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Eagles News: Justin Jefferson vows to make Philadelphia and three other teams pay for passing on him

Philadelphia Eagles news and links for 5/3/20.

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College Football Playoff Semifinal at the Chick-fil-A Peach Bowl - LSU v Oklahoma Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images

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

Vikings New WR Justin Jefferson Vows To Make Teams Who Didn’t Pick Him “Pay” - Daily Norseman
The season has yet to begin but the trash talking won’t wait for Minnesota Vikings rookie wide receiver Justin Jefferson. Speaking with The Zach Gelb Show, Jefferson said, “Every single person that picked a receiver instead of me are going to pay. I’m going to show them that I am the better receiver than the pick that they had. . . . I’m definitely excited to go into Minnesota and [compete] for [a] Super Bowl.” Big words for Jefferson, but he feels he has the talent to back it up and the numbers agree with him. At LSU, he had 111 catches for 1,540 yards and 18 touchdowns. He was a very prominent piece in their national championship season. With those numbers, falling to number 22 was definitely a surprise to Jefferson. “I felt like I was the best receiver in this draft class, and being the fifth receiver off the board, it kind of was a shocker. But also having that on my shoulder going into this next season with Minnesota, I’m definitely excited to show the world what I have.” [BLG Note: Jefferson is referring to the Las Vegas Raiders taking Henry Ruggs III at No. 12, the Denver Broncos taking Jerry Jeudy at No. 15, the Dallas Cowboys taking CeeDee Lamb at No. 17, and the Eagles taking Jalen Reagor at No. 21.]

Eagles 53-man roster prediction following the 2020 NFL Draft - BGN
QB: Carson Wentz, Nate Sudfeld, Jalen Hurts (3) [3]. The Eagles are hoping Wentz can pick up where he left off in terms of playing great down the stretch last season. Who’s his top backup going to be, though? Is Hurts definitely locked in that spot from the jump? The Eagles thought highly enough of Hurts to take him at No. 53, yes, but the rookie isn’t going to have a normal offseason to learn the offense through practice reps. Maybe Hurts rises to the No. 2 spot as the season progresses? There’s also talk that the Eagles could use Hurts in a “Taysom Hill [package] on steroids” and/or as a “straight running back.” Needless to say, it’ll be interesting to see how this situation unfolds. In a normal offseason, I’d project Hurts as the No. 2 with Sudfeld and Kyle Lauletta battling it out for the No. 3 job. Maybe the Eagles should just keep all four guys since they’re a quarterback factory?

Drafting an all-time Eagles fantasy football roster - PhillyVoice
WR - Terrell Owens. This was a no-brainer. Terrell Owens is a Hall of Famer, and despite only playing 21 games in Philadelphia he’s the best wideout to ever wear the uniform. We already know how deadly the McNabb-Owens connection can be — at least when the two are getting along. If having these two requires putting a marriage counselor on our bench in place of an extra running back or wide receiver, so be it. McNabb and Owens playing together (and happy) would be a deadly one-two punch.

How will the WR picture look when 53-man roster is complete in September? - PE.com
J.J. Arcega-Whiteside. It’s on to Year 2 for J.J. Arcega-Whiteside after a rookie campaign in which he caught 10 passes for 169 yards and a touchdown. The 2019 second-round pick has worked hard throughout the offseason and he’ll need to come back when the NovaCare Complex opens in the best shape of his life and more refined with his routes and his technical skills. The Eagles expect Arcega-Whiteside to make a significant step forward in Year 2. The tough part is that Arcega-Whiteside would have benefited greatly from the on-field work in the spring. That’s not going to happen, at this point, anyway. Every rep he takes is an important one.

Reviewing 2019 Late-Year Breakouts - RBs & WRs - Rotoworld
Miles Sanders (18.8 FP/G) posted RB1 numbers at the end of the year, and he should benefit from the projected rebound of the Eagles Offense as a whole. If he sees the 15.7 carries and 5.3 targets that he saw over this sample, he’s a lock for RB1 production this upcoming season.

A 1-32 NFL uniform ranking: Which are the best? Which make us hide our eyes? - The Athletic
22. Eagles. In 1996, the Eagles moved from happy Kelly green to a deeper, what-are-you-looking-at-pal green that better suits this fine city. That they won a Super Bowl in those duds likely means they’ll never go back. You got a problem with that? Best look: The dark green jerseys are way more menacing than the white-on-white look. They’re more — to borrow a phrase — Philly special.

New Eagles safety K’Von Wallace channels Brian Dawkins, passion for Philly in journey to NFL: ‘I’m a hunter’ - CBS Sports
K’Von Wallace is sitting in his apartment bedroom. He’s in Clemson, South Carolina, not far from “Death Valley,” the Memorial Stadium field that two years earlier featured him at the back end of a national championship defense. He’s near Littlejohn Coliseum, where Wallace in December 2019 officially became the first person in his family to graduate college. And he’s barely hours removed from a virtual meeting with the Philadelphia Eagles, the NFL team that drafted him four days earlier. Wallace isn’t the biggest name from the Clemson Tigers program. Just the school’s 2018 championship team included five future top-20 draft picks (A.J. Terrell, Christian Wilkins, Clelin Ferrell, Dexter Lawrence, Isaiah Simmons), another three Day Two picks (Tanner Muse, Tee Higgins, Trayvon Mullen) and, biggest of all, consensus top 2021 prospect Trevor Lawrence. So when the 22-year-old safety first caught wind on Saturday that he was about to have an NFL home of his own, he almost couldn’t believe it. The New York Jets were on the clock at pick No. 125, two spots before the Eagles in the fourth round, when Wallace got a text. It was from Philadelphia defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz. And it was in all caps. LET’S GO.

How Brian Dawkins and Troy Vincent have already made an impact on K’Von Wallace - NBCSP
Wallace got to know Brian Dawkins because he roomed with Dawk’s son, Brian Jr., his teammate at Clemson. And he got to know Troy Vincent when he interned with the NFL, where Vincent is currently executive vice president of football operations. “(Vincent) and Brian are the same people,” Wallace said. “It was rarely football when it came to both of those guys.” It’s hard to imagine two better people for any young athlete to spend time around than Dawk, a seven-time Pro Bowler with the Eagles and Hall of Famer, and Vincent, a five-time Pro Bowler with the Eagles. Wallace and Dawk Jr. both arrived at Clemson in the fall of 2016. “I’m actually close friends with his son,” Wallace said. “Me and his son were roommates my first 2 1/2 years together in Clemson. I met (Dawk) throughout the whole process.”

Five Big Veteran Losers from the 2020 NFL Draft - PlayerProfiler
JALEN HURTS — Quarterbacks taken in the first round of the NFL Draft are almost expected to start straight away these days. Yes, the last two NFL MVPs didn’t do this, but I digress. Those taken in the second round have benefited from a certain amount of patience in recent times. Even so, of the 10 quarterbacks drafted in the second round since 2010, nine saw playing time as a rookie. Five started at least ten games, while Andy Dalton, Derek Carr, and Geno Smith started all 16 games. The only player not to take a single regular snap was Christian Hackenberg. My point is that when a quarterback is taken in the second round, he is likely to see the field at some point as a rookie. I would be surprised if this was the case for Jalen Hurts. The advanced stats and metrics make Hurts a prospect to drool over. Do you like quarterbacks who broke out early? His 18.1 Breakout Age is in the 100th-percentile. What about quarterbacks who can move the ball through the air in an efficient way? Look at his 89.7 (95th-percentile) College QBR and 11.3 (98th-percentile) College YPA. WOW.

The Benefits of the Packers and Eagles Draft Strategy - Over The Cap
The rookie QB basically allows you to take more risks in free agency because you can tolerate mistakes easier, but it can also allow a team that maybe already has some mistakes on the roster an easier path out. The Eagles in particular have a more dire salary cap outlook in the future with millions of sunk costs all over the roster. If they ever decide to make the switch from Wentz in many ways this is likely the cure for some of those contracts.

Scouts and Team Executives Dish on the Best and Worst of the NFL Draft - MMQB
NFC exec: “I don’t get the Jalen Hurts pick.

Stories inside the virtual 2020 NFL draft: 10 GMs on what they learned - ESPN
Another pressing matter among general managers: dress code. “We’re not getting in a suit, right?” the Titans’ Robinson remembers texting to a few peers in the hours before the draft. So everyone went business casual or even the T-shirt-and-jeans look. And then there was Eagles GM Howie Roseman, who wore a suit coat. Even Dimitroff, who rarely works without a suit and tie, was surprised by Roseman, who was in line for good-natured ribbing. “You’re making us look bad,” Robinson jokingly told Roseman.

Report: Dallas Cowboys signing veteran quarterback Andy Dalton - Blogging The Boys
There will obviously be thoughts that this signing has to do with the status fo Dak Prescott’s contract negotiations. While that take is unstoppable, this should be looked at as the Cowboys deciding that a veteran backup is a much more preferable path than an undrafted free agent that they started developing three years ago or a seventh-round rookie. Mike McCarthy has said that part of the reason that he took the Cowboys head coaching job was because of Dak Prescott, he clearly wants to outfit the rest of the room with players that he sees as part of the overall plan. [BLG Note: For all the talk that signing a veteran quarterback is too expensive, the Cowboys spent $3 million on Dalton and the New Orleans Saints spent $1.1 million on Jameis Winston.]

Could Cowboys rescind Dak Prescott’s franchise tag? - PFT
With the Cowboys to date intent on keeping Dak, the question of whether and to what extent another team would make a move for Prescott has yet to be raised. Budgets have been set and money has been spent and if the Cowboys wait until, say, July to make the move, Prescott would be very hard pressed to find a landing spot. Again, it’s unlikely. But it’s a suddenly fascinating possibility, and it gives the Cowboys a little extra leverage at a time when they otherwise have none.

FanPulse: New York Giants’ fans show rising confidence in team’s direction - Big Blue View
‘Tis the season for optimism among NFL fan bases. The shine of the 2020 NFL Draft hasn’t yet worn off. New players have been added in free agency. No games have been lost. No players have been injured. Optimistic talk has emanated from GMs and head coaches. Fans of the New York Giants, a team that has won 12 games in three seasons, are not exempt from this bubbling optimism. In SB Nation’s ‘FanPulse’ draft survey, more than 90 percent of Giants fans who responded gave the team’s draft either an ‘A’ or ‘B’ grade.

CBA nuggets: Changes in the new agreement and what they mean - Roster Size - Hogs Haven
In each game of the regular and postseason, a Club may choose to elevate either one or two players from its Practice Squad to its Active/Inactive List without the player first terminating his Practice Squad Player Contract and executing an NFL Player Contract. In other words, the elevation is temporary — the player will revert to the Practice Squad the next business day following the game. I find it interesting that the temporarily elevated player does not have to be active on game day.

Bears decline Mitchell Trubisky’s fifth-year option - Windy City Gridiron
While a physically talented player, Trubisky has had issues putting it all together from a mental standpoint, resulting in him falling far short of the bar that Patrick Mahomes and Deshaun Watson—the two quarterbacks selected after him in the first round of the 2017 draft—have set. With Nick Foles now on the Bears’ roster, the writing could be on the wall for Trubisky to play elsewhere for the 2021 season and beyond.

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