Tuesday Quick Hits

A couple of nice Bunkley articles today.  What I like best about the guy is that he never quits.  I don't always notice these things the first time through, but on the replay you can see that there are many times where he gets knocked down or blocked, but he gets right back up, fights through the trash and hustles to the ball.  And boy is he a force inside.  I'd like to watch Andrews vs. Bunkley in practice some day -- Godzilla vs. King Kong.

How 'bout that offseason.  Despite the fact that some teams were making quite the splash in free agency this offseason, Eagles fans were for the most part comfortable with the team's "stand pat" approach.  A lot of people wanted to see Jeff Garcia return, but we now know that the Kevin Kolb plan made that impossible.  Even more of us wanted to see Donte Stallworth brought back, especially after he didn't attract that much inital interest around the league.  I count myself strongly in that group (as, probably, does Stallworth himself now that he's playing a decidedly third fiddle in New England).

Through three games, however, the Eagles' plan looks pretty good.  Quintin Mikell, Juqua Thomas and Montae Reagor are all playing nice roles on this team.  William James has been better than appreciated.  There aren't many guys who can stay with Santana Moss one-on-one.  Ian Scott couldn't get healthy enough to play, but Kimo Von Oelhoffen was brought in to eat up his snaps.  No need to mention Kevin Curtis (although it will be nice to see him have the same sort of impact when facing an actual live body at cornerback).

The one failing was probably neglecting to bring in a veteran guy who could return punts, but that was solved before week two with Reno Mahe.

I still wouldn't mind seeing Adalius Thomas back there, but so far these guys are panning out nicely.

Speaking of Juqua Thomas, starting him isn't the best idea.  Fans are getting frustrated with Jevon Kearse's big money, low production game.  It's not that he's playing badly, it's just that the contract he has is going to invite extra boo-- scrutiny.  Meanwhile, JT is having a bang-up year, with three sacks on the season. 

Naturally, this leads to thoughts of benching Kearse in favor of Thomas.  I don't think that's a good idea.  JT is a natural pass-rusher.  But at his listed size of 6-2, 252 pounds, he's not a particularly big guy.  If you force him to play those first couple series, when all the linemen are fresh and teams are often trying to establish the run, there's a good chance you're going to wear him down. 

That's the same reason I thought the Eagles would start Darren Howard this year and bring in Trent Cole as the spell guy.  You can use the bigger body to soak up the punishment and then the quicker, younger guy can make more of an impact by staying fresh.  However, because the Eagles are using Howard as one of the two primary nickel DTs as well as on the outside, it makes sense not to start him.  He played too many snaps last year rotating between those two positions.

It will be interesting to see if Cole can hold up over the course of the full season.  If he keeps leading the league in sacks, he's going to draw lots of extra attention.  I hope he doesn't get worn down when everyone starts deciding that the best way to slow him down is by running right at him all game.

Two more points on Kearse.  First, the best proof he's lost a step out there would be the three offsides penalties he's picked up so far this year.  It looks like he knows the speed isn't quite there any more so he's trying to get an advantage by guessing the snap count. 

Second, I hope Eagles' fans don't give in to the temptation of vilifying Kearse.  It's just not necessary.  Kearse has always played hard as an Eagle.  He's struggled some with injuries and hasn't had the impact they hoped for when they signed him, but he's not a bad guy and there's no reason to move him into the fan doghouse that we always seem to need to keep filled. 

Comments

[BleedingGreenNation]

Kearse v Thomas

You bring up the issue of size, but is Kearse any bigger? He may be listed as a bit more, but there's no way he's any bigger in reality than Thomas this year.

That said, I think the guy with his name as the starter on the eagles website isn't the most important thing. It's who is getting more snaps. Now I haven't found a resource that tells me how many snaps each guy is playing, but just from watching the games Thomas is out there at least as much as Kearse.

[pawnking]

What kind of injury did Kearse have? Knee? I know it wasn't as severe as McNabb's but I think we should give him a few more games before deciding he's done as a Pro-Bowler. I would guess there is a good chance that as the season progresses he'll re-discover that step and the Eagles D-Line will become one for the ages.

[BleedingGreenNation]

The interesting about Kearse's knee injury is that he's exactly(or very close) to a year removed from his surgery. We keep hearing in reference to McNabb's injury about how this one year point is a magic number that means you're back to 100%... Kearse is clearly not. Remember that Kearse said last year that if he wasn't on IR he would have been healthy enough to play in the playoffs.

It makes me wonder whether G Cobb really was onto something when he said he didn't think Kearse was working as hard as he should over the offseason. I just wrote that off at the time as G Cobb doing what he does... but I wonder now?

[Me]

Kearse didn't really perform at a Pro Bowl level in Philadelphia even before the injury. The difference I would see between the two guys is that McNabb is primarily a thrower who needs healthy legs to be able to move around while Kearse is and always has been a speed rusher, so if he loses a step he just may not ever be as effective.

Of course I'm pulling for him, but with that contract it's going to take a big year to keep him in Philly in '08.

[meanguy]

i recall reading that kearse's injury was more severe than mcnabb's -- i think he tore more than one ligament as opposed to mcnabb with his ACL. ther was also some speculation that his career was going to be over just after the surgery.

[Me]

That was the initial scare, but after they went in and did the surgery they found that the injury was much less catastrophic than feared: http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=2606669

Kinda like how Kearse always goes limping off the field once per game and then comes right back for the next series :)