Via Tim McManus, on DRC's $21,000 fine:
“Regrets? We’re playing football, man,” Rodgers-Cromartie said. “The Bible said don’t live a life of regret.”
The Decision: Cornerback
The roster cuts at cornerback are particularly interesting because there's such a mish-mash of styles, experience levels, and upside among the group. Unlike at linebacker, for example, where most of the decision comes down to the last spot, there are three or four different potential combinations of players the Eagles could end up with.
Let's start, where else, with the starters. Nnamdi Asomugha and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie make a formidable pair of corners. I'm optimistic, especially about DRC, now that he's in his normal spot on the outside. Hopefully Juan Castillo will use Asomugha better this year, and he'll show some of his Pro Bowl form.
The only question with Nnamdi is his age. I ran a screen for cornerbacks who, since 1990, started at least 14 games in their age 30 season. That's a set that roughly represents Asomugha's health and skill set as of last year. After that season, the 59 cornerbacks I tracked (excluding active players) started an average of 35 more games in the rest of their career — 11 at age 31, 8.5 at 32, 6 at 33, and declining further beyond that. Note that such numbers include games started at safety, where many older corners finish their careers.
While we don't yet know how Asomugha will hold up going forward, both in skill and health, this may be a good guide for estimating his longevity: don't count on him being a starting-caliber corner beyond another year or two. That affects how you decide who to cut around him.
After the starters, there are two young players who will definitely make the team: Curtis Marsh and Brandon Boykin. But how far along they are along will greatly impact the final open spots. Ideally, Marsh and Boykin would be the third and fourth cornerbacks, with the former outside and the latter taking over the slot. However, it's not at all clear that they are ready for such responsibility.
That leaves a big question mark next to the name of Joselio Hanson. Going into training camp, Hanson was on the outside looking in. He was cut last year (before being re-signed to a lower salary) and then the team drafted his replacement in Boykin. Plus, last year the Eagles performed rather miserably in the dime defense — the formation he was most often involved in. All that said, it doesn't seem that Boykin has taken hold of the position just yet. Hanson is the only remaining veteran on the depth chart. Can the Eagle afford to ditch him just yet?
If the team stays with only five cornerbacks, Brandon Hughes is the player who could make it instead of Hanson. Hughes is a solid special teams player and has more experience than either Marsh or Boykin, making him a potentially worthwhile addition. On the other hand, his upside isn't as high as either of the other two players, so if he isn't an upgrade on them now, there may not be a spot for him.
Finally, there's Cliff Harris. Before getting injured, the undrafted free agent made headlines in training camp grabbing interceptions left and right. Depending on his return to the field, Harris might be someone you stash as a sixth cornerback instead of risking that he wouldn't make it to the practice squad.
Predicting cornerback this year is tough because there are so many unknown factors. Most importantly, we don't know how much Todd Bowles and the rest of the defensive coaches trust Marsh and Boykin, nor how much they want to replace Hanson. Reading the tea leaves on the latter, it doesn't seem like they want to keep the veteran corner around. But I personally haven't seen anything that yet that would make me comfortable with the younger guys getting significant playing time.
The easiest way to project cuts is to be safe, and assume that the team goes heavy on cornerbacks with 6 players, keeping Hanson and Hughes. Harris will probably make it to the practice squad. That's what I'm leaning toward right now, although tomorrow I may be back on the bandwagon for ditching Hanson. Note that the youngsters could make the decision a lot easier by playing well in the next two preseason games.
Photo from Getty.
A Changed DeSean, A Changed Locker Room?
Tim McManus brings us comments from other players about DeSean Jackson's new attitude, including this gem:
“He’s different towards me,” said Jason Kelce. “I don’t know if that has anything to do with the contract or whatever. I think all around he’s just in a better mood.
“We know each other a lot better now so it’s much more of a friendship rather than a co-worker type of relationship like it was last year.”
I know this seems like an innocuous quote. Why would we expect Kelce and Jackson to have anything more than a co-worker type of relationship, anyway? They don't play in the same unit and by all accounts have quite different personalities.
But one of the problems the Eagles had last year was chemistry. There was little to no credible veteran leadership. Disgruntled players like DeSean and Asante cast long shadows in the locker room. And everyone was just trying to dodge the stupid "Dream Team" moniker. It remains to be seen how much better the Eagles will be on the field, but at least they seem to have patched some of the fissures off of it.
Game Rewind: Preseason Week One
Jake Louden, blogger at Eagles Fan 4 Life and on Twitter @EaglesJake, made some great videos where he highlighted every play of a few key Eagles in last week's first preseason game. Let's go through them with some notes.
Here's the first one, starting with King Dunlap:
Overall, my impression of Dunlap is mixed, as he's playing mostly against second-teamers. In pass protection, he doesn't let up much of any pressure, although the Steelers rarely seem to put much energy into attacking.
His run blocking was suspect. Especially compared to Jason Peters rampaging through the second level, blowing up defenders, Dunlap looks passive out there. He rarely finished blocks to the whistle and often finds himself in the middle of the field just half-heartedly looking for a defender close enough to block. If Dunlap gets his long arms on someone, that person probably isn't getting by him, but too often he just seems to let guys go.
Also, the rest of the second-team offensive line does not inspire confidence. Not that I'm expecting much from rookies like Dennis Kelly, but Julian Vandervelde? Yikes. He gets beat and/or knocked on his butt multiple times.
A look back at DeMeco Ryans's combine numbers shows that he was never a particularly fast or strong guy. Today, he certainly doesn't look like the best athlete on the field. He's not a dominating presence in the middle. In fact, there are a number of times where I expected Ryans to get to the ball faster or get off a block that he's tied up on.
Still, it's easy to see that he's going to be a major upgrade in the middle for the Eagles. Comparing Dunlap to Peters may not have helped, but Ryans gets points for looking so much better than Jamar Chaney. His biggest asset seems to be diagnosing plays quickly and knowing where he needs to get to. Ryans doesn't always make it there in time, but you can see he's knows what hole he's supposed to plug or which receiver is his responsibility. Those simple things will go a long way.
Finally, we get to the rookie Mychal Kendricks. On second viewing, Kendricks looked just as good to me as he did live. He's fast and can be a sure tackler in space. Not everything is clicking yet, but he looks a mile ahead of where Casey Matthews was a year ago. I hope he's soaking in the lessons from Ryans next to him. Kendricks's physical talent plus Ryans's veteran acumen could make a powerful combination.
The Decision: Safety
The Eagles have a problem at safety and his name is Jaiquawn Jarrett. The team's second round pick a year ago, Jarrett simply doesn't look like an NFL player, let alone one who can step up and start if necessary. I drew up a frame-by-frame analysis of the Steelers fourth and one conversion, in which Jarrett had a starring role, but unfortunately it was lost into the interwebs. We'll have to move on under the assumption that you already know exactly how bad he's been.
With Jarrett looking like a liability in every facet of the game, keeping him on the 53-man roster—once a forgone conclusion—becomes close to impossible. Unless you're still invested in the sunk cost of the second round pick (get over it) or you expect him to improve quickly (don't count on it), any roster spot he takes up is a waste.
The Eagles really only need a maximum of four safeties. Nate Allen and Kurt Coleman are your default starters. I'm not excited about either player and in fact have concerns about their abilities, but after watching Jarrett be the sole cause of destruction last week, I'm willing to accept some level of risk on that front. There's certainly some upside where those two are involved.
After the starters, you need one solid backup to dress on gamedays. This player needs to be able to step up in case of injury or simply to replace an underperforming starter (see above). We're not talking spectacular here, or even average—just someone who isn't going to embarrass himself. That counts out Jarrett and leaves only one real option: O.J. Atogwe.
That's three safeties. Doesn't the team normally keep four, you say? Couldn't Jarrett be stashed there until we're sure he's hopeless? Yes, that's possible. However, it prevents two more attractive roster options. The first is keeping a fourth safety who can be the special teams maven for Bobby April. Last year that was Colt Anderson, and reports say he's close to returning from injury. Even if the team decides to place Anderson on PUP for six weeks, they have a similar player in Tom Nelson. There's some evidence to suggest that April has sway over the final roster spots. It seems likely he'll use that influence to keep a player like Nelson or Anderson.
The second option is that (at least until Anderson returns from injury) the Eagles go with only three safeties and use the extra roster spot to load up on one of their more talent-laden positions. After all, why stretch to accomodate a poor backup at safety when you would rather keep a fifth defensive tackle or sixth cornerback. Depending on the progress of their rehabbing special teams ace, that's the road I see the Eagles taking right now.
In any scenario, you can say goodbye to Jarrett.
Photo from Getty.
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Same As It Ever Was
Deep breaths.
It was just the first preseason game. We can't expect greatness. We can't even reasonably expect quality. So why do I feel so disappointed after last night's first preseason game? I think theguyotc summed it up well in 140 characters:
The reason people are freaking out over a preseason game is because almost everything bad we've seen we also saw last year.
— the guy (@theguyotc) August 10, 2012#Eagles
Yep, that's it. It isn't the fact that we saw many issues with the team—it's that they were the exact same issues that killed playoff hopes in 2011. Watching the first team defense, I briefly wondered if I was seeing a greatest hits collection of last year's worst tackling attempts. Then there were the deja vu coverage breakdowns. That wasn't supposed to happen. Everyone knew what the problems were and they were getting fixed, right? Let's talk highlights and lowlights:
- Brian Rolle looked worse than I've ever seen him. Really poor angles to the ball, completely whiffed tackles. Shouldn't he have improved this offseason, not regressed?
- On the other hand, some positive signs from rookie Mychal Kendricks. He certainly wasn't perfect, but Kendricks was the only starting linebacker who I saw make a clean wrap-up tackle (twice).
- The whole team is lucky that Michael Vick didn't break a finger or three when his hand slammed into Jason Kelce's helmet. Vick deserves more than to be judged on his first two short series, but initial impressions weren't great. He stepped into pressure multiple times when he had a mostly clean pocket. (Although Kelce shouldn't be getting pushed back either.)
- While we're on the subject of injuries, I hold my breath every time LeSean McCoy touches the ball in the preseason.
- Alex Henery's game-winning field goal was Akers-esque.
- Mike Kafka threw a terrible interception on a screen pass. There isn't a quarterback competition, but Nick Foles looked more poised out there than Kafka.
- The defensive line did stand out. The Steelers o-line was a revolving door all night and some of that may have been on them. Still, at least so far, Jim Washburn is delivering on his promise for an even better line—and that was without both starting ends. Philip Hunt and Brandon Graham looked like Pro-Bowlers for 20 minutes.
- Also exciting: the return game. Brandon Boykin erased all memories of Dion Lewis with his first kick return, and Damaris Johnson showed DeSean-like quickness on punts. Brought tears to my eyes (not really).
- Not faulting Nnamdi Asomugha for the touchdown, which looked like a Jaiquawn Jarrett special. However, Antonio Brown did beat him badly one-on-one for a quick slant route. Quickness isn't really Nnamdi's strength at this point.
- Finally, Nate Allen will look like a Pro Bowler when he comes back and replaces Jarrett. This image is going to haunt my nightmares:
Roster Competition: The 53-Man Gauntlet
Tonight, we'll see the Eagles suit up and play for the first time this year. Preseason games are a limited and often useless tool for judging the team's prospects, but we can certainly start speculating as to what the team might look like come week one. Some esteemed writers have already started to release their early roster projections. I'm not at that prediction point yet, but it's still worth analyzing where we're at in terms of the 53-man squad.
When you look at the roster right now, you can separate the competition into three categories. There are the locks, players who have roster spots sewn up, barring injury. Then there are the position battles, where we know there is a backup spot to be claimed. Finally, there are the discretionary spots, in which players compete across the team for those final extra jobs that round out the roster.
Let's get the locks out of the way first:
- QB (3) - Vick, Kafka, Foles
- RB (2) - McCoy, Lewis
- TE (2) - Celek, Harbor
- WR (5) - Jackson, Maclin, Avant, Cooper, McNutt
- OL (7) - Bell, Mathis, Kelce, Watkins, Herremans, Dunlap, Vandervelde
- DE (4) - Cole, Babin, Graham, Curry
- DT (3) - Jenkins, Cox, Landri (Patterson to PUP)
- LB (5) - Kendricks, Ryans, Rolle, Chaney, Matthews
- CB (4) - Asomugha, Rodgers-Cromartie, Boykin, Marsh
- S (3) - Allen, Coleman, Jarrett
- ST (2) - Henery, Dorenbos
That's 40 out of 53 spots that I have in the bag right now. Yes, even Jarrett. He seems to be doing enough to keep around, thankfully.
Where do we go from here? The position battles, i.e where two or more players are competing for at least one assured job after final cuts (favorites in italics):
- RB (1) - Brown vs. Polk
- FB (1) - Havili vs. Igwenagu vs. free agent TBD
- WR/RET (1) - Hall vs. Johnson
- C/G (1) - Reynolds vs. Gibson vs. free agent TBD
- G/T (1) - Kelly vs. Washington vs. free agent TBD
- DE (1) - Tapp vs. Hunt
- DT (1) - Dixon vs. Thornton
- LB (1) - Jordan vs. Clayton
- CB (1) - Hanson vs. Hughes
- S (1) - Atogwe vs. Anderson (potential PUP candidate)
- ST (1) - McBriar vs. Henry
That's 11 more spots taken, representing all the major spots of competition to keep an eye on during tonight's game. Then the coaches will have two more spots to play with and use at their discretion. That's where all our expert predictions will really be tested. Which of the above position battles will end with two players that deserve to stay?
The Eagles could keep an extra offensive lineman. They could go heavy on the defensive front, especially with current injuries to three starters. Cliff Harris could sneak on to the roster at cornerback if the team is worried he won't make it to the practice squad. They have Brett Brackett if they want to carry three tight ends. And if Colt Anderson doesn't make it back in time for week one, does Bobby April get to keep a different special teams ace?
So many possibilities. Only 53 jobs.
Photo from Getty.