Cole to be around much longer either. You have to able to rush the QB for your defense to be successful. These two combined for 7 sacks.

 The defensive backfield – Oh, where to start? They have all played poorly. Nnamdi Asomugha and Dominique Rodgers-Cromarti on the corners have been tough to watch. They don’t cover and they don’t tackle either. Kurt Coleman and Nate Allen never seem to be in position to help out from the safety spots. Coleman is second on the team in tackles with 72 and Allen is third with 55. That in itself should tell you something about the defense. All the way up to last weeks loss to Carolina there is still on going miscommunication on who is going to be where among this group.

 Coaching change – The firing of Juan Castillo, more importantly the timing of it was interesting. At the time the Eagles defense wasn’t playing that bad. It was the offense that was struggling and the defense was keeping the team in games. The Todd Bowles move has been a disaster. Now not only is the offense bad, the defense is just as bad.

 The Tale of the Tape – The Eagles have more first downs, 233-209, more rushing yards, 1,420-1,292, and equal passing yards, 2.508-2,509, than their opponents for the season which would lead you to believe they would be having a decent season.

 Here are the key stats:

 The Eagles have scored just 18 TD’s to their opponents 31.

The Eagles have thrown 12 TD passes to their opponents 20.

The Eagles have 18 sacks to their opponents 34.

The Eagles defense has scored 0 TD’s to their opponents 5.

Turnover ratio is -17.

 The future – With the injuries mounting, and a rookie QB cutting his teeth in the NFL the chances of winning many, if any, games this season seems bleak. There will be major personnel changes soon after the season. Many of the old faces will be gone. The Eagles need to determine if Nick Foles is their man moving forward. Andy Reid will likely be gone or moved upstairs. It will be a new beginning for Philadelphia Eagles football in 2013 and it will take time to get back to the top of the NFC.

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The Eagles 53 Man Roster vs the “Stay & Go” Vote

In Philadelphia Eagles on September 7, 2012 at 5:06 pm

Are Eagles fans that smart? Does Eagles management pay attention to what the fans think or were the changes so necessary that anyone could see them? These are the questions that can now be answered that the 2013 – 53 man roster has been set.

On January 8, 2012, Philly Pressbox posted a summary of the Eagles fan vote conducted by Philly.com for players to “Stay or Go” in 2013. That link is attached.  https://phillypressbox.wordpress.com/2012/01/08/eagles-stay-or-go-fan-vote/. Lets compare who the fans voted to “Go” and if they did actually go.

On offense, the fans voted the following people to be gone: Vince Young, Ronnie Brown, Steve Smith, Winston Justice, Julian Vandervelde, Jamaal Jackson and King Dunlap. All are gone except for Dunlap. The King has earned a starting position going in to the season; however, if not for the injury to Jason Peters the King would’ve likely been gone too.  The fans did vote to keep Chad Hall, Mike Kafka and Owen Schmidt, but all three of them are gone as well.

On defense, the fans voted for only one starter to “go” and he’s gone, Asante Samuel, traded to the Atlanta Falcons. The fans voted the following reserves to “Go”: Juqua Parker, Trevor Laws, Victor Abiamiri, Cedric Thornton, Akeem Jordan, Moise Fokou, Curtis Marsh, Brandon Hughes and Tom Nelson. Of that group only Jordan, Marsh and Hughes will be part of the 2013 team. The fans did vote to keep both Casey Mathews and Brandon Graham and they will both be back.

On Special Teams the fans voted for Alex Henery, Chas Henry and John Dorenbos to all stay, and they will.

The biggest change the fans wanted to see was in the administration and the coaching staff. The fans voted for Howie Roseman, Joe Banner, Andy Reid, Marty Mornhinweg and Juan Castillo to all be gone. Well, Banner is gone and everyone else is in place.

Through the draft, trades and free agency it appears the Eagles have improved greatly with the additions of Fletcher Cox, Mychal Kendricks, Vinny Curry, Nick Foles, Brandon Boykin, and DeMeco Ryans. This has turned in to a very young and talented team that should have some depth with the only major weakness being at the safety position. Hopefully the late addition of David Sims, from Cleveland will help in that area.

Well fans, what do you think, was management actually listening or were these choices just too easy?

How far do you think the Eagles will go in 2013??

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Eagles Profile – Fletcher Cox – 1st Round Draft Pick

In Philadelphia Eagles on April 27, 2012 at 9:38 am

The 1st Round of the NFL draft is complete and the Philadelphia Eagles have their guy, Fletcher Cox, defensive tackle, Mississippi State, trading up from the #15 spot to the #12 spot, in a trade with Seattle, in order to select him. Cox was considered the top ranked defensive tackle in the draft and the Eagles were happy to get the 6’4”, 296lb, 21 year old.

Eagles defensive line coach Jim Washburn said, “I’ve coached Fletcher Cox a million times. I have coached Southern black kids my whole life, that’s what I do. We hit it off really well. We went out to lunch at the Veranda Restaurant in Starkville. We ate well, and we talked about deer hunting and guns for two hours and might have talked football for 15 minutes. He’s a shy, country kid.” Head Coach Andy Reid added, “We had targeted him all along but we thought he’d go in the first six or seven picks. Once he started to drop we got excited and went up to get him. We love his speed and athleticism — you just don’t see a big guy move like he does — and we like his flexibility, he can play on the outside as well. He’s like Cullen Jenkins in that way. He’s young and he’s a very intelligent kid. He’s built for our style of defense.” The Eagles expect Cox to step in and play in their defensive line rotation immediately, though Washburn was quick to point out, “Fletcher is a better prospect than a player at this point.”

How did Cox feel about joining the Eagles? “I was, like, excited to become an Eagle, like, really excited. I am excited to get back to football. I love the defensive scheme the Eagles play and it will be a pleasure to play on a front line under Coach Washburn.” “We went to lunch, he worked me out and we had a good time,” “He said I was a fast learner and he liked the way I learned things really quick and he wanted to coach me at the next level. I prayed and asked God where he wanted me to be and I knew it’d be great to play for the Eagles.” Reid added, “Fletcher is a better prospect than a player at this point.”

When asked, “Why should Philadelphia be excited about me?”  Cox said, “I’m a guy with great heart, hard-working, I never stop. I play 100 miles an hour. I am ready to compete. I want to get in and learn the defense.” Washburn added, “He’s such a good athlete, he was a unanimous pick upstairs in the room. He’s the biggest 296-pound athlete I’ve ever seen. He’s going to jump in right away and start playing. No one at Mississippi State — no one – had a bad word to say about him.”

If first impressions mean anything we like everything we’ve seen and heard about Fletcher Cox!!!

 Following is Rob Rang’s overview and analysis of Cox for CBSSport.com.

Overview:

Cox is naturally big, plays bigger and is expected grow even more in size and ability. A third-year junior, Cox was the only player from Mississippi State to be named to All-SEC first team after he collected 56 tackles and five sacks last season. He works hard from kickoff until the final whistle, setting a pace for teammates and wearing down opponents. He showed very good explosion in Combine testing. The light-footed Cox played both defense end and defensive tackle and his versatility will be an asset in the NFL, where scouts think he is similar to San Diego’s Corey Luiget, an 18th overall pick out of Illinois last year. Cox was one of five Bulldogs suspended for the 2011season opener against Memphis for breaking team rules, but he returned to the field with a vengeance and earned praise from his coaches.

Analysis:

Pass rush: Good quickness off the snap. Attacks gaps, getting skinny to slip past interior linemen when lining up as a defensive tackle. Enough speed to challenge the shoulders of strong-side tackles when lining up as a defensive end. Does not possess the explosiveness and flexibility to turn the corner efficiently, however, limiting his pass rush potential on the outside. Developing pass rush technique, including a swim move, but does not use this often enough. Relies almost exclusively on his bull rush. Generates an explosive pop to knock his opponent back onto his heels. Possesses the lateral agility to take advantage of the unbalanced offensive lineman to run around him and collapse the pocket. Run defense: Good size and power,

Though Cox struggles with leverage, at times. Can be blown off the ball when double-teamed as he currently lacks prototypical width and thickness in his lower body for an interior defender. Cox does appear to have the frame to add an additional 10-15 pounds. Good upper-body strength and quick hands to disengage from the one-on-one block. Penetrates gaps and locates the football quickly. Slides off of blocks to latch onto ball carriers as they attempt to run by. Alert defender who recognizes the trap block and possesses enough quickness to beat his opponent to the spot. Lacks the sustained speed to chase down ball carriers, but puts good effort into his lateral pursuit. Explosion: Varies his burst off the snap, but does not possess true explosiveness in his get-off. Among his best assets, however, is his strong upper body. Attacks blockers with an explosive pop, which allows him to disengage quickly. Strength: Naturally strong man who is still learning to use his power to his advantage. Good to very good upper-body strength and leg drive to push his opponent deep into the pocket. Good strength as a drag-down tackler, as well. Does negate his own strength, on occasion, due to a high pad level. Tackling: High effort player who locates the football and pursues laterally and downfield. An effective drag-down tackler due to his upper-body strength. Surprisingly light on his feet showing an ability to adjust to elusive ball carriers in close quarters. Closes quickly and wraps up well, but isn’t an explosive hitter likely to knock the ball free. Has forced just two fumbles in three seasons of action. Intangibles: Naturally large man with plenty of room for additional growth. Appears to be just scratching the surface of his physical potential, though he has three years of starting experience in the SEC. Blocked four kicks from 2009-11. Was suspended for the 2011 season-opener (Memphis), along with four other Bulldogs, for an undisclosed violation of team rules.

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Desean’s Back – Are You Happy?

In Philadelphia Eagles on March 14, 2012 at 8:57 pm

Well the Eagles stepped to the front of the line today with the signing of Desean Jackson to a 5 year – $51m contract with $15m guaranteed. My question is how do you feel about it? Frankly, I have very mixed emotions. As a season ticket holder that pays my hard earned money to go to Lincoln Financial Field every week I blame Jackson for the failure of the 2011 season.  Obviously, I wasn’t at practice or team meetings or in the Nova Care Complex every day, but apparently neither was Jackson. For Head Coach Andy Reid to suspend Jackson, his conduct had to be bad and ongoing. You don’t mess up one time and get suspended. Jackson missing the Arizona Cardinals game that the Eagles had to win but lost to the Arizona Cardinals, 21-17, at home, that was the final dagger in the heart of the Birds, dropping their record to 3-6 and pretty much out of the playoffs. I know that many fans will say that the Eagles still had the lead after three quarters and should’ve still won. You may be right but they didn’t. You can blame the defense and I’ll blame their most explosive offensive weapon who was home sitting on the sofa. In the final 7 games after his return Jackson contributed 29 catches for 458 yards and 2 touchdowns with “0” 100 yard games.

My final problem with Desean Jackson is what appeared to be lack of effort. I’m not talking about what was shown on national TV when they isolated on him and showed him not working hard. I’m talking about what I saw from my seat each week. There was far more lack of effort than what the TV showed. Every fan wants the Eagles to win, me included, so we can win that elusive Super Bowl and Jackson took that chance away from us in 2011 because he acted like an immature baby because he didn’t get his money when he wanted it.

Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t have a problem with pro athletes making their money, they are tremendous athletes.  I do expect them to work their butts off to win for their team, the fans, the organization and the entire city. If that’s too much to ask they should go find a job like the rest of us and buy a ticket to the games.

With that said, I think Jackson is an outstanding player. He’s the game breaker the Eagles haven’t had in a long time, if ever. He’s already been to 2 Pro Bowls and finished last season with 58 receptions for 961 yards and 4 TD’s, even under the circumstances discussed above. The 961 yards give him 2 – 900+ yard seasons and 2 – 1050+ yard seasons in his four year career and he’s only 25 years old.

The Eagles organization seems to have forgiven Desean and obviously have no hard feelings. “We are thrilled to be able to keep one of the NFL’s top playmakers in Philadelphia,” Andy Reid said in a news release. “Desean is a game breaker, he has the speed and ability to score from anywhere on the field, and he has proven himself to be a big threat in our offense.”

I think Jackson was the best option in the market. If he plays the way he’s capable of playing and does everything required on the practice field the Eagles made a wise choice.

What do you think?

TIMES YOURS!

 

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HOW DO WE PICK OUR FAVORITE PLAYERS?

In Misc Philly Sports on February 28, 2012 at 10:22 am

Have you ever given any thought to how you pick the players or coaches that become your favorites? My Father says if they wear our colors they’re my favorite. I’ve thought about this for some time but two events took place this past week that forced me to dig in to the books and do some research on the subject. Those two things were the reevaluation of Ryan Howard’s achilles tendon that seemed to bring out the “haters”. There are a lot of doubters out there about Ryan. The second one was the trade of Jeff Carter from Columbus to LA. Let’s start with these and we’ll go from there. Recently we did a poll on http://phillypressbox.com and on our Facebook page at Philly Pressbox and not one person selected Ryan Howard as their favorite Phillie. We also did a separate poll of who were your 5 favorite Phillies of all time and only one person mentioned Ryan. Honestly, he’s not my favorite either but he’s a really good player. I did some comparisons to the greatest home run hitter and greatest player in Phillies history to see how they match up. Howard is 31 years old so that was the bench mark to compare Howard’s stats to Schmidt’s when he was 31. Schmidt played in 1336 games and Howard in 1027 games. Schmidt had 4581 at bats and Howard 3794. Schmidt hit 314 HR’s, Howard 286. That’s 28 less homers in 309 less games and 787 less at bats. Schmidt led the league in Home Runs 5 times and Howard twice. Schmidt had 1216 hits and Howard has 1043 hits. Schmitty’s batting average was .265 and Ryan’s is .275. Now for the big stat against Ryan Howard – Strikeouts!!! Howard has struck out 1207 times and has led the league once while Schmidt struck out 1148 times and led the league 3 times. Obviously in the field there’s no one like Mike Schmidt. This isn’t meant to compare Ryan Howard to Mike Schmidt but to compare Ryan Howard to greatness. His numbers match up pretty well against the Greatest Player in Phillies history. Besides that, have you ever heard a bad word off the field about Howard? He’s a genuine nice guy!!!

That brings us to Carter. Why is it that people don’t like Carter? I keep hearing that he and Mike Richards liked the night life of Philly too much. Really? They were in their 20’s, single, millionaires that are out having a good time. Do you think players from other teams sit in the house at night? More importantly why do we care what they do outside their uniform unless it’s David Akers and many others trying to raise money for charities or their foundations? Do you really care about the 76ers player that had 8 children with 3 different women and 2 of the children outside his marriage while he was married to his wife? Who cares, it’s his business so why do we care about Carter? In Carter’s Flyers career he scored 181 goals and had 162 assists scoring 46 goals in one season and topping 30 in two others. Yet, many people were happy to see him traded by the Flyers and seemed it was funny that he was traded to LA to play again with Richards. Why don’t we like Jeff Carter?

Moving along to a few others that I find interesting. We love Dick Vermeil but we hate Andy Reid. Vermeil is still on billboards in town after leading the Eagles to the Super Bowl and losing, ummm 32 years ago. Vermeil coached the Eagles for 6 ½ seasons and had a record of 54-47. The Eagles finished first in the NFC East 1 time and 2nd – 3 times under Vermeil. Everybody seems to want a shot at Reid, although I’m not one of them. Reid has been with the Eagles for 13 seasons. His record is 126-81-1. The Eagles have been to one Super Bowl and lost. They have won 6 NFC East titles and have finished 2nd – 4 other times. Why don’t we like Andy Reid?

Andre Iguodala is next on the list. At the start of the season everybody said this guy had to go. Here we are at mid-season and he’s selected for his first all star game. Iggy is the best player on the team but we have no love for him. He’s a hard worker on both ends of the court and is a fantastic defensive player. He’s in his 7th season with the 76ers and it’s surely not his fault there hasn’t been anyone to play around him. He’s averaged 79 games a year up to this year, they only play 82, and he’s averaing15.6 ppg, 5.8 rpg and 4.8 apg over his career. These aren’t superstar numbers but solid none the less. Why don’t fans like Iggy?

Then we have Jimmy Rollins, he calls out the Philly fans but we love him. Even Jason Avant called out the fans and for some reason we still like him. DeSean Jackson quit on his team, the fans and the City of Philadelphia but we seem to still like him. Shane Victorino has a great smile so we love him. Jayson Werth strikes out too much we don’t like him. Cole Hamels is borderline. A couple bad game and we don’t like him. Mike Schmidt wasn’t a beloved player for most of his career but Larry Bowa was. What about Brett Myers? We loved Harry the K and Whitey but don’t think much of Wheels and Sarge. Donovan McNabb, we’re not sure what to think about him. There’s no in the middle with him, you’re either in or you’re out. The same can be said for Randall Cunningham. Did we really have Ron Jaworski fans in town when he played? Jeff Garcia was a fan favorite. We love Reggie White and I have no idea why. We’ll talk more about him in a future post. Bill Bergey, Vince Papale, Brian Dawkins and Brian Westbrook are in, TO and Freddie Mitchell are out. What about Eric Lindros? Is he in or out? Scott Hartnell is in this year but out last year. How about Mark Recchi who won rings everywhere but here? Rick Tocchett is in. How about Lappy, Ian Laperriere? Do we really love any Flyers goalies besides Bernie Parent and maybe Ron Hextall. Brad Lidge made us nervous but we love the Tugger and even Mitch Williams, talk about two guys that could make you nervous. We love John Kruk but don’t like Ryan Howard.  What about Aaron Rowand and Lenny Dykstra? We even love Darren Daulton but don’t like Scott Rolen and Curt Schilling. Gregg Jefferies, Danny Jackson, Jamie Moyer? What about Dick, don’t call me Richie, Allen and what do we think about Charles Barkley and Allen (It’s only practice) Iverson? How about George McGinnis?

Of course there has to be a separate love/hate category for Pete Rose, Julius Erving, Moses Malone, Ricky Watters, Peter Forsberg, and Jaromir Jagr.  Superstar outsiders that we hated before they got here but cheered for like crazy once they were here. Only Forsberg really let us down.

We’ve thrown out a lot of names and missed a lot as well but what we haven’t figured out is why we like or don’t like players or coaches when in almost every case we’ve never met them. Is it whether they brought a championship to town or if they’re the best players on their particular team? Is it the effort we feel they put in while they’re playing? Is it the way they come across on TV? Is it the way the media presents them or is it because you did see them and got or didn’t get an autograph?

Let us know?

As Andy would say “TIME’S YOURS”

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DON’T FIRE ANDY REID!!!!

In Philadelphia Eagles on February 14, 2012 at 5:12 pm

I know that I’m going against popular demand but I’m glad Andy Reid is here and I hope he stays another year until the Eagles win the Super Bowl. So bring on the comments, all haters are welcome, I’m ready for you. Here’s why I say Andy stays. Last season saw:

  • 3 new offensive linemen, Evan Mathis, and 2 rookies, Danny Watkins and Jason Kelce, that got a lot better as the season went on. Todd Herremans is a quality tackle and some say Jason Peters is the best in the game. They also had a new O-Line coach in Howard Mudd.
  • The O-Line development led Shady McCoy to Honolulu after a tremendous season both rushing and receiving.
  • A crazy season of DeSean Jackson antics and average play that will change next season. Jackson can be a great player again but he hurt this team.
  • Brent Celek and Jeremy Mackiln are good solid players. Jason Avant and Riley Cooper are serviceable reserves.
  • Injuries and turnovers to Michael Vick. You can’t help the injuries but Vick will protect the football much better next season.  The Vince Young experiment didn’t work and it hurt this football team. There was a new QB coach in Doug Pederson.

Overall I think this is a good, maybe great offensive football team if they don’t turn the ball over. Not many teams have these weapons!!

  • The defensive line was pretty decent. Jason Babin was a Pro Bowler. Trent Cole is solid and the guys in the middle, Cullen Jenkins and Mike Patterson did a decent job but some depth is needed up front. Jaqua Parker might have run out of gas but showed spurts.
  • The LB’s got better but need some major help. The Casey Mathews experiment didn’t work out, however he played much better later in the season. The jury’s still out whether he can be a full time player. I’d like to see them pick up a gap filler like London Fletcher a free agent from the Redskins and use the #15 pick in the draft on a LB, preferably Boston College’s Luke Kuechly. That would add some experience and toughness to the group that has to do a better job stopping the run.
  • The DB’s were a mystery. Nnamdi Asomugha was pretty bad. He was pretty a guarantee to get burnt at least once a game for a TD. That won’t happen again this year. Every team in the league couldn’t have been wrong on the guy. Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, Asanti Samuel, if he’s back, Nate Allen, Kurt Coleman, Jaquawn Jarrett, Josilio Hansen will be better next year.

Again there were an awful lot of new faces on defense. Add to that a new Defensive Coordinator, Juan Castillo, new DL Coach, Jim Washburn, new  LB Coach, Mike Caldwell, new CB Coach, Johnny Lynn, whose been replaced and new Safeties Coach Mike Zordich and not having any offseason practice time to get to know the new players and new coaches hurt this team badly especially early in the year.

  • The Special Teams added a rookie kicker, Alex Henery and a rookie punter, Chaz Henry to go with solid long snapper Jon Dorenbos. I can’t say you can upgrade from David Akers but these guys did a nice job.

 All of these things bring us to Andy Reid. Here are a few facts and figures for you to consider:

  • 5th Winningest Active Coach. Bill Belichick (175 wins – 17 seasons), Mike Shanahan (157-25), Jeff Fisher (142-20), Tom Coughlin (142-16), Reid (126-13).
  • Reid is 2nd among active coaches with 45 more wins than losses. Only Belichick is better with 78.
  • Reid is tied for 1st among active coaches for years taking his teams to the playoffs with Belichick with 9. Remember Belichick has coached for 17 seasons to Reids 13.
  • Reid has also coached the 2nd most playoff games and won the 2nd most playoff games to only Belichick.
  • Reid has been to 5 NFC championship games and 1 Super Bowl as Head Coach of the Eagles.
  • If Reid coached another 13 seasons with the same 126 wins, his 252 wins would rank him 3rd all time behind Don Shula and George Halas and 2 win ahead of Tom Landry. That’s pretty serious company.

 The only thing that is not on this Andy Reid resume is a Super Bowl Championship. The team is set up to make a run at the Super Bowl with the players they have and a possibly a few slight additions and there’s no one better than Andy to take them there.

E-A-G-L-E-S!!!!!

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EAGLES “STAY OR GO” FAN VOTE

In Philadelphia Eagles on January 8, 2012 at 9:02 am

Currently Philly.com is running the end of season fan voting for the Philadelphia Eagles. If you don’t know how it works, you log on and go through essentially the entire roster and choose if you feel the player should “stay or go”. Once you’ve voted on the player the current vote result is shown. There were 24 offensive players, 30 defensive players, 3 special teams players, 3 coaches, 3 administrators and a mascot listed. There have been between 2000-5000 votes cast so far, (you don’t have to vote for every player). I found the results very surprising. Here’s the breakdown.

On offense the fans want to keep ALL of the starters. This is the offensive machine that finished 4th overall in the league but generated a league high 39 turnovers. Here’s who the fans voted needed to “go”: Vince Young, Ronnie Brown, Steve Smith, Winston Justice, Julian Vendervelde, Jamaal Jackson and King Dunlap. That’s it!!! The fans even voted to keep Chad Hall, Mike Kafka and Owen Schmidt. I can’t say I disagree much with this list but keeping an experienced offensive lineman, Justice or Dunlap, is probably not a bad idea. Personally I’m torn over DeSean Jackson. I feel he let this team and fan base down by not playing hard and missing the Arizona game for disciplinary reasons. He’s a tremendous talent but needs to come to work every day. If a good trade for a 1st rounder was offered I’m not sure I wouldn’t move him. The fan base feels different with 74% of the fans wanting him back.

On defensive the fans want to keep 10 players that started most of the season. The only full time starter voted to “go” was Asante Samuel. Only 37% of the fans want him to return. We voted that Casey Matthews, who took an early season beating from the fans and media should stay along with former 1st round pick Brandon Graham. Here are the remaining defensive palyers the fans want to “go”. Some of these guys did contribute during the season to the 10th ranked defense in the league, Juqua Parker, Trevor Laws, Victor Abiamiri, Cedric Thornton, Akeem Jordan, Moise Fokou, Curtis Marsh, Brandon Hughes and Tom Nelson. Personally I like Parker, although he’s getting up in age. I also like Fokou and think I would keep him.

The  three special teams players listed, Alex Henery, Chas Henry and John Dorenbos were all voted to “stay”. Henery only missed 3 FG’s all season but 2 were in the 49er’s game that would’ve put the game away for us. Overall he had a great season. Both Henery and Henry are rookies.

So what we’re saying is that we are very happy with the team that has been put together. We want 24 of our 25 starters to return from a team that went 8-8 and missed the playoffs. What could we possibly be thinking? We’re thinking about the coaches and administration. 56.6% of voters call for Andy Reid to “go”. 53.9% of the voters call for Marty Mornhinweg to “go” and 75.1% of the fans voters call for Juan Castillo to “go”. Personally I think they should all stay. I’m disappointed in the 8-8 season but I still have confidence in Reid and like him as our coach. I think far too much blame has been placed on Castillo. Without making excuses for him he did have new postion coaches at DL, LB, corners and safeties. That’s an entire new staff to go with a new coordinator and a handful of new players. The lockout did hurt them. I feel they will be much better in 2012. On the offensive side of the ball I think Mornhinweg did a decent job that went bad due to the turnovers. For the first time in years the Eagles moved more to running the ball and utilizing the talents of Shady McCoy. I’d like to see them run the ball even more. Michael Vick was sloppy with the football early in the year before McCoy was established and the O-Line came together and it cost the Eagles games. That’s on Vick and some costly fumbles. As mentioned earlier Jackson’s lackluster effort at times hurt the offense. The offensive line improved greatly as the season went on. As far as the administration, 83.3% of the fans voted that Howie Roseman should “go” as the GM and 70.6% feel that Joe Banner should “go”. We have decided to clean out the major coaches and the administration that put together the team that has 24 of 25 guys that we want to keep! Jeffrey Lurie got a pass. 57.4% of the fans want Lurie to “stay”. Even Swoop makes the cut with 56.9% of the fans voting for him to “stay”.  

Please note that the voting is on-going, however, in most cases the splits in the votes are so significant that they won”t change much.  Final decisions on the coaching staff will probably come in the next week. Johnnie Lynn was fired last night and more changes could come but I don’t expect they will be major. Personally I think Castillo is safe but I could be wrong. As far as the players, I think we need to be looking forward to the draft to upgrade the players that we already like. The NFC East was down this year and the Eagles missed a golden opportunity to win the division and move on in the playoffs. They are a better football team than the Giants and the Cowboys but you have to win your games and not just talk about it. 2012 will be a better year. E-A-G-L-E-S, EAGLES!!!

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A Comparison Of The ’05, ’07 ’11 Eagles Losing Seasons

In Philadelphia Eagles on January 4, 2012 at 10:31 pm

The last time the NFL season ended on January 1 was 2005, the last time the Eagles had a losing record (6-10). That season also ended at home against the Washington Redskins and a 31-20 loss. The last time the Eagles ended 8-8 was 2007 and they finished that season with a 3 game winning streak. Of course the ’11 team was also 8-8. It’s interesting to compare the three season but lets throw some names and numbers around. Obviously Andy Reid was the Head Coach. Offensive coordinator in ’05 was Brad Childress, former Head Coach of the Vikings. In ’07 and ’11 it was Marty Morninweg. The ’05 offense scored 310 points and ranked 18th in the league. Donovan McNabb passed for 2507 yards and 16 TD’s while Brian Westbrook rushed for 617 yards and received another 616 yards. Terrell Owens also caught 47 passes for 763 yards. The ’07 offense scored 336 points and ranked 17th in the league. McNabb and AJ Feeley combined for 4005 yards passing. Westbrrok combined for 2104 yards of total offense and Kevin Curtis caught 77 balls for 1110 yards. The ’11 offense scored 396 points and ranked 8th in the league.  Michael Vick passed for 3303 yards and 18 TD’s. LeSean McCoy rushed for 1309 yards and DeSean Jackson had 961 receiving yards while Jeremy Macklin added 859 yards and Brent Celek 811 yards.  The interesting statistic is that the ’05 team finished 23rd in giveaway/takeaways, the ’07 team was 25th while the ’11 team finished 30th. The years in between, all winning seasons, were as follows” ’06 – 9th, ‘ 08 – 14th, ’09 – 2nd and ’10 – 5th. The offensive statistics bear out a simple fact that if you turnover the football in the NFL you will not win games.

The defenses are also interesting. The ’05 team under the direction of Jim Johnson gave up 388 points while finishing 28th in the league. The top 3 tacklers on that team were Jeremiah Trotter, Michael Lewis and Brian Dawkins. The ’07 team, also coordinated by Johnson, gave up 300 points and ranked 9th in the league. The top 3 tacklers were Omar Gaither, Takeo Spikes and Sheldon Brown. The ’11 team under Juan Castillo gave up 328 points and ranked 10th in the league. The leading tacklers were Jamar Chaney, Kurt Coleman and Nate Allen. What’s the most intersting is that of the 9 tacklers lsited for these years 5 of them are defensive backs. Whether that points to the play of the defensive line, linbackers or both can be argued. The years in between consistently had Quintin Mickel as a leading tackler but also had Stewart Bradley (MLB) and Trent Cole (DE)  in the Top 3. What we do know is that the defense plays a big part in the giveaway/takeaway ratio discussed above. If the offense turns the ball over too much or the defense deosn’t create turnovers it plays a major part in the teams success.

Final analysis for improving in 2012 is simple, don’t turn the ball over on offense and create turnovers on defense. Pretty simple don’t you think???

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LURIE DOES THE RIGHT THING

In Philadelphia Eagles on January 3, 2012 at 10:23 pm

I really enjoyed listening to Philadelphia Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie tell the Philly media sharks that Head Coach Andy Reid and the rest of the Eagles administration would be back. I don’t really care about Joe Banner and Howie Roseman because Andy is the guy that pushes all of the buttons. There were two things I enjoyed the most about this decision. First, Lurie actually does understand football and realizes that the pieces are in place for a championship and it’s the players that have to be held accountable as well as the coaches. 39 turnovers to lead the league is an embarrassment and that’s on the players. Jumping offsides at the most critical part of the game that cost another win.  Asomugha lining up offsides on a 3 and 11 incompletion that gave Arizona another chance, made the first down and drove down for the winning score. Alex Henery missing FG’s that ultimately cost the 49’ers game. AT SOME POINT THE PLAYERS MUST BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE!!!!! Coaches at the professional level have nothing to do with these crucial mistakes. Players have to make plays! Secondly, Lurie showed he has the stomach to stand up to the garbage that is sports radio and the media in Philadelphia. Enough said on that subject. Let the big mouths that have never worn a uniform, been in a locker room and surely never been in a coaches meeting do there best to ruin sports in the best sports city in America.

Looking forward to next year the priorities should be simple, sign Desean, get Linebacker help through the draft or free agency, sign a quality back up QB, sign an experienced third WR and tackle to back up Peters and Herremans incase one goes down, unload Samuel, Smith and the othr dead weight. The O-Line has improved with the two rookies, TE’s are solid, WR’s with Jackson are solid, Shady and Schmidt are solid, Vick is good when healthy but a back up is needed. The defense is solid up front, the LB’s got better but are very young and some help is needed. The DB’s are decent but I sure expected much more from Asomugha. Every team in the league couldn’t have been wrong on this guy. The young guys will continue to get better. The kicking game is solid with the two rookies.

My glass is half full for the 2012 Eagles and Jeff Lurie’s press conference today solidified my thinking. THE PLAYERS WILL PLAY!

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