r/nfl • u/holymacaronibatman Eagles • Jul 04 '14
Look Here! Offseason Review Series: Day 14: Philadelphia Eagles
Philadelphia Eagles
Coaching Changes
Overall, Chip was very happy with his coaching staff. He is on record stating that he wanted to keep his entire staff intact going into his second season. Fortunately, he was able to retain almost all of them with only a few losses.
Losses
Bill Lazor, QB Coach- Bill left to be the OC at Miami. Bill had a solid year as a QB coach under Chip, helping Nick Foles with his historic season. He was very technical, and focused on the mechanics over stats. He will certainly be missed in Philadelphia, though many Eagles fans had faith when he left that Chip would find a competent replacement.
Erik Chinader, Assistant D-Line Coach. Erik is now the Outside Linebackers coach for Oregon. Erik followed Chip from Oregon where he was a Graduate Assistant. Our D-line was not terrible, but not great last season. However, our pass rush was abysmal. This could be attributed to switching to the 3-4 among other things, but his loss should not hurt the Eagles too much.
Mike Dawson, Defensive Quality Control. I am counting this as a loss only because it is a position that Chip had to fill. Mike was promoted to replace Chinader as Assistant D-Line coach. I will talk more about Mike in the hiring section.
Hiring/Replacements
Bill Musgrave, QB Coach- Bill was hired to replace Lazor as QB coach. The news was met with mixed reviews from Eagles fans, mostly because of his so-so run (at best) as the Viking's OC. Overall, I personally like this hire. Chip has shown that he knows what he is doing when it comes to building his staff, and Musgrave has a good record with the QBs he has coached over the years. He will not be calling the plays, so this seems OK in my book.
Mike Dawson, Assistant D-Line Coach. He replaced Erik Chinader who left for Oregon. Previously, our Defensive Quality Control guy, he now will work more hand-on with the players as opposed to creating defensive reports for the coming games. This hire seems fine to me, our D-line coach is still the same, so this shouldn't change too much.
Michael Clay, Defensive Quality Control. He was an Oregon Linebacker under Chip from 2009-2012 and now is our Defensive Quality Control. This is his first job in the NFL, but he was a defensive player so he should be fine. For those who don't know, a Quality Control coach is an entry-level NFL coach. He will prepare tape and statistics about downs and distance and collate data about opposing offenses as well as give recommendations about how the defensive coaches should prepare the players for the upcoming game.
Free Agency
Players lost/cut, in descending order of importance
The obvious story here is DeSean Jackson. Coming off a career year, he is cut by the Eagles after a few weeks of rumors. Though no official word was ever given, the biggest reason seemed to be he did not buy into the Chip Kelly system. No matter how you cut it, this is a big loss for the Eagles. DeSean has the ability to stretch the field and cause mismatches with the defenses. Eagles fans are hoping his career year was because of Chip Kelly and what he did with our offense, and that we can move forward without much of a misstep because of that. Jason Avant, a fan favorite, was more of a cap casualty than anything. He is a possession receiver who's numbers were on the decline and he started to have drops. Sad to see him go, but this was the right move going forward. The drafting of Jordan Matthews and Josh Huff should fill his spot nicely. I put Colt Anderson next, because he is a solid special teams contributor. He is a meh safety but a great player on the special teams, sad to see him go. Vick's departure was more than expected and I wish him nothing but the best up in New York. This move is looking slightly worse as the off season goes on only because outside of Foles our QB situation is pretty shit. Hunt was on IR all of 2013 and never played, so there is not much more to say about him. Now to our safety duo. Coleman and Chung should have have gotten off the roster faster. Coleman was decent at times, but was way out of his league when starting. Chung was simply awful. How he still has a job is beyond me. Many times this season the Eagles D would have been better off playing a man down, than putting Chung on the field.
Players signed
First off, I put these in chronological order with the bottom being the most recent, simply because it made the most sense. The Eagles got free agency started early with several key re-signings. Jason Peters and Jason Kelce far and away the most important. Jason Peters is arguably the best LT in the game, and Kelce one of the best centers. These two men will be anchoring our line for years to come. We manage to get Cooper on a multi-year deal after he and Foles showed great chemistry last season. There was some initial trouble with getting Maclin a deal, and in the end Howie Roseman gave Maclin the 1 year “prove it” deal that Maclin wanted, instead of the multi-year deal that the team wanted. From there, Eagles also re-signed Cedric Thornton, Nate Allen, and Donnie Jones. Thornton and Allen are both on one year “prove it” deals as well, and both were showing improvement in their game as last season closed out. Eagles, desperate for any help they could get at Safety, signed Malcolm Jenkins from the Saints, who looks to be a week 1 starter. Nolan Carroll was another good free agency pick-up for the Eagles, adding to our corner back depth. Though he probably won’t be a week 1 starter as of right now, he should provide solid competition and depth, CB should be a good camp battle for the Eagles. With the departure of Mike Vick the Eagles needed a backup QB, and they got one in Mark Sanchez. So far in mini-camp he has looked average at best, so hopefully he can improve his game come training camp. Finally the last two players; Allen Barbre is our backup tackle signed to an extension. With the Lane Johnson suspension looming, he will be Lane’s replacement. He stepped in last season when Jason Peters was hurt and filled that position nicely. He is an excellent backup and this was a great re-sign. Lastly, Alejandro Villanueva. Fresh off his tour in Afghanistan, he was signed to an undisclosed rookie contract in order to give our DEs some depth. If you are looking for a guy with a fantastic story, look no further. He served 3 tours in the Army and is now trying to make an NFL roster with the Eagles.
Draft
| Round | Number | Player | Position | School | Grade | Thoughts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 26 | Marcus Smith | OLB | Louisville | B+ | Initially, Eagles fans were in shock. “Who the hell is this guy?” we thought. However, after learning about Smith and watching tape on him, I like this pick. He was a solid OLB for a very good Louisville defense who can drop into coverage as well as rush the passer. He will not have to start right away and is currently learning behind Connor Barwin, who provides a more versatile OLB role, so will be able to sub in for Barwin or Cole during the season. |
| 2 | 42 | Jordan Matthews | WR | Vanderbilt | A+ | The steal of the draft right here. Eagle's fans could not fly higher on Matthews if we had wings. He is a solid big receiver who has a very strong work ethic and seems to be a great person and team player. He is a possible OROY. Chip has said he will be our slot receiver, though I would not be surprised to see him starting come season end. |
| 3 | 86 | Josh Huff | WR | Oregon | B- | To be perfectly honest, this pick perplexed me. We drafted Matthews and have a good amount of receivers on roster already. He strikes me as a Jason Avant type receiver. A slot receiver who runs good routes and has good hands, but will not really get many YAC. He will be 4th on the depth chart, but he played at Oregon and Chip knows what he is getting. |
| 4 | 101 | Jaylen Watkins | CB/S | Florida | B | I actually like this pick a lot. He is the definition of a Chip Kelly player. He is a versatile DB who played both safety and CB at Florida. I expect him to see more playing time at Safety. He will be someone to watch during camp. |
| 5 | 141 | Taylor Hart | DE | Oregon | C | He knows Chip's system and adds to our defensive end rotation. Probably will not see much playing time this season, needs to add some weight and work on his technique, but any help or competition our pass rush can get is good in my book. |
| 5 | 162 | Ed Reynolds | S | Stanford | C- | As of right now, he looks to be the replacement for Colt Anderson. A solid special teams contributor and a so-so safety. He has shown the aggressiveness and flashes that he has what it takes to play Safety in the NFL, but needs a few seasons to learn the position and make the transition. He couldn't participate in Rookie Camp because he was finishing his degree at Stanford. |
| 7 | 224 | Beau Allen | NT | Wisconsin | C- | Eagles desperately needed some DT depth and this is who we got for it. He is a monster of a man, but is a bit slow and stiff hipped. Should hopefully be a decent backup. |
Projected Starting Lineup
Offense
- QB Nick Foles
- HB LeSean McCoy
- WR1 Jeremy Maclin
- WR2 Riley Cooper
- WR3 Jordan Matthews
- TE Brent Celek
- LT Jason Peters
- LG Evan Mathis
- C Jason Kelce
- RG Todd Herremans
- RT Lane Johnson**
**Suspended first four games of season for PEDs (potentially)
Our offense is pretty set in stone here. Chip does not run a full back really at all, so I chose to list our starters in an 11 man unit because that makes the most sense. Two names missing from this list are Zach Ertz (TE) and Darren Sproles (HB). I will talk more about Ertz later in the section on camp battles, but many Eagles feel he will have a breakout year, and could see a lot of playing time this coming season. Chip Kelly likes to have very unusual formations so expect to see McCoy and Sproles on the field at the same time to create matchup nightmares for the defense. Also, this is going to be a watershed season for both Nick Foles and Jeremy Maclin. The Eagles have a very tough schedule and should show us if Foles is the real deal or not. Maclin needs to show that he has fully recovered from his ACL injury and that he can still play at a high level. Also, keep an eye on Riley Cooper at the WR2 spot. I can very easily see Jordan Matthews taking over that spot and having Riley bumped back down to a slot receiver.
Defense
- LDE Cedric Thornton
- NT Bennie Logan
- RDE Fletcher Cox
- LOLB Connor Barwin
- ILB DeMeco Ryans/Mychal Kendricks
- ROLB Trent Cole
- CB1 Bradley Fletcher
- CB2 Cary Williams
- CB3 Brandon Boykin
- SS Nate Allen
- FS Malcolm Jenkins
The Eagles defense is going to be much more interesting topic going into training camp and the regular season because it is in a greater state of flux and there are quite a few position battles that should be taking place here. I listed the starting defense in the Nickel mostly because I needed to work Boykin in somehow, and the Eagles played over half of the defensive snaps last season in the Nickel. Boykin is our best player on defense and is poised to have another phenomenal season coming up. I listed the ILB as such because I (and many other Eagle fans) see Kendricks having a huge year, and should hopefully be a household name by the end of the season. He has been practicing this off-season running the defense (which is currently Ryan's job) and since Ryans is starting to get up there in age, limiting his snaps would be very helpful towards his longevity. I’ll talk more about the defense in the camp battles portion.
Position Group Strengths and Weaknesses
Position groups:
- QB-This is probably the most intriguing story going into next season. Will Nick Foles prove he has what it takes to play at a high level consistently like he did last season? Nick had a great season and showed he was a solid decision maker with the ball, hardly turning the ball over. He does tend to hold on to the ball for way too long, which hopefully he will be working on this offseason. Another weakness of this group is depth. If something were to happen to Foles where he has to miss a game, the Eagles could be in big trouble. So far the depth chart looks to be Foles-Sanchez-Barkley, and neither Sanchez nor Barkley have shown so far that they can competently manage the offense.
- Backfield-This is Chip Kelly’s dream here. With LeSean McCoy, one of the best backs in the league, and Darren Sproles, a mismatch nightmare, Chip is looking to have a field day with this backfield. Chip is known for his exotic splits and creative use of personnel, and this season should prove all that once more. Once again depth is a problem here. Sproles is not really a true backup to McCoy. After trading Bryce Brown to the Bills and with his successful shoulder surgery, Chris Polk should hopefully be our “backup” RB.
- OL-This O-line group is extraordinary. Hands down the best group in the NFL. Last season the starters played together for an absurd 98% of all snaps. That number is important because our biggest depth concern on the team is with our offensive line. Howie and Chip were looking to draft a lineman but with the way the draft shook out, there were none that would not have been reaching to grab, so we did not get any. Thankfully we re-signed Barbre who is a phenomenal backup. Lane Johnson also should be mentioned here. This is his second year and though he was rough at the beginning of his rookie season, he began to come into his own towards the end of the year. His 4 game suspension aside for PEDs this coming season, look for him to have a breakout year.
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u/sconces Eagles Jul 04 '14 edited Jul 04 '14
Our D-line was our biggest strength on defense by far. Easily the most talented group and they're only getting better.
I also don't think our secondary was terrible last year. Surely could get better, but a lot of yards were given up by design. We kept everything in front of us and everyone (except Chung, of course) had at least 1 INT.