Eagles News: Two Eagles make the “Undrafted All-Star Team”

Let’s get to the Philadelphia Eagles links ...

[BLG Note: Former NFL scout has Ryan Bates and Sua Opeta among the league’s best undrafted rookie free agent signings. Both players will contend for 53-man roster or practice squad spots.]

Cody Kessler, Eagles reportedly agree to contract - BGN
Kessler’s career numbers aren’t overly inspiring. He’s completed 64.2% of his passes for a mere 6.3 yards per attempt, eight touchdowns, five interceptions, and an 83.7 passer rating. He’s fumbled nine times in 17 games played.

Mailbag: Should the Eagles cut their free agent acquisitions to preserve compensatory picks? - PhillyVoice
Onto EaglesChampions’ question about whether the Eagles should just keep Sendejo instead of preserving the fourth-round comp pick. Emphatically, no, they should not. I’ll pose a counter-question. If Sendejo weren’t already on the team, would you trade a fourth-round pick for a 32-year-old backup safety? Hell no, you wouldn’t. And finally, in regard to Bill’s question about cutting Fort instead of Sendejo, I don’t see the Eagles cutting Fort, who got $1.9 million guaranteed in his deal, which means that if you cut him, you have $1.9 million in dead money. If Fort is just God awful in training camp like Corey Nelson was a year ago, the Eagles would cut him, but I think he would only be cut on merit. To note, the Eagles don’t have to cut Sendejo or Fort anytime soon. If they aren’t on the roster for 10 games, they won’t count toward the formula. In 2018, Caleb Sturgis was set to count for a comp pick gained for the Eagles, but then he went on a missed FG barrage for the Chargers, and they cut him. Sturgis then no longer counted toward the formula.

Eagles Add a QB - Iggles Blitz
Maybe he is the kind of young, cheap veteran the Eagles have been waiting for. They didn’t seem to have any interest in paying big money to Ryan Fitzpatrick or someone of that caliber. Carson Wentz and Nate Sudfeld are the primary QBs. Rookie Clayton Thorson is likely to get the #3 spot. The Eagles spent a fifth round pick on him. Those players almost always make the roster. Kessler is here to push Thorson, and to a lesser extent, Sudfeld. As for Perez, this isn’t a good sign for him. You always want competition. The Eagles have a great starter in Wentz. They have a young backup in Sudfeld that they’ve been developing for a couple of years. Things are less certain after that. Kessler has NFL experience. Perez has AAF experience. And Thorson is the rookie in the mix. Those backups will battle it out to see who gets to be the third QB.

The 2019 NFL Power Rankings, Taking Stock of Offseason Movement - FMIA
8. *PHILADELPHIA EAGLES (10-8). I am trusting Carson Wentz to play a full season. If I were not, and I were trusting Nate Sudfeld to be the 2019 Nick Foles, I sure as heck would not have the Eagles eighth. So … I get the Eagles allowing Foles to leave in free agency. It was a mensch thing to do. Foles, more than any single player, was responsible for Philly winning its first Super Bowl and writing one of the great stories in recent NFL history. And then Foles had a second ridiculous run last year, engineering a 16-15 playoff upset of the Bears in Chicago, and he got to be so beloved in the Eagles’ locker room that Chris Long built a shrine to Foles in his locker. He wanted to leave. He wanted one more shot, at 30, to have his own team, a team that wouldn’t put him in the shadow of the prospective franchise quarterback. So Foles got the golden hand shake from Doug Pederson and Howie Roseman and Jeff Lurie. Good for Foles. Not so sure it’s the best thing for the Eagles—though if they’d kept him for a couple of years at legit QB money, it might have led to valuable long-termer Brandon Graham leaving in free agency; can’t sign ‘em all. The Eagles can be confident in Carson Wentz, in his health and his ability. (I would be too.) But sure? No way. Wentz has been lost for the season in two straight Decembers, with a torn ACL and a fractured vertebra, and missed 13 of the Eagles’ last 24 games. He wasn’t the bold player in 2018 that he was before his ACL tear, and not just because of the 4-6 record in his last 10 starts. Maybe it’s a good thing that he stayed in the pocket more (he was more accurate, to be sure), and that probably serves him best for a long career. But the Eagles have to find the right balance of derring-do and pocket presence for Wentz, because he’s a great weapon out of the pocket.

Rookie free agents look to make a good first impression - PE.com
Edwards is one of the 11 undrafted free agents looking to follow in the footsteps of Clement and numerous others up and down the Eagles’ roster. Former Penn State offensive lineman Ryan Bates, who is lining up at right tackle in this weekend’s Rookie Camp, has a future Hall of Famer in Jason Peters to emulate. Peters, a tight end in college, originally signed as an undrafted free agent with the Buffalo Bills in 2004. ”I grew up bleeding green, so it was a dream come true,” said Bates, who hails from Warrington, Pennsylvania, the same hometown as last year’s leading rusher and former rookie free agent Josh Adams. “When I watch football, I don’t watch the running back. I watch the offensive line. I watch Jason Kelce. I watch Jason Peters, all of those guys who are playing now. They’re becoming my mentors. It’s pretty cool. It’s a dream come true.”

Have the Eagles found a keeper in undrafted linebacker T.J. Edwards? - Daily News
T.J. Edwards was one of the most productive linebackers in college football during his four years as a starter at the University of Wisconsin. His 366 career tackles rank ninth in school history, and his 10 interceptions lead all Badgers linebackers. Ten years ago, NFL teams would have killed for that kind of production. But now, in this era of spread offenses and slants and jet sweeps and bubble screens, the emphasis is on lighter, quicker linebackers with suddenness and zoom-zoom-zoom speed, and Edwards comes up a little short in that department.

Former CFL star signed with Eagles after workouts with 4 other NFL teams | Here’s why he picked Philadelphia - NJ.com
Alex Singleton was in high demand following his three standout seasons in the Canadian Football League. Shortly after helping the Calgary Stampeders win the Grey Cup — the CFL equivalent of the Super Bowl — Singleton went on a busy NFL workout tour. He visited with the Los Angeles Chargers, Arizona Cardinals, Minnesota Vikings and Cleveland Browns before making the decision to sign with the Eagles in January. “The best fit for me — I thought — was Philly,” Singleton said Friday following the first day of rookie minicamp at Novacare Complex. “That’s how I kind of ended up picking here, as well as them deciding to take the chance.”

Cody Kessler cut by Jaguars - Big Cat Country
Kessler started four games for the Jaguars last year, compiling a 2-2 record and passing for 709 yards on 64.9 completion percentage. He will be missed but not forgotten.

How Washington Decided to Draft Dwayne Haskins - MMQB
Heading into the offseason, Washington‘s quarterback situation, after losing Alex Smith and Colt McCoy to injury, was dire. Jay Gruden explains how he came up with a gameplan to rebuild the position—and how he landed on Dwayne Haskins. Also, Richard Sherman and Cliff Avril reflect on the Seahawks’ championship years, how the NFL is searching for talent in the U.K., the true value in rookie minicamps and more.

The NFL’s pass-interference problem: What makes replay review so tricky - ESPN
A replay remedy is now available if an NFL official misses a defensive back plowing into a receiver two seconds before the ball arrives. That’s the easy part of adding pass interference calls (and no-calls) to the league’s replay system on a one-year trial basis. The hard part, of course, is navigating the dozens of other plays per game that involve clear contact but fall short of the mauling we saw at the end of the NFC Championship Game. What will the NFL do about those plays? How will it define a “clear and obvious” restriction on playing the ball, one that will guide its resolve to overturn decisions on the field?

The Seahawks turned Frank Clark and 4 draft picks into a scary reload - SB Nation
Two weeks before the 2019 NFL Draft, the Seattle Seahawks had plenty on their to-do list. Russell Wilson set an April 15 deadline for a market-resetting contract extension with a potential trip to free agency looming. Frank Clark’s future with the team beyond 2019 was unclear after being saddled with the franchise tag. Doug Baldwin’s future was unsure too, thanks to injury. That wasn’t all this offseason threw at the Seahawks. The once-fearsome Legion of Boom defense lost one of its final remaining members when Earl Thomas signed with Baltimore, making a rebuild on that side of the ball a priority. Locking in Wilson would also mean needing to give him the blocking he’s never had and the targets he’s been missing in recent years, but money would be tight. The draft would help, but the franchise only had four picks to work with. And in two weeks, Pete Carroll and general manager John Schneider have solved most of those problems.

...

Social Media Information:

BGN Facebook Page: Click here to like our page

BGN Twitter: Follow @BleedingGreen

BGN Manager: Brandon Lee Gowton: Follow @BrandonGowton

BGN Radio Twitter: Follow @BGN_Radio