Eagles News: Projecting Miles Sanders’ rookie stats

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Projecting stat lines for the NFL’s top offensive rookies - PFF
RB Miles Sanders, Philadelphia Eagles: Veteran Jordan Howard and rookie second-rounder Miles Sanders are expected to share the load in Philadelphia’s backfield in 2019, but Sanders is more than capable of earning the lion’s share of the touches in the offense before the season’s end. Stashed behind Saquon Barkley at Penn State in 2016 and 2017, Sanders didn’t take on a lead role at the college level until his 2018 campaign. And what he did when given the reigns was spectacular. Among the 55 FBS backs with 200 or more touches (rushes + receptions) this past season, he ranked eighth in yards after contact per touch (3.68) and 20th in forced missed tackles per touch (0.202). Sanders is currently projected to combine for 889.2 scrimmage yards and 6.1 touchdowns across 185.7 touches in 2019.

Eagles 53-man roster projection: Pre-training camp edition - BGN
The Eagles are confident in their trio of Graham, Barnett, and Curry. But what do they have beyond those guys? I’ll say the team ends up re-signing Barwin, even though I question his effectiveness at this stage in his career. Barwin has been talking about how he’s had conversations with Howie Roseman and how he’s bulked up to play 4-3 defensive end. Sweat is definitely one of the most intriguing players to watch this summer but there’s a broad spectrum of outcomes with him. He might be good! He also might be bad. We do know the coaching staff didn’t trust him much as a rookie. Speaking of young guys, I have Shareef Miller — the very last pick of the fourth round — going on injured reserve with a phantom injury. He seems like a developmental guy even if he makes the 53. At least one of Daeshon Hall and/or Joe Ostman are going to be this year’s Steven Means where they tear it up in the preseason but fail to make the roster. Ostman could still stick on the practice quad.

Doug Pederson believes Mike Groh and his staff of assistants will evolve in 2019 - PhillyVoice
“Yeah, that was one of the things, you look back, Gunter Brewer, Carson Walch, Press Taylor, Mike Groh, Spencer Phillips – five positions on the offense that got moved around,” Pederson noted. “Fast forward… and with a shortened offseason – Mike Groh being a first-time coordinator with a shortened offseason, and we’re trying to cram everything in leading into the season. It’s hard. It’s hard to do all that. But fast forward to this year, you’re seeing that stability, you’re seeing that growth. You’re seeing that understanding of the role, the position, the leadership ability of Mike with the offense and Press with the quarterbacks, Carson Walch obviously two years, but now first-time receivers coach. You’re seeing it on the practice field. And I think their stress level has come down, because things were moving fast. Even though for me, it was kind of normal, for them, it’s a rapid progression, a year ago. So you’re seeing that now… more under control, that leadership, things I saw in Year 2 with Frank and Flip.

Impact Rookies - Iggles Blitz
Miles Sanders could be the third rookie RB in a row to play a key role in the Eagles offense. He has big time potential. Sanders is an athletic player with outstanding cutting ability. He gives the team a player who is dangerous in space. Too often in recent years, Eagles RBs have left yards on the field due to not seeing where to go or not having the ability to get there. Sanders can make those plays. He wasn’t healthy in the spring, but I think he’ll prove to be the most important rookie of the group. J.J. Arcega-Whiteside was also a second round pick. He is a big, physical WR who can step in right away and be a key role player. Arcega-Whiteside is a dangerous Red Zone weapon, an area where the offense struggled in 2018. He also offers depth at a spot where the Eagles had injury issues last year.

Shouldering it together: Derek Barnett and his mother are working through the pain - The Athletic
This is Derek Barnett’s second annual football camp, in which he offers free admission for kids to run around for a few hours and learn a bit about the game of football before they leave with parting gifts and pizza. Last year, the camp served as a culmination of sorts for everything Barnett accomplished in his first season as a professional — from the draft celebration in Philadelphia to the elation in Minnesota when he recovered the football that forever altered the DNA of a franchise. This year, the air is heavier. Barnett’s second season ended prematurely because of a shoulder injury, but that became an afterthought following the tragic death of his 33-year-old brother, David, in December. This year’s camp is technically co-hosted by Derek’s former Tennessee teammate Kyle Phillips, which is appropriate because this has been a year in which he and his mother have learned to lean on friends and family when they need it.

Doug Pederson may not be a yes man, but saying no to personnel authority has made the Eagles winners - Inquirer
He may not be a yes man. In fact, he’s far from it. But the secret to the Eagles’ success may be Pederson’s humility. He knows his bounds. He gives Jim Schwartz autonomy over the defense. He empowers his assistants. And he doesn’t think that coaching his team to victories automatically makes him a master talent evaluator. That doesn’t mean that Pederson doesn’t have opinions, especially on quarterbacks, or that there aren’t disagreements. “Honestly, I can’t think of a time in the last three years, going on four, where I’ve just said, ‘Hey, we’ve got to have this guy, or not this guy,’ ” Pederson said. “I just don’t think it works that way. But I can have strong opinions, one way or the other, good or bad, for players.”

Eagles ready to ‘win as a team’ as 2019 Training Camp opens - PE.com
On the opening day of 2019 Eagles Training Camp, with the players in their seats in the NovaCare Complex auditorium all together for the first time this year, head coach Doug Pederson walked down the hallway. As he entered, he expressed the overall tenor of the organization. “I’m excited to get this thing going,” Pederson said. And then it got going. Pederson welcomed the players to Training Camp and spoke about his expectations. He threw the program over to Howie Roseman, who spoke of coming together as a team over the course of the next several weeks prior to the start of the regular season. Team president Don Smolenski then talked about the fans and the importance the 10 million-strong fan base plays in the success of the team, and that by reaching out to a young fan, a player can change a person forever. It was powerful stuff. Simple, yes. But powerful and important and certainly on point with what the Eagles are selling in 2019: We are all in this together. It’s not just the players and the coaches. It’s every person in the organization and it’s every fan and it’s all of the chemistry and camaraderie falling into place. “We’re here to be a team,” Roseman said. “We’re here to win together as a team.”

Here’s who’ll win all eight divisions, ranked according to confidence level - CBS Sports
2. Philadelphia Eagles: Maybe, perhaps, the Cowboys push them a little bit (should they avoid the wrath of off-field issues, suspensions, potential suspensions and self-created crisis that have been constants), but that’s it when it comes to the division. They will pummel the Skins and Giants and may be the best team in the NFC. Carson Wentz has MVP potential and the security of a new deal, the roster is overflowing with depth to the point they may be able to make multiple trades before final cuts to accrue more draft capital to keep the thing going there. The front office is adroit at making constant tweaks and utilizing the trade market unlike most others. Best team on paper, with the highest upside, within the division.

PFT’s pre-training camp (for most teams) power rankings - PFT
3. Eagles: If Carson Wentz stays healthy, it could be two Super Bowl wins in three years.

7 reasons the Eagles will return to the Super Bowl this season - NBCSP
Questions about whether Wentz is injury prone aren’t going away until he makes it through 16 games, or at least finishes the season. He enters 2019 healthy — 100 percent removed from the torn ACL that limited him last summer and caused him to miss the first two games, and past the back injury that eventually ended his campaign. Anticipate better mobility. Anticipate better timing in the offense and in the red zone. Anticipate a better rapport with receivers. Anticipate Wentz, now in his fourth year in the system, improving in multiple facets, one season removed from an MVP campaign, having completing 69.6 percent of his passes for 7.7 yards per attempt with 21 touchdowns to 7 interceptions while playing hurt last season. Then try to tell anybody the Eagles won’t be a better team in 2019.

Eagles’ Malcolm Jenkins talks mental health at summit - ESPN
The topic was mental health. Michelle Obama, addressing a crowd of more than 50 first-generation college-bound students at her annual Beating the Odds Summit on Tuesday at Howard University, looked over at Philadelphia Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins as she finished her point and signaled for him to take the floor. ”I know for me, mental health wasn’t anything we talked about when I was in school. But ... I am in therapy once a week at this point in my life because I recognize that I’m somebody who’s responsible for a lot of things, and I put a lot of pressure on myself, and so with that comes stress and a little anxiety,” he said.

Play-Action Offense 2018 - Football Outsiders
There were 11 teams that owed at least 10 percent of their play-action passes to RPO passes in 2018. Andy Reid and his coaching tree -- which includes Matt Nagy in Chicago, Frank Reich in Indianapolis, Ron Rivera in Carolina, John Harbaugh in Baltimore, and Doug Pederson in Philadelphia -- make up about half of that list. This table is courtesy of John Shirley of Sports Info Solutions.

The Four Super Bowl Contenders Hiding in Plain Sight - The Ringer
What might hold them back: The Cowboys also lacked playmakers on offense last season, but instead of making major moves to bring more in, they lost Cole Beasley in free agency, replaced him with Randall Cobb, and signed 64-year-old Jason Witten to rescue him from the Monday Night Football booth. Like Quinn, Cobb is a big name whose production has fallen off recently. Various injuries have slowed the formerly devastating slot receiver over the past few years—he hasn’t recorded more than 653 receiving yards in a season since 2015. It’s reasonable to suggest that wideout Michael Gallup could improve in his second year, but collectively, this pass-catching group isn’t a significant upgrade over last year’s. There’s also the harsh possibility that even in a revamped offense, the combination of Garrett and Prescott just won’t be good enough to get Dallas over the hump. Considering the Cowboys are about to pay Prescott like a high-end franchise quarterback, that would be the worst outcome possible for 2019.

Report: Cowboys are “optimistic” that a Dak Prescott deal gets done at training camp - Blogging The Boys
NFL Network’s Jane Slater reported on Wednesday that the Cowboys are “optimistic” that a deal will get done with Prescott while the team is at training camp. It’s a big deal for a franchise quarterback to get a deal so it makes sense for the team to be focused on this. They’ve already exchanged offers with Prescott’s camp over the offseason.

Five issues, and what we learned about them from Jay Gruden’s first training camp press conference of 2019 - Hogs Haven
Linebacker, DBs, Silverback, QB competition and the health of Robert Davis are all questions that people wanted to know about prior to Jay’s press conference to open training camp

Titans and Kevin Byard agree to contract extension - Music City Miracles
[BLG Note: Malcolm Jenkins has been bumped down to being the 10th highest paid safety in terms of annual value.]

The NFL’s 7 best old quarterback performances in the last 2 decades - SB Nation
For some quarterbacks, the most impressive game of their career didn’t come until after they turned 35.

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