Eagles News: Jason Kelce got the crowd fired up at the Flyers game

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The Draft Bag - BGN
Bennett’s addition makes sense from a pure fiscal perspective—a 5th round pick and Marcus Johnson is peanuts. Within the context of Philadelphia’s defense, they’ll likely gain a step on the defensive line despite losing Curry, allow for Barnett to grow into playing time with less urgency, and even protect against the inevitable two games Fletcher Cox misses with a calf injury. Looking further down the road, one would imagine Philadelphia would still like to keep Brandon Graham, but if he’s going to demand a massive contract, Philadelphia may worry about keeping cap room open for Wentz and fail to land Graham when he hits FA in 2019. Bennett’s $8.75M and $10.2M cap hits in ‘19 and ‘20, respectively, will be less than anything Graham demands for his yearly salary.

Reacting To The Michael Bennett Trade - BGN Radio
EMERGENCY POD - Michael Bennett is now a Philadelphia Eagle. The rich do indeed get richer. What does impact mean on the field? Is Vinny Curry still going to be here? John Barchard goes through the cap and what the Eagles might do next on Episode 304.

Didn’t See This Coming - Iggles Blitz
How does Bennett fit in? That’s an interesting question. You could put him at RDE, with Brandon Graham, Fletcher Cox and Tim Jernigan rounding out the starting line. I guess it is possible Derek Barnett could start at RDE. What’s certain is that Bennett will play a lot and will move around. One of the keys in getting him is that he is such a good interior pass rusher. Bennett is quick, powerful, has excellent body control and knows how to use his hands. He can fly off the edge or beat an C/G up the middle. The Eagles looked at several DT/DE tweeners at the Senior Bowl. I thought that might be a position they would target. Veteran QBs who threw the ball quickly gave the Eagles fits last year. Bennett could play a lot of DT in those games and would give you someone who can get free up the middle. He is 6-4 and around 275 pounds. That’s big for a DE, small for a DT.

Barnwell’s NFL free agency and trade grades: Every big 2018 move - ESPN
Eagles: B+ ... The Eagles are one of the most aggressive trading teams in the league and built their Super Bowl success around a deep, dominant defensive line, so it’s no surprise that they acquired Michael Bennett from the Seahawks today. Bennett will slot in as a replacement for Vinny Curry, and with three years and $22.1 million left on his deal, Bennett won’t break the bank as part of one of the league’s best defensive lines. It seems pretty clear that Seattle wanted to move on from Bennett, who might be the first part of a painful defensive rebuild over the days to come. The Seahawks would likely have cut Bennett, given that the return -- a fifth-round pick and flyer WR Marcus Johnson, with a seventh-rounder going back to Philadelphia -- won’t move the needle.

For Eagles, Vinny Curry’s production just doesn’t match his salary - NBC Sports Philly
Last year, Brandon Graham had 9½ sacks, Michael Bennett had 8½ for the Seahawks and Derek Barnett and Chris Long each had five as rotational players with the Eagles. Curry had just three despite starting all 16 games and has just nine sacks in his last 50 games. Of 29 defensive ends who started at least 12 games last year, only two had fewer sacks than Curry. Yet he earned $7 million in base salary last year with a cap figure of $9 million.

Strong In-House Decisions For Coaching Staff - PE.com
Look at his coaching background and you see that Mike Groh has touched every part of an offense in his career. He’s worked with quarterbacks after his career at the position at the University of Virginia. Wide receivers, well, we saw the brilliant job last year with the Eagles’ group. Offensive coordinator? Check. Did that for three seasons at Virginia ...

Dreams and Nightmares: Michael Bennett Is an Eagle Now, and Philly Is Still Flying - The Ringer
The rich get richer. The Eagles built the deepest roster in football and used it to win Super Bowl LII, and now they’re adding strength to strength. Bennett joins Fletcher Cox, Brandon Graham, and Timmy Jernigan up front in what was already one of the best defensive line rotations in the NFL. With Bennett working under defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz, Philly’s defense will haunt the nightmares of NFC East QBs.

Five fantastic plays to remember from Michael Bennett’s wonderful Seahawks career - Field Gulls
Bennett was an integral member of Seattle’s historically dominant Super Bowl-winning defense, and to see him (and likely several others) part this team is something that may be necessary from a business standpoint, but still hurts to see as a fan. As Bennett heads east to the current Super Bowl champs, let’s look back on some of the plays that made #72 an absolute treat to watch.

Michael Bennett couldn’t have landed in a better spot - The Undefeated
A leader in sports’ new civil rights movement, Bennett has been at the forefront of demonstrations during the national anthem to shine a light on racial injustice. Through his foundation, Bennett — whose brother, tight end Martellus, was just released by the New England Patriots — works to fight obesity and educate children in the United States, Ghana and Senegal. With his outlook on the world, Bennett couldn’t have landed in a better spot. His first tweet since the trade was about jailed rapper Meek Mill.

With the combine over, Eagles’ attention shifts to roster changes - Inquirer
Don’t fret about the salary cap. Yes, the Eagles are about $10 million above the NFL’s salary cap entering next week. But I won’t sound the alarm about it. The Eagles entered the last two offseasons tight against the salary cap, and they found ways to navigate it. Roseman and Jake Rosenberg, the Eagles’ director of football administration, have planned for this. They didn’t wake up the morning of the Super Bowl and realize what the 2018 payroll will be. The Eagles will renegotiate some deals and get out of others. “We had anticipated what was going to go on in this offseason certainly last year,” Roseman said last week. “Some of the moves we made were with that in mind. From our perspective, we attempted to look at the free-agent classes over a two-year period and felt like we would try to balance where our resources would go.”

Breaking down the Michael Bennett trade: How he fits on the Eagles, cap implications and what’s next - The Athletic
Bennett will turn 33 in November, but he was still a very productive player last season, totaling 8.5 sacks and 24 quarterback hits. To put that into perspective, nobody on the Eagles had more than 18 QB hits last year, and only Brandon Graham had more sacks. Bennett’s 14 tackles for loss tied for 16th in the NFL. One thing to keep in mind here is that the Seahawks did not rotate defensive linemen as much as the Eagles. Bennett played 931 snaps (84.8 percent overall) last season. No defensive lineman on the Eagles played more than 662, according to Pro Football Focus. The Eagles have to think that reducing Bennett’s workload can help keep him fresh. That’s something we saw with Chris Long last season.

Bennett trade shows Eagles not happy with one ring - USA Today
Philly is already better than it was in early February and made the improvement without risking much. Bennett will cost just over $6 million against the cap this year, but the team will be able to part ways with him at anytime without suffering any cap penalties. Teams will often go on the defensive after winning a ring. They’ll focus on maintaining their roster rather than actively looking to improve it. Not this team. Winning the franchise’s first Super Bowl was a tremendous accomplishment, but it’s clear the Eagles aren’t content with just one ring.

Post-Combine Top-100 Big Board - NDT Scouting
OT1 is Isaiah Wynn. I understand that many teams want to move Wynn into guard–they think he fits there better–and I understand that urge. However, I simply cannot justify taking as skilled of a player and moving him away from such a premium, talent-starved position. If you’ve got two tackles you likely for the next couple of years, you’ll likely slate Wynn as a guard on your board. If your line sucks across the board, take Wynn, start him at tackle, and move him to guard if he can’t hang. Either way, take the best players, play them at positions of impact. Draft well; conquer.

How the Alec Ogletree trade impacts the Giants’ salary cap space - Big Blue View
The New York Giants are finally getting some help at linebacker, but, on the surface at least, help that won’t come cheaply. Alec Ogletree, who per ESPN will become a Giant as of March 14 when all trades agreed upon since the Super Bowl become official, is set to count for $10 million against the 2018 salary cap. (Over the Cap has him with a cap figure of $11.6 million, but the Rams will be on the hook for what’s left of the signing bonus, including the $1.6 million which was to hit this year).

Patriots release tight end Martellus Bennett, free up $5.7 million in cap space - Pats Pulpit
BLG Note: Could we see the Bennett brothers team up in Philly?

The Browns CANNOT draft Saquon Barkley first overall, no matter how good he is (and he’s real good) - SB Nation
Normally, I like to write something fluffy to start an article, paint a picture, set up something for later. Not this time. If the Cleveland Browns don’t land Kirk Cousins in free agency then they must draft a quarterback with the first pick of the draft. It’s freaking wrong that people are hammering the desk for the Browns to draft Penn State running back Saquon Barkley with the first pick. If you were drafting an entire starting roster for your team — 22 starting football players, 11 on offense and 11 on defense — you’d pick a running back at around 15. They aren’t as important as other positions on a 2018 NFL team. You know what is important? The quarterback. The quarterback would be drafted first overall, every single time.

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