Iggles Blog - Philadelphia Eagles Blog

Yeah, We'll Get Right On That...

Read through this Courier-Post story today and you'll likely come away with the impression that the Eagles really, truly, could be running a fair amount of 3-4 defense this year:

With the team's 2008 training camp fast approaching, Johnson said no one can afford to get complacent, and that may include a longer look at the 3-4...

The major upside of the 3-4 -- versatility -- would seem to be right up Johnson's alley, but the Eagles' franchise-wide premium on defensive linemen has never quite allowed it.  Maybe 2008 will be different...

In the past, the Eagles have struggled to find the three or even two productive linebackers needed to play their base defense, let alone the four it would take to move to the 3-4.  Now, the linebackers have gone from weakness to strength...

We do get one caveat:

But the depth the team has stockpiled on the line makes it seem extremely unlikely the Eagles will fully abandon the 4-3.

There's more, but that's a pretty good selection.  Just as an experiment, though, try reading the article but only focusing on Jim Johnson's quotes:

"I try to go into training camp and have our total package at maybe 90 percent, but trying to experiment a little bit," he said. "Some things might work and some things we might throw out, just like we talked about with the 3-4. You can't be the same every year. You just can't."

"The biggest thing I think we have is we are a faster team," Johnson said. "We're trying to get that speed on the field. You want to be physical and you want to make sure you have speed.""How much will we do it? We'll do it some," Johnson said. "We've done it a little bit before. It's always kind of a mixture for us.

"I think it comes down to our linebackers and our depth at linebacker."

"There will be a little bit of that 3-4 mixed in there," Johnson said. "There is always that possibility when you have those kinds of athletes.

"That's not going to be a main thing, but it might be a part of it."

Doesn't sound to me like the salty old dog is quite ready to abandon his old tricks just yet.

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Another quick point on this.  It's really not accurate to call what the Eagles did last year against the Patriots a "3-4" defense.  It was a 3-3-5, in that Johnson had his nickel corner on the field almost the entire game.

Furthermore, even though the personnel were in a 3-3 up front, the truth is that Gocong played many, many plays as a straight up defensive end.  It was really more of a disguised 4-2-5 than anything else. 

All of which means you don't really need four linebackers to run it. 

There's a lot more detail in the Patriots video rewind I did last year if you're interested.  Scroll down to the second half where I covered the defense.

Incidentally, I just-rewatched those videos from that post.  I think they all hold up, but you should really check out that last one if you're interested in why the Eagles' return teams struggled so much last year. 

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Finally, this search order result is a clear sign my obsession with Chris Gocong has gone too far.

Can We Finally Stop The Patriots Gambit?

There are some games each year where you really have to feel for Jim Johnson.  He spends all week putting in his blitz packages and exotic coverage schemes, game plans to take away the opponents' top couple options, and then takes the field ready to kick a little butt.

Only to see the opposing team pass out of one three-step drop out of another, subjecting his beloved defense to death by a thousand five-yard cuts. 

There can be no more powerless feeling as a defensive coordinator then knowing that there's really nothing you can dial up pressurewise to change the momentum.  Send four, five, even six guys, by the time they get there, the ball will be long gone.

Eagles fans remembers those games well, too.  The Patriots do it to us every time.  The Saints used that approach to beat us twice in 2006, only shifting to the power rushing attack after tiring us out in the playoff game.  Last year, the Redskins relied heavily on the three-step passing game to beat the Eagles the first time around:

The most important takeaway from last week is that if an NFL offensive coordinator wants to neutralize a pass rush, he can do it.  The Redskins did a fantastic job game-planning for the Eagles.  When Campbell was in the pocket, everything was coming out right as he hit the top of his drop.  There was no waiting around -- just one or two reads and go.  They also did a great job moving him around, with some play action that also took some of the edge off the pass rush. 

With the exception of a few plays, not even Reggie White was going to be getting to Campbell on Monday night.

Now "everyone knows" the lesson from last year's Super Bowl is that great pressure packages can take down even the best offense in football.  But I'm not really buying that.  I'm not sure we're going to see the same confluence of a) great across-the-front talent, b) a new coordinator with unfamiliar schemes, and c) the mother of all hot streaks any time soon. 

Forget about teams trying to emulate the Giants' success -- even the Giants are 0-for-3 this season on those criteria. 

Furthermore, the success of pressure is actually a very bad thing for other defenses -- like the Eagles -- that depend upon pressure.  It's like anything else in sports.  Success on one side of the ball brings evolution on the other side.  This offseason, defensive coordinators are picking apart Giants' game film to see if there are things they can steal, but offensive coordinators are doing the same thing looking for weaknesses they need to address.

All of which means the Eagles' are going to have to cover better this year if they want to finally stop the Patriots Gambit.  The question then is if they are equipped to do so.

In the secondary, you have to say yes IF Lito Sheppard shows up for work this year.  With three solid corners and a healthy Dawkins, the ability is there to blanket guys.  Mikell's potential weakness playing in space isn't an issue when you're talking about the short passing game the Eagles need to figure out how to stop.

Linebacker is where things look a little less rosy.  A lot of times, Gocong still looks like a defensive lineman trying to run with a tight end.  Gaither got better as the year progressed, but he's not as quick as you'd like to see for this role.  And Bradley remains an unknown (one who probably won't be in much on passing situations early in the year) who didn't bring a reputation for coverage ability to the NFL.

I know everyone's excited about the potential for this linebacking corps.  I hope it's as good as everyone thinks it can be.

But the next time someone's talking about how big and fast these guys look on the practice field, the first question should be: "But can they cover anyone?"

Dodged That Bullet

Just one year ago, the Eagles weren't feeling quite as sanguine about their situation at linebacker, which led them to try to sign Ryan Fowler, a restricted free agent from the Cowboys.  But then this happened:

Just one day after the Philadelphia Eagles announced they had reached agreement with Dallas Cowboys linebacker Ryan Fowler on a restricted free agent offer sheet, a move reported by several media outlets including ESPN.com, the veteran defender changed his mind on Monday.

Fowler instead will sign an offer sheet with the Tennessee Titans, the other team that had been vying for his services.

So certain were the Eagles on Sunday that they had an agreement with Fowler that they dispatched an e-mail to national reporters. And Fowler's agent, Alan Herman, told several media outlets that his client planned to sign the Eagles' offer sheet, a deal that was to become official on Monday morning.

There was no immediate explanation for the change of heart. Because the offer sheet paperwork was never officially signed and filed with the league office, which is not open on Sunday, the Eagles apparently have no recourse in the matter.

Fowler didn't exactly light things up in Tennessee, compiling 54 tackles, no sacks and no interceptions in 14 starts.

More important, though, is this:

Tennessee Titans linebacker Ryan Fowler is under investigation by the NFL in connection with an apparent steroids case, Fowler's lawyer said Monday.

Peter Ginsberg said that Fowler was notified late last week that he faces suspension.

The lawyer said he assumes the investigation stems from the death last week of David Jacobs, a convicted steroids dealer who claimed to have sold drugs to pro football players. Police in Plano said Jacobs killed himself.

NFL spokesman Greg Aiello declined comment. A Titans spokesman did not return a phone call seeking comment, thought the team normally does not respond publicly to such cases.

Ginsberg, speaking by phone from New York, said the NFL asked to speak to Fowler but nothing has been scheduled.

Sometimes you get lucky.

Still Excited About the LBs...

I mentioned last week in this post about the Eagles' linebacker acquisition strategies that I thought the Eagles' presumptive starting linebacker trio had a lot of potential but was still very much unproven.  I know a lot of people don't agree, like for example, this person who commented on a PE.com feature of rookie MLB Joe Mays:

"At best, [Mays] contributes to special teams. He could possibly develop a greater role in the future, but linebacker is stacked with young talent right now."

I'll grant two-thirds of that bolded section -- the linebacker position is stacked with young players right now -- but the talent question is still very much up in the air.

Consider the following statistical comparison between two "mystery" players:

These look like two pretty similar seasons.  Player #2 had a few more assists, picked off a couple passes and forced a fumble.   Player #1 had about the same tackle numbers and a couple more sacks.  We might reasonably assume that Player #2 was a bit better in pass coverage and Player #1 was better at blitzing or at least had more opportunities to do so.  On balance, though, these are pretty great numbers across the board.  Any team would be fine sticking either Player #1 or Player #2 into their defense.

The problem, of course, is that Player #1 is San Francisco linebacker Patrick Willis, which Player #2 is actually ... all three Eagles linebackers in 2007.

Now granted, of the three 2008 starters, only Omar Gaither was a full-timer last year.  Gocong played mostly on running downs early in the season until his role gradually expanded to include some more situations.  Bradley only saw significant non-ST action in the last couple games of the year (after Takeo Spikes got hurt and the team wanted to give the young guys a chance). 

But still, one guy started 16 games and the other three started 29.  The had their chances.

But maybe you don't think it's fair to compare these guys to the best linebacker in the league last year.  Ok, but then check this out:

Now there are a whole bunch of arguments you could make for why Gocong's numbers are actually more impressive than Dhani's, starting mostly with the number of snaps each guy played.  But still, Gaither is no Trotter -- at least not yet -- and Gocong didn't exactly blow away the production of his predecessor.

There's room for optimism, but these guys aren't there yet.

Thinking About the Linebackers

I had a thought the other night while brainstorming some topics for upcoming posts.  The general sense in Iggles Land seems to be that after year of making a complete hash out of the linebacker position -- letting Trotter walk, making poor draft picks, signing an endless array of washed-up stopgap veterans -- the Eagles have finally figured out how to put together a linebacking corps that could: a) be pretty good and b) stick together for a few years.

Obviously we don't know for sure what to expect next year.  I'm looking forward to Omar being back home on the weak side, but Gocong needs to take it up a couple notches and Stewart Bradley is the walking definition of unproven.  (I don't think anyone's going to find a Reid quote saying he was playing at a "Pro Bowl" level at the end of last year.)  But there's at least the potential that this could be a pretty good group. 

What I find interesting about this is that the Eagles didn't change a single thing about how they approached the position.  They refused to go sign a big money free agent, nor did they spend one of their top two picks on a blue chipper like Paul Posluszny. 

Gocong and Bradley were both third-rounders, but Gaither stuck around until the fifth.  And all three guys had question marks coming out of college.  Gaither was a little undersized, Gocong was a small-school defensive end, and Bradley had a somewhat subpar senior season due to recovering from a serious knee injury suffered his junior year.  It goes too far to suggest they were plucked from the scrap heap -- way too far, in fact -- but none of them was a slam dunk NFL starter.  The fact that they all might make it is either a credit to the Eagles' scouting/coaching staffs or perhaps also a sign that they finally got a little luck at the position. 

Of course, it's also true that they didn't roll the dice with just these three guys.  The last few years, they've been carpet-bombing the position with mid/late-round draft picks and UDFAs who have some question marks.  Just this year, they drafted Joe Mays (undersized) and Andy Studebaker (another DE conversion, this time from Division III) to add to the mix.  I almost feel like the Eagles signed Rocky Boiman just to add some big name credibility (Notre Dame) to their linebacker mix.

So it's an interesting discussion question.  Did the Eagles have the right approach all along, and they just didn't pick the right guys / had some bad luck with draft picks?  Or was it instead that they just happened to get lucky with these three particular guys and that bailed them out?

Takeo Gone -- One Fewer Profile to Write

From WIP by way of G Cobb by way of Wingheads, TKO is no mo':

Anthony Gargano of 610-WIP just reported that the Eagles have released veteran linebacker Takeo Spikes. That frees up $5 million dollars and could be a preliminary move to something positive. This doesn't surprise me at all and was something I was expecting.

In light of my massively, couldn't-be-more-wrong prediction about Asante, please note the date here.  Two months to the day before Trotter was even released.  That oughta get me back above the Mendoza line, at least.

As for this move, yes, it is a bad thing when your defensive coordinator says you're "fine."  I think all Eagles fans liked Takeo though, even though he didn't totally pan out for us here.  The only guys who are happy about this move are probably Stewart Bradley and the PE.com guy who no longer has to write the TKO profile for tomorrow:

Bring Back Trotter?

Interesting nugget from Les Bowen in today's Daily News:

Jeremiah Trotter wasted no time getting back to the Philadelphia area after watching from the sideline as his Tampa Bay Bucs were eliminated from the playoffs Sunday by the New York Giants, 24-14. Trotter, who was activated but did not play in the game, took an early afternoon USAirways flight yesterday from Tampa to Philadelphia.

Trotter played in only three games for the Bucs after his surprising preseason release from the Eagles. He said yesterday he feels healthy and rested, and will try to continue his career as he prepares to turn 31 Jan. 20.

"It's not time yet" to retire, said Trotter, who said he felt he learned a lot, practicing in Tampa's read-and-react defense, although the Bucs' style went against his "downhill" strengths. "I learned there's more than one way to play defense," Trotter said.

Is there any downside at all in seeing if Trotter wants to come back to Philly next year?  The understanding would have to be that his starting days are pretty much over, but we could do worse than have him around as depth and all the guys in the locker room love him.  Most importantly, he was a terror on the special teams a few years ago (an area we need significant help).  Trotter might be exactly the kind of shot in the arm those guys need to start kicking butt next year.  And tell me you wouldn't get a kick out of him ranting and raving as the team's special teams captain?

Why not give his agent a call, tell him you're sure Trotter wants to see what else is out there, but if he doesn't find a good fit, we'll be happy to bring him back at the veteran minimum.  There are worse ways to make half a million dollars.