Damn, lost a good post showing how awesome the new look Eagles D-Line is. Their secondary is getting a ton of press, but the Eagles D-Line players (T. Cole, M. Patterson, C. Jenkins, J. Babin) totaled 31.5 sacks last season, which is better than 13 teams. And they’re going to attack, attack, attack this coming season. Potentially dominant.
I’m puzzled by the paradigm shift in how the team is tackling their roster. It seems the days of ruthlessly cutting the 30 year olders and ignoring them in free agency are gone. Babin, Asomugha, Jenkins, all 30+. Absolutely win now. I wonder how big the window is?
Also, there are early reports that Olin Kreutz is going to be gone.
His agent is saying that he won’t be back and supposedly he said his goodbyes to team mates. Granted that’s his agent talking and he might be simply trying to leverage the team through the media, but I would have expected the Bears to have locked him up by now if he were a high priority. Supposedly they are offering him a very low contract, and based on his physical skills that’s expected. However, his importance in the locker room and as a calming veteran presence on a very young line is key. I’m not sure how much stock I put into that, talent is the most important thing, but I have no doubt that he was a leader in the locker room. Supposedly Kruetz was the guy that busted balls when someone was being lazy and set an example for rookies. The Bears do a lot of things wrong, but they have always had a very professional group of players and I think Kreutz deserves some of that credit.
If he does leave I have no idea who’ll be playing Center this year. We can’t afford to be weak and uncertain there too. I don’t know offhand if there’s a veteran FA option out there or not, but if there is the Bears really ought to be looking into it very seriously. Kreutz is certain part of the problem with the O Line and I suppose moving on, while emotionally difficult and initially challenging, could be the best thing for the team in the long term if it forces them to add talent. Supposedly there’s a couple young players they had been grooming for the spot, but none of them have any experience at all.
I don’t know the numbers but it’s certain that both players took huge pay cuts. They were both wildly over paid in Dallas and the Bears didn’t break the bank to land them, neither was likely to be heavily courted around the league.
I’ve shared my thoughts already on both. I like the value of both signings. They were bargains with a lot of upside. I don’t have high hopes for either becoming game changers, but both could be really effective role players, especially around the goal line where we need it. Neither is a long term solution, but neither WR or RB were at the top of the list of needs. Good moves, but there’s still more work to be done.
The Bears added another Cowboy in Sam Hurd too. They need size at WR and Hurd is a special teams player. He basically replaces Rashied Davis, and I think Hurd has more potential as a WR so I’m in support of that move.
Also, I just noticed that the Bears also re-signed Nick Roach. That was an important move since the Bears technically don’t have a starting Sam LB yet and Roach is one of the options. They claim they see Roach as primarily a backup to Urlacher and Briggs and a special teams player, I’ll wait and see if the contract he signed reflects that. Getting Roach back is very important since the Bears largely neglected the LB position in the draft. We’ll see if there’s another move at that position in the coming days.
The veteran LG Garza is apparently first in line to replace him with Lance Louis the guy they’ve been grooming for OG duty for the last 3 years stepping in at his spot. Edwin Williams would be expected to compete with Garza at C because he’s been getting groomed to replace Kreutz for those same 3 years. That neither Louis or Williams have cracked the starting lineup before now says one of two things, either the Bears coaches are stubbornly sticking with the veterans even when their performance is fading badly or Williams and Louis both stink. I suspect it’s a combination of both.
They also gave Chris Williams some chances at Center. I have no idea where Williams belongs. Thus far he’s been a colossal disappointment at both Tackle and Guard, maybe Center could be a future option. He’s supposedly smart, but soft spoken. Not sure of that’s a trait that works in a center. Also he hasn’t seemed very tough, which is the other key for a center. But, the Bears aren’t in a position where they can afford to give up on the guy yet. Hopefully they manage to develop him into something.
Just looked it up, the Bears are paying Barber $5 million over 2 years. Williams only got a one year deal for about $2 million.
Williams was due $5M in Dallas this year, the 2nd year of a 6 year, $54M contract. Barber signed a 7 year contract in the same year for $45M and was due $4.25M
The shocking part is that the Cowboys cut both of these guys in what should have been their most favorable cap number years. Talk about some bad contracts, they make that Albert Haynesworth deal from the Redskins look almost reasonable.
I don’t know what the Browns are going to do to get to the salary cap floor at this rate. I’m guessing Joe Thomas gets a huge deal, but what else?
They haven’t been very active in free agency I guess because they know it’s going to be a long haul thing and the team is getting very young. 55 players on the current roster are 25 and under. Another 17 are 26-28. Only 12 are 29 and older, and among those are the punter, kicker, and long snapper.
I am devouring Eagles news like a mix between a samoan at an all you can eat buffet and a demonic black hole. Twitter isn’t fast enough. There aren’t enough blogs. I can’t be sated. Despair all ye mortals for thy doom hath come.
Sure picked the right season to finally go in on Sunday Ticket.
Interesting comparison here. Even with all the latest signings, the Eagles only have ten guys on the roster 29 or older. 23 are between 26-28. Everyone else younger. This is still a very young team, and with eleven more picks in the draft coming next year, it will keep getting younger.
I would be THRILLED to see the Bears starting the season with what they have now. Their almost NFL worst O Line returning without it’s veteran leadership. I simply cannot wait to see how badly it goes for Martz and Cutler with Webb and Omiyale at tackle, a center with one NFL start at that position, and a brand new RG. Carimi may eventually develop into a starting caliber OT, but with no offseason, limited practices, and no NFL experience, I wouldn’t mind him protecting Cutler’s blind side either.
This could be a really fun season. Maybe not as much fun as the Packers winning the Super Bowl like last year, but fun.
In other news, the Buccaneers are continuing to do almost nothing in free agency. Davin Joseph got the biggest contract for a guard since Steve Hutchinson, but he was an RFA anyway. Prototypical Tampa-2 MLB Barrett Ruud walks to the Titans for nothing.
What the fuck is going on?
Mark Dominik has worked wonders so far, but even with the big incentives we’ll (hopefully) be paying out this season we’re still going to be ~$30m from the cap floor.
Plax isn’t going to help anyone. He’s 33 and his conditioning is bound to be awful. At best, he might be a good red zone target, but I’ll bet dollars to donuts he doesn’t break the 1,000 yard mark.
Congrats on making huge splashes in Free Agency. If he stays healthy, you’ll really like Cullen Jenkins, because he can bring pressure from everywhere on the line. Nnamdi is Nnamdi, a great acquisition, and Babin is another good addition. They really improved their team in free agency. It will be interesting to see how all the pieces fit and if it works. I’ll be watching the Eagles with interest this year, if only to relive the Packers beating them in Philly in the playoffs. Now THAT was fun.
I still think that Vick won’t come close to his success last year and may not even last the season and that Young doesn’t have the work ethic and football smarts to take a team to the Super Bowl. But the Eagles will be fun to watch this year.
Young only needs to be able to surprise people for ~4 games, which is pretty much what his NFL career to date has consisted of. I don’t understand why teams don’t put more effort into drafting/signing quarterbacks with similar skill sets to their starters. You think switching back and forth between Young and Kerry Lead Feet Collins in practice didn’t retard the progressive of Tennessee’s passing game? The signing makes even more sense given that Young and Vick are both southpaws.
I actually think the opposite, having two different styles of QB should work better for the prepped team than the defense they are playing. In fact, I tend to think that much of Vick’s early success last year was because defenses didn’t adjust to him and his style of play. And while having two QB’s in the same mold likely makes it easier on coaches, I think good coaches can use the differences to their advantage for short periods of time.
NOTE: I’m not adament about this, so any other thoughts/examples are more than welcome.