Eagles News: NFL owners approve terms of potential new CBA

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NFL ownership approves terms of potential new CBA - NFL.com
NFL owners approved the terms of a potential new collective bargaining agreement between the league and the NFL Players Association, the league said in a statement following the owners’ meeting in New York on Thursday. [...] The players and their representatives will consider the owner-approved CBA proposal in a conference call on Friday, NFL Network’s Tom Pelissero reported. The 32 player reps could vote on the proposed CBA on Friday, and if it passes by a two-thirds majority, the proposal would go to the players for a final vote, where it would need to pass by a simple majority. ”This is a huge 24 hours to potentially lead to 10 years of labor peace,” Pelissero reported Thursday. Ownership convened on Thursday to consider a CBA proposal that among other things would provide the league the option to expand to a 17-game schedule, increase the players’ share of total revenue to at least 48 percent and expand the playoff field to 14 teams starting in 2020. The owners’ final vote on the proposal was not unanimous, but good enough to approve the new CBA terms, NFL Network’s Mike Garafolo reported, adding that the owners’ approval was the “expected outcome” coming into Thursday. The CBA, if agreed to by the players, could go into effect in time for the new league year on March 18, potentially altering the salary cap and state of free agency.

PFF predicts the Eagles will sign three of their top 50 free agents - BGN
The Eagles’ front office has previously shown interest in HHCD. The Alabama alumnus was one of six players the Eagles were realistically targeting at No. 22 in the 2014 NFL Draft. Howie Roseman traded down (and eventually selected Marcus Smith at No. 26, yikes!) immediately after HHCD went off the board to the Green Bay Packers at No. 21. HHCD made the Pro Bowl in 2016 but he’s hardly a star talent. He’s about to be on his fourth team since 2018 if he leaves Chicago in free agency. Still, this is a former first-round pick with 90 career starts in 96 games played. He’s logged 522 total tackles, 33 passes defensed, 16 interceptions, 5.5 sacks, and four forced fumbles since 2014. After signing a one-year contract worth $5.5 million with the Bears last year, HHCD is in line for a raise. His cost should still be relatively affordable, though, and he makes some sense for the Eagles.

Babes On Broad #26: Decisions, Decisions - BGN Radio
Sam Wilson & Jessica Towne discuss what the Eagles should do at LB/TE this offseason PLUS What’s Going On Around Philly! Powered by SB Nation & Bleeding Green Nation!

Top trade destinations for Detroit Lions cornerback Darius Slay - PFF
The Philadelphia Eagles ranked 31st among teams in coverage grade in 2019, and they allowed 18 total touchdowns, three more than any other outside unit in the NFL. Simply put, it can’t get much worse than it was last year for the team’s cornerbacks. The interesting thing here is that Sidney Jones was tasked with playing in the slot in his first season of significant NFL action (2018), even though he played fewer than 10 snaps at that alignment over his last three years in college from 2014-16. He struggled with the transition for the most part, producing a 47.6 coverage grade before being moved to the outside in 2019 and playing relatively well. It might be in their best interest to roll with Jones as a starter on the outside in 2020.

2020 NFL Free Agency: Bashaud Breeland leads list of five most underrated free agents, projected bargains - CBS Sports
RB Jordan Howard (Philadelphia Eagles). Three years ago, Howard was coming off his second straight 1,000-yard season, having scored nine touchdowns as the centerpiece of the Chicago Bears’ offense. A lot has changed since then, namely the former starter being dealt to Philly for just a sixth-round draft pick ahead of 2019, during which he started a career-low four games and missed another six with a shoulder/neck injury. While his health deserves monitoring, Howard is probably among the most reliable offensive options set to be available. Veteran running backs obviously don’t matter as much as they once did, but anyone who watched Howard in 2019 saw a guy who almost never lost yards — someone who pushed the pile on an absurd percentage of his carries. After a full offseason of rest, he should be more than capable of returning to a Day One starter role or, at worst, a steady committee piece. And get this: He’s still just 25.

Answering the 2020 offseason’s biggest fantasy football questions: 32 NFL reporters give early advice - ESPN+
How worried should we be about wide receiver J.J. Arcega-Whiteside after he produced so little with so many snaps as a rookie? I wouldn’t write him off yet. His ability flashed brightly at times last spring. The fact that he didn’t show significant development over the course of the season is a bit of a head-scratcher and falls partly on the coaching staff. Arcega-Whiteside still has a chance to be a good player, but with the Eagles determined to add talent to the receiver position this offseason, he’ll have to break through to show he deserves to be part of the rotation.

Eagles start busy offseason with LB Nigel Bradham move - PE.com
The Eagles want to see more from T.J. Edwards, who recorded 19 total tackles in 115 regular-season snaps as a rookie. Nathan Gerry took advantage of the most playing time in his career to notch 67 total tackles, 2.5 quarterback sacks, a pair of interceptions (one returned for a touchdown against the Jets), and a recovered fumble in 2019. The Eagles traded for Duke Riley from Atlanta during the season and he will get a shot to show what he can do in the spring and summer here now that he’s got the defensive scheme down. Alex Singleton, promoted from the practice squad during the regular season, becomes a player to watch in the linebacker mix for 2020 as well.

Would you like to see Nigel Bradham in a Redskins uniform in 2020? - Hogs Haven
The Redskins have a linebacking group that will be a priority in terms of needed roster improvement this off-season. Washington needs both starters and backups. It is a group that boasts no stars, has little experience, and is undergoing a scheme change from a base 3-4 to a base 4-3. Last month we found out that Reuben Foster’s recovery from injury is not really “on schedule” and his availability for the upcoming season is highly questionable. In short, the Redskins need help at linebacker. They probably need to draft a young playmaker, but they probably need at least one skilled veteran to help lead the unit as well. Could Bradham be the guy the Redskins need to lead the second level of Jack Del Rio’s defense? He’s smart and experienced. He can play, and has a championship ring to prove it. Bradham would command respect in the locker room.

The 6 best fantasy football destinations for Stefon Diggs - Fake Teams
Pairing the Eagles with any free agent/unhappy wide receiver is akin to saying nice anytime you see the number 69: you just can’t not do it. The Eagles had a makeshift group of no-namers in 2019 catching the football and still managed to throw the football the eighth most in the league. That’s a ton of opportunity for Diggs to step into with no clear number one wide receiver to compete with. Plus, giving Carson Wentz a reliable target like Diggs out wide would help boost his fantasy value as well, especially after a season in which he managed to play all 16 games and throw for 4,000+ yards.

Breaking down the 2020 NFC East odds of Cowboys, Eagles, Giants, and Washington - DraftKings Nation
Philadelphia Eagles (+120). The Eagles are the favorites in what should be a pretty competitive NFC East at the top. Philadelphia took home the division title last season, battling through injuries to a 9-7 overall record. The Eagles finished 5-1 in the division, winning their final four games of the regular season all against divisional opponents. Philadelphia went into the playoffs and lost to the Seattle Seahawks 17-9 in the Wild Card round. The Eagles needed the offseason to get started perhaps a much as any other team in the NFL with the amount of injuries suffered for some of their key playmakers. It makes sense to tab Philadelphia as the favorites to take the division as this will likely come down to a two-team race. The Eagles will be looking to be the first team to repeat as NFC East champs since they did it in 2004.

Early NFL Draft WR Rankings (Analytics) - Rotoworld
3) Henry Ruggs (6’0/190) is a rare athlete who wins behind the line of scrimmage and on vertical routes thanks to his sub-4.3 speed, making him a potential matchup nightmare, big-play threat, and special teams ace. At Alabama, he was a secondary receiver to Jerry Jeudy and Devonta Smith (that’s a red flag), but he still tested out in the 85th percentile in my predictive adjusted production metric because he was young, played on a great team, and was extremely efficient. His 13.5 yards per target average was the second best in the class, only trailing CeeDee Lamb. On tape, it’s clear he’s the fastest player on the field (video), which allows him to win behind the line of scrimmage on screens/sweeps and down the field. He’ll need to fine-tune his game to beat physical corners given his lack of size and inexperience (98 career receptions), but he can be a difference maker right away in the NFL with his speed and start/stop ability alone.

A new CBA could give Dak Prescott even more contract leverage with the Dallas Cowboys - Blogging The Boys
Dak Prescott already has an enormous amount of leverage due simply to the position that he plays. You can factor in all sorts of other things on top of that if you’d like, but objectively we all agree that he has far more working in his favor than either Amari Cooper or Byron Jones. Now Dak’s camp has a new factor putting wind behind their sails - if you don’t get the deal done as soon as possible now, you might lose your other two as a result of it. In an ideal world the Cowboys would get a deal done with Prescott (or really any of the three) before any of this happens which would allow them to still protect another and buy time to work on that extension. The reality for them though is that with a new CBA gaining serious steam so is the notion that their protected player group is dropping by 50%.

The Pros and Cons of the NFL’s New Scheduling Proposal - The Ringer
Con: More Injuries. As football fans, we have to accept an unfortunate mathematical equation. If X is the amount of football games that are played in the world, and Y is the amount of injuries and brain damage caused by football, an increase in X can only lead to an increase in Y. No amount of safety-first rules or equipment changes can solve this. The new CBA proposal would add a 17th game to the NFL regular season. Players have long opposed this, in spite of the fact that it would increase the league’s revenue and therefore their salaries, because they are the ones whose bodies will break and whose brains will be damaged.

Is Josh Norman still a starting corner in the NFL? - SB Nation
Despite that, Norman is confident he’s still an elite player. Washington’s overall dysfunction surely played a role in his struggles, but when it comes to his one-on-one matchups with receivers, has he really been playing that poorly? The short answer: yes. The longer answer involves jumping into the film for a sampling of times when he was beat last season to see if we can find a reason — other than “he’s just getting older” — to explain what has happened to Norman.

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