Asante Samuel in Town

as reported by a number of media outlets and confirmed by the eagles, asante samuel is in town and is expected to sign with the birds today. he's the best corner available and the birds are awash in cap room, so i'm pretty happy with the signing. not thrilled necessarily because i think he's a little overrated and i'm not sure exactly how he fits into jj's defense (considering jj likes to play man on the outside and ne played a lot of zone), but adding a playmaker to the team is almost always a good thing.

gcobb is speculating that this is a precursor to a lito to arizona trade for larry fitzgerald. i'm more excited about the samuel (possible) signing opening up this option than with the signing itself. larry fitzgerald can be a difference making player for the birds. i was hoping the samuel speculation earlier in the week might lead to something like this.

one thing that is going to annoy me about the signing is that the morons at wip are going to say the eagles are "finally changing their cheap ways and opening up the wallets to sign free agents", when that is an absurd position to take. do the eagles sign big free agents every year? no? but there also aren't difference making free agents every year. when there are free agents that the eagles really like, they have always been willing to pony up with a big contract, even when ray rhodes was coaching.

jevon kearse
troy vincent
darren howard
lecharles bentley (who ultimately spurned them to go home to cleveland)
kevin curtis
carlos emmons
jon runyan
steve everitt
kevin turner

have they always been right? no, but my gut tells me that they're probably better than most at hitting on their high dollar free agents. cheapness has not been a factor. they horde their cash waiting for the right players (or what they perceive to be the right players) rather than foolishly spending their money on fringe players just because they're the "best available".

if they get samuel and fitzgerald and are able to improve their passrush, the eagles will be one of the top 2-3 teams in the nfl this year.

World's Smallest Bodybuilder

at first glance, i was sure this was a photoshop but it's freaking real. this guy is awesome




















read about it here.

some eagles thoughts:

1) LJ stinks - have no idea why they'd want to commit that much money to keeping him.

2) kudos to eli manning for being a decent game manager in the playoffs, but he still stinks. superbowl should have ended when asante samuel dropped the pick.

3) giants may have the best overall passrush i've seen in years, maybe ever. that was the single biggest factor in the superbowl.

4) eagles are not that far off but they need to shore up a few areas (WR, DE, DB). terrell suggs and jared allen are not going anywhere. the one guy who is semi-available and no one is really talking about is larry fitzgerald. if i were the birds, i'd do anything i could to get that guy. i think he's a better player than chad johnson and less of a headcase. he has some of the best hands in football and probably only randy moss has better ball skills in the nfl. if i could only have one thing for the birds, it would be larry fitzgerald. i've never seen him drop a pass -- at pitt or in the pros.

5) i think spagnuolo showed this year that the guts of jj's defense still works as long as you have the players to run it. the eagles lack of success at acquiring difference making defensive ends either in the draft or free agency may be one of the big things holding jj back recently.