birds discussion
I am cool with the Shawn Barber signing. He is an upgrade over Bullet. As a matter of fact, he was a monster here before he left. Dhani Jones also played poorly last year so I am more concerned with getting a SLB...who knows what the plan is, but I wouldn't be surprised if they are done upgrading at LBi'm ok with the "s. w." barber signing as well (isn't sw what he used to call himself in the MNF intros?). he was a good player when he was here and none of the weak side LBs the birds have had since he left have measured up to him production-wise or physically. like you mention and i've said in the past, strong side LB is really the biggest weakness in the linebacking corps. i think they see this as well and i'm betting that they're going to bring someone in and cut dhani loose. i'm still holding onto the hope that the someone is arrington.
I'd be willing to bet the Eagles 1st draft pick is not a lineman. The invested heavily in those positions in last year's draft and look to do the same in free agency this year. My bet is either a LB or TE.while the eagles did draft a lot of bodies for the lines last season, they didn't get that much in the way of quality. everyone they picked up (even herremans) was a project and i don't think they see any of them as being ready to start for a contending team (at least i hope they don't). andy has always been about building teams from the lines out and he definitely sees that the poor play on both lines last season was a huge problem. they didn't just get beat on the lines, they were dominated in many games last season. fixing the lines is their priority.
as far as drafting a LB or TE in the first round, i'll believe it when i see it. i don't think JJ wants a first round rookie LB. by all accounts, LB is mentally the toughest position to play in JJ's defense and is a big reason why rookie LBs never seem to make an impact on this team.
i'll take you up on the bet. i say it will be a lineman of some sort you say it will be a LB or TE.
posted by The Mean Guy at 10:04 PM
5 Comments:
I'm not willing to bet on anything. Just seems that whenever consensus thinks they're going to do something, they go an entirely different route and draft 3 defensive backs early or another WR in round 1.
And I don't share your pessimism on the cap situation. The cap was increased for everyone, which basically just moves the baseline up. Eagles will spend the increased money on guys they like and can still beat out everyone else. Other teams won't necessarily "price them out" as the value per player has been increased. So $4 million per year under prior CBA is now worth $5 mil per year under the new one. Eagles won't still be trying to get players for last CBA prices. Also, I'm willing to bet that Banner's smarter than most other GMs out there and can still beat most of them in structuring deals.
And I don't share your pessimism on the cap situation. The cap was increased for everyone, which basically just moves the baseline up. Eagles will spend the increased money on guys they like and can still beat out everyone else. Other teams won't necessarily "price them out" as the value per player has been increased. So $4 million per year under prior CBA is now worth $5 mil per year under the new one. Eagles won't still be trying to get players for last CBA prices. Also, I'm willing to bet that Banner's smarter than most other GMs out there and can still beat most of them in structuring deals.
it's not so much pessimism as it is an acknowledgement that there is much more competition now for a smaller pool of players. banner being smarter than the other cap guys is definitely and advantage, but the increased competition is going to make shopping a lot harder.
i'm not sure it's as simple as moving a baseline up.
- since the teams that were at zero cap room under the old rules now actually have some money to spend, the baseline move helps them a lot more than it helps the eagles. what happens if each of these newly enriched shoppers decides to spend their entire cap on a player the eagles were targeting?
- when caps increase, the salaries for the stars increases at a much faster rate than the middle. so most of the money is actually going to be funneled to the smaller pool of guys in the free agency market.
- the percentage increase that impacts this free agent market isn't necessarily the percentage increase of the the overall cap. it's somewhere between that number and the percentage increase in the amount of free space in the overall cap. so while the overall cap for the league only increased ~8%, the overall free space in the league probably doubled.
i think it's just going to make things a lot tougher and i bet that someone is going to take a big run at bentley with their newfound wealth.
Yes, from a relative standpoint the Eagles will have a lower % of total available cap room so there will be increased competition on the margin. But given the absolute $ advantage the Eagles enjoy, they should still be able to get whoever they really want.
I think where we differ is that coming into this off-season you had a much higher expectation of what the Eagles would do than I did.
It should be interesting to see if more money does go to the superstars or mid-level players. Over the past 6 years, the Eagles have been bigger players in the mid and low-level FA markets than the high end ones so this may end up being good for them on the margin.
I'd like to disagree with you on your statements that linebackers can't start in their first year. I think this is a myth just like rookies moving up the draft when they run a 4.3 instead of a 4.5. Just look at the Seattle LB for this year.
I think if you draft a linebacker and he is good, he will be able to play in the defense right away. It's not like the Eagles do not have veterans to help him out (Dawkins). I would be thrilled if they draft a LB in the first round, since I believe it would actually be the position were a rookie provide the biggest upgrade.
-Simon
LeCharles is off le board. Guess they have to go with Arrington now. That would make up for missing on their #1 target. How the Browns got that many quality players on day 1 is beyond me.
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