Sunday, September 27, 2009

This Was the Future of the Eagles

These are some starters that are supposed to be long term fixtures at the positions (or are now).
QB - Kevin Kolb
WR - DeSean Jackson, Jeremy Maclin
RB - LeSean McCoy
FS - Macho Harris
RT - Winston Justice

I want to start off the article by saying that McNabb's job is NOT in any form of jeapordy. But Kevin Kolb played pretty damn well. He is the first QB in the NFL to throw for 300+ yards in his first two starts. He and Jackson clearly have a chemistry going. He hit Maclin several times for decent gains. He is giving Brent Celek the opportunities necessary to become the pass-catching TE in the NFL (he has the most receiving yards for the NFL so far). He even ran for a touchdown! He is moving the ball up and down the field. While he may not be starting when the Eagles play Tampa Bay (McNabb should be back by then) he has shown that we can trust him to be the Quarterback of the Future for the Eagles.

LeSean McCoy played an outstanding game. While Westbrook will remain the starter for the remainder of the season, McCoy clearly is the long term solution. He showed great vision, and was able to hit the holes quickly. Had McCoy juked slightly harder on one play, he could have had a 30 yard TD run. Eldra Buckley is a nice back up, but McCoy showed that he can carry the ball as often as necessary.

DeSean Jackson- Need I really address this? The past two weeks he has 71, and 64 yard TDs. The week before he returned a punt 85 yards for a TD. The kid has the penchant for the big play. He is the best receiver since the Eagles had Terrell Owens, and he's only a sophomore.

Jeremy Maclin - He played well. He had 4 receptions for 33 yards. What's important to remember is that that could've been 5 and a TD had Kobb throw the ball slightly in front of Maclin. Maclin and Jackson should be tearing up opponent's secondaries for years to come.

Macho Harris - You want to know what makes me happy? The fact that Brian Dawkins, by far and away one of the greatest players to ever don the Eagles uniform and a seven time Pro-Bowler, left town and we're not worrying about his rookie replacement. Harris is making tackles when he needs to, and has not given up the big play yet. Eventually he will make a mistake or two, but he looks leaps and bounds better than Demps ever looked last year.

Winston Justice - The kid has simply played. No one expected him to come in and make a Pro-Bowl, but he is playing for his life. He is simply dominating while run and pass blocking. I'm glad that Andrews got hurt early on, so Justice could improve vastly during the preseason. He is only going to get better as the season goes on.

Notice I said nothing about Vick. He played well, didn't turn the ball over, but nothing that memorable. Simply not turning the ball over does not win you a salary in the NFL, and definitely with the Eagles. While I'm glad the Eagles made the move, until I see a payoff in the regular season I'm not going to fully understand the move.

The Eagles go into the bye 2-1, and the Buccaneers, Raiders, and Redskins (they looked terrible today) the Eagles could realistically start 5-1. Much better than last years 3-3. Today was just a brief glimpse of what the Eagles will be in the future, and it looked pretty good, even if it was just against the Chiefs.

Sunday, September 6, 2009

What To Make of the 53 Man Roster.

The Eagles Waived-
B Trae Williams, CB Jack Ikegwuonu, DE Bryan Smith, DE Josh Gaines, LB Tank Daniels, FS Reshard Langford, WR Danny Amendola, RB Lorenzo Booker, C Dallas Reynolds, G Paul Fanaika, G Mike Gibson, TE Rob Myers, FB Marcus Mailei and FB Kyle Eckel. These players are now subject to waivers.

Ikegwuonu simply hasn't recovered from that knee injury which allowed him to slip to the 4th Round in 2008. He lacks the speed necessary to play CB with the Eagles, and he continuously got beat during the preseason, against second string WR's.

Bryan Smith was a project. The Eagle's failed at turning him into a successful player.

Danny Amendola was a favorite of mine going into the preseason. I loved seeing him make plays in the receiving game and return game. But we are already holding 7 WR's on the roster (will get to that later). I hope that he gets signed to the Practice Squad, but he may get picked up by another team first.

Booker has been on his way out of town for a while.

Myers and Bright were projects. Unfortunately neither could show any talent at the TE position.

I loved Kyle Eckel last year. There was simply no space for him on this year's roster though. The addition of FB Weaver almost sealed his fate.

The Eagles Cut-
DT Dan Klecko, LB Matt Wilhelm and TE Matt Schobel. These players are now unrestricted free agents.

Wilhem was simply a Training Camp Body. Schobel hasn't really done anything for this offense in recent history. And Klecko was the reason that a jet's rookie running back accumulated so many yards.

Important Retentions
Quarterback- McNabb, Kolb, Feeley.
Vick is on the commissioner's exempt list. Right now the Eagles are keeping Feeley on the roster so they don't lose anything they could gain out of a trade. If he isn't traded within a few days expect him to be cut. There are also rumors of Kolb getting traded, but I don't see that happening.

Running Back - Westbrook, McCoy, Buckley
No surprises here, except maybe for Buckley. Buckley absolutely played his way onto this team though.

Full Back - Weaver
No surprise.

Tight Eend - Celek, Curtis
Celek is the obvious starter. Curtis has proved he can block in Dallas. He also proved in the Jet's game that he has the ability to catch. Look for the Eagles to maybe add a third TE early on.

Wide Receiver - Kevin Curtis, DeSean Jackson, Jason Avant, Jeremy Maclin, Hank Baskett, Reggie Brown, Brandon Gibson
The Eagles cannot keep seven WRs. Eventually either Basket or Brown will be cut or traded. Gibson has played his way onto the squad.

Offensive Line - Jason Peters, Todd Herremans, Jamaal Jackson, Stacy Andrews, Shawn Andrews, Max Jean-Gilles, Nick Cole, Mike McGlynn, Winston Justice, King Dunlap
While the Eagle's like to have lots of linemen, don't expect everyone to stay. I just don't know who the Eagles will give the boot to.


Defensive End
- Victor Abiamiri, Jason Babin, Chris Clemons, Trent Cole, Darren Howard, Juqua Parker
I'm not sure if all 6 will stay in Philadelphia. While they are quality ends, unless Trent Cole is going to be switched out a lot more often than last year I can't see them all getting field time.
Note on Babin: Great Preseason, man absolutely played his way onto the team. Hopefully returning to his rightful position will allow him to excel.

Defensive Tackle - Brodrick Bunkley, Trevor Laws, Mike Patterson
I expect them to add one more sometime soon. Only three DT's is concerning. Especially if Bunkley or Patterson goes down for the season (or even worse both)

Linebacker - Moise Fokou, Omar Gaither, Chris Gocong, Akeem Jordan, Joe Mays, Tracy White
We all knew this was going to be the lineup. Tracy White and Moise Fokou played their way onto the squad. I can't really envision this changing. The backups pretty much have the ability to play any of the three positions.

Cornerback - Sheldon Brown, Joselio Hanson, Ellis Hobbs, Dimitri Patterson, Asante Samuel
No surprises. Dimitri Patterson is the gunner on special teams so that really helped his case for making the team.

Safety - Quintin Demps, Macho Harris, Sean Jones, Quintin Mikell
No surprises again. Jones and Demps are still battling it out. Harris' play has caused some rumors that he may even be in the mix now. I doubt it. I envision Sean Jones starting the season at Free Safety.

Specialists (3) - David Akers, Jon Dorenbos, Sav Rocca
Reliable

Again this roster is ANYTHING from final. There will be lots of changes in the upcoming days.