Eagles Announce Final Cuts

congrats to gcobb for scooping everyone (including the eagles' own website) on the list of final cuts.

Nate Ilaoa (RB)
Jason Davis (FB)
Jeremy Cain (FB/LS)
Jeremy Bloom (WR)
J.J. Outlaw (WR)
Michael Gasperson (WR)
Zac Collie (WR)
Lee Vickers (TE)
Jonathan Palmer (T)
Jasper Harvey (C)
Jacob Hobbs (G)
Pat McCoy (T)
Marques Murrell (DE)
Mauricio Lopez (DT)
Ian Scott (DT)
Akeem Jordan (LB)
Dedrick Roper (LB)
Dustin Fox (CB)
Nick Graham (CB)
Marcus Paschal (S)
Erick Harris (S)
Dirk Johnson (P)

no real surprises as i was expecting rocca over johnson and for the bloom experiment to end.

possible candidates for the practice squad:
nick graham
marcus paschal
nate ilaoa
marques murrell
jason davis
mauricio lopez

edit: so apparently, gcobb got the list from the eagles website, and the eagles claim the list is a dummy list that was put there by mistake. i'm going to leave this up to see how it compares with the actual list. i'm betting it looks just about the same is this list.

Rating Pat Gillick as GM

i'd like to explore this fairly popular notion that pat gillick hasn't done a good job as GM of the phils. i hear it all the time on the radio (of course that moron in the morning angelo cataldi is leading the way with his nonsensical bleating and whining) and our own bumble has weighed in with his opinion -- "sad to say that Pat Gillick makes Ed Wade look like a genius. Gillick is a fraud."

i believe people have come to this conclusion primarily on two factors:

1) this is still head wade's "team" because the best players -- rollins, utley, howard, myers, burrell, and hamels -- all joined the team when wade was GM

2) pat gillick wasn't able to "fix" the pitching problem last offseason therefore he stinks as GM

on the surface, it seems both of these notions have some basis in fact, but with some deeper thought, i don't know that they're fair or accurate.

regarding point 1, while it is true that the core of the phillies current team were all drafted under the head's watch, i'm not sure he should get any credit for that, just like i don't think gillick should get any credit should kyle drabek, adrian cardenas, or joe savery turn out to be stars. everyone knows that mike arbuckle runs the show when it comes to the draft and scouting amateur players. i don't think the fact that the phils have drafted some "high ceiling" players who panned out should be a factor in grading either of the phils' recent GMs.

regarding point 2, i think this is as much grandstanding as anything else. could gillick have done more to fix the pitching situation? sure, i'd agree with that. i can't name any particular thing he should have done that he didn't do, but there probably is something. was adam eaton a terrible signing? yes, i thought it would be before it happened, i thought it was when it happened, and i think so now that eaton has flopped. still, looking at it realistically, who else was available? i'm not sure who else i would have signed. gil meche turned out to be arguably the best of last year's free agent pitchers, but the royals were ridiculed when they signed him. barry zito? should the phils be stuck with his 7 year contract instead of the giants? the fact is that 90% of the teams in the majors are looking for pitching help. there simply is not enough pitching to go around. i'm not saying this to defend pat gillick on this point, because i do believe he could have signed better relievers, but i don't believe this is a strong enough point to be the basis of earning a negative performance assessment. remember also that gillick was getting criticized for going into the season with a *surplus* of starting pitchers.

i'm in the minority, but i submit that pat gillick has actually done a *good* job as GM of the phillies -- not great but better than we've seen on the phils in 20+ years. while i was certainly skeptical when they first hired him, he's won me over. i'll explain why below.

the single biggest reason why i think he's done a good job is that he seems to understand how to build a team. this is not rotisserie baseball. it's not as simple as putting a bunch of numbers together, which is how mr. "if the team would just play to it's potential" approached it. i love the statistics of baseball, but there is more to putting a team together than that. personalities matter. attitude matters. mental makeup matters. head never got that.

this is a *likeable* team. for me as a once rabid, but now casual fan of baseball. i can't emphasize enough how much this impacts my enjoyment of baseball. i found virtually all of the teams built by head to be unlikeable. full of dour, sour, or mean-spirited guys who cared little about winning and cared less about the fans. in less than two seasons, gillick has completely changed the persona of the team. this is invaluable to me. this team *loves* to play baseball. this team is starting to build a relationship with it's fans. except for the guy who beats his wife and attacks reporters, there's not a bad guy among them. i like this team and just as importantly, this team likes itself. compared to where we came from just two seasons ago, how can you not give gillick some credit for that?

has he been perfect? heck no. has he made more quality moves than bad moves? i say absolutely yes.

- dumping david bell - good move and one that head wade would not have made

- dumping bobby abreu - good move, even though he took some heat for the move, especially from our own "ed wade" who took pat to task for not getting phil hughes. as it turns out, it really does look like the yankees would not have traded phil hughes. this move paid immediate karmic benefits.

- strengthening the bench - good move - would a team GM'd by head wade have been able to survive the injuries? little chance since we'd likely still have tomas perez as our top bench player. gillick should get credit for guys like dobbs and werth.

- wes helms and rod barajas - definitely not a good move - however, would head wade have been able to admit his own mistake and then stash a 3 million dollar player on the DL? almost certainly not. should rod have been dumped faster? probably, but gillick should get some credit for fixing the problem.

- kyle kendrick - good move - would head wade have trusted an unproven AA guy like kendrick?

- freddy garcia - good move at the time - hindsight may tell you there were warning signs, but garcia had been a steady workhorse for a long time and the phils gave up very little for him.

- not selling pat burrell for pennies on the dollar - as it turns out, a good move - even his sour demeanor has changed recently. did you see the little hops he was taking toward first on his almost grand slam? last time i saw excitement like that from him was his rookie season.

- jamie moyer - good move - for nothing

- tadahito iguchi - good move - for nothing

i'm sure i'm missing a ton of moves gillick has made, but i guess overall my impression of him is positive -- and this is what i think is the important point -- regardless of whether the phils make the playoffs or not. i like what pat has done because he's brought the joy of baseball back into my life, and i was not expecting it to happen prior to getting new ownership.

thank you pat gillick.

edit - forgot about turning the untradeable contract of jim thome into aaron roward

Preseason Game 4 Thoughts

a nice night for football, plus turkey hill was giving away free ice cream at the game. most of the starters didn't play, but found some things to keep me interested.

- kevin kolb seems to be making progress every game. i find it impressive that he sees the field so well and already shows the ability to look off multiple receivers. it's pretty rare for a rookie.

- tony hunt is starting to look more comfortable. he's moving the pile like he did at penn state. i love how he takes on tacklers and drives them forward. it's been a while since we had a back who could do that.

- jeremy bloom looks like he's going to cry. he knows he's doing a sh*tty job of running back kicks and punts, but his fear of getting hit seems to be stronger than his fear of getting cut. not once has he just stuck his head in there and taken what was available.

- nate ilaoa looks like a samoan ron dayne. a gigantic guy who takes choppy steps and doesn't move the pile.

- watched some of the end of the game on TV. i could swear i heard ike reese praising victor abiamiri's "swim move" when victor actually used a "rip move". seemed odd that ike misidentified that, especially because he repeated it while the replay was on. a swim move was what the d-tackle used when max jean-gilles completely whiffed on the block leading to the first sack of feeley.

- what are the birds going to do with chris gocong? can they afford to try to hide him on the defense while he learns how to play in space? he looks pretty good as long as he's heading toward the line of scrimmage. as soon as he has to move laterally or drop into coverage. he looks stiff, uncomfortable, and off-balance. how quickly can this guy learn without getting the reps? why didn't he play the whole game?

- gaither is an upgrade over trotter in that he can drop into coverage and move side to side, but i don't see the logic in making a guy so small the MLB. yes, undersized middle linebackers can succeed in the NFL, but they also tend to play in defenses designed around their skills. ray lewis played his best when the ravens had huge two-gap d-tackles. when they switched to a 3-4 and he started having to deal with blockers, he wasn't nearly as effective. heck, i remember a monday night game 3-4 years ago against the chiefs when ray was dominated -- DOMINATED -- by tony richardson. similarly, the reason zach thomas has been so effective all these years is because miami also tended to have 2-gap d-tackles. the eagles are predominantly a 1-gap team. what the heck are they doing with such an undersized mike?

Preseason Game 3 Thoughts

some good performances and some bad performances tonight. the birds started off pretty strong but ended up getting dominated by the steelers first team.

- while it's certainly not a reason to panic, the defensive performance tonight did cause me to remember one of my top concerns at the end of last season -- whether the game has passed jim johnson by. i hope jj was holding something back because tonight was the same old, same old. same old predictable defensive calls. same old blitzes that get picked up by good teams. for a couple of seasons now, i've thought that jim johnson defenses are similar to gimmick college offenses -- they dominate lesser talent and lesser competition, but are not sound enough to succeed against good competition. i'll continue to hope i'm wrong about that.

- i have no idea why jj was so blitz happy tonight. ben roethlisberger is waaay more effective when scrambling and out of the pocket than he is when he's throwing from inside the pocket. combine that with the fact that the d-line was playing very well tonight and it really doesn't make sense why jj chose the max pressure gameplan. imo, roethlisberger may the most accurate QB in the league when throwing on the run. couldn't jj dig up the film from the drubbing they got from the steelers in roethlisberger's rookie year?

- best player for the birds tonight was mike patterson. i counted at least 4 separate times tonight when patterson penetrated into the backfield and blew up the play -- e.g. 4th play of the game when he burst into the backfield and caused ben to chuck the ball up for grabs. he and bunkley looked active and disruptive tonight.

- madden mentioned that he didn't understand why tomlin challenged the spot on the interception for a measly 6 yards. i think the rule is that once a play is challenged, the entire play is up for review. it seems to me that tomlin was looking at that challenge as a no-lose situation -- challenge for the spot looked like a sure thing and there was a possibility that the pick could have been overturned altogether.

- gocong still looks to be a work in progress. missed a couple of tackles, made a couple of very disruptive plays, looked lost a few times. best play for chris was when he stuffed a parker sweep left by pushing the fullback about 3-4 yards back into the backfield. madden credited bunkley, who made the tackle, but the play was made by gocong. worst play for chris was on the first steelers touchdown, when the fullback was able to push him about 5 yards downfield and way out of the play.

- mcnabb looked ok. his numbers for the night weren't overwhelming 5-11 for 60 yards, but should have really been 7-11 for 75 yards since reggie brown dropped two balls that hit him right in the hands.

- nick cole had a horrible sequence on the first drive. first a false start then he immediately followed it up by blocking inside when the blitz was coming outside. poor runyan ended up trying to block 2 guys by himself with no other blockers within 5 yards of him.

- spikes made a couple of nice plays. first on a screen that he diagnosed quickly and stopped for a short gain, second on the great stuff at the goal line when he first made alan faneca whiff on a block and then caused the fumble.

- sean considine still looks like sean considine. the good thing is that he knows where to be and he's athletic enough to get there. the bad thing is that he's sean considine and he can't make the play. the hit he tried to make on heath miller was horrible.

- rocca won the job tonight. bloom is going to get cut. andy had buck and greg lewis as the first team returners to send a message. bloom didn't appear to get the message as he stutter stepped and got creamed on his first attempt of the night.

- reggie brown is really making me mad. CATCH THE DAMN BALL!

- in a related note, jason avant has the best hands on the team.

JR Reed Comeback

apparently, jr reed signed with the giants this week trying to revive his career. i'm rooting for you, dude!

Garry Cobb Fan Club

don't look now, but do you know who is providing the best information and commentary on the philadelphia eagles? none other than garry cobb (and this is coming from a guy who couldn't stand cobb when he was on wip).

here are some recent links from gcobb.com:

- why the birds should run against the steelers

If they can come out and pound the ball against this defense they can run against anybody. Another key to running the ball against the 3-4 is getting some movement with a double team of the nose guard. Steelers nose guard Casey Hampton is as good as they come. He's built like a fire hydrant and he's as hard to uproot as a mature oak tree.

- why jeremiah should choose denver over tampa if he has the option

In Denver they have one great shut down corners in Champ Bailey and another good corner in Dre Bly. They're able to hide a poor coverage safety like John Lynch. They might be able to hide a guy like Jeremiah as well. Their outside linebackers are very fast and could probably cover most of the tight ends and back all by themselves. It would be a much better landing place for Trot than Tampa.

- why the NAACP is hurting black americans with their support of michael vick

Does it make sense to you? Here you have the NAACP speaking out on behalf of Michael Vick who has admitted guilt. They demand that he be treated fairly. A couple of years ago you had the head of the NAACP here in Philadelphia, Jerry Mondesire, coming out criticizing McNabb for his play and his handling of the Terrell Owens incidents. You would figure that a guy like McNabb who has never been in any trouble and done tons of charity work would get the nod over Vick, who has never been arrested by the police but, he supposedly gave a women herpes in the “Ron Mexico incidence” and he had the marijuana smelling bottle at the airport Rather than this trouble excluding Vick from NAACP support, it qualifies him for it. Poor leadership is one of the major factors that has a good percentage of "Black America" headed backward.

- why the notion of the eagles lockerroom being "devastated" is a myth

I hear all this stuff about how the Birds are going to miss Trot's leadership, but they need a middle linebacker who can make all the plays even more. I can understand somebody arguing that Jeremiah should be kept on the team because of his playing ability but all of the stuff about missing a guys personality is overrated.

- why the running game didn't work against the panthers and ravens

The Panther defensive movement accomplished it's purpose because it had the Birds offensive line, tight ends and running backs playing tentatively and unsure about whom they were supposed to block on running plays. A number of times a break down on a key block caused Brian Westbrook to be trapped for no gain and a loss of yardage. This must be straightened out.

- some commentary on mcnabb's coming out against trotter's release

Donovan has a habit of saying what he thinks he's supposed to say. I saw McNabb and the team having a bunch of laughs out on the field on the day Trot was released. The whole image that some have tried to paint of a team in mourning isn't true. In the NFL things happen so fast that you don't have time to get into all the drama. Right now the Eagles players are thinking about what they've got to do to prepare for the Steelers. Donovan had better be ready for Pittsburgh's defense. Did he miss the way Jason Campbell was hit on his knee after a Steeler blitz? All that nonsense about "it taking the team weeks to get over the Eagles cutting Trotter" is nothing but garbage. If they screw up a few weeks, the season could be over.

On McNabb

from phil:

McNabb_not_leaving_Trotter_behind.html

Do I detect a personality? Uh-oh. Scrapplelog's going to have to find another reason not to like 5.

for the record, scrapplelog loves mcnabb the player. scrapplelog is neutral on mcnabb the personality. the captain (who sometimes posts here) dislikes mcnabb, i don't quite understand why, but everyone has their opinions.

i think this article is exactly why i can't seem to connect with mcfranchise. it is an almost virtual certainty that he does not mean of word of what he's quoted saying in this article. he couldn't care less about trotter, especially because trotter stabbed him in the back in the whole me-o debacle. the day trotter was released, don wrote this in his yardbarker blog (which someone named kirk reynolds emailed to me, i'm assuming kirk works for yardbarker):

Before anyone asks, I think we will miss Jeremiah Trotter. I will miss him as a good friend. He's also a great player who played with great emotion that other players fed off of. You can not have enough players like that. Like L.J., he brings something to the table that cannot be duplicated by anyone else.

you'll note the reference to LJ. that's because this blurb came *after* talking about brent celek and LJ smith. that's how important trotter's release really is to him -- not that i blame him for that. i'd have done the same thing in his shoes.

however, don't come out two days later and make a public spectacle about it. he's only saying it because that what he thinks people want to hear.

know what i want to hear? i'd like to hear him say: "you know what? f' jeremiah trotter. he stabbed me in the back and chose the clubhouse cancer over the team." because that's what i know he really thinks. then i'd connect with him emotionally.

for now, i don't think i am wrong being a donovan mcnabb fan only because he's far and away best QB on the eagles.

Trotter Links

no surprise that the day is dominated by trotter articles

- philly.com - les bowen, les bowen, rich hoffman, bob ford

- SI.com via AP

- phillyburbs.com - reuben frank, reuben frank, eagles quotes

- delcotimes.com - bob grotz, rob parent

- delawareonline.com - geoff mosher, geoff mosher, blog

- gcobb says it was the "classiest release ever"

Additional Trotter Thought

i tried to present a balanced view of trotter, but lest it be interpreted as overly negative, i'll add one more thought on trotter.

of this generation of eagles stars -- trotter, dawkins, vincent, mcnabb, douglas, taylor, duce, westbrook, simon, kearse, lito -- jeremiah was most beloved by the fans. i suppose it's possible that me-o at his peak was a more popular player, but over his career, no player has resonated with or reflected the personality of eagles fans more than jeremiah trotter.what is also apparent is that this was not limited to the fans. the affection that big red obviously has for trotter and the emotional reaction from his teammates is impressive.

he'll be missed in this town.

Thoughts on Trotter

i'll remember trotter as one of the best LBs to suit up for the birds since i've been paying attention (1976-ish). he was a warrior on the field and extraordinarily fan-friendly off the field.

however, if the past has taught me one thing, it's this: i love the philadelphia eagles more than i love any individual who has played for them. while i enjoy watching them play and cheer them until i am hoarse, when they move on, i have no problem letting go.

i started to let my emotional attachment for trotter go two seasons ago (when he chose to ally himself with me-o over doing what was best for the team), and the last connection was broken last season (when he sold out the d-line to deflect criticism from himself and his poor play). how he came through those incidents without being crucified by the local media is a testament to his engaging personality, but it doesn't hide the fact that in the end he turned out to be a bit of a fraud.

that said, things i'll remember about jeremiah:

- the axeman celebration

- the unbelieveable way he'd devastate the middle of an offensive line on a run-blitz

- his ability to shed blockers (among the best LBs i've ever seen)

- that roll he used to do when tackling running backs where he'd end up with his butt on the field and the RB kind of sitting in his lap before continuing the roll and flinging them aside

- his willingness to come back to the team and win his job back by playing special teams

- his fiery and emotional on-field persona

- his decisive burst toward ball carriers and the fierceness with which he hit them

unforunately, i'll also remember that he was one of the self-proclaimed "leaders" of the team and that he came up very small when a team just off a superbowl appearance was floundering for leadership. trotter could have told me-o to just shut up and play, but instead chose to not only back me-o's actions but also to imply that the QB was the instigator and that me-o's actions were justified.

it won't take away from how i view him as a player though -- one certainly deserving of the eagles honor roll -- a great warrior on the field who gave up his body and played with a ferocity seldom seen.

Trotter Released

wow, big news of the day is the release of jeremiah trotter. thanks to simon for the heads up. i'll post my thoughts on trotter's career later tonight.

Tuesday Links

- a few lito sheppard articles, rich hoffman notes that lito insists that he's not a gambler and his picks are a result of experience and film study.

- LJ claims he'll do what he can to help brent celek, even though it looks likely that celek is going to take his job at some point. the reason? because chad lewis did the same for LJ when he was a rookie. interestingly, this is the second recent comment in this vein. just last week, mcnabb was saying that he's doing everything he can to help kolb even though theoretically kolb is here to take his job because doug pederson did the same for mcnabb.

- gcobb weighs in with his 53-man roster

- reuben franks notes that omar gaither got most of the reps as first team middle linebacker yesterday

Monday Links

- here's what aaron schatz of footballoutsiders had to say about don's first outing of the season:

Everyone was upgrading their projections for McNabb based on this game, but we were already so high on him, I actually went into KUBIAK and downgraded the projection — just for his rushing numbers. It’s tough to figure these things out, because we’re still in the middle of this transition period in the history of ACL recovery, where it’s very hard to say just how mobile a guy will be after he returns from that surgery.

- reuben frank is the first one to take a crack at the 53-man roster. nothing too surprising here, it's certainly about how i am expecting the roster will look, but it's nice to see what the team might look like on paper.

- bob brookover reviews various camp battles and speculates some about how the roster will shape up

- the brent celek bandwagon continues to build momentum. mark eckel thinks brent has a chance to be the opening day starter -- he'd only be the third rookie to do so under big red. bob grotz, says this about celek:

Celek’s attention to detail starts with clean yet relentless route running. He basically gets so open everyone in the stadium can see it.

gcobb notes this about celek's performance this week:

I was astonished when I saw Celek on the field as part of their 3rd down and long package against the Panthers. This says a lot that both Reid and Mornhinweg have enough confidence in him to have him on the field at that time. That means they feel good about him knowing the routes and also being able to pick up the blitz. On top of that the kid gets man to man coverage by a safety and he beats him for the first down.

- redskins QB jason campbell escaped an ugly low hit without any significant damage

- washington post columnist mike wise expects the redskins defense to be significantly improved this season. i've also seen a prediction from footballoutsiders based on the fact that the redskins 3rd down defense significantly underperformed their 1st and 2nd down defense (historically teams typically perform similarly across all three downs).

- dallas morning news' todd archer takes his shot at the cowboys' 53-man roster

- last night's preseason game was costly for the giants, who lost a number of players to injury. nypost identifies four, nydailynews lists five (including local favorite jeremy shockey).

- giants added fat guy manuel wright to their roster. yes, the same manuel wright who former dolphins coach nick saban made cry at his first practice.

Daily Ankle Check

les bowen talked to andrews' agent, rich moran, who said:

Moran said he agrees with Reid that Andrews should be ready for the start of the season . . .

What the Heck is Going on with Shawn Andrews?

what an odd situation. on one side, you have the player using words like "tear jerker" and "bone stimlulator". on the other side, you have the coach -- who is usually evasive about injuries, most often using "i'm not going to get into all that" -- providing a very specific diagnosis:

He has a high ankle sprain, a relatively mild one.

clearly, there's some sort of difference of opinion between the eagles team doctors and the specialist. hope this plays out well. gilles is a road grader, but he's not half the player andrews is. shawn is impressively mobile for a supermassive guy, gilles looks to be rooted to the ground.

Preseason Game 2 Thoughts

not awful

- gee, that donovan mcnabb can play a little, no? it's pretty easy to forget how good he is when he's out injured and the media guys are bleating about how good jeff garcia is to stir up controversy. what a difference. there's no doubt that mcnabb is the most important player on this team. westbrook is good, can't dispute that, but you can get running backs anywhere. every team has running backs who can play. very few teams have a QB this good. the starting tandems tonight were: delhomme and williams for carolina and mcnabb and westbrook for the birds. would you rather have delhomme and westbrook or mcnabb and williams? you're nuts if you'd take the former over the latter. heck, i'd take mcnabb and buckhalter over delhomme and westbrook.

- i'll put this thought out there. brent celek is already a better tight end than LJ smith ever was. a) LJ may have it over brent in straight line speed and raw power, but celek is a more fluid athlete. his hips are looser and he can cut and separate from defenders better. b) after celek catches the ball, he's not a fumble waiting to happen. he secures the ball tightly to his body and wraps his arms when he's getting tackled. c) he catches the ball more naturally than LJ, who tends to fight the ball into his hands. remember the two dropped touchdown passes in LJ's first game? won't happen to celek. d) he doesn't look to be any worse at blocking than LJ.

- tony hunt looks to be our goal-line back this season. nice.

- holy trapzilla. did anyone catch westbrooks gigantic traps on his sovereign bank commercial?

- max jean-gilles did ok. he's not andrews, but he wasn't as bad as i was expecting. he whiffed a couple of times when i was watching him, but he looks strong and was able to push people off the line when he engaged.

- curtis looks pretty good. he's certainly not as fast as stallworth was, but i guess we all expected that to be the case. the mcnabb bomb to curtis on the third drive might have been caught by mr. hamstrung, but the out pass to curtis on the 4th drive probably wouldn't have been because it looked to me that curtis did a nice job coming back to the ball to cut off the defender. stallworth and reggie brown both had problems with that last season.

- it's sav rocca's job to lose. he may make more mistakes than johnson, but some of his kicks are unbelieveable. he'll make some kicks that win games and change field position.

- if there was any doubt at all about his making the team, juqua thomas probably secured his spot with that sack of delhomme. he's the second best speed rusher on the team.

- considine looks to be a bigger version of sean considine. now it's a 215 lb. guy eating a stiff-arm from deangelo williams instead of a 198 lb. guy eating a stiff-arm from deangelo williams.

- mike patterson stole corey simon's ass

- a QB sneak on 3rd and 1! definitely has to be mornhinweg calling the plays.

- kolb looks like he can't get anything on the ball when he is rolling left or right. he looks ok to me, but i don't see the "star potential" that people are talking about on the radio.

- trotter can't play anymore. i think it's possible that he's fighting for his job.

- bunkley looked pretty good for the few plays i was focusing on him.

- gocong looked ok. didn't see him do anything special or make any huge mistakes.

- spikes doesn't quite standout like he once did. a shame. hope he's still absorbing the defense.

- bloom's toe must be affecting him. he didn't have the same acceleration and top speed he did early in game 1

- our receiver corps is pretty good. i'll take this crew over the me-o, pinky, greg lewis, mcmullen crew anyday.

- the fat samoan running back doesn't look like he's going to make the team. too bad. i was hoping he'd turn out to be a player.

overall a nice game. what i'm looking for out of the rest of preseason is no new injuries and for the difference makers -- mcnabb, westbrook, andrews, lito, dawkins, kearse -- to stay healthy or get healthy.

Shawn Andrews Injury Update

despite andy's stated expectation that shawn andrews will be ready for the opener, there continues to be more and more speculation that andrews is done for the year (or more).

gcobb says no one is sure when andrews will be able to play again.

f*ck, f*ck, f*ck, f*ck, f*ck, f*ck, f*ck, f*ck, f*ck, f*ck, f*ck, f*ck, f*ck, f*ck, f*ck, f*ck, f*ck.

f*ck.

Dropping Like Flies

brian adams (crush of demolition fame) was found dead in his home

Preseason Game 1 Thoughts

awful

Thursday Links

- injury concerns appear to be the topic of the day at all the local papers. while most don't appear to be overly serious, two injuries bear watching as they involve 2 of the 5 best players on the team -- shawn andrews (sprained ankle) and brian dawkins (achilles). andrews was sent back to philadelphia to see a specialist (never a good sign no matter how "precautionary" the move is) and takeo spikes notes that his ruptured achilles started as lingering achilles tendonitis.
- continuing daily propoganda about how good bunkley looks so far

- despite a light workload, mcnabb continues to look good in camp

- receivers looked better yesterday

- big red singled out brent celek for praise. my question is whether it was aimed at celek or more at LJ.

- bob grotz says no rookie has been more impressive than victor abiamiri

- the giants had a light day in response to their growing injury list, also of note is that eli still has accuracy issues

- an AP profile of brian westbrook

- igglesblog speculates about the possibility of reagor not making the team and being traded back to the colts

Dr. Jeckyll and Pat Burrell

not sure how it's possible considering the start he got, but with his uber-hot july, pat burrell's season-to-date numbers are looking pretty good compared to his recent performance and more than respectable on an absolute scale.

for reference, here's his current stat line:

AB	R	H	2B	3B	HR	RBI	SB	CS	BB	SO	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS
303	46	80	17	0	17	58	0	0	79	76	.264	.418	.488	.906

- burrell's ops ranks 15th best in the NL and 25th best in the majors. this ranks him above manny ramirez (.904), justin morneau (.904), carlos lee (.900), and the overly hyped david wright (.897)

- his SLG ranks as a mediocre 27th in NL (49th in the majors), but his OBP is a terrific 5th in the NL (10th in the majors)

- he sits at 32nd in the NL for runs created, but sits at a more than respectable 12th in the NL for RC/27 outs (22nd in the majors)

- he's 2nd in the NL for BB/PA behind only barry bonds (3rd in the majors)

- he's 7th in the NL for BB/SO ratio (15th in the majors)

- he's 10th in the NL for AB/HR (22nd in the majors)

interestingly, his power numbers were at about the same (18 2b and 18 hr in 324 AB last season, 17 2b and 17 hr in 303 AB this season). the difference is in three areas:

- BA - his .020 increase in batting average accounts for all of the difference in his slugging improvement over last season

- BB - he's taking walks at a rate that's over 30% greater than last season

- SO - he's striking out at a rate that's almost 20% less than last season.

where the heck has this guy been? any chance he's going to stay awhile?

Wednesday Links

- nice win by the phils last night, beating up on some awful marlins pitching. injuries continue to be a bugaboo for the team, but they certainly haven't been as impactful as they could have been considering the team is 7-4 since utley went down. probably squashes utley's MVP campaign, but i'm sure he cares more about the team remaining in contention.

- les bowen says last year's potentially dominating defense was derailed by lack of depth (most notably by jevon kearse's injury), but this year's team has considerably greater depth and should be able to absorb the usual attrition better.

- my biggest concern with reggie brown continues to be his hands. in his rookie season, reggie was third worst in the nfl in drop percentage according to kc joyner, and unfortunately it didn't appear to get much better last season. now a note from training camp indicates that he is continuing to show inconsistency in catching the damn ball. even worse, according to garry cobb, it wasn't limited to just reggie.

After Reggie Brown dropped a pass from quarterback Donovan McNabb, coach Andy Reid uttered the words, "Way too many drops." Brown, wide open in the middle of the field, dropped another pass right in his hands on the next play.

- matt mccoy is trying to get back into the mix at linebacker. while we all remember how horribly he played right before he got benched, he did play pretty well prior to getting hurt last season. i recall that mccoy did seem to have a lot of speed and was especially good at breaking up screen passes to his side. however, i also recall that we had another undersized linebacker that played well for just about half a season before wearing down -- mark simoneau.

- seems odd that ryan moats is reducing his role on special teams as he's in a similar position to greg lewis -- a veteran with inconsistent performance history. seems like he should be doing everything he can do to make the roster as he certainly is no lock. it's unfortunate for him that he's so mistake prone because he can really run the ball.

- garry cobb wonders why trotter is still doing two-a-days. could it be because he's still fatter than the eagles wanted him to be?

- seems odd that a redskins team with santana moss, antwaan randle el, brandon lloyd, and clinton portis had a noted lack of offensive big plays. let's hope they don't fix this problem any time soon. i'm a big fan of gibbs 2.0.

- interesting article by rick gosselin comparing the eagles under big red to a college football factory

- concern in dallas about the age and health of their wideout corps

Monday/Tuesday Links

getting caught up as i was in boston yesterday for work

- a flurry of tony hunt articles on philly.com, gcobb.com, and phillyburbs.com

- reuben frank says that kevin curtis is already starting to look like he's getting comfortable with the offense. this is encouraging since our last veteran wideout signing (jabar gaffney) never looked comfortable even after the preseason.

- frank also goes through the recent revolving door history of the eagles linebacking corps. if gocong and bradley can play, that may be changing soon.

- having a healthy jevon kearse is one of the keys to the season. observers and coaches think he's looking pretty good, but kearse himself seems to be reserving judgement.

- most veteran additions to the birds are shocked at the fan turnout at training camp. kevin curtis is no different.

- more articles about how bunkley is approaching this season differently

- don banks of cnnsi writes a postcard from eagles camp

- not much support for strahan's supposed salary holdout

- me-o is having back spasms

Friday Links

still catching up on reading, some interesting links of note:

- the "football scientist" (need espn insider) chats about who he thought were the three best QBs last season according to his metrics

Nick (Orlando): KC - in light of your most recent article, can you tell us who your top five QBs were from last year, according to your metrics?

SportsNation KC Joyner: Nick, I would say that the three best QBs from a metrics standpoint last year were: Romo, Brady and McNabb. After that it starts to get a bit crowded.

Travis(WI): Really???? No Manning or Palmer in the top 3...that's hard to believe. Especially Manning!

SportsNation KC
Joyner: Peyton's metrics weren't quite as good as usual last year. That's not to say he had a bad year, as I was actually more impressed with him in 2006 than I was in any other season. There was less talent around him and he still found a way to make it work.

- gcobb has several training camp notes: kolb update, d-line update, spikes update

- tim colishaw of the dallas morning news says the cowboys should expect a surge in sack production under wade phillips

- found this blog entry by rick gosselin interesting not for what he wrote (eagles d getting bigger in 2007) but for the in-fighting by cowboys fans in the comments

- i haven't noticed this as a phenomenon before since i haven't known many people that nearly died, but i am noticing a common theme in interviews with jerome mcdougle and ben roethlisberger, sort of a "eh, whatever, once you almost die it puts things into perspective and nothing really matters. i'll be ok no matter what happens". the near death experience seems to have taken an edge off them or something.

- wilmington news journal seems to think mcnabb's looking pretty good already

Biggest Questions for 2007 Season

here are what i see as the top concerns/questions/issues for 2007

1) health of donovan mcnabb

will he be at 100% at some point this season? has he really recovered from his blown ACL? can he stay healthy for a whole season? while don has proven that he's a warrior and will play through anything that is possible to play through, he does have a significant injury history. he's not "fragile" per se, but he has shown a willingness to push his body past the breaking point, which is just as bad. a number of pundits, fans, and columnists are popularizing the notion that westbrook is more "critical" to the team's success and i say that's hogwash. it is possible that westbrook is as critical as mcnabb for this team, but the bottom line is that teams very rarely win superbowls without good QB play.

2) health of jevon kearse

the freak's value to this team is greater than the sum of his stats. what his teammates say is definitely true -- you have to gameplan for kearse. losing kearse had a huge effect on the birds last season because it directly impacted their pass defense (the most important aspect of JJ's defensive scheme), which had a cascading effect on the rest of the defense (falling behind early, having to play run defense more often than usual). kearse has to play well for this defense to be dominant, and this defense has to be dominant if they are going to be a viable championship contender.

3) health of westbrook

westbrook proved all the doubters (including yours truly) wrong last year by staying healthy while carrying the load. can he do it again? is it possible to have both mcnabb and westbrook healthy heading into the playoffs? last time it happened, the season ended with a road trip to jacksonville. if westbrook does not play, this team is not a contender.

4) impact of takeo spikes

how far on the downside of his career is takeo spikes? he was once one of the top 3-4 linebackers in the game, imo, though he never got the publicity of some of the LBs playing on winning teams. he was fast. he was mean. he was instinctive. however, he's turning 31 in december, and he's an old 31, already having 10 years in the league and still recovering from an achilles tear. the eagles haven't had a playmaking weak side linebacker in years -- since willie t really -- so he can make a huge impact to this defense if he plays anywhere close to how he did with the bengals.

5) playcalling balance

will this team return to its ridiculously pass-heavy playcalling distribution or will it continue with last season's 55/45 mix? by all accounts, andy will continue to let marty mornhinweg run the show on offense, which is a good sign and something that i (among others) have been hoping/whining about for years.

6) development of brodrick bunkley

last season, run defense was a big problem. some of it can be attributed to injuries and falling behind in games, but a big chunk (probably the biggest chunk) of the responsibility can be planted directly on the fat guys. the middle of the d-line was downright awful last season. mike patterson was put in the position of having to play over the nose, a position that he is too small to play and does not enable him to make best use of his strengths. darwin walker played himself out of position or got blown off the ball often enough to get canned (igglesblog notes that pro football prospectus identifies walker, who igglesblog calls a "no-gap" tackle, as having a 59 percent stop rate on running plays at him, lowest among d-tackles with 25 or more plays). truck driver hasn't stopped drinking since he signed his big contract a few years back. bunkley showed up out of shape and never got into the flow. like it or not, bunkley is important to this defense. if he plays well, patterson can play 3-technique and scott and reagor can be rotation guys.

7) improvement in return game

the coverage teams bounced back and had a pretty good 2006, but we can't say the same about the return game. the return game was bad for both kickoffs and punts. poor return game means poor field position. poor field position means fewer points scored and more points given up. it's an important aspect of the game and the eagles haven't had a good return game since brian mitchell's next to last season.

8) development of sean considine

we all saw the missed tackles last season. he has to play better.

9) play of strong side linebacker

the birds haven't been able to stop the run to the strong side or cover tight ends (any tight ends, not just the good ones) since the departure of carlos emmons and the arrival the bow-tied one. i'm not asking for a whole lot. if we can just get average NFL caliber linebacker play from gocong or bradley, we'll be fine. there are enough playmakers on this defense. all i'm asking for is general competence.

10) can b-dawk still be b-dawk?

brian dawkins will be 34 this season, his 12th in the NFL. can he continue to play at the level we're accustomed to seeing him play? it's important to this team that he does. he's one of the true playmakers on this defense and if is no longer able to make game-changing plays or cover for others' mistakes, it will impact the defense. i'm sure dawk will be effective and takeo spikes may hopefully take some of the playmaking burden, but if he can't range like b-dawk or hit like b-dawk the secondary will be more vulnerable... and as ron jaworski likes to say, "points come from the passing game".

Various Links

- buried in this column about kevin curtis is a note that donte' stallworth opened up the season on the patriots' physically unable to perform list. i hope all the whiners who predicted the end of the world when stallworth left are taking note. this is exactly why the birds didn't want to invest heavily in him.

- some reasons to hope for a decent year from considine

- as always, sal paolantonio is the voice of foolishness. dave brooks notes on the nj.com eagles blog that it's just sal being sal -- i.e. just sal doing his chicken little routine.

- great article about juan castillo in yesterday's paper. sorry again for having openly doubted you in the past.

- interesting mcnabb/garcia comparison by igglesblog about YAC by birds receivers last season.

- bleedinggreen blog found a story about some eagles fans who invaded cowboys training camp.

- early reports on the new white flash are pretty good. of course, i'm not sure how big red is thinking about it, but i wouldn't necessarily link bloom's development or non-development as a receiver to greg lewis' roster spot like a lot of people are doing. lewis showed last year that he can be a very effective gunner in kick coverage. i don't think you're going to want bloom in that role. greg shows that he's the most effective gunner on the team, he probably can assure himself a roster spot.

- one of these two guys is going to be a opening day strong-side linebacker. hope they can play.

Football Outsiders Unit Ranks

in my offseason review post, i noted the football outsiders ranks for each offensive, defensive, and special teams unit -- they ranked the for all 32 teams heading into the 2007 season for fox.com. to recap, here's how they assessed the eagles units:

QB	RB	WR	OL	DL	LB	DB	ST
3	7	21	7	8	24	2	18

looking at all teams, here is how things break down if we average the ranks of the 4 offensive units (QB, RB, WR, OL):

Rank	Team	Off Avg
1	Bengals	4.8
2	Chargers	5.0
3	Patriots	5.5
4	Colts	6.3
5	Eagles	9.5
6	Rams	9.5
7	Ravens	10.3
8	Cowboys	10.8
9	Saints	11.0
10	Jaguars	11.3
11	Seahawks	11.3
12	Steelers	13.0
13	Broncos	13.8
14	49ers	14.3
15	Bears	15.5
16	Redskins	17.0
17	Cardinals	17.3
18	Jets	17.5
19	Chiefs	17.8
20	Vikings	18.8
21	Panthers	19.8
22	Giants	22.0
23	Lions	22.3
24	Dolphins	22.5
25	Falcons	22.5
26	Browns	23.5
27	Packers	24.0
28	Titans	24.8
29	Bills	25.0
30	Buccaneers	25.5
31	Raiders	28.0
32	Texans	28.5

same thing for the three defensive units (DL, LB, DB):

Rank	Team	Def Avg
1	Ravens	4.3
2	Bears	5.0
3	Jaguars	6.0
4	Patriots	6.3
5	Steelers	8.3
6	Cowboys	9.7
7	Chargers	10.7
8	Eagles	11.3
9	Packers	11.3
10	Raiders	11.7
11	Seahawks	13.7
12	Panthers	13.7
13	Dolphins	14.0
14	Vikings	14.3
15	Broncos	16.3
16	Browns	17.3
17	Redskins	18.0
18	Titans	18.0
19	Giants	18.7
20	Buccaneers	19.7
21	49ers	20.0
22	Saints	20.3
23	Bills	20.7
24	Bengals	21.3
25	Chiefs	21.3
26	Colts	22.7
27	Falcons	22.7
28	Cardinals	23.0
29	Texans	25.3
30	Jets	25.7
31	Rams	27.3
32	Lions	29.3

it's certainly not scientific, but heading into the season it appears that FO has the birds at tied for 5th best offense and tied for 8th best defense. seems about right.

doing a straight average of all 8 categories (ST is the 8th), the birds end up ranked 7th, behind the patriots, chargers, ravens, jaguars, bears, and cowboys. of course this is based on talent only and doesn't factor coaching which should clearly drop the chargers, jaguars, and cowboys in those rankings -- with norv turner, jack del rio, and wade phillips coaching those teams.

Eagles Offseason Review

eagles certainly had an interesting offseason to say the least (in a good way). there was a mini-controversy at QB and big red's kids went insane, but mostly it was just good old-fashioned roster upgrading. let's start off with a comparison of what i was hoping the birds would do this offseason vs. what they did do.

QB
the qb was at the center of a short firestorm for a while. at the end of last season, i assumed the birds were going to resign garcia and head into this season with the same QB trio, giving mcnabb some cushion to focus on getting his mcknee mchealthy. unfortunately, garcia wanted starter money after what he "proved" last season (more on that later) and big red never even gave bringing jeff back a second thought -- choosing instead to trade for kelly holcomb to provide additional veteran backup insurance. at this point, we were looking at mcnabb/feeley/holcomb and still feeling ok about the QB position. enter kevin kolb. the birds were targeting safeties in the first round of the draft only to see every first round grade safety taken before their pick. with none of their first round graded players left on board, the birds traded down and selected kolb. don't know much about him, but as i wrote just after the draft, if big red likes him and mornhinweg thinks he's the best worst coast offense QB in the draft, then i'm a believer.

bottom line is that we're looking at mcnabb, feeley, and kolb as our QB corps this season (which football outsiders' ranks 3rd in the nfl)

RB
the birds addressed their RB needs this offseason by drafting a tough runner in tony hunt and adding intriguing fat guy nate ilaoa. expect the birds to drop mahe and either moats or buck as a result. a lot of people are going to list ilaoa as a FB, but i think the birds see him as a bowling ball of a third down back with great hands.

i expect the roster to be - westbrook, hunt, ilaoa, buck (FO rank 7th in NFL)

FB
tapeh seemed to be an upgrade over parry (shudder), but as i think about it more, i wonder if he's not getting the credit he deserves? the running game couldn't have been successful last season if the FB wasn't at least competent, if not pretty good, at blocking. i'll have to pay more attention to him this season (assuming he's on the team)

i expect the birds to go into the season with tapeh as the lone FB, but wouldn't be surprised if they went with no true fullbacks and instead went with a combo of hunt and ilaoa as a platoon since hunt is a terrific blocker and ilaoa is great out of the backfield.

WR
i liked the combo of stallworth, brown, baskett, avant, and lewis and was expecting donte' to re-sign. losing stallworth resulted in the birds probably overpaying for kevin curtis, but i think kevin and donte' are equivalent players.

receiving corps of curtis, brown, baskett, avant, lewis (FO rank 21st in NFL)

TE
big news here is LJ's sports hernia. the birds needed to replace the retired mike bartrum and did with a chad lewis clone in brent celek.

smith, schobel, celek

OL
no OL draft picks for the first time in a while. that's a bit of a surprise big red is usually good for a couple every season, but not really because this is the best OL i've seen in eagles green both in terms of depth and talent. not only do i have no complaints about them, they're one of my favorite units on the team. they have personality, grit, toughness, a mean streak, fat guys, they blow people off the ball... pretty much everything you want to see in an OL.

i'd be surprised to see any changes here - ex-tra thomas, runyan, herremans, andrews, jackson, mccoy, justice, gillies, young, fat nick cole (FO rank 7th in NFL)

DL
an unexpected flurry of activity here. though the draft pick at DE (abiamiri) was expected, darwin walker and truck driver out/ian scott and montae reagor in wasn't. still, the big question is whether bunkley can play at a high level. if he can, this unit can be a force. if he can't this unit will continue to have issues. patterson is not suited to playing on the nose like he did most of last season.

significant change here - kearse, howard, trent cole, abiamiri, juqua thomas, patterson, bunkley, reagor, scott, ramsey (FO rank 8th in NFL)

LB
major, major upgrades at LB... finally. the long nightmare that has been the birds linebacking corps seems to be ending. let's start with takeo spikes. TAKEO SPIKES! this is not the sixers getting chris webber. this is a legitimate warrior with gas still left in his tank. i've been trying to be conservative and keep expectations low until we see him play, but as the season gets closer i can't help but get excited thinking about him in eagles green. TAKEO SPIKES! combine that with addition by subtraction in dumping the bowtied banjo player, moving gaither back to the middle, and drafting a backup plan in case gocong can't play, i think the birds did pretty well. TAKEO SPIKES!

i'm pretty happy a linebacker corps that consists of spikes, gocong, trotter, gaither, mccoy, bradley, and probably daniels, especially compared to past rosters (FO rank 24th in NFL)

DB
safety was a big focus on draft day, but the birds didn't come away with any of the top safeties. instead drafting converted corner cj gaddis from b-dawk's alma mater. sean considine supposedly put on 15 lbs of muscle in the offseason (i'll believe it when i see it). rod hood left as expected, but unexpectedly, will james is back. thankfully, we're not looking at joselio hanson at nickel corner. center fielder rashard barksdale has practice squad written all over him. still, can't complain too much when you have lito, b-dawk, and sheldon roaming in the defensive backfield.

roster looks to be - sheppard, sheldon brown, james, hanson, dawkins, gaddis, considine, mikell (FO rank 2nd in NFL)

ST
hoping for/expecting big contributions from new punter and ex-aussie rules football player saverio rocca and fresh of IR jeremy bloom. akers looks to rebound from a sub-par 2006. coverage teams were solid last season. hopefully they don't take a step back with harbaugh's promotion to defensive assistant. hopefully rocca can beat out incumbent horrible punter dirk johnson.

my hope - akers, rocca, bloom (FO rank 18th in NFL)