Monday, August 20, 2007

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.

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6 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I would like to ask everyone to downgrade expectations for Celek. He's rapidly becoming another LJ Smith. It seems like every summer, the media and fans pick another offensive guy to over-hype based on meaningless practice reps and preseason games. Just over the past couple years, we've been treaed to the pending greatness of G. Lewis, Baskett, Moats, and LJ. Let's all take a deep breath and settle down a bit.

2:23 PM EDT  
Blogger The Mean Guy said...

fair point, phil.

however, i'd like to clarify that i personally did no hyping of any of the players you listed.

i'm totally sold on brent celek, however, he has *it*. i may be crazy, but i seriously expect him to be the best eagles tight end since keith jackson.

2:36 PM EDT  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Didn't mean to say you were. I just don't want the collective Philly "us" to jinx yet another offensive player.

I've heard Celek compared to the Chad more than Jackson. And I'd be totally fine with that as Lewis was a very solid player. I just want to see him castigated by the fans when he JUST turns out to be a solid player vs. a constant pro-bowl guy.

2:50 PM EDT  
Blogger The Mean Guy said...

i expect celek to have many of the traits that chad lewis did, well, expect for the part where chad fell to the ground every time his hands touched the football.

if celek catches the ball like chad but is able to remain standing upright while holding said ball, that should make him the best eagles tight end since keith jackson.

in addition, while i certainly don't mean to imply that he'll end up being be anywhere close to the player that jackson was, i have been more than impressed with his agility and his ability to pivot his hips while keeping his upper body relatively stationary. as a comparison, i swear that LJ cannot turn his shoulders more than 20 degrees in relation to his hips. he looks like he's stuck in one of those halo things they put on people who have broken necks.

LJ may be an explosive athlete, but he struggles to get open because he's not agile. i am shocked at how agile celek is.

3:05 PM EDT  
Blogger Rgzgbh said...

TMG, weren't you the guy who fell in love with Hank Baskett:)

5:10 AM EDT  
Blogger The Mean Guy said...

i freely admit that i did fall in love with the hype surrounding him. when both jaws and ray didinger started raving about him, i did get caught up in the hoopla and ended up taking him way to high in fantasy football.

so this may be a fine distinction, but while i actively posted scouting reports on baskett, i never actually hyped him myself. celek, on the other hand, is someone who jumps out at me right away as someone who is going to make it in the league.

8:53 AM EDT  

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