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** Official 2014 Philadelphia Eagles Thread ** (1 Viewer)

If I was an Eagles fan I would not be happy with all these Oregon players coming to town. Just for the fact that Oregon doesn't really succeed in the NFL.

 
Mighty Mice said:
5.01 - another duck

Taylor Hart, DE, Oregon

Height: 6-6. Weight: 281.

Projected 40 Time: 5.04.

Projected Round (2014): 3-4.

5/5/14: Hart recorded 75 tackles, six tackles for a loss and 3.5 sacks in 2013. Early in the year, he had limited playing time because the Ducks blew out so many opponents. Hart had an excellent game against Oregon State to close out the regular season. He didn't work out at the Combine due to an injury.

8/12/13: Hart led the Ducks in sacks last year with eight. He also chipped in 36 tackles with 11 tackles for a loss, three passes batted and a forced fumble. It was his second season as a starter.Hart totaled 44 tackles with 2.5 sacks, three tackles for a loss, two passes broken up and a forced fumble in 2011. He registered 18 tackles and two sacks as a freshman backup.
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Looks like decent for depth. Would have preferred O-line or RB there.

 
@EaglesInsider: Chip Kelly said that he wanted the #Eagles to take Hart with the first pick of the fourth round. Howie Roseman said he'd be there in the 5th

 
GoBirds said:
Mighty Mice said:
5.01 - another duck

Taylor Hart, DE, Oregon

Height: 6-6. Weight: 281.

Projected 40 Time: 5.04.

Projected Round (2014): 3-4.

5/5/14: Hart recorded 75 tackles, six tackles for a loss and 3.5 sacks in 2013. Early in the year, he had limited playing time because the Ducks blew out so many opponents. Hart had an excellent game against Oregon State to close out the regular season. He didn't work out at the Combine due to an injury.

8/12/13: Hart led the Ducks in sacks last year with eight. He also chipped in 36 tackles with 11 tackles for a loss, three passes batted and a forced fumble. It was his second season as a starter.Hart totaled 44 tackles with 2.5 sacks, three tackles for a loss, two passes broken up and a forced fumble in 2011. He registered 18 tackles and two sacks as a freshman backup.
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Looks like decent for depth. Would have preferred O-line or RB there.
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Wanted Yankey here a lot, he just went to MIN.

Picking at 5.22 think we really need to consider OLine

 
5.22 (162) Ed Reynolds

Ed Reynolds*, S, Stanford
Height: 6-1. Weight: 207.
40 Time: 4.57.
Projected Round (2014): 3-5.
5/5/14: Reynolds started the 2013 season in impressive fashion with 12 tackles and an interception against San Jose State, but that was his only pick of the year. He had a clutch pass breakup to finish off a win over Oregon State. Reynolds had a bad outing against Arizona State as he was beaten for two touchdowns and ejected from the game for targeting.

Reynolds had a number of mixed games for the Cardinal and should have returned to school to improve before going pro. In 2013, he had 87 tackles, one interception and four passes broken up. Reynolds didn't impress at the Combine. WalterFootball.com knows teams that don't think Reynolds is a good prospect and won't draft him.

8/18/13: Reynolds was one of the top safeties in college football in 2012. The junior had six interceptions with five passes broken up and 37 tackles. It was his first season as a starter.

Reynolds has a nice skill set with good size and speed. What really stood out in last year were his good instincts to make impact plays. Stanford should have a nice pass rush from its front seven, so Reynolds could be in position to have another big season causing turnovers in 2013. He needs to improve on his tackling and run defense. Reynolds missed the 2011 season with an injury.

Personal: Majoring in political science. Son of Pamela and Ed Reynolds. His father played for the New England Patriots from 1983-1991 and one season with the New York Giants (1992).

 
Do we care that much in the 5th round if hes taking Ducks? And honestly if False Start is against it, you know its a good thing.

 
Thing I'm noticing in this draft, he's taking scheme fit players. Smith - classic 3-4 OLB guy that can rush or drop back. Watkins a classic nickelback that can get physical with those small slot WR's like Avery they struggled with last year. Hart's classic 5 technique run stopping DE for a 3-4. We all said last year how the defense was fitting the players they had into the scheme, but we lacked true 3-4 fit players. This draft is grabbing them.

 
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Strengths

Stoutly built lower body (squats a small house). Good initial thrust off the snap. Sheer size, natural girth and functional strength to occupy blocks. Has a desirable mentality for the position. Brings energy, plays hard and gives terrific pursuit effort for a big man. Tough and durable. Very good 10-yard splits (1.68 seconds) at his pro day, indicating surprising short-area burst for a 330-pounder.

Weaknesses

Marginal value as a pass rusher. Ordinary bull rush. Needs to play with better pad level -- plays too tall and is too easily engaged. Unrefined hand use and slow to disengage. Does not dominate single blocking. Is straightlinish and struggles to change direction. Slow of foot with limited range. Not an impactful playmaker.

Draft Projection

Round 7-Priority free agent

Bottom Line

Big, beefy, active, loquacious nose tackle who does not consistently play to his size or weight-room strength, but has developmental value as a 3-4, two-down run stuffer.

 
Early on in the UDFA portion, Eagles have signed:

RB David Fluellen (Toledo)

TE Trey Burton (Florida)

K Carey Spear (Vanderbilt)

 
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UDFA's

RB David Fluellen (Toledo)
TE Trey Burton (Florida)
K Carey Spear (Vanderbilt)

WR Kadron Boone (LSU)

RB Henry Josey (Missouri)

OL Josh Andrews (Oregon State)

CB John Fulton (Alabama)

 
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JetMaxx said:
Would love Jackson Jeffcoat
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He must still be dealing with the pec injury. Big-10 DPOY with 82 tkl, 19 TFL, and 13 sacks. No way he should have went undrafted, even with the injury issue. And he has his degree already! What are we missing now Chip?

 
I like this draft quite a bit. I like Smith a lot, I think the league had his value higher than the media. No way he would have lasted to 54 so no problem with them grabbing him where they did. I like Matthews in particular as well. Don't have a problem with Huff as a player, but he possibly could have been had later.

I predicted they'd draft two WRs but didn't think it would be so early the 2nd one. You can see the plan though, bigger guys who can catch contested balls, Matthews is a bit like a rich man's Riley Cooper, while Huff seems to be more of a short area slot type guy who's good at getting separation against man coverage. Both seem like versatile guys who can line up all over. Huff has worked out of the backfield some as well.

Look at the range of targets now, and the different ways they can be used: Maclin, Cooper, Ertz, Sproles, McCoy, Celek, Matthews, Huff. Lot of different ways those guys can be grouped (big, fast, shifty) and go after a D.

I like the two DB picks, Watkins in particular seems like a guy who has a floor as a solid #3 CB or S but has the upside of a starter as well. More depth, speed and competition in that group is a good thing.

The last two picks seem like good depth picks for the DL as well.

Not all these players will work out, but you can see they're making picks to support a logical plan on both sides of the ball. I don't miss the days of taking a small school tweener DE in the 3rd round and making him a SLB that's for sure. #Gocong.

 
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I'm not always crazy about this writer but I think this is a great take: http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/eagles/nfl_draft/20140511_Applaud_Eagles_for_going_against_the_grain.html

After weeks of hearing every talk guy and writer claim that the Birds would most likely take Lee and after the never ending pimping of Manziel (if I had to hear one more time how Foles isn't Chip's QB, I think I'd puke. Plus, I forget which guy on the board pointed out that Kelly didn't draft Shady either, but to that poster--thank you! I've successfully been able to stifle a few arguments about Foles and Kelly with that nugget of logic alone!) I think Sielski hits on the head here with this piece and reminds us of why many of us (myself included) wanted Kelly.

 
Bigboy10182000 said:
5 of our 7 picks were D and the only offense we took was 2 WR's. Just like we all drew it up months ago!
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Yea. For all the whining, we actually got the parameters of what we wanted. There wasn't much to complain about here. Nothing they could do about HaHa unless you think they should have given up a 3rd rounder to move up two spots. Some people probably would want to do that. I can see the gripe but otherwise, I like who they got regardless of where we got them.

 
Kwai Chang Caine said:
I'm not always crazy about this writer but I think this is a great take: http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/eagles/nfl_draft/20140511_Applaud_Eagles_for_going_against_the_grain.html

After weeks of hearing every talk guy and writer claim that the Birds would most likely take Lee and after the never ending pimping of Manziel (if I had to hear one more time how Foles isn't Chip's QB, I think I'd puke. Plus, I forget which guy on the board pointed out that Kelly didn't draft Shady either, but to that poster--thank you! I've successfully been able to stifle a few arguments about Foles and Kelly with that nugget of logic alone!) I think Sielski hits on the head here with this piece and reminds us of why many of us (myself included) wanted Kelly.
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Nice read KCC, thanks for posting. I'm one who's been complaining about this draft but I do think we could look back on it in a few years and find its actually pretty good.In Chip (and Howie) I trust! For now...

 
@Jeff_McLane: Applaud #Eagles for going against the grain. @MikeSielski looks deeper into Marcus Smith decision: http://t.co/sgmYX7amfM

The writer and physician Michael Crichton delivered an important speech in 2003 about the Eagles and the NFL draft.

OK, so it wasn't about the Eagles, really, or the NFL draft at all. It was about science and intellectual integrity and independent thinking and the tyranny of a word that, honest to goodness, is relevant to the Eagles' selection of Louisville linebacker Marcus Smith in the first round of this year's draft.

That word is consensus.

"Consensus is the business of politics," Crichton said. "Science, on the contrary, requires only one investigator who happens to be right, which means that he or she has results that are verifiable by reference to the real world. In science, consensus is irrelevant. What is relevant [are] reproducible results. The greatest scientists in history are great precisely because they broke with the consensus. There is no such thing as consensus science. If it's consensus, it isn't science. If it's science, it isn't consensus."

To make an incomplete if functional analogy, "consensus" is the noise that has come to envelop the draft: the speculation and the debate and the mock drafts and the coverage and Mel Kiper and Mike Mayock and the idea that Johnny Manziel "fell" to the 22d overall pick from some arbitrary, invisible pedestal that no one with any actual influence on the process had placed him on.

"Consensus" is a lot of fun, and it gives employment opportunities to people who otherwise would be standing on various Times Square street corners, wearing sandwich boards, shrieking at passersby, and it projected Marcus Smith - who finished second in the nation last season with 141/2 sacks - as a second- or third-round pick. "Consensus" is why the Eagles' decision to draft Smith when they did, with the 26th overall pick, stunned and angered so many people around here. This wasn't supposed to happen, after all, and why wasn't it supposed to happen? Because "consensus" said so.

But the NFL draft itself - not the hype and hubbub, but the actual selection of talent - isn't about "consensus." It's about science, or as close to science as pro-football player-evaluation gets, and the questions about whether the Eagles "reached" to take Smith or should have selected another player or attached too much value to acquiring an additional draft pick when they moved down on the board through their trade with the Cleveland Browns don't matter.

The only thing that's relevant now is the result of the selection, whether the wisdom of drafting Smith can be verified over time in the real world of the NFL. What matters is whether he can play.

OK, then, genius. If that's the important question, what's your answer? You're the sports guy. You're supposed to be the expert. Can he play or not?

Answer: I don't know. And you know what? No one does. Kiper and Mayock don't know. None of the people who host or call into radio talk shows in this town knows. Jeff McLane and Zach Berman, the sharp and diligent Inquirer reporters who immerse themselves in all things Eagles, don't know. (Sorry, fellas. Beers on me during an early-season road trip.) Not even Eagles general manager Howie Roseman or coach Chip Kelly knows, because judging who can play in the NFL and who can't is a difficult job, and anyone who says otherwise is pretending.

"We've got to take the value of what we think the player is," Roseman said. "There are a lot of people who have done this for a living, who have done this for a long time, and we speak to a lot of people in this league who understand it's going to be different values for different people. We did a lot of work on this player, and we feel really good about this player and his fit for us. What we're looking for is not the same thing that everyone else is looking for."

Understand: The Eagles drafted Smith in large part out of necessity. For all their talk about taking the best player available, regardless of position - the philosophy that Roseman had repeated ad infinitum throughout the offseason - they needed someone to rush the passer, and according to Roseman, the six players they had targeted at No. 22 were already off the board.

Even then, instead of trading down, they could have selected Auburn's Dee Ford, who was more highly regarded than Smith and who went to the Kansas City Chiefs at No. 23.

To which the proper response is, so what? Call me ignorant. Call me a contrarian. Call me a homer. But I like that Roseman, Kelly, and the Eagles' player-personnel people made a surprising pick. They're daring to be, in Crichton's words, the one investigator who happens to be right. They're telling the consensus to take a hike, and if you find that approach too arrogant for your taste, just remember: That was supposed to be the allure and promise of the Eagles' hiring of Kelly - that he would think differently from everyone else in and around the NFL.

Heaven forbid, I suppose, that he should act on those thoughts.
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@Jeff_McLane: #Eagles Notes: Kelly stays away when it's time to talk Oregon players; Kelly on Barkely-Sanchez competition; more: http://t.co/v6R4yo2StM

When Chip Kelly called fifth-round defensive end Taylor Hart, he joked with his former Oregon player that the Eagles were "putting the family back together."

Hart was the second Oregon player the Eagles drafted this week after taking wide receiver Josh Huff in the third round on Saturday. The Eagles now have seven Oregon players on their roster, with a coaching and support staff that has a strong Oregon influence. The Eugene-to-Philadelphia pipeline is showing no signs of slowing down.

"We're taking the best players, in our opinion," Kelly said. "There are still a lot of Oregon players out there. But they've won a lot of games the last couple years."

Kelly said that when the Eagles evaluate an Oregon player, he does not offer his opinion. General manager Howie Roseman said he even tells Kelly what he thinks of an Oregon player before Kelly shares his thoughts.

"I specifically stayed out of those guys and let the personnel give me what the grades are," Kelly said. "I think there are points in time where they've got to convince me this is the direction we're going in because I try to divorce myself from that situation."

Kelly was unabashed about adding Oregon players. He pointed to other Oregon players in the league who are standouts - Buffalo linebacker Kiko Alonso is an example - and said the familiarity is a benefit.

"Just because we have a familiarity, if someone wants to say that's a concern, that's OK," Kelly said. "But I'm not going to take one because I'm afraid someone's going to say something about them."

Stable at QB

The Eagles did not draft a quarterback, and Kelly expects a "real healthy competition" between veteran Mark Sanchez and second-year quarterback Matt Barkley to be Nick Foles' backup. Barkley is healthier this spring than he was one year ago. Sanchez is coming off a shoulder injury this spring.

"[barkley] had a real good offseason in terms of training," Kelly said. "It's a good time for the quarterbacks and receivers to kind of run and throw together, and I think Matt's throwing better here and there, too."

Birds pass on O-linemen

The Eagles are relying on some young offensive linemen for depth. They did not draft a lineman even though three starters are over 30.

The Eagles are high on Matt Tobin, who made the roster as a rookie free agent last season. Allen Barbre was the team's reserve in 2013 and returns this year. Julian Vandervelde and Dennis Kelly will both try to hold their roster spots, while free agent David Molk competes with Vandervelde for the backup center spot. Practice-squad tackle Michael Bamiro will compete for a job after a developmental year.

Roseman said there was a run on offensive linemen in the third round, but the Eagles did not want to force a pick. They instead added offensive linemen in the undrafted free agent market.

Late additions

The Eagles signed the following 15 undrafted free agents: Oregon NT Wade Keliikipi, Florida A&M DE Frank Mays, Oklahoma State S Daytawion Lowe, Alabama CB John Fulton, Morgan State OL Karim Barton, Oregon State OL Josh Andrews, Texas OL Donald Hawkins, Southern Cal OL Kevin Graf, Florida TE Trey Burton, Cincinnati TE Blake Annen, Louisiana State WR Kadron Boone, Rutgers WR Quron Pratt, Missouri RB Henry Josey, Toledo RB David Fluellen, and Vanderbilt K Carey Spear.
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@Jeff_McLane: MT @phillysport: Eagles should be made in Chip Kelly's vision, and have been so far. Will it be enough? @Jeff_McLane: http://t.co/FA9Im9fsMc

Good stuff in here.

Kelly molding the Eagles to his vision

Jeff McLane

May 11, 2014 3:01 AM

Chip Kelly took the joke in stride after the Eagles selected Stanford safety Ed Reynolds.

Did this kid transfer from Oregon?

"No, we broke the streak," Kelly said after two of the Eagles' three previous draft picks were Oregon products. "We did not recruit him. He played against us, yeah."

Of the 15 players the Eagles have selected in Kelly's first two NFL drafts, nine had either played for or against him at Oregon, or he tried to recruit them to Eugene. In some cases, Kelly faced a player that he also failed to lure to the Ducks.

Like another coach who made the successful college-to-NFL transition, Kelly has used his institutional knowledge of college players when drafting. Unlike Jimmie Johnson, he has not yet found his Troy Aikman, Emmitt Smith, and Michael Irvin, or at least prospects with anywhere near the same impact.

(Insert your Marcus Mariota joke here.)

To be fair to Kelly, he hasn't had to fill key starting spots like quarterback, running back, and wide receiver through the draft, and his first two first-round picks (tackle Lane Johnson and linebacker Marcus Smith) weren't one of the aforementioned nine tied to his time at Oregon.

But what we have learned two years into the Kelly era, and after a whirlwind offseason in which receiver DeSean Jackson was released, is that he has taken full rein of the Eagles and is as immersed in personnel decisions as he is in coaching.

The head coach is naturally involved in the drafting process, and if he's a winner and wants to, can generally run the show. But in many instances, the coaching staff sets the parameters, and it is up to the general manager and personnel staff to go find the fits.

General manager Howie Roseman and his staff spent months crafting the draft board, when, in some ways - (and said with some humor) - all they had to do was look at the Oregon roster or a list of all-PAC-12 performers for their targets.

This year, third-round receiver Josh Huff and fifth-round defensive end Taylor Hart were Oregon products, joining five other Ducks already on the Eagles roster. Reynolds, who also came in the fifth round, faced Kelly's Oregon teams for years. And seventh-round nose tackle Beau Allen was once recruited by Eagles and former Ducks defensive-line coach Jerry Azzinaro before committing to Wisconsin.

Last year, Eagles tight end Zach Ertz (Stanford), defensive lineman Bennie Logan (Louisiana State) and quarterback Matt Barkley (Southern Cal) all faced and beat Kelly's Oregon teams. Kelly saw cornerback Jordan Poyer (Oregon State) twice a season. And defensive end Joe Kruger (Utah) was recruited by Oregon.

"I do believe I have a knowledge because I've seen them in person," Kelly said Saturday during the final day of the three-day draft. "So I can weigh in on them with not just, 'Hey, my evaluation of them on tape is this.' . . . But it's not a 'Let's take him because I saw him live.' . . .

"We're still going to go through the whole process and let everybody weigh in. There's never been an instance where, 'Hey, I feel this way about him but everybody else feels this way.' "

With Huff, Kelly said he divorced himself from the evaluation. But Huff, who was forecasted by many analysts to be a late-round selection, said after he was picked that he was told by Eagles receivers coach Bob Bicknell and Oregon offensive coordinator Scott Frost that Kelly said he would take him in the third round, "and he kept his word."

Roseman said the pick was "on me."

Kelly said he would have taken Hart in the third, and would have with the first pick of the fourth if Roseman hadn't "guaranteed" he would still be on the board in the fifth. Roseman, it appears, fought for his guy, and the Eagles chose Florida cornerback Jaylen Watkins instead.

Hart, as Roseman predicted, was there in the fifth. When Kelly called his former player with the news, he told Hart, "We're putting the family back together," according to the defensive end.

Kelly was asked how tiebreakers were broken in the war room.

"I haven't yet sat there and I want him and he wants him and then, you know, are we going to box for it? You know what I mean?" Kelly said. "It just hasn't gotten there. I think we can sit down and reason with it. But we disagree a lot, and I think that's a good thing. This isn't a building of yes men."

But you have to wonder how many from his coaching staff or Roseman and his evaluators are willing to tell Kelly, "No." Has he already earned that right? Some would say taking a 4-12 team and turning into a 10-6 division winner does.

Owner Jeffrey Lurie made it clear last month that it was Kelly who spearheaded the decision to part with Jackson. The team should be made in his vision, as it increasingly has been. They're his schemes, his measurables, and his culture.

In Chip the Eagles trust. Will it be enough?
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Reynolds could have played a maximum of 2 games against Kelly.

And he tried to recruit hundreds, if not thousands, of players who didn't end up going there and faced thousands of players during his time at Oregon. I think some of this is blown a little out of proportion.

edit: Pretty sure Reynolds faced him 1 time. He barely played in 2010 and was injured for all of 2011.

 
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Insein said:
Bigboy10182000 said:
5 of our 7 picks were D and the only offense we took was 2 WR's. Just like we all drew it up months ago!
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Yea. For all the whining, we actually got the parameters of what we wanted. There wasn't much to complain about here. Nothing they could do about HaHa unless you think they should have given up a 3rd rounder to move up two spots. Some people probably would want to do that. I can see the gripe but otherwise, I like who they got regardless of where we got them.
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On one hand yeah 3rds are valuable and can turn into solid players. On the other hand they turned that 3rd into Huff. Given who they turned it into, I'd much rather have Clinton-Dix right now.

 
thriftyrocker said:
Insein said:
Bigboy10182000 said:
5 of our 7 picks were D and the only offense we took was 2 WR's. Just like we all drew it up months ago!
Click to expand...
Yea. For all the whining, we actually got the parameters of what we wanted. There wasn't much to complain about here. Nothing they could do about HaHa unless you think they should have given up a 3rd rounder to move up two spots. Some people probably would want to do that. I can see the gripe but otherwise, I like who they got regardless of where we got them.
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On one hand yeah 3rds are valuable and can turn into solid players. On the other hand they turned that 3rd into Huff. Given who they turned it into, I'd much rather have Clinton-Dix right now.
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Ha Ha's a good player, but I don't think he's special enough that you're giving up draft picks to move up for him. Just my opinion. Pass rusher was a bigger need and I think the media underrated Smith. Watch some of that college film and tell me he's not more valuable than Dee Ford who's purely an undersized speed rusher. Nobody argued that Dee Ford was a late first rounder. :shrug:

 
thriftyrocker said:
Insein said:
Bigboy10182000 said:
5 of our 7 picks were D and the only offense we took was 2 WR's. Just like we all drew it up months ago!
Click to expand...
Yea. For all the whining, we actually got the parameters of what we wanted. There wasn't much to complain about here. Nothing they could do about HaHa unless you think they should have given up a 3rd rounder to move up two spots. Some people probably would want to do that. I can see the gripe but otherwise, I like who they got regardless of where we got them.
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On one hand yeah 3rds are valuable and can turn into solid players. On the other hand they turned that 3rd into Huff. Given who they turned it into, I'd much rather have Clinton-Dix right now.
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False analogies like this are what drive me crazy about people complaining about the draft. Sure, they could have used their 1st and 3rd to move up and get Clinton-Dix. Instead, they used their 1st to get a different 1st and an additional 3rd. They then flipped one of their 3rds into a 4th and a 5th.

Your scenario = use 1st and 3rd and get Clinton-Dix

Their scenario = Get Smith, Huff, Watkins, and Hart.

So it wasn't Clinton-Dix vs Huff. You can disagree with the move, but at least be honest about what the decision was.

 
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