Iggles Blog - Philadelphia Eagles Blog

The First Igglesblog Reader Mailbag (Part 2)

I have created a monster. 

This morning, I actually had to pay my hosting company to increase my mailbox size, just to keep up with all the comments, questions and snarky attacks coming in.  I had no idea I would get this kind of response when I started this on Wednesday.  I just hope things taper off by the weekend so I can get some sleep.

On to more of your questions...

If the defense isn't vastly improved this year, is that a sign it's time for Jim Johnson to move on? (Ron, San Diego)

No, look, Johnson's coaching isn't the problem.  Sure, he doesn't really care about scheming to stop the run, but as he's pointed out many times, rushing yards don't count.  In the modern NFL you don't score points by moving the ball three yards at a time -- you score with big plays.  You can use a good running game to control the clock, shorten the game, rest your defense, protect a lead, establish offensive consistency when the weather gets bad, take the fight out of your opponent and cover up for those days when your quarterback is a little bit off, but running the ball isn't how you score and therefore stopping the run on defense is of zero importance.

Rookie Nate Ilaoa from Hawaii is a big guy with outstanding hands and a lot of experience in the passing game.  Why don't the Eagles use him at fullback rather than Thomas Tapeh? (Timmy, Hamilton, ON)

For the same reason AJ Feeley doesn't play tight end.

Which rookie will have the biggest impact on the 2007 season? (Drew, Orlando)

If you're talking leaguewide, I think it's hard to say until Roger Goodell stops suspending people.  Then we'll know which teams are looking for guys to step up.  Keep an eye on Teddy Ginn though.  If there's one guy out there poised to change the way an entire fanbase thinks about its team, he's the one.  Or maybe he won't suck.  There's always a chance.

For the Eagles, I think there's no question it's going to be Kevin Kolb.  Clipboards don't hold themselves.   

Have any of the questions from the past two days been from actual readers?  ("Suspicious in Seattle")

In the sense that I read my own blog, yes.

Which current Eagles have the best chance at making the Hall of Fame?

Dawkins gets in with a Super Bowl win.  McNabb needs two Super Bowl wins or one SB MVP.  Westbrook needs McNabb to keep getting hurt or a new offensive coordinator. 

It's way too early to start thinking about Shawn Andrews, but if he keeps his weight off, he's got a chance to be a great one.  And don't sleep on Chris Gocong. 

Any summer movie suggestions? (Harry, London)

Absolutely, you should go see Transformers.  Then tell me if it's any good, so I know if I should go see it.

Who's the hottest Eagles cheerleader for 2007? (Sydney, Chester)

Come on, this one is not one of those kinds of blogs.

Does Saverio Rocca have a chance to beat out Dirk Johnson as the Eagles punter? (Kylie, Melbourne)

Given the traffic I've seen from Australia since the news of his signing first broke, I sure hope so.

What would you most like to see at training camp? (Dave, Philadelphia)

A footrace between Shawn Andrews and Jason Avant.  My money's on the big fella.

Will Donovan McNabb's knee be completely healed by the time the season starts and will his play be affected? (James, Birmingham)

Book it now, McNabb will start the season as the Eagles quarterback.  There simply aren't many guys in the league who have the experience he does coming back from career-threatening injuries. 

Unfortunately, many athletes say it takes more than a full year before the leg gets all the way back to 100 percent.  The good news for McNabb is that he should have plenty of time for rehab once he breaks something else in December.

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And that's all the time we have today.  Thanks again for all the great questions the last two days and I'll look forward to doing this again some time soon.  Have a great weekend.

The First Igglesblog Reader Mailbag

I have to say, you guys really stepped it up yesterday.  I know it's the slow time of year and there's not much going on, but the response to yesterday's piece was really nothing short of overwhelming. 

I almost don't know where to begin, so let's just dive right in to your questions:

Why doesn't Andy Reid follow the lead of Mike Nolan and Jack Del Rio and wear a suit on the sidelines for Eagles games? (Mike, Voorhees)

The NFL has a very strict rule requiring players and coaches to wear only approved clothing from league partners.  At this time, I'm told by my sources that a rumored deal with Casual Male Big & Tall is still a long way from completion.  Also, Reid likes how dressing in black makes him look all gangsta.

When will Eagles fans finally realize that #5 is not the quarterback to lead this team to the Super Bowl? (Owen, Moorestown)

The day McNabb and Feeley switch jerseys.

Recently, Jeremiah Trotter said of Reid: "I never heard him call out a guy. He takes the blame on himself. And I try to do the same thing."  Is he forgetting last season when he blamed his struggles on the size of the defensive line? (Mark, New Orleans)

First of all, the Eagles have always had a small defensive line, it's just that Corey Simon threw off the mean for a few years, so clearly that's not the explanation for last year's results.  Secondly, Trotter's very much a "team" guy.  He sees himself as being just one piece of a larger unit, so when he blames everyone else for his own problems, that's really just his way of taking it on himself.

I think Jevon Kearse is really cute.  Do you know how I could contact him? (Amy, Paoli)

The gym wouldn't be the first place I'd look.

Do you think AJ Feeley and Heather Mitts will get back together? (Erin, San Diego)

That depends.  If the rumors are true and he cheated on her while they were apart, I really hope she can find it in her heart to forgive him, because they really are a cute couple.  On the other hand, if she's the one who went astray, she's clearly a cheating bitch and he's better off without that trampy little Pat Burrell lover.

Isn't it time for ESPN to promote Erin Andrews to sideline reporter for Monday Night Football? (Tom, location listed only as "parents' basement")

Probably better to keep her on summer and/or indoor sports, don't you think?

I like to sniff my own poop while I read your blog. (Charles, Houston)

Sorry, I think you sent this one to the wrong email address.

What's your prediction for the Eagles' record this year? (Sal, Brooklyn)

3-0 in the playoffs.

Is Koy Detmer finished as an NFL quarterback? (Ty, San Antonio)

I love Koy, but his days as an NFL quarterback ended five years ago.

Can you shed any light on the controversy over whether the Eagles are playing a one-gap or two-gap scheme on defense? (Gary, Philadelphia)

I'd be happy to.  First of all, let's talk about the difference between the two techniques, because it's pretty complicated.  In a one-gap scheme, each player is responsible for one gap in the line.  In a two-gap scheme, some guys are responsible for controlling two gaps. 

Now that we've got the technical stuff out of the way, let's look at the Eagles.  People don't realize that -- among Jim Johnson's many accomplishments -- he is also the creator of the no-gap scheme, in which some defenders allow themselves to get pushed so far out of the play that they then control no gaps whatsoever, leaving ball carriers free to run unimpeded until the moment when Brian Dawkins lays them out.  Darwin Walker is the prototypical no-gap defensive tackle, which is why he's looking for a massive contract extension befitting his unique skills.

When they're not in the no-gap defense, Johnson typically plays a one-gap scheme, but there are times when he dares to ask his defensive tackles to maybe help cover more than one gap.  Some local commentators think it's really, really rude to ask a 300-pound professional defensive tackle to do this, because it's not as much fun as just blasting your way through a hole in the line so you can open up a free cutback lane as quickly as possible. 

Johnson counters by arguing that there are times when his blitz schemes, which focus on overloading a single point of weakness to spring a free rusher, require players away from the point of attack to hold their position until reinforcements arrive.  But since he's only been coaching football since before the legalization of the forward pass, we can safely disregard most of what he says.

(Tomorrow: More of your questions.  Keep 'em coming.)

Choose Your Own Adventure

Now this is inspired.  Emboldened by the reality that training camp is still three weeks away and nothing -- I mean nothing -- continues to happen in Eagles land, I had an idea. 

Why not share the pain?  I mean wealth.  Share the wealth.

Clearly there are still dozens (if not dozens of dozens) of Eagles fans out there who are so desperate for Eagles info that they continue to scour blogs, message boards and other sports websites for information.  You know who you are.  You're the folks who will read crap like this to find out that Terrell Owens needs to be a big part of the Cowboys' offense next year because clearly how could anyone get into a groove while on the receiving end of only 152 pass attempts in a season. 

And let's not even begin to dive into his Eagles preview, in which "Challenge #1" is "Keep[ing] Donovan McNabb out of the lineup until he is 100 percent healthy," "Challenge #2" is "Let the competition play out on the defensive side of the ball," and "Challenge #3" is "Focus on maintaining balance on offense" and mentions: "Working against eight-man fronts with single coverage outside, Reggie Brown and Hank Baskett quietly averaged over 17 yards per catch and combined for 21 receptions over 20 yards." 

Never mind that the days of the deep ball to Brown and Baskett came before McNabb went down and the offense got rebalanced.  And that the Eagles didn't see that many eight-man fronts after that anyway. 

And how is "letting the competition play out" a challenge, anyway?

But of course it's not totally that writer's fault.  He, like the rest of us, has to provide contentcontentcontent and unlike the rest of us his output is directly correlated with his ability to eat.

So here's my brilliant idea.  We're gonna go all Web 2.0 here and get interactive for a little while.  If you have something you'd like to see someone address about the Eagles, maybe a stats question or a historical doodad or a why don't the Eagles do this more often type deal, fire away.  Stick it in the comments or pop me an email and I'll see what I can dig up on it. 

That way, if this blog sucks tomorrow, you'll have only yourself to blame.  I hope you can live with that.

Training Camp Schedule

The camp schedule is out.  Highlights:

All practices are open to the public except for July 31 and Aug. 12. Autograph sessions with position groups begin Aug. 1. There is no charge for admission or parking. Updates are available by calling 215-320-5160.

10 Reasons to Believe the Defense Will Be Much Better in 2007

And ... we're back.

If you go by the stats, the Eagles had the second-best offense in the league in 2006, behind only New Orleans.  So if the team is to make a jump from last year's second-round playoff exit to this year's Super Bowl, it's clear most of the improvement is going to have to come from the defense.  That unit ranked only 15th in the league last year, but more importantly went through periods when it simply could not stop power-running games when it really mattered. 

Fortunately, there are a number of reasons for optimism heading into 2007 -- not all of which come directly from the defense -- so let's take a look at a few of them:

1) Improved special teams.  Basically, my thinking here is that they can't be worse than last year.  Even if Dirk Johnson hangs on to his job, the introduction of more explosive returners, some good young talent and simple regression to the mean should all combine to give the defense a few more yards to work with every time it comes on to the field.

2) More rest for the weary.  Only two defenses were on the field for more plays than our guys were last year.  I don't truly believe we're going to see the Eagles morph into the Steelers overnight, with a power running game and a ball-control offense, but even some marginal improvement there would help.  In addition, last year's defensive line got worn down as the season dragged on, once Kearse got hurt and Johnson shortened his DT rotation to include basically three guys.  Assuming some better injury luck and the continued development of Brodrick Bunkley, that shouldn't be the case this year.

3) Actual linebackers.  Takeo Spikes is a significant WIL upgrade.  And as I warned a few weeks ago, I've already gotten way ahead of myself on Chris Gocong.  Without even seeing the guy play, I'm convinced he's going to be far better than Dhani Jones was the last few years.  He'll make some mistakes, but I'm not sure fans are going to believe their eyes when they see linebackers actually out there making plays, rather than just taking up space.  Trotter will either play better or sit. 

4) Injury karma.  The defense is due, right?  Last year they had significant injury issues in the secondary and with Jevon Kearse.  Even if they have the same number of injuries, those have to be less damaging than losing Lito Sheppard and our best pass-rusher, right? 

5) The perceived improved play of Mike Patterson.  I have to admit, I'm getting a little tired of people lumping Patterson in with the rest of the issues from last season.  Clearly he wasn't an All-Pro, but the problem I think we're having is with his style of play.  Patterson is a plugger-type, he's not a disrupter-type.  That means he can anchor his area of the line, but if everyone around him is leaking like a sieve, it's not going to matter.  Upgrade the gap-fillers next to him (Bunkley) and behind him (Spikes / Gocong) and I think we'll see Patterson making a lot more plays.

6) Sheldon Brown has something to prove.  Just like with Patterson, I don't get the people who are ready to just dump all over Brown.  He hasn't looked as good the last couple years, but in 2005 he played through a painful shoulder injury and in 2006 he still didn't look like his old self out there.  Given that Brown has been one of the best run support CBs in the game, I'm inclined to believe he still wasn't completely healthy last year.  With William James right on his tail, he should be inclined to lay it all on the line this offseason to get ready to keep his starting job. 

7) Sean Considine is bigger.  Considine made plenty of plays last season (third on the team in tackles), but he struggled at times with bigger blockers and bigger runners.  Considine has admitted that he wasn't able to keep his weight up last year and finished the season playing under 200 pounds.  He showed up at mini-camp weighing 215.

8) Reid is looking over Johnson's shoulder.  One thing Reid pointed to last season that he liked about not calling plays was that he was able to spend a little more time dealing with the rest of the squad.  Now that Reid finally has the offense running the way he wants it to -- with a veteran quarterback who doesn't need a whole lot of hands-on coaching -- Reid has plenty of time to do a little more self-scouting and apply his thoughts on how he'd attack the Eagles defense to help Johnson strengthen his schemes.

9) Tony Hunt.  Big running back.  Improved third-and-short conversion rate.  Westbrook injury insurance.  All of these things matter. 

10) Finally, Jerome McDougle will be gone.  Let's face it, the guy's a walking bad luck charm.

Gonna be slow for a few days...

It's not that I don't want to bring you some of the freshest, most insightful scoop on the Eagles this week ... it's just that there really isn't much going on right now.  And with the holiday smack dab in the middle of the week and a lot of people taking vacations on the tail end, things could be a little quiet around here for a few days.