Russ Lande of The Sporting News released his latest mock this week and guess who he has the Eagles taking?!

15. Philadelphia Eagles: Luke Kuechly*, LB, Boston College. With Andy Reid at the helm, the Eagles have never taken a linebacker in the first round. But Kuechly is a special athlete who draws comparisons to Brian Urlacher and would solve their biggest weakness.

No way you guessed that right? I mean, it's not like almost every other mock draft has the same thing...

Like I've said before, this pick makes sense now, but there's certainly a decent crop of LBs set to hit the free agent market that might better fit the Eagles needs than a rookie. Although the prospect of getting a guy that fill one of those spots for the next 6-7 years is enticing, the team already has so much youth at the LB position, adding more may not be the solution.

Although... the next Brian Urlacher would be nice.

Former Eagles FB Kevin Turner is currently suffering from ALS, better known as Lou Gehrig's disease. The affliction is slowly robbing him of his ability to use his muscles and eventually will kill him. He can't really write, put on his pants or close a button anymore. It's a cruel disease, one that possibly was caused by repeated hits to the head while playing football.

In fact, former NFL players were 8 times more likely to be diagnosed with ALS than other men in their age group. However, new research shows that former NFL players who have been diagnosed with ALS have often in reality been suffering from the effects of brain trauma that causes ALS-like motor degeneration. The New York Times has a lot more on the science behind this new research if you're interested.

Not surprisingly, Turner supports any efforts to make the NFL safer and while he realizes some fans have complained about the new rules, he doesn't agree with them. He says the NFL is far from become "flag football."

"It's nothing like flag football," Turner said. "They don't get it. I would think they would want to watch their favorite players or teams for years to come. You can hit someone who isn't looking and practically decapitate them. It's entertainment to them.

"There are big-time collisions. Let's not take a step back to the Roman era where we're putting football players up there with gladiators. It's a game. It's entertainment. It's a dream of theirs, like it was of mine, but it's not worth their living that last 20 years of their lives with dementia, Alzheimer's or ALS."

Kevin Turner's story will certainly be something I keep in mind next time I see a guy hit in the head...

These guys are adults, they know this is a dangerous game and they have the freedom to choose to play it anyway. And in reality, the NFL will never really be safe. By nature it's a violent and dangerous game... but that doesn't mean they shouldn't try.

After the jump, Turner says why he specifically supports the new kickoff rules.

Continue reading this post »

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Thanks everyone who participated! Took me a little while to tally it up I've had a busy week. Amazing but only 1 person had the pats in the superbowl! The maximum number of points someone could have was 37 points, and no one was very close to that.

Pretty ugly for the most part but a few actually were spot on! To the results.....

1: The Fish- 22 points had Giants winning it all so really ran away with this thing. Congrats to you!

2. DcEagles29 - 16 points

3: MightyJoeBanner- 14 points

4: jho - 12 points

5. Snax, tst29, and STZ513 - 9 points

6. griffeagles, davidbt11, insaneeaglesfanatic, AnthroEagle, Live From Quahog, dstern77, Djax10, PhiladelphiaEagles - 7 points

7. Clint Eastwood, Wokjab, the-vet, rohan915, Rabbit T- 6 points

8. d-jackfan10, lmp, Mr.electric10, Talon Talent, Avant Garde, T-rade, GreenInBaltimore,KevinEagles - 5 points

9. The Joker - 4 points

10. dday - 2 points

11. KByars - 1 point (ouch)

Well there you have it! Congrats to The Fish. Djax10 also correctly predicted the correct score of the Super Bowl, even though his teams were wrong he was the only one to guess 21-17.

Resigned:

DT Trevor Laws (heard from caplan that eagles looking for multiyear deal.)

DT Derek Landri

WR Desean Jackson

G Evan Mathis

Let go/not resigned:

WR Steve Smith

QB Vince Young

RB Ronnie Brown

T King Dunlap (heard eagles willing to let him go, draft another OT)

LB Akeem Jordan

LB Moise Fokou

S Tom Nelson

S Colt Anderson

WR Chad Hall

DT Cedric Thornton (put on PS)

LB Jamar Chaney

DT Antonio Dixon (not good in Washburn`s scheme, put low/no tender on him, put on other team.)

FB Owen Schmitt (Heard from Caplan he`s not supposed to return.)

P Chas Henry

People Signed:

LB David Hawthorne

LB Wesley Woodyard

LB Jo-Lonn Dunbar

S Steve Gregory

DT Jason Jones (really good in washburn`s wide-9, not as good last year w/out him, can be really affective for us.)

WR Plaxico Burress

Trades:

CB Asante Samuel to the Patriots for a 2nd round draft pick

T Winston Justice and C Jamaal Jackson to the Vikings for a 4th round pick

Draft:

Round 1. DE Quentin Coples

Round 2a. CB Chase Minnifield

Round 2b. QB Nick Foles

Round 2c. RB LaMichael James

Round 3. TE Ladarius Green

Round 4a. WR Devier Posey

Round 4b. FB Bradie Ewing

Round 4c. T Nate Potter

Round 5. C Grant Garner

Round 6a. CB D`anton Lynn

Round 6b. OT Markus Zusevics

Round 6c. P Drew Butler

Depth Chart:

QB: Vick, Foles, Kafka

RB: McCoy, James, Lewis

FB: Ewing

TE: Celek, Harbor, Green

WR: Jackson, Maclin, Avant, Burress, Cooper, Posey

LT: Peters, Potter

LG: Mathis, Vandervelde

C: Kelce, Garner

RG: Watkins

RT: Herremans, Zusevics

DE: Cole, Babin, Coples, Graham, Hunt

DT: Jenkins, Patterson, Jones, Landri, Laws

MLB: Hawthorne, Matthews

WLB: Woodyard, Rolle

SLB: Dunbar, Clayton

CB: Asomugha, Rodgers-Cromartie, Hanson, Minnifield, Marsh

FS: Allen, Gregory

SS: Battled out, but the depth chart read as Jarret, Coleman

K: Henery

P: Butler

LS: Dorenbos

Tell me what you guys think (btw, I checked: 53 men.)

Pro Football Focus took a look at their individual grades for players now that the season is over and identified who made the biggest jumps up and drops down for each team. For the Eagles, Derek Landri was up and Nnamdi Asomugha was down..

Derek Landri: From -7.1 to +22.0

So where did that come from? Landri started in Carolina, and despite having one of the quickest first steps of any interior lineman, failed to impress the longer the season went on. Yet put him in the wide-nine scheme and watch him go. Landri played so well as a backup in his 355 snaps that he has many thinking he could handle a full-time role in the Eagles’ defense. What was so impressive was how the former Jaguar was able to make plays rushing the passer and defending the run, showing the kind of discipline that the scheme relies on. Great find.

And for the downside....

Nnamdi Asomugha: From +10.0 coverage, to -1.0 coverage

First, don’t take this as saying Asomugha was terrible, he wasn’t. He simply had plenty of moments where he looked completely out of place in a scheme that didn’t seem to suit him. He got better as the season went on and but never justified the price tag, and failed to look like the shutdown corner he had become in Oakland. By the end of the season he had given up twice as many yards and four more touchdowns than he did in all of 2010. You do feel he’ll get better in 2012, but for now, Eagles fan can be understandably disappointed.

PFF also identified the Eagle who most deserves more snaps... Check out the article here.

Patriots TE Rob Gronkowski was in attendance at the Lakers vs Celtics game the other night and Philly native Kobe Bryant took the opportunity to recruit to Gronk to his beloved Philadelphia Eagles.

"I told him the Eagles need a tight end," Bryant said. "I’m recruiting. He’s a freak athlete. He shouted at me and I shouted back. It’s fun to have those conversations with athletes you respect."

There’s no doubt Gronkowski is a freak athlete, but if Kobe was watching the Eagles this year he probably would have seen that Brent Celek had a pretty good year.

Then again, the Pats make it work with two TEs…