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Tuesday, March 30, 2004

Bird Bits... 

James Thrash is off to the Redskins. It was very disappointing that he has never more productive than he actually was. Pinkston has been a disappointment too, but his strong performance at the end of the 2003 season suggest that he'll continue to improve and he'll make a good compliment to T.O.

Speaking of T.O.: McNabb sounds positively giddy about T.O. on the team. I'm sure it feels nice to McNabb to finally have some positive news about the Eagles free agent signings. To McNabb's credit, he's always defended management even when I'm sure he privately hated their willingness to let vets go. I think it speaks highly of his leadership skills that he tries to put the best spin on things and that he deals with bad news so calmly.

The Birds got some compensatory picks in the draft because of free agent losses: even 4th and 7th rounders can be productive players.

That's all for now. More later.

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Sunday, March 28, 2004

Enter … The Freak!  

The big story of the 2004 off-season has been mostly focused on two things: the acquisition of Terrell Owens from the 49ers, and the usual hemorrhage of veteran free agents like Bobby Taylor, Troy Vincent, Carlos Emmons and Duce Staley. Lost in the shuffle of T.O.’s arrival has been the Eagles surprising acquisition of Titans Defensive End Jevon Kearse (a.k.a., “The Freak”).

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I call the Kearse acquisition surprising in the context that the Eagles have refused to lock considerable sums of money into long-term contracts with veteran players. Thus, Kearse’s eight year deal is very unusual for the Eagles, especially considering that Kearse is coming off a season in which he missed two games of the Titans last seven games, and recorded no sacks in the five games he did play in. Are Kearse’s injuries healed? It is an enormous question, and I suppose that the Eagles think they know the answer (yes), because they gave him an eight-year contract.

So what are the Eagles getting? Hopefully a dominant pass-rusher, and maybe the best defensive player in the NFL. In five years with the Titans, Kearse recorded 48 sacks and forced 17 fumbles in sixty-six games. Kearse also set the NFL rookie record in 1999 with 14.5 sacks. He is a dominating player due to his unique combination of size and athleticism:

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The Eagles certainly need help on the defensive line: it was a real weak point in 2003, even before the injury big decimated the Eagles. The loss of Hugh Douglas to the Jacksonville Jaguars was significant in that the Eagles no longer had a dominant pass-rusher. (Luckily for the Eagles, the decision to let Douglas go was the right call, as he had a horrible year for the Jags.) It seems like the Eagles strategy to replace Taylor and Vincent is a Kearse-centered one: in the past Taylor and Vincent have blanketed opposing wide receivers, enabling the Eagles defensive line to gain the extra 1-2 seconds needed to get to the opposing quarterback.

The Eagles now seem to be hoping that Kearse’s speed and strength will enable him to crash the pocket and force the opposing QB to deliver his throw 1-2 seconds early. Less-skilled corners like Sheldon Brown and Lito Shepard won’t have to blanket receivers to be effective. It is a good and cost-effective way to replace Taylor and Vincent. Kearse seems tailor-made for such a strategy. Kearse’s 255 lbs are far less than most defensive linemen. Kearse disrupts opposing blocking schemes by quickly assailing the line and moving towards the quarterback with speed:

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However, there are two downsides to Kearse:

As noted, supra, Kearse is small for a D-lineman. Are the Eagles getting too small on the defensive side of the ball? The loss of Emmons for Jones, and the departure of run-stuffers like Levon Kirkland suggest that the Eagles are consciously trying to get smaller and quicker. It feels like the Eagles would match up well with Mike Vick and the Falcons or the St. Louis Rams, but you have to worry about the Cowboys and Redskins employing a tough, between-the-tackles running game in 2004: the Eagles run the risk of simply being out-muscled, much as they did in the NFC Championship game.

Second, what if Kearse is injured? He has an eight-year deal with the Eagles. Not only would losing him hurt the Eagles on the field, but it would rip a gigantic hole in their salary-cap future. Heretofore, the Eagles have done a magnificent job managing the salary cap (unlike … say, the Redskins?) but this deal might come back to bite them in the rear.


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Friday, March 26, 2004

Looks like Thrash is off to Buffalo! Vincent, Williams, Thrash … do the Bills have a thing for ex-Eagles?

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Thursday, March 25, 2004

A little off the subject of football, but ...

Baseball Primer.com published an article about the 2004 Phillies. Not bad. The author seems to think that Burrell will continue to bounceback from 2003 and that the Phils rotation and closer are both soild. The author noted that the Phillies were better than their record indicated in '03: their "pythagorean won-loss record" (a stunningly accurate predictor of a team's won-loss record based on the difference between runs scored and runs allowed) was 90-72. Basically the pythagorean won-loss record indicates that if the Phillies had decent bullpen help in '03, they would have probably won 89-91 games and made the playoffs.

The author thinks the Phils will go 96-66, win the National League East and drop the first-round series. Given that the Phillies haven't made the playoffs since '93, I'll take that.

I posted comments on the bottom.

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Phil Sheridan had a nice bit in the Inquirer today about the paradox of the Eagles free agency strategy of avoiding big contracts for veterans: it feels wrong to lose guys who are a valuable part of your franchise, but who can really argue with the results? (2000-2004: 46-18, three division titles, four playoff berths, three appearances in the NFC title game.)

Brandon Whiting could be an Eagle again if the 49ers reject including him in the T.O. deal. The Niners could get the Eagles 3rd rounder in 2005.

Not really Eagles related, but: the NFL just announced a new stadium deal for the Jets. Imagine that! The Jets will actually be in the city that bears their name, unlike the New Jersey Giants.

Go Pitt! Beat Oklahoma State!

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Wednesday, March 24, 2004

Some thoughts on the T.O. Factor …

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It looks like the Terrell Owens-49ers-Ravens-Eagles saga has closed the final chapter, and the Eagles are set to move on with their new superstar wide receiver. The critical reaction to the process by which T.O. became an Eagle is overwhelmingly negative: CNNSI’s Peter King thinks the Ravens got a raw deal, which is a fair assessment. Certainly, the once-proud 49ers organization deserves blame for the mess: by publicly negotiating with the Eagles, the team T.O. wanted and then covertly inking a deal with the Ravens, perhaps the one team in the NFL T.O. didn’t want to go to, it feels like the ‘Niners were trying to antagonize him.

The hype is already building about the Ravens-Eagles preseason game on August 20 at 8:00 PM. The Eagles and Ravens are slated to play again at the Linc sometime during the 2004 season as well. Unfortunately for T.O., the Eagles and 49ers don’t play a regular season game until next year, and the Eagles won’t be journeying to the stadium-formerly-known-as-Candlestick until 2008. Playoffs? With the Niners management, fat chance that the Eagles are going to see the T.O.’s old team in the playoffs any time soon.

What are the T.O.-led Eagles going to look like? It is an intriguing question. Don Banks rated T.O.’s impact on the Eagles as a 9 out of 10. The reason for that is simple: T.O. is a massive upgrade from what Donovan has had to throw to in his five seasons as the Eagles starting quarterback. The bottom line was that the Eagles wide-out corps hardly struck fear into the hearts of opponents: they caught half as many touchdowns (5) as the Eagles running backs (10) did last season:

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The Eagles have lacked a true game-breaker on the outside for years. In 2003 Thrash, Pinkston, Mitchell, McMullen and Lewis combined to snare just 127 passes, a mere 27 more than running backs Ritchie, Staley, Buckhalter and Westbrook. Add L.J. Smith and Chad Lewis to the backs totals, and the Eagles wide-outs caught 23 fewer passes and seven fewer touchdowns. I also note that the wide-outs yardage lead was fairly small too: 1,728 yards to 1,546 yards. While Pinkston, who played well against the Packers in the playoff game, seemed to improve late in the season with big games against Miami, San Francisco and Washington (10 catches for 273 yards), the Eagles receivers never really dominated a game.

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In the Eagles West Coast system, with its emphasis on spreading the ball around, this lack of production isn’t a big problem, but the failure of the Eagles to have a playmaker capable of stretching the field caught up to them in the NFC Championship game: Mitchell, Thrash and Pinkston combined for a paltry five catches for 47 yards. They often seemed intimidated by the Panthers defensive backs and poorly run routes contributed to at least two of McNabb’s three interceptions. With the Panthers defense playing short to bunch up the run, the Eagles never got on track and failed to win their third straight NFC title game.

Owens is an impact player, of that there is no doubt. At 6-3, 226, T.O. is the prototypical “big” receiver capable of running through arm tackles:

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Big and fast, a unique combination of speed and power, T.O. is utterly unlike Mitchell, Thrash or Pinkston. He’s significantly taller and heavier than Mitchell and Thrash, and much bigger than Pinkston (who is only an inch shorter). It seems unlikely that he’ll be roughed up like the Eagles receivers were in the NFC title game.

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T.O.’s skills have shown up on the playing field: T.O. has registered seven consecutive seasons with at least sixty catches, four straight years with over 1,000 receiving yards, and his injury in the Eagles game prevented him from a chance at having a fourth consecutive season with ten or more touchdowns. T.O. has also come up big in the playoffs: 9 catches, 177 yards and two touchdowns in the Niners stunning upset of the Giants in 2002, and he made the big touchdown catch in traffic as time expired against the Packers in the 1998 playoffs. The Eagles finally have an impact kind of guy.

What are the knocks against Owens? His attitude has been complained about, and here having a leader like Duce Staley keeping him in line would be helpful. However, the Eagles team-first philosophy and Reid’s steady hand should keep him satisfied. Nothing makes a player happier than winning, and the fact that the Eagles rescued him from a fate worse than death (a.k.a. playing with the Ravens) should make T.O. grateful.

One thing of note: I think T.O. isn’t given enough credit for having sure hands: he hasn’t fumbled in three seasons.

With T.O. on the outside he’ll probably draw double-teams or increased safety attention, which will open up the rest of the field for Pinkston and Mitchell. (Thrash’s days seem numbered). Meanwhile, will find themselves trying to cover Westbrook and L.J. Smith will linebackers, a difficult proposition, particularly near the goal line. Indeed, the player who could benefit most from T.O. could be L.J. and Chad Lewis, who will find openings in the red zone with defenses keying in on Owens.

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This is definitely a new era for the Eagles. It will be interesting to see how much McNabb’s numbers improve with T.O. stretching the field. Does T.O. mean an automatic Super Bowl berth for the Eagles? We’ll see …

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In the news today....

Don Banks likes the Eagles boldness in the free agency market. Interesting, he doesn’t much care for the Steelers acquisition of Duce, which I think is going to be huge for them.

It’s official: Bobby Taylor is a Seahawk. Let’s hope Reid & Co. can come up with another corner in the draft or on the market (hey, how much does Ty Law want?) soon.

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Tuesday, March 23, 2004

This was my favorite image of the 2003 season. Awesome!


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Survey of today’s sports stories:

CNNSI’s Don Banks, in outlining the importance of holding onto your draft picks (a lesson the Redskins are determined to ignore) seems to think that the Eagles got a bargain in the T.O. deal.

Meanwhile, ESPN’s Len Pasqurelli thinks that the Eagles are still the class of the division thanks to the T.O. and Kearse deals. No argument here.



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The NFL just announced its pre-season schedule! Of note to Birds fans: Ravens and Steelers at home on August 20 and August 26 respectively. The T.O. Bowl and Duce's home-coming in the same week! The Eagles also travel to New England to play the defending champs and New York to play the Jets.


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Monday, March 22, 2004

So far this off-season the Eagles have lost valuable veterans like Carlos Emmons, Bobby Taylor, Troy Vincent and Duce Staley. Which player has been the worst loss for the Eagles?

I think most Eagles fans would concentrate on the double defections of Taylor and Vincent, the All Pro corners. With MeShawn now in Dallas and a road game in St. Louis against the Rams in the offing, it seems like the Eagles are vulnerable against the pass now. I'm not so sure of that:

The signing of Jevon Kearse was designed to give Sheldon Brown and Lito Shepard some help by giving the Eagles a formidable pass-rush, something they lacked last year. Hopefully with Kearse crashing the pocket, opposing QBs aren't going to be able to hang in the pocket and deliver a pin-point strike anymore. Plus, remember that both Taylor and Vincent missed big portions of the 2003 season anyway. The Eagles pass defense played fine against some tough teams. It also bears noting that Taylor is entering his ninth season and Vincent his thirteenth. How much gas to they have left in their respective tanks? Maybe not much. True, the Eagles don't appear to have a "shutdown" corner, but then they don't play in a pass-happy division like the AFC West. As long as the Eagles can snare another corner or two in the draft to play in nickel and dime formations, they'll be fine.

Carlos Emmons? He was the Eagles best run-stopper in 2003. Emmons' injury in the 49ers game was probably the most damaging injury the Eagles suffered all year, as shown by Ike Reese's inablity to wrap up the Panthers tailbacks in the NFC title game. However, I think Dhani Jones will replace him well. Jones is younger and faster, but he's also four inches shorter than Emmons and about ten pounds lighter. I have real concerns about the Eagles trending too light in their defensive alignment.

Certainly, I think Emmons loss will be bigger than Taylor and Vincent, but I think the one defection that will hurt the Eagles is losing Duce.

I know that Duce wasn't even the Eagles top rusher in 2003. He actually finished third behind Correll Buckhalter and Brian Westbrook, but Duce is far receiver reciever than the man the Eagles clearly intend to replace him Buckhalter. Duce had 36 catches in 2003 to Buckhalter's 10 (Westbrook had 37 catches). In 2001, the season where Duce and Buckhalter split time in the backfield, Duce had 63 catches to Buckhalter's 13. Losing Duce's versitility is going to hurt: without a good pass-catching threat out of the backfield, the Eagles will lose the ability to stretch the field. Buckhalter needs to prove himself as a receiver, a vital task for a back in the Eagles West Coast offense.

Also, I submit that Duce's character and his leadership were vital to the team during their run of success. Duce did all of the intangibles that don't show up in the stat-sheet: picking up blitzers for Donovan, breaking tackles to turn one and two yard gains into four and five yarders. Remember the tackles Duce in broke in the playoff game against Green Bay to help set up Akers overtime field goal? It is a play like that, which doesn't show up on a statsheet, that shows how important he is. I haven't seen the same kind of fire in the belly from Buckhalter. Brian Westbrook is phenomenally talented, but the "A" running back is going to have to be Buckhalter, who is bigger and more durable than Westbrook. The bottom-line: I'm skeptical that Buckhalter can replace Duce.

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Goodbye, Duce. Our loss is Pittsburgh's gain, and your departure could be the loss that really hurts the Eagles in '04.

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A few months ago Mark Bowden of the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote a terrific profile of Hank Fraley, the Eagles starting center, for The Atlantic Monthly. Bowden is an interesting writer: in addition to writing Blackhawk Down and Killing Pablo, he has written terrific articles about the "art" of interrogation in the war on terror and he profiled Saddam Hussein, a piece that earned him considerable attention from policymakers and analysts. Bowden actually got his start, interestingly, as a sports writer. His book Bringing The Heat was based on his coverage of the Eagles in the late 1980s and early 1990s. He is extremely knowledgeable about the game of football and the Eagles in particular.

His profile of Fraley is well-written with a definate intellectual bent to it and breaks down the nuances of the game quite well. Being an offensive lineman is pretty tough stuff, according to Bowden, and he does a good job showing how much thought and work goes into performing an unglamorous task like blocking. Click for the article here.

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Sunday, March 21, 2004

The Vet is no more ... alas ...


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Saturday, March 20, 2004

I want to comment really briefly on the Vet’s implosion tomorrow. The Linc is a terrific stadium, but the Vet was home to the Eagles for over thirty years. There is nostalgia there. That was home. My fiancée got nostalgic when we moved out of our old apartment building despite the fact that we both hated the place because that was where we met. It meant something special. It wasn't just some place where we lived: it was where our love began.

Yeah, it may have been the worst stadium in the NFL, but the Vet was someplace special. The fistfights in the stands, the terrible playing surface, the uncomfortable seats … ignore all that. The Eagles played some great (and lousy) football in that stadium. It was home to our heroes. There were memorable moments.

Goodbye Vet, we’ll miss you.

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Friday, March 19, 2004

The Bird Blog is born!

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