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Eagles Player Archetypes and how it affects 2019 and beyond


Hockey5djh

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Maybe back to back losses has me thinking more about the draft and what this team needs, or maybe this is me finding a coping mechanism for a terrible loss to Dallas. That said my very untrained football mind has started to wonder the last couple days if the player templates/archetypes that we scout/draft are best suited in different schemes and/or we aren't using these players to their full advantage and or who we could add to the team to make a legitimate difference in 2019.

Defensive End

Active Roster: Brandon Graham, Derek Barnett, Vinny Currey, Josh Sweat, Daeshon Hall

Overall thoughts....Our DEs never seem to be the most athletic group, they're generally all very stout run defenders but Eagles DEs are never high on the sack count leaderboard. Generally the wide-9 scheme helps the "lesser athletes" and stout run defenders by giving them more space to maneuver and single gap assignments in the running game. The downfall to this scheme is that lining up further away from the QB gives them that much more time to make a play while simplifying the game for our DEs. While every year we always seem to complain about sack counts....This seems to be by design with the benefit coming in run defense.

Trade Target?: With no major injuries to this area I don't think that a move for a DE without Elite potential (read: Clowney) would make a difference. Yannick Nkagoue from Jacksonville would fit the elite bill, earlier in the offseason he held out for more money and will be looking for a big payday this off-season. That said he's also a candidate for the Howie Special, in the last year of his deal we could trade for him this season and allow him to walk for a comp pick next season. That said I'm a proponent of holding onto elite talent and he won't come cheap if we do make a move for him. Other options: Carlos Dunlap (Cin), Michael Bennett (NE)

Defensive Tackle

Active Roster: Fletcher Cox, Anthony Rush, Albert Huggins (Tim Jernigan, Malik Jackson)

Overall thoughts....Injuries are severely decimating one of the most important positions in the wide 9. Trading up to #8 overall for Fletcher Cox, Trading for Jernigan, Signing Malik Jackson, all featuring over $10 mil AAV contracts shows the FO's understanding of importance and willingness to get the necessary pieces, unfortunately none of our top 3 guys have been 100% healthy. With Malik Jackson out for the season, Cox still playing through off-season foot surgery, and Jernigan working his way back from a broken foot of his own the Eagles seem snake bitten. We ask a lot of our DTs in the Wide-9, and in turn we have to commit the resources to the position.

Trade Target?: Personally, DT might be the biggest area of impact for 2019. Even if Cox gets healthy and Jernigan gets back to 100% our depth consists of two practice squad signings that we completed yesterday. Leonard Williams from the Jets is the most realistic target for the Eagles. He probably won't come cheap but he is 25 years old and on the least year (5th year option) of his rookie deal. This allows the team the flexibility to either resign him if the Jackson injury is major and/or pull the old Howie special and allow him to leave for a comp pick next year. Other Targets: Geno Atkins (Cin), Ndamukong Suh (TB)

Linebacker

Active Roster: Kamu Grugier-Hill, Nate Gerry, TJ Edwards, Alex Singleton (Nigel Bradham)

Overall thoughts...Our LB group in general is undersized, most falling in the 6-2, 220-230 pound range. Bradham is the lone LB on the roster above that range clocking in around 260. While undersized doesn't have the best connotation I don't see that as a problem behind our wide 9 scheme so far. All of our linebackers are willing tacklers and above average in coverage. Gone are the days where we hear about being torched by TEs and the last couple of weeks not withstanding we generally have a top run defense. I think the Eagles current LB issue is clear lack of talent, Bradham is the lone LB that hasn't been on an NFL practice squad. While the scheme can mask some deficiencies I think our injuries right now are really starting to expose this area.

 Trade Target?: None. The only trade target that stood out to me off the league bottom feeders is CJ Mosley, that said the shiny new contract given to him this off-season means a ton of dead money and a highly unrealistic deal.

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1 minute ago, RandyMossIsBoss said:

Good stuff.

Why are DTs more important than DEs in Schwartz D?

The wide 9 itself requires more from your DTs because the DEs are lined-up on the outside of the TE. Essentially it's allowing your DTs (read: Cox) to be double teamed to give your DEs more free reign to get to the QB. It was also exposed pretty badly last week because of our LB play (read: Bradham being injured).

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Now Scwhartz doen't play a pure wide 9 but generally the alignment calls for "fastball" defensive ends (think Dee Ford, Vic Beasley, etc.) off the corners. Graham and Barnett are not what i'd call fastballs but they are much better against the run so there's a tradeoff.

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8 hours ago, Hockey5djh said:

Now Scwhartz doen't play a pure wide 9 but generally the alignment calls for "fastball" defensive ends (think Dee Ford, Vic Beasley, etc.) off the corners. Graham and Barnett are not what i'd call fastballs but they are much better against the run so there's a tradeoff.

Even when we won the SB and had a Top 5 Defense,  led the league in pressures,  We didn't have Fastballs at DE IMO? Not unless Chris long is supposedly said fastball?

What we had was competent CB play especially at both Safety posistions and in the Slot with Patrick Robinson. Darby and Mills were nothing Special but light years better then anything we've seen in 2019 outside!

All of that helps the Pass Rush. Unfortunately we have none of that, a gimp Fletcher Cox , Barnett, ****ty depth at DT do to injury and Brandon Graham. That's it!

It's the perfect storm of ****ness right now and were living it Unfortunately. 

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8 hours ago, Nabbs4u said:

Even when we won the SB and had a Top 5 Defense,  led the league in pressures,  We didn't have Fastballs at DE IMO? Not unless Chris long is supposedly said fastball?

There's the issue.....right there. Pressures aren't sacks. Graham and Barnett are good enough to "move the QB off his spot" but not the "Fastballs" needed to turn those pressures into sacks.

That said, I agree with the rest of your post, we have **** injury luck so far on our defense this year. Missing your DT2, DT3, LB1, LB2, CB1, CB2, CB3 will cause issues for any defense.

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17 hours ago, Danger said:

I like the premise, but if we trade for anyone who doesn't have at least a full 2 years left on their contract, we're making a mistake.

Yes and no, really depends on the situation.

That said I'm not opposed to what I've been referring to as a "Howie Special" where we trade for a talented player in the last year of their rookie deal. This not only gives us a good young player for this year but it also allows us to "try them out" before either locking them up to another contract or allowing them to walk and get a comp pick in return.

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24 minutes ago, EagleBlueDon said:

We should make a move for a fastball then. At least for obvious passing downs. Vic Beasley is who I want.

Hasn’t he sucked for a couple years?

He’s paid like $12.5 mil, don’t think Howie wants to give up an asset + all that cash 

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10 hours ago, Hockey5djh said:

There's the issue.....right there. Pressures aren't sacks. Graham and Barnett are good enough to "move the QB off his spot" but not the "Fastballs" needed to turn those pressures into sacks.

That said, I agree with the rest of your post, we have **** injury luck so far on our defense this year. Missing your DT2, DT3, LB1, LB2, CB1, CB2, CB3 will cause issues for any defense.

Spot on there, I wouldn't call Graham's pressure/hurry numbers inflated, but they always have felt misleading in making him seem more a pass rushing menace than he really is. 

but, as you alluded to earlier, wouldn't you say having guys like Graham, Bennett, Barnett who are stout vs the run and not getting blown off the LOS is a big reason our run D has (probably, although I'd have to check numbers) been the best in the NFL since 2016 despite never having a particularly strong LB corp while lining up the DEs wide 9, which I would figure puts a lot more stress on the LBs?... and as we saw in the Juan/Washburn era, our greatest downfall on D was that we'd get gashed on the ground since Casey Matthews and co. could not handle those gaping holes between the tackles and ends. Seems like a trade-off that is probably ultimately worth it, but ideally you have fastball reserves, like Chris Long, to deploy on 3rd down. We don't have a trace of that this year.

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