Subscribe
TwitterLaying a Foundation
Posted by Derek
Just so we're all on the same page here, here is my mid-offseason take on the Eagles. I sent this to my brother (who lives in Houston) and another insufferable Cowboys fan with whom he happens to work.
It's from late-June, so in a few areas it's a bit dated, but it establishes what I think is a baseline for discussion.
If you get all the way through this, you're an even crazier Eagles fan than I am. (Particularly since I can't get the formatting right...)
--------------------------------------------
OFFENSE
Quarterback
2006 starter – Donovan McNabb
2005 starter – McNabb (9), Mike McMahon (7), Koy Detmer
Obviously, this is where it all starts for the Eagles. McNabb only played in nine games last year, and he was never really right, since he had the sports hernia issue and also took that helmet to the sternum in the first game against Atlanta. Despite the injuries (both his and others) and the TO situation, his numbers were semi-decent. In nine games he threw for 2500+ yards and had 16 TDs, vs. 9 INTs. Obviously not up to his usual standards, but Favre would kill for that sort of ratio [Note: Brett Favre is my brother's favorite player]. After McNabb went down, his back-up Mike McMahon proceeded to demonstrate why you should never, ever pick up a quarterback who played at Rutgers. The one good thing about the final injury is that McNabb had no choice but to sit out and get the surgery he should have gotten in training camp. By all accounts, he has come back completely healthy, although you never know with this sort of thing. More importantly, he has dramatically slimmed down in the off-season. He looks much more like the scary-fast McNabb of old rather than the wannabe linebacker he was becoming.
If McNabb gets back to his old self – and there’s no reason he shouldn’t, he’s only 30 years-old – the Eagles offense will be fine. Everyone thinks the Eagles offense was moribund before they brought in TO, but look at their offensive numbers in 2003 vs. 2004 (TO’s first year):
16 |
23.4 |
43 |
23 |
17 |
42 |
24 | |
16 |
24.1 |
44 |
10 |
32 |
41 |
27 |
They skewed more to the pass in 2004, and they became more of a quick-strike offense than they had been, but the results weren’t appreciably better.
Note that I’m not saying that TO didn’t make our offense better – he did. But also keep in mind that we made it to the Super Bowl without TO. He missed every other playoff game in 2004.
Running Back
2006 starter – Brian Westbrook / Ryan Moats
2005 starter – Westbrook (12), Moats, Perry, Mahe, my Aunt Thelma…
It doesn’t really make sense to focus on one RB will the Eagles, since they always do things by committee. Westbrook was having a decent, though not spectacular, year until he went down with an injury (again) and missed the last four games of the season (again). In those 12 games he managed to accumulate over 600 yards rushing and over 600 yards receiving, not bad numbers with all the [stuff] that went down, but not brilliant. The Eagles went through a very bizarre phase of the season last year where they simply never ran the ball. I’ve never seen anything quite like that. After Reid finally realized his quarterback was a walking invalid (and TO got himself benched) we went back to running the ball more with Westbrook and his rushing numbers rebounded.
The one silver lining to the Westbrook injury was the emergence of Ryan Moats. The guy couldn’t get on the field for the first 12 games because he had trouble picking up the offense, since he played in an extremely simple running attack at La Tech. Once every other guy on the team got hurt, the Eagles decided to say screw it and put him out there. In six games he rushed 55 times for 278 yards (5.1 yds/carry). This despite the fact that his quarterback couldn’t complete a pass to the outside if you gave him two bounces. He also ripped off a 40-yard run against the Giants and a 59-yard run against the Rams, suggesting that the training camp evaluation of him as “a Westbrook-type, but a little faster” might be accurate.
There are other RBs in the mix this year, but these are the only two that really matter. [Note: I no longer think is quite accurate.] The key is Westbrook’s health. That is absolutely an open question and one we won’t be able to answer until he gets through an entire season healthy.
If Westbrook goes down again, I think at this point we can actually do fine with Moats back there as a RB, but he’s not nearly as polished a receiver, which would hurt. The Eagles are making some noise about putting Moats and Westbrook on the field together this year. If that happens, you’re going to see Westbrook working out of the slot a LOT
One further note. Our starting fullback last year was Josh Parry. The guy’s a lunchpail type with minimal athletic ability (three years on the practice squad, two of which were at his natural LB position). I like rooting for the guy, but now that Thomas Tapeh (college: Minnesota
Offensive Line
2006 starters – William (no longer Tra) Thomas, Todd Herremans (likely), Jamaal Jackson/Hank Fraley (50/50), Shawn Andrews, Jon Runyan
2005 starters – Thomas/Herremans/Crap, Hicks/Clarke/Crap, Fraley/Jackson, Andrews, Runyan
Injuries and crappy play plagued our o-line last year. We had three different left tackles, losing Pro-Bowler Thomas for the second half of the season (although he was in and out before that with some back issues), then his back-up Herremans after he played four games. Herremans was actually a nice surprise last year before he broke his lower leg. He had dominated at Division II Saginaw State, but no one really knew how he would make the jump. He actually did pretty well out there before getting hurt. This year he’s slated to be our starting left guard, although he’s battling a few guys for the spot. Given the way he played last year, I’d be surprised if he lost out.
Hicks played (crappily) for 12 games last year before he got hurt. We shipped his butt to Minnesota Jackson
Right now those two are locked in a competition, but I think Jackson
The right side was solid last year, but not spectacular. Runyan did what he always does and was fine. Andrews was a Pro Bowl alternate, but his weight became a bit of an issue. This offseason, one of his best friends growing up died of a heart attack. This friend was like 25 and weighed about 400 pounds. From that moment on Andrews decided he would never have his weight be an issue again. He’s down from last year’s 385-ish to 355 right now, and he wants to be at 345 by training camp. The Eagles must think he’s going the right way, because they just gave him a massive new contract, even though he’s only played one season, since he missed almost the entire first season with a broken leg.
The real strength this year is our depth, which is a story throughout this entire line-up. We lost a bunch of contributors in the last couple of years and the cupboard was running bare. In this year’s draft, we traded up in the second round to pick Winston Justice (USC). Had Bunkley been gone when we picked in the first round, we would have taken Justice then. He has done so well in minicamps that he is now the swing tackle (backup at both positions) on the depth chart. Herremans, last year’s backup LT, is only playing guard, which suggests the coaching staff is happy with how Justice is coming along. If Thomas goes down again, we’ll be in much better shape this year.
This line is going to be very good this year, assuming they can avoid injuries. That will be one of the biggest difference between ‘05 and ‘06. Before 2005, we had great continuity with our line, last year it got blown to hell.
Tight End
2006 starters – L.J. Smith, Matt Schobel
2005 starters – L.J. Smith, two crappy dudes
Jon knows how I feel about L.J. He [makes some mistakes] and he’s a major fumble waiting to happen. Through dumb luck, he manages to mostly just fumble out of bounds, but he makes me nervous every time he runs down the field with the ball away from his body. And he also went to Rutgers
With that said, in the first nine games last year, when McNabb was throwing him the ball, he had 42 catches for 417 yards. He was – I believe – leading all NFC tight ends in receiving at that point. Then McNabb went down and it all went to hell. He ended up with only 19 more catches the rest of the year. The guy has his limitations with blocking, but when he’s got a real quarterback throwing to him he’s a good weapon at the TE position or in the slot.
The big jump for us here, however, is with our second TE, Matt Schobel. We haven’t had two legitimate pass-catching tight ends since Chad Lewis went down in the NFC championship game of the Super Bowl year. And even Lewis couldn’t get down the field like either of these guys. Marty Morningwheg might have been a crappy head coach, but he was a very good offensive coordinator for the 49ers before he bombed in Detroit
Wide Receiver
2006 starters – Greg Lewis, Reggie Brown, a lot of crap
2005 starters – Reggie Brown, Todd Pinkston, Jabar Gaffney, Greg Lewis, Jason Avant, still a lot of crap
Which brings us to the only position anyone ever seems to care about when evaluating the Eagles.
Yes, the receiving corps takes a massive hit by losing Lord Voldermort’s [unkind word]. Obviously there’s no one on this roster (or any roster outside of Dallas
But remember what I mentioned above, our offense, when everyone was healthy the year before TO got here, wasn’t really that bad. And we were doing that [stuff] with Todd Pinkston and James Thrash.
Let’s talk about who is here. Jon’s heard me rave enough about Reggie Brown. The guy is a flat out player. I still vividly remember the game late in the season last year, where someone was being a punk to Ryan Moats (I think) who was down near the sideline, and Brown came flying out of nowhere and leveled the guy. This was several games after most of the rest of the roster had decided that the offseason had already started. At the end of last season, he was the only guy who looked like he gave a crap.
He had numbers, too. “[Brown] led all NFL rookie WRs in 2005 in receiving yards (571), ranked second in receptions (43), and ranked third in receiving TDs (4). His 43 catches also were the most in team history by a rookie WR.”
The guy produced, even though he mostly had to catch [stuff] heaved his way by McMahon. He’s a ballplayer, and I actually feel pretty strongly that he’s going to establish himself as a true #1 guy this year.
So that’s the good news. The bad news is the rest of what we have at that position. If Pinkston comes back healthy (on track right now), we will be able to use his deep speed to help keep defenses honest. That’s about it for him. (Athough he does look a little bigger this year. Maybe he finally hit the weight room since he couldn’t run after blowing his Achilles.)
We signed Gaffney and drafted Avant to play in the slot. Best case scenario Gaffney is moderately productive (supposedly he didn’t look great in mini-camp) and Avant manages to chip in some receptions on third down or around the goal line.
Greg Lewis, last year’s – ahem – number one guy, is actually not a terrible third or fourth receiver. So that’s nice.
But the key is that we’re not really counting on these other guys that much. Yeah, we need Brown to be productive and someone to emerge from the rest of the group as a number two guy, but we’re a) going to run the ball a lot more this year, b) use Westbrook as a receiver a ton, and c) use both our good tight ends in the passing game. Would I have liked seeing Javon Walker lined up out there Absolutely, but this offense has a lot of success spreading it around and that’s what we’re going to do again this year.
DEFENSE
Defensive Line
2006 starters – Jevon Kearse, Broderick Bunkley / Mike Patterson / Darwin Walker, Darren Howard
2005 starters – Kearse, Thomas / Walker / Patterson, ND Kalu/Trent Cole
This the area of biggest upgrade on the team. For years, when people thought of the Eagles defense, they thought of getting after the QB with Jim Johnson’s crazy blitz schemes. Well that went out the window last year.
In 2004 we were second in the league in sacks, with 47. In 2005, we had 29, better than only a few teams. We simply got no pressure on the QB, which forced guys in the secondary to stay with their guys forever, and really hurt our ability to stop the big play. Addressing the pass rush was the number one priority, and the Eagles took care of it nicely.
Kearse is the one constant. He should be giving us the same thing he gives us every year. I’m loving this crusty old line coach we brought in to teach these guys some new techniques, but for the most part, Kearse was not our problem last year. Hopefully if he can play next to other guys who don’t suck he’ll be able to get after the QB and not get double-teamed every time.
At the other end spot, we let Derrick Burgess go through free agency before last year because we through Jerome McDougle was ready to take the spot and Burgess had managed to be healthy precisely one out of four years. Burgess went on to have a monster season in Oakland
That made ND Kalu our starting right DE. That worked about as well as expected. So then Kalu got hurt (go Rice though) and this Trent Cole kid – a 5th round pick last year – came out of nowhere and had five sacks in his first three starts (games 8-10). But he was a bit of an undersized guy last year and he wore down as the season went on. This offseason, he put on 20 pounds of muscle [snip] and now is in line to be our nickel DE. (Keep in mind, the Eagles use D-linemen like running backs, they rotate them a lot to keep them fresh. Last year, with all the injuries on the line, they couldn’t do that.)
Our new starting right DE is Darren Howard, whom we signed away from the Saints. Two years ago he had 11 sacks. He averaged about eight per year in his first five years. Last year he had issues with the coaching staff and his playing time went away. You can get a sense of what NO thought about him though when you realized they franchised him the last two years before letting him walk this year. The Eagles have been trying to get him for a long time. Howard will also slide inside to play DT in nickel situations.
With Kearse, Howard, Cole and a healthy McDougle, we are in line to be massively better on the outside this year. But that’s only half the story.
The lone bright spot on the interior of the line last year was Mike Patterson, out of USC. He had a nice season for us and should be manning the middle for us for a long time. Unfortunately, like all rookies, he hit a little bit of a wall midway through the year, but he bounced back nicely at the end and should be in line to make that nice second-year jump most guys seem to make.
At the other spot, Darwin Walker actually started out well, but then he got some sort of massive thigh muscle injury and wasn’t the same the rest of the year, even though he kept gutting it out. He sure didn’t replace Corey Simon, but he’s a good player and if he stays healthy he’s good to have in the rotation.
BUT the big – and I mean big – news is that we drafted Broderick Bunkley out of Florida State Penn State
Bottom line, our d-line, which was our biggest weakness last year, could very well be the most improved unit in the league.
Linebackers
2006 starters – Matt McCoy/Shawn Barber, Jeremiah Trotter, Dhani Jones, Barber (nickel)
2005 starters – Keith Adams, Trotter, Jones, Mark Simoneau (nickel)
Here’s the weak link on the defense. Last year Trotter was very good, but our two OLBs sucked [snip]. And after we let Ike Reese get away to Atlanta
So we brought in Barber to play the nickel. That’s important, since we couldn’t get teams off the field on third down last year.
We also booted Keith Adams, who was a great special-teamer but couldn’t have beaten out [a friend of ours] for a spot at linebacker on my flag football team [not really true]. His replacement will either be Barber – who was excellent last time we had him after he left the Redskins – or Matt McCoy, last year’s second-round draft pick who (as usual) had trouble picking up the system and couldn’t earn the coaches’ trust to get on the field. My money’s on McCoy. The word in training camp from the other LBs is that he’s now looking like the guy we spent a second-rounder on. If Barber beats him out, so be it, either way it’s a huge upgrade.
Trotter is established in the middle and is going nowhere as long as his (gulp) supposedly-degenerative knee condition doesn’t kick up.
On the strong-side, Dhani Jones was a fraud last year. The Eagles basically brought in like three guys to challenge him for his spot, suggesting that maybe he should consider spending less time designing bow ties and more time thinking about football. My guess is he rebounds to his 2004 form, which was merely adequate, but was serviceable enough for a team that made the Super Bowl.
Secondary
2006 starters – Lito Sheppard, Brian Dawkins, Michael Lewis, Sheldon Brown, Rod Hood (nickel)
2005 starters – Sheppard / Hood, Dawkins, Lewis, Brown, Hood / Mikell (nickel)
This unit was hurt last year by our anemic pass rush and by injury. 3-Lito [inside joke] missed the final six games last year after an ankle injury. Brown played most of the season with a shoulder injury that required surgery after the season. Hood actually did a nice job filling in for Lito, but that meant we couldn’t use him on special teams or in the nickel, which hurt us. Dawkins and Lewis were fine, but not spectacular. Both those guys are in contract years this year.
Our secondary wasn’t that bad last year, but they struggled along with everyone else. Two years ago, however, three of them made the Pro Bowl and Sheldon should have [snip]. They didn’t suddenly begin to suck over night. This unit is still a strength.
SPECIAL TEAMS
David Akers had a nasty hamstring injury that hurt both his accuracy and distance, and also kept him out of a bunch of games. He should be 100% by training camp and should return to being one of the top three kickers in the league (top two if you’re counting just crunch time, good luck with ol’ wide right [read: Janderjerk] when the pressure’s on, [annoying cowboys fan]).
Dirk Johnson, our starting punter, also had a sports hernia injury that he struggled through last year. He’s back healthy and should be able to improve on the rotating bunch of weak legs we used in his stead last year.
Coverage / Return. Of course, the big news here is Jeremy Bloom. We’ll see if he pans out. He’s had some trouble adjusting his body to being in football shape again, but let’s just say I’m pretty certain he’ll be better than Reno Mahe.
As for coverage and blocking, as I mentioned above, we had some depth issues last year. This year we’ve done a nice job augmenting our depth, so that – combined with hopefully some better injury luck so we’re not subbing in a new guy on coverage every other series – should also be improved. Like above, John Harbaugh didn’t forget how to coach special teams overnight.
INTANGIBLES
You guys know all the details with what happened last year. All I can say, so far, is that the team and the coaches seem to have a completely different mindset this year. [Snip] We’ll see.
I will say, however, that I pretty much have faith in three things in this world: myself, my wife, and Andy Reid. I think he’s going to get this straightened out.
