Iggles Blog - Philadelphia Eagles Blog

As for My Asante Prediction

I would like to point out that this part was right:

... you're completely nuts if you think the Eagles are going to tie up 10 million bucks a year for anything other than a quarterback or a STUD defensive end.

Samuels got about $9.5 mil a season. 

So there.

Takeo Spikes Cut?

Take another look at that Eagles' depth chart.  There's no mention of Takeo Spikes.

IMPORTANT EDIT:  I just remembered that Spikes was dropped from the depth chart at the end of the regular season after he got hurt.  So no, doesn't mean anything.

Some Background on Chris Clemons

So I guess here's your big-time defensive end signing:

The agent for free-agent defensive end Chris Clemons said his client is expected to visit with the Eagles tomorrow and may even have a deal in place by the time he arrives.

"They're showing a lot of interest and we're showing it back," Donal Henderson said from his Marshfield, Mass. Office this morning. "They targeted Chris and we targeted them. The process started early this morning."

Clemons, 26, spent last season with the Oakland Raiders and registered eight sacks in mostly a reserve role as an outside linebacker in a 3-4 defense. Clemons played in all 16 games for the Raiders, but started only two.

I'm sure the kid has all the potential in the world.  And you don't get eight sacks by being a complete chump -- even if he was playing a position that doesn't exist in the Eagles' defense. 

But this smells like a lot of the Eagles' previous free agent signings, where we bank on a guy who maybe didn't do much for somebody else's ballclub but whso we think will work out great here.  Sometimes that works out (Juqua Thomas).  More often, it doesn't (Mark Simoneau, Matt Schobel, Jabar Gaffney, Darren Howard before we got him, and so on).

I feel like I follow the NFC East pretty closely.  Before reading this and this, I couldn't have told you this guy had played three years with the Washington Redskins.

It's Always Something with the Eagles

Seriously, what the hell?  The Eagles go out and sign a Pro Bowl cornerback (just stating the facts) who happens to be the biggest name in Free Agency 2008 and now we all have to worry about what this means for the future of the Eagles' current Pro Bowl cornerback, Lito Sheppard.

Why does it always have to be like this with this team? 

I'm trying to remember, but I think the last moment of pure, no-strings-attached team happiness has to have been sometime early in the 2004 season.  Since then, we've had:

• What we now know to be significant friction between McNabb and Owens even during the regular season that year.
• The Super Bowl loss / mess / endless source of cheap shots for people who want to bash McNabb.
• The disastrous 2005 season.
• The bittersweet 2006 season.
• And the schizophrenic, underachieving 2007 season.

Frankly, I'm a little tired of this.  Eagles fans should be doing CARTWHEELS right now, looking at what is arguably the finest cornerback threesome in the National Football League.  Instead, we're wondering:

• Why Lito has already been benched before the ink on Samuel's contract was dry.
• Why Sheldon Brown is talking about himself in the third person: "I have no idea. I haven't spoken to anybody. It would have been nice, if [Samuel] is going to be Sheldon Brown's teammate, for them to give me a chance to meet him."
• And, most importantly, what Andy Reid was thinking when he allowed someone to take this picture:

Look, I'm glad they signed Asante.  As Jim Johnson pointed out today, Samuel brings the ball skills that most of the other players in the Eagles defense lack.  But why can't we just leave it at that?

So really, what's the deal with Lito?  Is it his contract?  Did he tell the team he would be a holdout this year if they didn't give him more money or trade him?  Are we really going to trade one of the league's better talents at a position of significant importance when he's signed at such a reasonable rate for basically the rest of his career?

Dammit, if we trade Lito, it had better be for something good.  Screw draft picks, I want a player who's been in at least as many Pro Bowls as Cowboy Killin' Lito Sheppard.

Andy Reid generally knows what he's doing.  I hope that's the case this time.

So ... Asante Samuel

All right, so, a lot of things have to happen before the Eagles actually sign Asante Samuel, but the fact that he's in Philadelphia today makes my earlier certainty on this issue look truly, fantastically dumb.  To recap:

Look, I make a lot of bad predictions, but there's no way in hell the Eagles are going to sign Samuel.  Not that the guy isn't a good player, because he is, but you're completely nuts if you think the Eagles are going to tie up 10 million bucks a year for anything other than a quarterback or a STUD defensive end.  It's just not happening.

In retrospect, I probably should have stopped after the first eight words.  That part's still true.  At least now I can stop referencing Bruce Gradkowski every time I do my quarterly spiel:  "Look, I know predictions are hard, but..."

So, if you'll all please just pretend not to notice as I race to catch up to the rest of the crowd here, I thought I might take a look at what signing Samuel would mean for the team.  Obviously, the hot rumor going around is that the Eagles are going to sign Samuel and then trade one of their other cornerbacks for help somewhere else.  Spadaro even put that thought out this morning in his free agency blog:

Obviously, you would wonder if there would be another shoe to drop here. If the Eagles sign Samuel, would they trade ...? We can consider that for another time. Let's get a deal done first.

And since everyone dreams big with these things, folks were immediately throwing Lito out the door for Larry Fitzgerald.  Let me be a little more careful then I've been so far here this week:  it is hard for me to see how this franchise would be willing to trade away a proven playmaker like Lito (who has a very reasonable contract) to replace him with a perhaps slightly better playmaker (and we would have to see how he did in this system first) who would have a GINORMOUS contract. 

You're talking somewhere in the neighborhood of 50 million bucks guaranteed for Fitz and Samuel.  That would be difficult, though certainly not impossible, to square with the Eagles' salary structure to date.

A more reasonable trade possibility would be Sheldon Brown for someone a lot less big.  But then you're still playing 40 percent of your snaps next year with Joselio Hanson on the field as your nickel corner.  And Joselio Hanson ain't stopping Wes Welker.

All of which means it seems to me that if the Eagles really think they need to throw $10 mil a year at Asante Samuel to shore up their pass defense, then they're not going to immediately turn around and weaken that same pass defense by trading one of their other cornerbacks.

Although I've been known to be wrong...

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Wouldn't it be deliciously ironic, by the way, if the one guy who didn't think the team needed to add playmakers is the same guy who now would lose his starting job if the Eagles sign Samuel?  Oops.

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So assuming there's no trade involved, what's the impact on the franchise?

On the field, there's no question it's an upgrade.  Asante Samuel is a much better starting cornerback than Sheldon Brown and Sheldon Brown is a much better nickel cornerback than Joselio Hanson.  Samuel's presence might even be the kick in the pants Lito needs to take his game to the next level as well.  In a world without salary limitations, the deal is a no-brainer.

But of course, this is the NFL, and salary restrictions are the name of the game.  Astute Eagles observers have noticed for the past couple years that the team's propensity for locking up young players to long-term deals would eventually mean the team would have a serious cash surplus on its hands as the salary cap continued to explode.  That time appears to be now.

There are two problems, though.  The first one is what impact Samuel's contract would have on the rest of the locker room.  I mean, the guy's good, but is he twice as good as Lito Sheppard?  Three times as good as Brian Westbrook?  I don't think so.  And maybe everyone plays nice this year to make a run at a ring, but eventually you have to wonder how that's going to play out.

Secondly -- and I hate that I'm saying this -- but if the New England Patriots decided that Samuel wasn't worth the kind of long-term deal that last year's salary cap structure would have mandated, do you really want your team to be the one saying, "Actually, you guys with your three rings and nearly undefeated season and best franchise of the current century just don't know what you're talking about"? 

That makes me a little nervous.  And that's where I get into the stuff about how does he fit into the Eagles' system and how will his psyche hold up after he pockets 20+ million bucks this season and then bites on an out and up in his first game at the Linc (with predictable fan reaction)? 

And yeah, at one level it's not my money so why do I care.  But as the Eagles wave goodbye to their last big free agent mistake, is it too much to worry that they might be saying hello to their next one?

Free Agency Begins in Three Minutes

And no matter what G Cobb says, there are a lot of guys who make a lot more sense for the Eagles than Asante Samuel.  Justin Smith to name one.

Update:  He's coming to town (for a visit).

Kearse Cut Official

Inky / Daily News

Thanks for the heads up, Andrew.

Revisionist History

Spadaro makes a number of good points in this piece about the future of the Eagles' offense, but this part is a little hard to swallow:

It isn't all about the wide receiver, folks. Back in 2004, the Eagles added Terrell Owens and the offense was terrific. But for those who focus only on that season, I'll remind you that the Eagles had a great offense the year before and that, yeah, the offense went up and down the field in the NFC playoff victories over Minnesota and Atlanta while Owens was recovering from his ankle injury.

Quick comparison:

Little bit of a difference there.

And as for the part about the playoffs ... the offense wasn't that great in those two games, nor were the Eagles facing championship-caliber defenses.

Sav Rocca Profile

For the Aussies, I just want to point to a profile of Sav Rocca on the team's website.  It doesn't cover a lot of new ground, but it's a pretty good sum-up of where he is right now.

I would disagree with one part, though:

Rocca had dreams of following in the footsteps of fellow countrymen Darren Bennett, Ben Graham and Mat McBriar. Now he's part of that rich Australian punting pipeline in the NFL. Rocca is the front-runner to remain the team's punter in 2008, although there is likely to be competition.

If by competition you mean "the Eagles will sign another punter before training camp so Sav doesn't wear out his leg in drills," sure.  But if you mean "a guy who could actually beat Sav out for the job," then no, that's not happening.

One More Reason the Eagles Won't Sign Samuel

I was watching NFL Live last night and Eric Allen made a very compelling case that Samuel would be a great fit in Tampa Bay because they play the kind of basic zone, safety-help-over-the-top defense that allows Samuel to do what he does best: squat on routes and read the QB's eyes.

The Eagles don't play that kind of defense.