JBaldachino
Footballguy
Strengths
DL: Reid always preaches strength on the line of scrimmage.. and boy has he really outdone himself here. The DL is truly stacked at this point, two recent 1st round picks in Patterson and Bunkley bring young talent from proven winners, Walker has been a very solid contributer bordering on star quality the past couple seasons. Rayburn is also a hard worker and balanced blue-collar type player. He's great backup to come in when the starters need a breather. Barring too many injuries, the DTs should be a strength. DE is looking great as well. If you watch the tape you'll see Kearse was probably 5 seconds away from having 5 more sacks last year. He had a ton of hurries and really isn't bad against the run. Howard has been a lone gem on a terrible NO defense for a couple years, its exciting to see a real DE on the other side of Kearse. McDougle is a bust so far but has the talent to be a real contributer if he can get his act together, stop getting hurt, and more importantly avoid getting shot anymore. Trent Cole played very well in spot duty last year, proving to be a sack specialist and situation player.
QB: McNabb is a star and has carried this offense for years. He was a stud without help and when TO was there he was phenomenal. Garcia is an adequate backup if he goes down for a couple games. I like Chang, the guy holds a couple NCAA records and is a good developmental project. No worries here.
Safety: Two of the best in the game, Dawkins and Lewis. Worried about depth here if one of them goes down, Mikell is a quality backup but behind that the eagles don't have anyone worth starting.
CB: Like safety, the starters are solid. Not the best in the league, but with that DL they should look like stars. Hood has proven to be a great nickel back, and Ware should hopefully develop into a good Dime/situational back. Injuries could be a problem here
OT: Tra Thomas and Jon Runyan have anchored our line for years and theres little reason to suspect that this position becomes a weakness. And if one slips or goes down with injury, Justice should be able to fill in adequately. Herremans also played well in relief last year.
The Mediocre
C: Fraley has been very solid for the past couple years, and I suspect he will continue to be so. Nevertheless, an injury here puts the center of the line in a hole, especially since I think OG is a weakness, to be discussed later.
RB: Westbrook is an awesome player to have on your team, but the lack of a solid complimentary player (which is what you need if Westbrook is your #1 back) is a worry. Perhaps Buckhalter can come through, but with so many knee injuries (and not even being that dominate in the first place), its not even guarrenteed that he makes the team. Moats is a clone, and does insure against injury but does little to compliment. Best hope here is a RBBC like they were back when they had Staley, and that was quite a good running game. Lets just hope its better than last year.
LB: Dhani Jones and Trotter are both solid starters. I suppose Simoneau, Short, Barber, and McCoy can battle it out to see who can be our mediocre WILL, but like so many other positions, the Eagles seem flooded with young backup development projects and mediocre veterans... you can only have so many players on the field guys...Injuries wont decimate our LB core, but they I have a feeling TEs and RBs will tear up our pass defense. Jones and Trotter are much better run defenders than coverage.
The Worries
OG: Andrews has not impressed me so far. He is a false start machine. And outside of him, with Hicks gone, who is our starter? Theres a slew of young guards on the depth chart, none with much experience. No guard on the depth chart has more than 3 years experience, and Andrews is the only high draft pick in the lot. All good running teams have a solid interior line, and the great ones usually have a great pulling guard. Thats not going to be present for the Eagles unless Andrew develops more than he has.
WR: Everything depends on Brown. Outside of him, the Eagles don't even have a quality #2. They are filled with quality #3 receivers, Lewis, Pinkston, and a slew of rookies, receivers no one has ever heard of, and cast-offs (Gaffney, McCants). If Brown develops into a stud (not unreasonable, given that he had a solid rookie year and all signs point to him working hard this offseason), then the Eagles WR core could play out. But I'm not betting the bank on it. I understand ignoring the running game because you want to play a West coast pass happy offense, but ummm shouldn't you have a couple decent receivers then??
TE, FB, and special teams are nothing to write home about. I do expect our special teams to rebound a bit and hopefully go back to being a top unit, but we are in desperate need of a breakout returner. Maybe all this medocre depth at LB and WR will produce an excellent special teams. Eagles fans can only hope.
Any thoughts?
PS: Please excuse any spelling errors, this was written in haste and at a very late hour.
DL: Reid always preaches strength on the line of scrimmage.. and boy has he really outdone himself here. The DL is truly stacked at this point, two recent 1st round picks in Patterson and Bunkley bring young talent from proven winners, Walker has been a very solid contributer bordering on star quality the past couple seasons. Rayburn is also a hard worker and balanced blue-collar type player. He's great backup to come in when the starters need a breather. Barring too many injuries, the DTs should be a strength. DE is looking great as well. If you watch the tape you'll see Kearse was probably 5 seconds away from having 5 more sacks last year. He had a ton of hurries and really isn't bad against the run. Howard has been a lone gem on a terrible NO defense for a couple years, its exciting to see a real DE on the other side of Kearse. McDougle is a bust so far but has the talent to be a real contributer if he can get his act together, stop getting hurt, and more importantly avoid getting shot anymore. Trent Cole played very well in spot duty last year, proving to be a sack specialist and situation player.
QB: McNabb is a star and has carried this offense for years. He was a stud without help and when TO was there he was phenomenal. Garcia is an adequate backup if he goes down for a couple games. I like Chang, the guy holds a couple NCAA records and is a good developmental project. No worries here.
Safety: Two of the best in the game, Dawkins and Lewis. Worried about depth here if one of them goes down, Mikell is a quality backup but behind that the eagles don't have anyone worth starting.
CB: Like safety, the starters are solid. Not the best in the league, but with that DL they should look like stars. Hood has proven to be a great nickel back, and Ware should hopefully develop into a good Dime/situational back. Injuries could be a problem here
OT: Tra Thomas and Jon Runyan have anchored our line for years and theres little reason to suspect that this position becomes a weakness. And if one slips or goes down with injury, Justice should be able to fill in adequately. Herremans also played well in relief last year.
The Mediocre
C: Fraley has been very solid for the past couple years, and I suspect he will continue to be so. Nevertheless, an injury here puts the center of the line in a hole, especially since I think OG is a weakness, to be discussed later.
RB: Westbrook is an awesome player to have on your team, but the lack of a solid complimentary player (which is what you need if Westbrook is your #1 back) is a worry. Perhaps Buckhalter can come through, but with so many knee injuries (and not even being that dominate in the first place), its not even guarrenteed that he makes the team. Moats is a clone, and does insure against injury but does little to compliment. Best hope here is a RBBC like they were back when they had Staley, and that was quite a good running game. Lets just hope its better than last year.
LB: Dhani Jones and Trotter are both solid starters. I suppose Simoneau, Short, Barber, and McCoy can battle it out to see who can be our mediocre WILL, but like so many other positions, the Eagles seem flooded with young backup development projects and mediocre veterans... you can only have so many players on the field guys...Injuries wont decimate our LB core, but they I have a feeling TEs and RBs will tear up our pass defense. Jones and Trotter are much better run defenders than coverage.
The Worries
OG: Andrews has not impressed me so far. He is a false start machine. And outside of him, with Hicks gone, who is our starter? Theres a slew of young guards on the depth chart, none with much experience. No guard on the depth chart has more than 3 years experience, and Andrews is the only high draft pick in the lot. All good running teams have a solid interior line, and the great ones usually have a great pulling guard. Thats not going to be present for the Eagles unless Andrew develops more than he has.
WR: Everything depends on Brown. Outside of him, the Eagles don't even have a quality #2. They are filled with quality #3 receivers, Lewis, Pinkston, and a slew of rookies, receivers no one has ever heard of, and cast-offs (Gaffney, McCants). If Brown develops into a stud (not unreasonable, given that he had a solid rookie year and all signs point to him working hard this offseason), then the Eagles WR core could play out. But I'm not betting the bank on it. I understand ignoring the running game because you want to play a West coast pass happy offense, but ummm shouldn't you have a couple decent receivers then??
TE, FB, and special teams are nothing to write home about. I do expect our special teams to rebound a bit and hopefully go back to being a top unit, but we are in desperate need of a breakout returner. Maybe all this medocre depth at LB and WR will produce an excellent special teams. Eagles fans can only hope.
Any thoughts?
PS: Please excuse any spelling errors, this was written in haste and at a very late hour.
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Too bad I'm not an Eagle fan.
