lavar arrington
from dave barr:
- while the eagles don't usually overpay for guys who are good or very good at their position, they usually are willing to overpay for guys who can be difference makers. lavar arrington, as undisciplined and raw as he still is, can be a force on the football field and can make plays that only a few other linebackers can make.
- i'm betting that jim johnson thinks arrington is just the kind of attacking player that can turn this defense back into an intimidator. trotter was a failure in washington for the same reasons that arrington never fulfilled his potential there, because the defenses washington was using never used their skills effectively and made them play to their weaknesses. i think a trotter and arrington combo would wreak havoc on the league in a JJ defense.
- even though the eagles brain trust doesn't view linebacker as a position of high value, i'm thinking they make a run at arrington for the same reason that they made a run at TO. he is one of the 5 most physically gifted guys at his position and they have a history of paying guys for extraordinary performance at positions they do not value (TO at wideout, dawkins at FS).
as i've opined previously, i think the biggest weakness in the linebacking corps is their inability to cover tight ends. they've been horrible at it ever since emmons left as they've never replaced his size (6' 5" i think) and ability to jam the TE at the line. i don't know how good arrington will be in coverage, but i doubt there are many TEs who are going to dust lavar in a footrace.
another weakness right now is lack of effective blitzers at linebacker. trotter is a good run blitzer, but marc simoneau is probably the best pass rushing linebacker they have and that's not a good thing. when i wrote my thoughts on the roster for next season, i was hoping for julian petersen, but arrington seems like a better fit considering petersen is coming off an achilles tear.
i hope i'm not just deluding myself...
There are a lot of talented FA out there. I’d love to see Laroi Glover, LaCharles Bentley, Garcia, and others wearing midnight green. However, I do NOT want to see Shaun barber back. He was decent enough here, but his last two years have been ravaged by injuries and he’s puny. Give me more of a traditional run stuffer. I’d rather see Brandon Short than him.i think dave's comment on barber is interesting given lavar arrington's release by the redskins today. now that arrington is on the market, i'm guessing the philadelphia eagles go after him and go after him hard. why? for a few reasons:
- while the eagles don't usually overpay for guys who are good or very good at their position, they usually are willing to overpay for guys who can be difference makers. lavar arrington, as undisciplined and raw as he still is, can be a force on the football field and can make plays that only a few other linebackers can make.
- i'm betting that jim johnson thinks arrington is just the kind of attacking player that can turn this defense back into an intimidator. trotter was a failure in washington for the same reasons that arrington never fulfilled his potential there, because the defenses washington was using never used their skills effectively and made them play to their weaknesses. i think a trotter and arrington combo would wreak havoc on the league in a JJ defense.
- even though the eagles brain trust doesn't view linebacker as a position of high value, i'm thinking they make a run at arrington for the same reason that they made a run at TO. he is one of the 5 most physically gifted guys at his position and they have a history of paying guys for extraordinary performance at positions they do not value (TO at wideout, dawkins at FS).
as i've opined previously, i think the biggest weakness in the linebacking corps is their inability to cover tight ends. they've been horrible at it ever since emmons left as they've never replaced his size (6' 5" i think) and ability to jam the TE at the line. i don't know how good arrington will be in coverage, but i doubt there are many TEs who are going to dust lavar in a footrace.
another weakness right now is lack of effective blitzers at linebacker. trotter is a good run blitzer, but marc simoneau is probably the best pass rushing linebacker they have and that's not a good thing. when i wrote my thoughts on the roster for next season, i was hoping for julian petersen, but arrington seems like a better fit considering petersen is coming off an achilles tear.
i hope i'm not just deluding myself...
Labels: football
posted by The Mean Guy at 11:30 PM
9 Comments:
Interesting point. But do you really think they will sign somebody like Arrington after the entire TO debacle. While I love his physical traits, all the Eagles need at linebacker are solid contributors (which they currently do not have) that play their roles well (such as covering TEs). So way pay $5M for Arrington? So i am quoting you: "We need more fat guys"
-Simon
i do still think that more and better fat guys is our top priority, but i think they are already doing that for the o-line. the problem is that i don't see any difference makers available for the d-line. i think rocky bernard would be a nice addition, but he's a rotation guy and while he is a nice pass rusher he really only played ~20 snaps a game for seattle.
you don't find stud d-tackles on the free agent list, so i still think we need to look at d-tackle in the first round and possibly move up to get one.
for free agency i'd like to see bentley, arrington, and a second tier wideout from a west coast offense team. i'm not expecting them to get both bentley and hutchinson, but adding hutchinson to that mix would be gravy. even with 19 million available i don't think they'd be able to fit all of those guys.
Great great insight today. Couldn't agree more with Arrington. I am a biased Penn State fan, but Arrington is not a TO. I've seen him in person and he can make plays and is just such a physically imposing force. He wore out his welcome down there. Not that he is a model citizen, but I think he is more of a disgruntled player, which this league is replete with. Change of scenery is always a good thing and I don't think that they will have to break the bank for him. I think you could sell Arrington on the fact that he gets to play his former team a couple times a year and show them how wrong they were about him. In a related story, Gregg Williams is a perfect example of a coordinator that should not be a head coach...Ray Rhodes, Norv Turner, Dave Campo, Wade Phillips, and Butch Davis are also in that group. If the Eagles get Bentley, Arrington, a West Coast Offense Receiver (Brandon Lloyd, Joe Jurevicious) plus a decent veteran back-up who is not on his last legs or sucks (see Dorsey Levens, Lamar Gordon) it will be a decent off-season. I also like Garcia as a back-up. Non-threatening, relatively young, a recent Pro-Bowler, and athletic.
Goddamn, I hope you're right. I'm going to read your post a few more times today to attempt to convince myself that it's not a pipe dream.
I think Arrington might be out of their price range. He didn't give up $10 million in virtually guaranteed $$$ (see PFT) and not expect to get at least that much.
Garcia's well north of 30 so I wouldn't consider that young.
And keep your eye on Antonio Bryant at WR who had a very decent season last year for a crappy Browns team. Think he might fly under the radar with Randle El out there despite having much better stats.
i've always liked bryant, but my guess is that his throwing a towel in bill parcells' face incident and his relative lack of experience in the west coast offense would be pretty big obstacles to overcome in big red's mind.
I think Arrington might be out of their price range. He didn't give up $10 million in virtually guaranteed $$$ (see PFT) and not expect to get at least that much.
if the eagles couldn't afford him, who in the league can? assuming that arrington's first preference is to stay in the nfc east to try to stick it to washington, the eagles are in a better position to pay him than the other teams. i can envision a scenario where the birds giving him a 10 million dollar signing bonus with a 2 million dollar salary, giving him 12 million in first year money with a cap charge of 4 million.
i think we should go after j.peterson and l.arrington .aint nobody running on that blitz happy defense.get a l.bentley ,randall el and maybe even a m. anderson or j. lewis. be like parker and bettis in pittsburg a 1 2 punch.What do we have to lose we were at the top ,fell to the bottom and i dont feel like listening to all these nfc east rival fans telling me are window is closed . lats year was a fluke, they'll see.
OK, stop. You are all making me feel like I did at the beginning of the season 2 years ago, and I'm not sure my heart can take it.....
Oh, and ccryder; good nickname, bad punctuation.
- Joe
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