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Last year Dave Mangels fooled a number of you Bleeding Green Nation readers when he published this post about the Eagles signing Alex Henery to a long-term extension. I was talking with Dave recently and we were trying to figure out a prank post for this year. Ultimately, we landed at the same conclusion. And it's one he tweeted out this morning:
No @BleedingGreen April Fools joke this year because the Eagles offseason has been absurd enough.
— Dave Mangels (@Southern_Philly) April 1, 2015
Hence, the title of this post. I was going to post this earlier today but I wanted to hold off in case the Eagles actually did something, you know, absurd again. And I'm sure within minutes of me actually posting this something crazy will happen.
Just think about how much things have changed since the end of the 2014 season. Tom Gamble gone. Howie Roseman gone (as general manager). Chip Kelly gets full power. The team trades Nick Foles and LeSean McCoy. Sam Bradford is projected to be the team's starting quarterback. DeMarco Murray is the new running back and he's being back up by Ryan Mathews. Jeremy Maclin is out and Miles Austin is in. Byron Maxwell signs a crazy big deal. Veterans like Trent Cole and Todd Herremans are gone while an recovering DeMeco Ryans returns. Connor Barwin gets a (well-deserved) raise even though the team didn't have to. Brandon Graham, who was a bust, is now a key part of the team's defense. Heck, even Tim Tebow worked out for the Eagles.
Not all of those things are incredibly far-fetched but who really saw all of it coming? If I traveled back in time and told you those things were going to happen, or even just some of them, would you really have believed me at all? And more importantly why wouldn't your first question be about how I managed to successfully travel through time?
The craziness is far from over, too. The Eagles have eight picks in the 2015 NFL Draft and there's still time for trades to be made (Evan Mathis? Brandon Boykin? Mychal Kendricks?).
I don't know if the Eagles improved not. No one knows anything yet. Everyone has their opinions but it's really just wait-and-see at this point.
What I do know is that, for better or worse, it's a crazy time to be following this team right now. It's been an absurd offseason. Everyone has their attention focused on the Eagles. The numbers don't lie. The entire month of March 2015 alone equated to over 20% of last year's page view total at BGN. That's insane.
On behalf of the entire BGN staff, we're glad that you've chosen to spend it with us. Here's hoping you'll stick around for more because we'll be covering it all the way.