Eagles News: Dissecting Howie Roseman’s disastrous 2020 offseason

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Eagles’ 2020 offseason looking like a disaster and 10 other Kapadia musings - The Athletic
4. The Eagles’ free agency plan centered on landing cornerback Byron Jones. When that didn’t happen, they pivoted to Plan B. The first step was to trade for Darius Slay. Slay has played well, although Sunday’s game was probably his worst of the season. Slay gave up a 16-yard catch in the fourth quarter that moved the Giants into field goal range. He then allowed a 40-yard catch that essentially put the game away. At the time of the trade, I wondered if adding Slay would really have the desired impact for the Eagles. Last year, they finished 12th in defensive DVOA and 15th against the pass. This year, even with Slay playing well, they rank 15th in defensive DVOA and 21st against the pass. The Eagles gave up a third- and a fifth-round pick for Slay, who turns 30 in January. He has a cap hit of $15.75 million next season, and $12 million of his salary is guaranteed. The Eagles look like they were right in their evaluation of the player, but they were wrong about the type of impact they thought he’d have on the defense and the team. 5. The story is different with Javon Hargrave, who has performed somewhere between a practice squad call-up and a rotational defensive tackle. Hargrave has hit the quarterback on 2 percent of his pass-rush opportunities. That ranks tied for 89th out of 113 qualifying players. He’s been even worse against the run. There have been 332 players who have played at least 300 snaps this season. None have produced fewer solo tackles than Hargrave (four). His film may be even worse than those numbers. The Eagles moved on to Hargrave after realizing they didn’t have to spend on Jones. They thought he would be a perfect fit for their system, even though it’s different than the one Hargrave played in with the Steelers. They made the move even though they already owed Fletcher Cox $17 million per year and Malik Jackson $10 million per year. Hargrave has a cap hit of $15.2 million next season, and $12.75 million of his salary is guaranteed. Maybe he will get better. But so far, this is shaping up to be one of the Eagles’ worst free-agent signings in recent memory.

Early on, Eagles passing on Justin Jefferson to draft Jalen Reagor is looking like a mistake - BGN
Let’s get this disclaimer out of the way at the top: it’s obviously very early into their careers and there’s plenty of time for things to change. But, early on, there’s no denying that the Philadelphia Eagles passing on Justin Jefferson to select Jalen Reagor with the No. 21 overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft is looking like a big mistake. It was hard not to think as much during the Minnesota Vikings’ Week 10 win on Monday Night Football while Jefferson went over 100 receiving yards for the fourth time in just nine games this season. It’s really not hyperbole to say that Jefferson is already one of the NFL’s best receivers. He ranks first overall in Football Outsiders’ DVOA and DYAR metrics. He ranks second overall in Pro Football Focus grading.

Babes On Broad #48: I’ve Never Hated the Eagles More - BGN Radio
Sam Wilson & Jessica Towne are.. angry! The Eagles were pretty pathetic against the Giants and the #BabeSquad is here to vent their frustrations! Powered by SB Nation & Bleeding Green Nation!

Eagles vs. Browns: Five matchups to watch - PhillyVoice
3) Myles Garrett vs. Jason Peters (and the rest of the Eagles’ offensive line). Myles Garrett leads the NFL both in sacks (9.5) and forced fumbles (4). Most of his sacks have come against opposing left tackles this season, but he lines up outside, inside, and on both the left and right sides. He is an elite player, with length, strength, speed, flexibility, and balance. Against the Eagles, I would expect that the Browns will try to take advantage of a matchup against Jason Peters as opposed to Lane Johnson. Good luck, JP.

Busts: Be Wary of Gurley and Chark in Week 11 - Rotoworld
The list of the Eagles’ problems this season are endless, but many are rooted in Carson Wentz’s play. Teams across the NFL have dealt with injuries and COVID situations all year long. On good clubs, the coaching and quarterback play can mask these issues for a two or three game stretch. On bad teams, those holes and weaknesses become even more apparent due to a poor gameplan and poor quarterback play. Thus far, the Eagles fit in the second bucket. Carson Wentz has been a disaster over the last two games for fantasy purposes against the Cowboys and Giants, who rank 18th and 27th in Pass Defense DVOA respectively, totaling 331 passing yards and two touchdowns. That’s two quarters of play for Patrick Mahomes, not to mention the two interceptions and two lost fumbles. All despite the likes of Dallas Goedert, Miles Sanders and Jalen Reagor returning. What do you think is going to happen when Myles Garrett, Olivier Vernon and company face off against backup offensive linemen? Maybe Wentz’s hero ball hits this week and he continues to score rushing points, but you cannot start him with any sense of confidence. Prediction: 24 of 40 for 240 yards and a touchdown, one interception and one fumble.

Doug Pederson: Eagles would trade for Carson Wentz all over again - PFT
“Oh heck yeah, I’d do it all over again,” Pederson said on a conference call with Browns reporters Wednesday, via Mary Kay Cabot of cleveland.com. “He’s the guy we wanted back then. He’s still the guy we want today. And I love everything about Carson Wentz, and he’s a great leader for our team and our city and I’d do it all over again.” What is Pederson supposed to say? Like it or not, Wentz is the Eagles’ franchise quarterback until he’s not. Wentz swears he’s not listening to outside noise. But with Wentz’s 73.1 passer rating ahead of only Drew Lock and Sam Darnold this season among qualifying quarterbacks, questions abound about why and how Wentz has become one of the worst quarterbacks in the NFL. In 2017, Wentz was in the MVP conversation until his season-ending knee injury. Since then, he is 17-18-1, with 60 touchdowns, 26 interceptions and a 90.7 passer rating.

Can Jared Goff and Carson Wentz redeem themselves in the second half of the fantasy football season? - Fake Teams
As long as Wentz keeps struggling to move the offense and keeps turning the ball over, he won’t be more than a middling QB2 for the rest of the season. Maybe if linemen Lane Johnson and Isaac Seumalo get healthy, and if he keeps welcoming back injured pass catchers, he can approach the level he showed from 2017 to 2019, but it seems like a longshot. Many fantasy managers likely have already moved on from Wentz, but if you haven’t, I wouldn’t recommend holding out hope for a miraculous bounce back.

Wentz responds to allegations of poor practice habits - NBCSP
“Are my practices perfect? No,” he said. “That’s why it’s practice. But as far as sloppy practice habits and those things? For one, you guys are out there every day and then you guys are asked to leave (after warm-ups and individual drills). So the media’s not even out there, so I don’t know where that’s coming from. But it is what it is. I know I’m not perfect, that’s why it’s practice, and I’ve got to be better all the time. But I’m always out there working, and I know everybody else is, so I haven’t seen any of that from myself or really from anybody. We’re out there busting our tails every day. Do mistakes happen? Absolutely. But is that something that I’ve seen or worried about from anybody else? No, I’m not.” Wentz’s 73.1 passer rating and 58.2 completion percentage both rank 33rd out of 35 quarterbacks, and his 12 interceptions lead all quarterbacks. He’s tied for 22nd in touchdown passes, and his 6.1 yards per attempt is also 33rd in the league.

Eagles’ pass offense is historically bad. So why aren’t they running more? | Film analysis - Inquirer
If you have an elite quarterback, it makes little sense to be a run-first or balanced offense in today’s NFL. Teams that throw to get ahead are typically rewarded, and only then should they favor the ground game. But when your quarterback is struggling, as Wentz clearly is this season, would it behoove Pederson to run more? Yes. Of course, when your pass offense is performing at a historically low rate, it’s more than just the play caller and quarterback who are responsible. The offensive line has been inconsistent, partly because of injuries but also because of poor play. There have been multiple injuries at the skill positions, but young receivers, and even some veterans, have been mistake-prone.

Fantasy Football: Taking stock of every NFL backfield ahead of NFL Week 11 - PFF
Miles Sanders continues to be featured as a workhorse when healthy. The only reason why his Week 11 performance wasn’t better was due to Scott and Clement managing to find the end zone twice on their combined four carries. Neither is the team’s goal-line back or anything like that; Sanders simply had an unlucky week in the scoring department. Up next is a Browns defense that has been good, not great, against opposing RBs. The likes of Giovani Bernard (20.6 PPR points), Ezekiel Elliott (20.5), James Conner (17.2) and even Jonathan Taylor (15.4) managed to put up solid production against Myles Garrett and company. I expect Sanders to join this group with 15-plus PPR points; treat him as a top-eight option at the position this week and beyond.

Team turnaround, players say, starts on the practice field - PE.com
This is not something new for defensive end Brandon Graham. It isn’t a position he desires, what with the Eagles 3-5-1 and on the road at Cleveland Sunday, the first of five straight games against teams with winning records. But it is where the Eagles find themselves in this bumpy ride through nine games of the 2020 season, and players like Graham – veteran leaders who have turned seasons around in the blink of an eye – understand what it takes to reverse fortunes for a football team that has high expectations for the year. Everything starts at practice. “I think it starts, definitely, with practice,” Graham said on Wednesday, “because some of the stuff that is showing up out there (in games) – and we’re just being real with ourselves – is happening in practice – jumping offsides, pre-snap penalties, false starts, people dropping balls, us not getting off the rock. It’s all stuff that we need to hone in on as a team and I think we’re doing a good job addressing that elephant in the room. You just kind of want to say, ‘Aw, everything is going to be alright, it’s gonna be alright.’ “But now we’re at a point where we know that stuff is affecting us and we have to clean that up. What I love the most is how Doug (Pederson, head coach) brings his energy and doesn’t let a lot of this stuff get to him too much, but just know that he’s got to make a change and it starts with him and it trickles down to us and we’ve got to make sure we’re policing that when we see stuff happening in practice.”

New video allegedly shows what happened before Eagles’ Dallas Goedert was punched in bar fight - NJ.com
A new video has emerged from the South Dakota bar fight involving Eagles tight end Dallas Goedert. TMZ published the video on Wednesday, showing the moments before Goedert was struck in the face at Zoo Bar in June. According to TMZ, the video shows Goedert placing his hand on a man as both move out of the camera view. Later on, Goedert appears to touch the man’s chest again as they head in the opposite direction. The Eagles tight end is then punched in the face by another man who comes from off-screen.

Getting dicey: Jack Conklin, Cody Parkey, and Charley Hughlett placed on Reserve/COVID-19 list - Dawgs By Nature
If all three players continue to test negative, they would likely make the cutoff to be able to play in Sunday’s game against the Philadelphia Eagles. However, if they test positive, that obviously creates big holes at one or more starting positions. Backup offensive tackle Chris Hubbard is already has COVID-19, so Kendall Lamm would be the insurance policy at right tackle. Reserves would have to be called up from the practice squad at kicker and long snapper.

All NFL teams to operate in COVID-19 intensive protocol starting Saturday - NFL.com
With COVID-19 infection rates rising rapidly throughout the country, the NFL announced that starting on Saturday all 32 teams will operate for the rest of the season under the league’s intensive protocol. That calls for, among other restrictions, all players and coaches must have a negative from the previous day’s testing before entering the facility, in addition to regular daily PCR testing, all meetings being held virtually unless they can be held outdoors or indoors with a pre-approved plan, and for face masks being worn at all times at the facility, including on the practice field by all personnel. All meals must be served in grab and go style to prevent people from congregating in meal rooms. Locker room use is strongly discouraged on non-game days. The protocol also prohibits team or player gatherings away from the facility, a particularly important prohibition with Thanksgiving next week.

It is possible that the Cowboys could be in first place in the NFC East in two weeks - Blogging The Boys
The Philadelphia Eagles have to visit the Cleveland Browns this week and look incapable of putting anything together offensively. Myles Garrett will likely complicate those matters all the more and after that game is all said and done things will hardly get easier for Philly when the host the Seattle Seahawks on the Monday night after Thanksgiving. It is for this reason that it is legitimately possible that on the morning of December 1st that the Dallas Cowboys could be the lone NFC East team with at least four wins. All that stands in their way is a Minnesota Vikings team that barley did enough to beat the Chicago Bears and a Washington Football Team that broke them beyond oblivion a month ago. No big deal, of course.

Washington fans staying committed to the vision despite mounting losses - Hogs Haven
That Week 7 blowout of the Dallas Cowboys at FedEx Field and the bonus bye week to enjoy the victory are feeling pretty distant now, with back-to-back 3-point losses against two other struggling teams in the Giants and Lions. But fans of the Washington Football Team aren’t abandoning ship. Polling by SB Nation during the 2019 season showed fan confidence crashing down to zero for several weeks, and not rising above 10% for most of the season. In 2020, by contrast, as the team has struggled to a 2-7 record, fan confidence has remained surprisingly buoyant as diehard fans of the burgundy and gold (and those are the only type remaining after two decades of Dan Snyder’s stewardship) continue to support Ron Rivera and his vision for the team.

Chicago Bears Injury Update: No fracture to Nick Foles’ hip - Windy City Gridiron
The Bears have a bye coming up this week, which will give them extra time for Foles to heal up, but also for Mitchell Trubisky to get his throwing shoulder right. Trubisky hasn’t been active since injuring himself in the one play he ran on November 1, in their loss to the New Orleans Saints. The last time Trubisky hurt his shoulder he missed two weeks, so if this timetable is similar to that one, he should be good to go for their next game on November 29 against the Green Bay Packers. If neither Foles nor Trubisky can play by then, it’ll be Tyler Bray and Kyle Sloter manning the quarterback position.

New York Giants fire OL coach Marc Colombo - Big Blue View
The New York Giants have fired offensive line coach Marc Colombo. He is being replaced by long-time NFL offensive line coach Dave DeGuglielmo, Tom Pelissero was first with the report. “We appreciate what Marc has done, but I felt like this move is in the best interest of the team,” coach Joe Judge said in a statement from the team confirming the switch. Colombo and DeGuglielmo were both considered for the job in January after Judge became head coach. Judge ultimately chose Colombo, whose only experience as an NFL offensive line coach had been with the Dallas Cowboys, over DeGuglielmo.

NFL picks 2020, Week 11: Packers vs. Colts is a tough pick - SB Nation
We’re back again for another week of NFL picks, and once again I’m the worst in this entire company at picking the winner of NFL games. In my defense, I tend to be a generous, nice person — and by that I mean I think the Chargers have burned me every single damn week I pick them.

America’s out-of-control Covid-19 surge, explained in 600 words - Vox
Over the past couple weeks, America has gotten some great news: Covid-19 vaccines in clinical trials may be more than 90 percent effective. It may seem like a sign that it’s finally okay to ease up on coronavirus-related restrictions. But experts say the opposite is true: With a vaccine still several months away, and the US currently seeing a massive surge in coronavirus cases, now is the time to do everything in our power to slow the spread of the virus so more people survive and make it across the finish line. That means controlling a new third surge of Covid-19 that is massive, shows no signs of slowing down, and will likely get worse as the country heads into the holiday season. As of November 17, the US’s weekly average for daily new cases was at 158,000 — an all-time high. That came just 11 days after the country breached a seven-day average of 100,000 for the first time. It’s truly national, with all states seeing increases in cases.

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