Bumble Thoughts

posted by bumble in comments:

The truth about the Birds lies somewhere far away from these turds. I generally agree with the Birds approach:

1. Don't leverage the future for the present-trading 2 first rounders for Boldin is assinine. the only player you even consider doing that for is a QB in his prime-Brady.

2. Be fiscally responsible-pay guys worth paying.

3. Value QB, OT, DE, and CB. Every other part is interchangeable.

4. Draft best talent available. If no first round talent matches the level you'd get in round two, trade it and get more in round two and pay less for it.

5. Be consistent in your coaches and message. The longevity of familiar faces builds trust.

6. NEVER publicly throw players or any member of the organization under the bus.

All of these core tenets are great and admirable. Where I scratch my head and get down on them stems from some of the following:

1. You throw the ball 70% of the time, yet your WR stink. The one year you had a stud WR, your offense was untouchable and your QB had a career, hall of fame type year. Your QB is supposedly your best player and most valued player, why constantly give him Torrance Small, James Thrash, Reggie Brown, Na Brown, Hank Baskett, and Todd Pinkston to throw to? I feel bad for McNabb because of their unwillingness to get an elite WR who could elevate him to the player he can be. Brady has Moss, Romo has TO, Manning has Wayne and Harrison, Young had Rice, Aikman had Irvin. I realize that you may not get one of those all time WR, but you can't do better than starting the season with Jason Avant, LJ Smith, Hank Baskett, and a rookie? That makes zero sense to me.

2. Big Red is stubborn. Stop with the arguments. the man IS stubborn. how else do you explain the terrible game day adjustments when your game plan clearly doesn't work. Yumeniora made his season sacking Don 6 times. Reid never chipped and helped out on him because "that wasn't the game plan". When his plan works they succeed, but he cannot adjust on the fly.

3. Reid is a piss poor clock manager 10 years in. he will undoubtedly blow a time out or two tomorrow because he cannot get the play in or has the wrong personnel package. that either means your plays require too much thought and verbiage or your personnel packages aren't flexible enough. I am sick of this every game after 10 years.

4. Reid makes some awful draft/free agent decisions that he does not admit and amend. Justice sucks. I don't want to hear how the coaches must see something. He was moved to RT and he can't block. My eyes tell me he sucks and if he ever plays a snap, they are in trouble. Admit the error, cut him and move on. Why keep his roster spot from a betetr athlete? Mahe fit this bill as did Pinkston and Parry.

5. The organization doesn't know how to hanle controversy well. TO kileld that season, now Lito and dickheadhaus are popping off, how can that be good? At some point you knew both issues would blow up and you did nothing. Cut the player or trade the player, but you cannot keep malcontents.

I expect this year to be 10-6, but this team is not of championship caliber. All of the sabermaticians forecasting big things for them just need something to kick up dust. The team lacks big play people (aside from 36) and needs long sustained drives to score. They also lack playmakers at DE who can change the passing game. Their special teams are so-so. That is not a championship team. Donny will will them to 10 wins, but there is too much age at OT and not enough studs int eh stable for a deep run.

I am a realist, not a sheep. This team does some great things and some head scratching things. On the whole they're better than most teams, but not in the upepr echelon of teams. I think that is a fair assessment.

i'd like to discuss some of your closing thoughts one at a time:

1. You throw the ball 70% of the time, yet your WR stink.

see that's the thing, they don't stink. there's no true number one wideout on the team right now (though jackson could develop into one), but how many true number ones are there in the league? 6? 7? i think this wideout corps is fine as long as donovan gets protection.

the real problem is that people are fixated on the notion of upgrading the wideouts and for some reason people think that andy *doesn't want* better wideouts. why would andy not want better wideouts? that's just silly. he wants to have the best wideouts possible on the team, but he can't throw his current wideouts under the bus. he says "we can win with the wideouts we have". this is a true statement.

the bottom line is that actions speak louder than words. every time a true number one wideout has become available or possibly available -- except for randy moss to the patriots -- the eagles have been involved. the patriots were the only team interested in randy moss when he was moving out of oakland. recall there were rumors that he was done at the time. aside from that, every time a number one has become available the eagles have been active. this offseason they made a run at randy moss, roy williams, larry fitzgerald, and anquan boldin. none of those guys changed teams.

true number ones rarely change teams unless they are truly insane. how many number ones have changed teams recently? i miss how explosive the eagles offense was with me-o too, but you can't make teams trade you their players.

2. Big Red is stubborn. Stop with the arguments. the man IS stubborn. how else do you explain the terrible game day adjustments when your game plan clearly doesn't work. Yumeniora made his season sacking Don 6 times. Reid never chipped and helped out on him because "that wasn't the game plan". When his plan works they succeed, but he cannot adjust on the fly.

is he stubborn or too methodical? it seems to me that you're accusing him of both things in the same paragraph. i believe it's the latter. stubborn implies that he sticks with something that he knows is not going to work. andy has his philosophies and he's proven right more often than not. that's not stubborn. that's believing in yourself. i definitely agree that his in game management is not quite what you call nimble, but that's not due to stubbornness. he's just not a quick thinker.

3. Reid is a piss poor clock manager 10 years in. he will undoubtedly blow a time out or two tomorrow because he cannot get the play in or has the wrong personnel package. that either means your plays require too much thought and verbiage or your personnel packages aren't flexible enough. I am sick of this every game after 10 years.

agree, but this happens to every team. the colts blew their timeouts in both halves tonight.

4. Reid makes some awful draft/free agent decisions that he does not admit and amend. Justice sucks. I don't want to hear how the coaches must see something. He was moved to RT and he can't block. My eyes tell me he sucks and if he ever plays a snap, they are in trouble. Admit the error, cut him and move on. Why keep his roster spot from a betetr athlete? Mahe fit this bill as did Pinkston and Parry.

every analysis shows his drafting is well above average in the nfl. no team is infallible. everyone makes some bad picks. justice is a backup. why cut him if you don't have someone better on the roster or who's available as a free agent? you're assuming there are better athletes out there who are available to replace them at that moment. not always true.

5. The organization doesn't know how to hanle controversy well. TO kileld that season, now Lito and dickheadhaus are popping off, how can that be good? At some point you knew both issues would blow up and you did nothing. Cut the player or trade the player, but you cannot keep malcontents.

the eagles aren't alone with disgruntled players. should every team just be dumping these guys for pennies on the dollar just because they complain?