Eagles News: ESPN suggests one bold offseason move for Philadelphia

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Bold offseason moves for all 32 NFL teams - ESPN
Philadelphia Eagles: Draft a running back in the first round. This counts as a bold move in 2018. Only five running backs have been drafted in the first round since 2013. Ezekiel Elliott has been tremendous, leading the NFL in rushing yards per game in each of his first two seasons, but the quartet of Melvin Gordon, Todd Gurley, Christian McCaffrey and Leonard Fournette have enjoyed more moderate success in the NFL. With just one superstar first-rounder in the past five drafts, it’s clear that teams have devoted their resources to players at other positions in recent years. For the Eagles, however, there’s no other position that warrants immediate attention. Carson Wentz and Nick Foles give them the league’s best duo at quarterback. They have a stacked crew of wide receivers and a star tight end, and their offensive line dominated the Football Outsiders reader awards. The defense has stars at tackle, end, linebacker and safety, plus a stable of young corners. However, leading rusher LeGarrette Blount seems likely to leave in free agency. Jay Ajayi was Philly’s top runner in the playoffs, and Corey Clement chipped in with 10 catches for 139 yards in the postseason, but neither looks like a Pro Bowler at this point. In a draft that is very deep at running back, the Eagles might find a game-breaker such as Auburn’s Kerryon Johnson, LSU’s Derrius Guice, or one of the Georgia duo of Sony Michel and Nick Chubb. That would make them even scarier on opening day than the offense that won the Super Bowl.

42 free agents with connections to the Philadelphia Eagles - BGN
We won’t know for sure who the Eagles will sign until free agency starts, but maybe we can glean some hints based on past relationships. Here’s a look at some connections the Eagles have to this year’s crop of free agents.

Five potential trade destinations for Nick Foles - PhillyVoice
That 30th overall pick would be tough for the Vikings to part with. Still, the Vikings proved they could win in the regular season, but needed a miracle to get through their first playoff game, before getting blown out by the Eagles in the NFC Championship Game. Obviously, new Vikings offensive coordinator (and former Eagles QB coach) John DeFilippo helped find ways for the Eagles to succeed with Foles after Carson Wentz was lost for the season. The Vikings could feel that DeFilippo can coax similar results out of Foles in Minnesota in games that really matter.

Offseason questions for every team - PFF
The solution: The Eagles have no cap space to play with, and are actually significantly over the cap right now as things stand. Any improvement here will come from the draft and LSU WR D.J. Chark could be the kind of speedy threat to do that. Chark had 14 receptions on deep passes in 2017, the third-most in the draft class and his target rate on those deep balls was one of the highest in the nation as well. He can run past defenders in a heartbeat and provide the kind of threat that Torrey Smith does, only without the drops.

RB Derrius Guice Among 10 Winners At Friday’s Workouts - PE.com
As Tony mentioned, Kolton Miller from UCLA was very impressive. A 40-yard dash time of 4.91 seconds with a 10-yard split of 1.67 seconds (both of which are in the 90th percentile when compared to tackles drafted in the last decade) were very good times. I can say the same of his 121-inch broad jump. The only offensive tackle to post a better broad jump during workouts before he was drafted in the last 10 years? Lane Johnson in 2013.

Doug Pederson’s aggressiveness likely to be copied by other NFL coaches - Inquirer
But Pederson wasn’t reckless. He used analytics. When there was gray area his lead-foot approach often led to a conversion or points and ultimately wins — the last a championship. Naturally, teams around the NFL have noticed. Polling coaches and general managers for lessons learned from the Super Bowl-winning team is often a rite of passage at the annual combine. And the answers have been varied. But with new coaches, some of them linked to Pederson, approaching the job with a fresh set of eyes and incumbents looking for any new advantage, it’s possible that some teams will try to copy the Eagles’ aggressiveness this coming season. Frank Reich, who became the Colts’ head coach last month, had perhaps the best vantage point as Pederson’s offensive coordinator.

Eagles Stay or Go — Young receiver; Chance Warmack - NBC Sports Philadelphia
In a season in which Doug Pederson and his staff did very, very few things wrong, they did misjudge Warmack, who was terrible in training camp and predictably couldn’t hang onto the left guard spot after Isaac Seumalo did little to impress the coaches. Warmack ultimately gave way to third choice Stefen Wisniewski, who was very good. As for Warmack, he’s only 26 and has 51 career starts under his belt, so somebody is going to give him a shot. It won’t be the Eagles.

Q&A with Joe Banner: Eagles offseason primer on trade options, cap situation and more - The Athletic
So then, what comes next? I think they’re highly likely to do a new deal with [Brandon] Graham (which could lower his cap number for 2018, depending on how they structure it). There’s obviously a chance they trade [Nick] Foles. That’s another $6 or $7 million dollars you can save there. So without really doing anything in my mind that’s particularly adverse to the team, you may be able to add a draft pick or two — not really high draft picks unless they do the Foles thing, but a draft pick or two and create as much as $20 million from where they sit now, which would give them $5 or $6 million to play with in addition to the draft and practice squad and everything else.

Sean Payton game-planned for Eagles even after Minneapolis Miracle KO’d the Saints - SBS Sports
It turns out, getting over a heartbreaking playoff loss isn’t exactly easy.

Saints Agree To Terms With Safety Kurt Coleman - Canal Street Chronicles
In surprising news at this late hour on Friday night, the New Orleans Saints have reportedly come to terms on a three year deal for former Carolina Panthers Safety, Kurt Coleman to join the team in 2018. Here is the report from one of New Orleans’ most reliable sources, The Advocate’s Nick Underhill.

Speed Score 2018 - Football Outsiders
Breaking news from the NFL Scouting Combine: Saquon Barkley is pretty good. Barkley entered the Combine already the consensus top running back. He’s the top player on ESPN’s player rankings, he’s in the top 10 in every mock draft you can find, and he’s been compared to Barry Sanders, LaDainian Tomlinson and Superman. That’s set a pretty high bar for his Combine performance. All Barkley did under that pressure was bench 29 reps (more than Joe Thomas), have a 41-inch vertical jump (higher than Julio Jones), put up a 1.54-second 10-yard split (quicker than DeSean Jackson) and turn in a 4.4 flat 40-yard dash (faster than Devin Hester). That was “only” the second-fastest time for running backs at the combine, but he did all that weighing 233. The result is a Speed Score of 124.3, the fourth-highest since they started electronic timing in 1999.

NFL Draft Quarterback Class: The Holes, the Hype and How the Combine Performances Will Factor - Sports Illustrated
Baker Mayfield, Josh Rosen, Sam Darnold and Josh Allen all have questions to answer in Indianapolis and throughout the draft process. Other sections include: the veteran quarterback market; Rob Gronkowski’s future; the Blake Bortles contract; more draft tidbits from Indy.

NFL Combine results 2018: News and notes from Friday - SB Nation
Saquon Barkley was Friday’s star as running backs and offensive linemen went through their drills. Meanwhile, the quarterbacks got their chance to shine ... on the mic.

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