Eagles Almanac 2012

The Definitive Guide to the 2012 Philadelphia Eagles Season
EAGLES ALMANAC 2012
Written by Gabe Bevilacqua, Jason Brewer, Sheil Kapadia, Jimmy Kempski, Tommy Lawlor, Sam Lynch, Tom McAllister, Derek Sarley, Brian Solomon, Mike Tanier Edited by Brian Solomon
Table of Contents
Letter from the Editor Meet the Writers A Special ank You 4 5 7 8 15 16 25 26 33 34 38
2012 Eagles Almanac | 2
What Happened to Michael Vick?

By Sheil Kapadia
Focus:
e Eagles Passing Attack
Fails of the Tape

By Mike Tanier
Focus: 2011 Defensive Snap Charts
e Luxury of Feeling Okay

By Tom McAllister
Focus: 2011 O ensive Snap Charts
Post-Apocalyptic Living
By Gabe Bevilacqua
Focus:
e Curious Case of Evan Mathis
Who Are
By Tommy Lawlor
ese Rookies?
40 46 47 60 61 65 66 71 72 76 78
Focus: More Eagles Dra Nuggets
e bEast Breakdown
By Jimmy Kempski
Focus: NFC East by the Numbers
Make or Break Season

By Jason Brewer
Focus: Andy Reid by the Numbers
Looking to the Future

By Sam Lynch
Focus: Why Position Coaches Matter
Running With Shady

By Brian Solomon
Focus:
e Dog
at Didnt Bark
1-2-3, J.B.
By Tommy Lawlor
Letter from the Editor

Hello! ank you for purchasing the Eagles Almanac 2012. You truly are the among the cream of the crop of Eagles fans, and we wouldnt just say that to any random Joe we might sit next to at Lincoln Financial Field. No, you actually trusted us with your hard-earned dollars and we hope to reward your trust with as much great Eagles content as we can throw your way.
Letter from the Editor
ank you for purchasing you hold in 2012. hands (or computer or of the crop of will Within this bookthe Eagles Almanacyour You truly are the among the creamtablet) weEagles try to give you a complete fans, and we wouldnt just say that to any random Joe we might sit next to at Lincoln Financial Field. No, experience: everything from advanced statistics to detailed breakdowns of actual plays, from sentimental you actually trusted us with your hard-earned dollars and we hope to reward your trust with as much great Eagles content as we can throw your way. re ections on the past to optimistic projections of the future, from questions about the teams 2012 Within these book you hold in your hands (or computer or tablet) we will try to give you a complete enthusiast nestled carefully into his Eagles-branded Snuggie (OK, from experience on the team: everything from advanced statistics to detailed breakdowns of actual plays,I may own one too), nor will we sentimental re ections on the past to optimistic projections of the future, from questions about the teams into the vile despair propagated by the blowhards one might overhear shrieking from the nearest 2013 outlook to answers about the very fragility of fandom itself. Nothing will be sugar-coated for the innocent enthusiast nestled carefully into his Eagles-branded Snuggie (OK, I may own one too). But nor will dashboard radio. we delve into the vile despair propagated by the blowhards one might overhear shrieking from the nearest dashboard radio. What you will get is nothing less than the best product nine writers who happen to be fans (or is it the other (or is it the other way around?) can hope to give as our gi to you. We hope way around?) can hope to give as our gi to you, our fellow Eagles fans. We hope you like it as much as we do. If so, please let us know by shouting at us on the internet. ats always a jolly good time. Until next time,
outlook to answers about the fragility of fandom itself. Nothing will be sugar-coated for the innocent delve
What you will get is nothing less than the best product nine Eagles writers who happen to be Eagles fans you like it as much as we do.
Until next time,
Brian Solomon
Brian Solomon June 2012
Copyright 2012 Eagles Almanac. All Rights Reserved. 2012 Eagles Almanac | 1 www.eaglesalmanac.com info@eaglesalmanac.com
Meet the Writers

Northeast Philly native Gabe Bevilacquawasnt much of a sleeper as a youngster, and innocently began listening to the dulcet and (occasionally) calming tones of evening 610-WIP broadcasts as a bedtime soothing strategy. Its pretty much been all downhill from there. Gabes admittedly a little too fascinated by the Buddy Ryan-era Birds, but theres no accounting for taste, especially when one is passionate about bright colors and mean-spirited defense. Long ago, Gabe maintained BountyBowl.com before getting upgraded to IgglesBlog.com. Gabe is the founder of a so ware company (@Rallyverse) and lives in New York City with his wife and daughter. You can follow him on Twitter @BountyBowl. Jason Brewer founded Bleeding Green Nation in 2005 just in time for the worst Eagles season in the past decade. Despite that, he persisted and built the site into one of the most active Eagles communities on the internet and has seen his work featured on Yahoo! Sports, NFL.com, in the Washington Post, e New York Times, and Sports Illustrated. Plus, he once helped Koy Detmer hide from Andy Reid to avoid working at an Eagles charity playground build. Jason currently resides in New York City where he is pursuing a degree in Finance & Economics from Fordham University. You can follow Jason on Twitter @BleedingGreen. Sheil Kapadia has written the Eagles blog Moving the Chains on Philly.com since 2008. His earliest memories as a sports fan include several trips to Veterans Stadium with his Dad. Kapadia has also contributed to SI.com and ProFootballTalk.com. He's not a beat writer or an insider, but enjoys talking football 365 days a year. You can follow Sheil on Twitter @SheilKapadia. Jimmy Kempski launched Blogging the bEast, covering the NFC East, in May 2011, right in the middle of the lockout, and just ahead of a season in which the Giants won the Super Bowl. He also contributes at Bleeding Green Nation (writing about the Eagles), SNY.tv (Giants), and e Washington Post. Jimmy lives in North Jersey with his wife, daughter, dog (Charlie) and cat (Butters). You can follow Jimmy on Twitter @Jimmy_Beast. Tommy Lawlor isnt from Philly, but is an Eagles fan anyway, proving that he was dropped on his head too much as a kid. Actually, Dr. J is the culprit for bringing him to Philly sports. Tommy began following the Eagles during the glory days of Reggie White and Buddy Ryan. Tommy began writing about the team in 2003. Hes avidly followed the NFL Dra going back to the late 80s and in the late 90s was trained by a former NFL scout in the art of player evaluation and scouting. He began the website ScoutsNotebook.com in 2005 and has written a weekly column for PhiladelphiaEagles.com since 2007. He also wrote about the Eagles at
EaglesBlitz and IgglesBlog, before moving to the mash-up blog IgglesBlitz.com. You can follow Tommy on Twitter @lawlorn . A New England native, Sam Lynch moved to Philadelphia prior to 8th grade and within 12 months had ditched the hookers-and-blow era Patriots to cheer for the Buddy Ryanera Eagles, a clear upgrade. He isnt bothered at all that he has missed out on six Super Bowl appearances and three Super Bowl wins as a result, because really, nothing is as satisfying to the soul as consistently above-average play. During graduate school, Sam was trained by economists in the art of speaking-con dently-while-passing-judgment-on-other-peoplesbusinesses. Sam has lived in the Boston area for the past decade or so, and instead of paying attention to his wife and two daughters, he started posting on the Eagles Message Boards in 2004, before he was rescued from that ctional island by the now (sadly) defunct IgglesBlog. He currently contributes to Tommy Lawlor's Iggles Blitz website. You can follow Sam on Twitter @shlynch. Tom McAllister is the author of Bury Me in My Jersey: A Memoir of My Father, Football, and Philly. His shorter work has appeared in e Philadelphia Inquirer, e Daily Beast, and e Black Warrior Review, among others. He is the non- ction editor of the literary journal Barrelhouse, and he teaches at Temple University in Philadelphia. For more, check his website: tom.mcallister.ws and follow Tom on Twitter @T_McAllister. Derek Sarley started the IgglesBlog back when it was still unusual for people without any relevant quali cations to take on football-related jobs.He retired a er Juan Castillo obliterated all previous records in that area. Now you can nd him talking about the birds on Twitter @IgglesBlog or the one modern social media site absolutely no one uses. Brian Solomon is a full-time reporter, but most of the time hes tracking billionaires around the world for Forbes Magazine. At night though, Brian cant help but also write about the Eagles. He founded his blog McNabb or Kolb back in the glorious o season of 2010 when debate swirled between those two eponymous quarterbacks. Brian also contributes to NBC Philadelphia. You can follow Brian on Twitter @Brian_Solomon. Mike Tanier is a senior writer at Football Outsiders, author of e Philly Fan's Code, and the writer of the weekly NFL game previews for e New York Times, among other things. When not diagramming plays, searching spreadsheets for data, or making fun of Rex Ryan, he can be found in Mount Ephraim, New Jersey, with his wife and two sons. You can follow Mike on Twitter @FO_MTanier.
A Special Thank You

e Eagles Almanac 2012 sports original cover artwork courtesy of graphic designer Wes Kull. You can learn more about Wes at wes-kull.com and see his entire series of NFL logos at gridiron-league.com. Our work also wouldnt be possible without the advanced statistical e orts of our friends at Football Outsiders and Pro Football Focus. Youll see their stats throughout the book, and if you like what you see, we recommend you support them directly. FOOTBALL OUTSIDERS ALMANAC 2012 is the most authoritative and innovative guide to the upcoming football season. The Football Outsiders crew is back with more cutting-edge statistical analysis, obsessive lm study, and trademark humor. Includes comprehensive coverage of all 32 NFL teams, analysis of offseason personnel changes, over 500 KUBIAK fantasy football projections, and breakdowns major college football teams. "A book that any self-respecting NFL fan needs to purchase" -- Bill Simmons, ESPN.com Exhaustive, enlightening, surprising in many cases, and an absolute must read if you like the NFL." -- Peter King, SI.com
What Happened To Michael Vick?

Interceptions, Injuries, and More
By Sheil Kapadia n a late July a ernoon last summer, Michael Vick walked o a practice eld at Lehigh and subtly delivered a st-pound to his le tackle, Jason Peters, who was taking a knee on the sideline. en he moved on to Jason Avant, Mike McGlynn, Brent Celek and the rest of his teammatesmaking sure everyone was engaged, together, on the same page. When practice was over and reporters sought answers about DeSean Jacksons contract or Jeremy Maclins illness, they did not go to Andy Reid. ey went to Vick, who stood patiently, with sweat dripping down his face, o ering up response a er response. e signals were clear: is was his o ense. And this was his team. e previous season, Vick took the starting job away from Kevin Kolb and set personal career highs in completion percentage (62.6), passing touchdowns (21), and yards per attempt (8.1) as the Eagles won the NFC East before falling to the eventual Super Bowl champion Green Bay Packers in the wild-card round of the playo s. With Kolb in Arizona, and Nnamdi Asomugha, Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, Cullen Jenkins and Jason Babin added to bolster the defense, Vick appeared poised to take another step in his development and lead the Eagles deep into the playo s. But you know what they say about the bestlaid plans.
Photo courtesy Wigstruck.
Vick committed 21 turnovers in 13 games a er having just 10 in 12 games the previous season. Injuries knocked him out of two games (vs. the Falcons and Giants), forced him to miss three others (vs. the Patriots, Seahawks and Giants), and played a role in his terrible performance against the Cardinals. So, what happened to Vick? And what are the issues he needs to x to rebound in 2012? is chapter attempts to answer those questions.
What Happened To Michael Vick? Interceptions, Injuries, and More
HOW TEAMS ATTACKED VICK Vicks struggles can be traced back to that infamous Tuesday night loss against the Vikings back in 2010. In that game, he committed three turnovers (two fumbles and an interception), was sacked six times and averaged just 6.1 yards per pass attempt. Minnesota o en sent extra pressure (31 of 58 dropbacks), and Vick failed to hit on big plays against the blitz. On 10 of those 31 plays, he failed to even attempt a pass, getting sacked ve times and taking o to run on ve other occasions. So, did teams follow that blueprint and o en send extra pressure in 2011? Heres a look at how defenses attacked Vick last season, broken down by number of pass rushers: Pass Rushers 3 or fewer 4 5 6 7 or more Percentage of Plays 9.9% 54.7% 24.9% 8.3% 2.2%
Pass Rushers 3 or fewer 4 5 6 7 or more
Comp. % 77.5% 57.8% 64.1% 52.8% 42.9%
Yards per Att 11.8 7.4 8.9 4.9 3.1
For our purposes, well de ne the blitz as any play in which the defense sent more than four pass rushers at Vick. at happened on 35.4 percent of his dropbacks. Defenses sent four rushers or fewer 64.6 percent of the time. HOW VICK PERFORMED Here are Vicks passing numbers against di erent numbers of rushers:
Rushing three is not the way to defend Vick. e Eagles o ensive line is able to protect him in those situations, and the teams pass-catching weapons can still get open, even with eight defenders in coverage. Vick was 31-for-40 for 470 yards when teams rushed only three. When teams rushed four and dropped seven into coverage, Vicks numbers were pedestrian. He completed 57.8 percent of his passes and averaged 7.4 yards per attempt. Vicks numbers against ve rushers look great64.1 completion percentage and 8.9 yards per attemptbut as Ill show in the next section, he was sacked quite a bit on these plays. e numbers against six or more rushers were not good. Vick completed just 22 of 43 passes (51.2 percent) for 199 yards (4.6 YPA) on those plays. Overall, against the blitz, Vick completed 60.3 percent of his passes and averaged 7.6 yards per attempt. He completed 60.7 percent of his non-blitz throws and averaged 8.1 yards per attempt. WHAT ABOUT SACKS? Howard Mudd was brought to Philadelphia to help Vick stay clean a er Reid promoted Juan Castillo to defensive coordinator.
And as the numbers show, Mudd did an excellent job, despite starting two rookies (Jason Kelce and Danny Watkins) for most of the season and moving Todd Herremans from le guard to right tackle. Overall, Vick was sacked 23 times in 2011, or once every 21.5 dropbacks. In 2010, he was sacked 34 times, or once every 15.6 dropbacks. Heres a look at Vicks sacks and sack rate (number of sacks divided by dropbacks) against di erent kinds of pressure: Pass Rushers 3 or fewer 4 5 6 7 or more Sacks 1 7 10 4 1 Sack Rate 2% 2.6% 8.1% 9.8% 9.1%
Defenses were not very e ective at sacking Vick without sending extra pressure. On plays where he wasnt blitzed, Vick was sacked just 2.5 percent of the time. When defenses sent ve or more rushers, that number skyrocketed to 8.6 percent. Its important to remember that with defenses getting more complex, the number of rushers is not always as signi cant as where the pressure is coming from. Four pass rushers produced a sack rate of just 2.6 percent. But by adding just one extra rusher, that number jumped to 8.1 percent. And then theres the issue of holding on to the football too long.
J.J. Cooper of Football Outsiders keeps track of sacks that result from quarterbacks holding on to the ball too long. He breaks them down into three categories: Sacks that occurred in under 2.5 seconds. Sacks that occurred between 2.5 and 2.9 seconds Sacks that occurred a er 3 seconds or more. e theory is that the o ensive line is at fault for sacks that happen in less than 2.5 seconds. And quarterbacks are usually to blame for the sacks that take three seconds or longer. Vick was sacked in under 2.5 seconds on 1.4 percent of his overall dropbacks, which was lower than the league average of 1.8 percent, meaning the o ense did a good job of avoiding those quick sacks. He was sacked a er holding on to the ball for three seconds or more on 2.8 percent of his dropbacks, slightly above the league average of 2.7 percent. So, Vick very well might hold on to the ball longer than other quarterbacks, but those plays didn't result in sacks at a high rate. ey might, however, have resulted in hitseither as he released the football or a er he picked up yards with his legs. Deciding when to take o and run and when to throw the ball away are things Vick will have to continually work on, especially as he gets older and loses some of his speed and athleticism. GETTING AWAY FROM PRESSURE e question of whether its easier or more di cult to block for Vick is a complex one. On one hand, he gets away from pressure better than any quarterback in the league. Football Outsiders
noted that Vick escaped 17 possible sacks last season, far and away the most in the NFL. Tim Tebow was second with 12, and Josh Freeman was third with seven. On the other hand, blocking for Vick can be more di cult than blocking for a traditional pocket passer. I took a look at all 23 of Vicks sacks and counted at least eight where he clearly bears some kind of responsibility. ese were instances where: e defense sent more rushers than the Eagles had blockers. On plays like this, the onus is on the quarterback to recognize what hes seeing and get rid of the ball quickly. Vick took o before he needed toeither because of perceived pressure or because he thought he saw a running lane, which closed quickly. Vick had time to throw, held on to the ball too long, couldnt nd a receiver and was eventually sacked. Vick simply slipped on his dropback (only happened once). eres obviously a give and take here. If you isolate Vicks improvised runs (designed pass plays), the numbers are scary. He took o 53 times and piled up 538 yards. at comes out to 10.2 yards per carry. When he got past initial pressure and crossed the line of scrimmage, Vick was picking up big chunks of yardage. But we have to add in the plays where he was sacked too. Vick never just takes a sack like some other quarterbacks. He believes he can keep every play alive and will ght until he has no other choice than to go down. Perhaps the best example of this was late in the season when he had his helmet ripped o against the Dolphins and still fought to stay standing. ats part of
what coaches and teammates love about Vick hes fearless. Heres how the total numbers look on the 76 pass plays where Vick was either sacked or took o and ran. Plays Scrambles Sacks TOTAL 53 23 76 Yards 538 -126 412
When you factor in the yards lost on sacks, Vicks rushing numbers obviously dip. Designed passing plays in which he did not get rid of the ball gained on average 5.4 yards. ats lower than his 7.8 yards per pass attempt. THE TURNOVERS Pretty much every preseason article you read about Vick will focus on two items: turnovers and injuries. A er getting picked o just once every 62 attempts in 2010, Vick was intercepted once every 30.2 attempts in 2011. To be fair, his interception rate in 2010 was unsustainable. As a point of reference, Tom Brady has been intercepted once every 46.3 attempts for his career. And Aaron Rodgers, once every 55.6 attempts. In other words, we knew Vicks interception rate was going to increase last season. But the drastic change (14 interceptions in 13 games) was cause for concern. For his career, Vicks been intercepted once every 35.3 attempts, and that includes the years in Atlanta when he clearly was not as good a passer
as he is now. So its reasonable to expect him to have better luck next season. I went b ack and lo oke d at e ver y interception he threw in 2011. ere were three instances where the pick was not really his fault. Steve Smith let a ball go right through his hands against the Giants. Jason Avant had the ball ripped out of his hands against the Bills. And DeSean Jackson failed to ght for a deep ball in one-on-one coverage against the 49ers (although, to be fair, Vick underthrew him on that one). ere was also a Hail Mary attempt against the Jets as time ran out in the rst half. It goes both ways though. Vick had six potential interceptions dropped by defenders, according to Football Outsiders. Of the remaining interceptions, seven appeared to be bad throws/bad decisions by Vick. e other three were the result of tipped passes at the line of scrimmage. e tipped passes were a problem for Vick (one of the shortest quarterbacks in the league at 60) in 2010 also. According to Pro Football Focus, Vick had a ball batted at the line of scrimmage once every 37.2 attempts in 2010. In 2011, that rate got worse at one out of every 30.2 attempts. And then there were the fumbles. Vick had 10 fumbles and lost four. Again, itd be oversimplifying things to say he was just careless with the football. On one play against the Falcons, he was pretty much out of bounds when the ball came out. On another, he was stripped by Atlantas Peria Jerry before he could hand the ball to LeSean McCoy a er a fake toss in the red zone. e good news is that seven of Vicks 10 fumbles came in the rst three games. He had three (one lost) in the nal 10 games, and one of those was on the exchange with Kelce. In reality,
Vicks ball security was no di erent than the previous season. In 2010, he actually had more fumbles (11), but the Eagles only lost three. Four of Vicks 10 fumbles came when he was scrambling or running. ose are the ones he needs to eliminate in 2012. THE INJURIES Vick was listed on the injury report nine times last season. He missed three games completely and failed to nish two more. Against Arizona, he played most of the game with broken ribs, and it showed, as he turned in perhaps his worst game as an Eagle. e narrative some cling to is that Vick likes to leave the pocket, scramble and make big plays with his legs. He needs to slide, but refuses to. And thats why injuries marred his 2011 season. But lets, for a moment, allow the facts to get in the way. By my count, Vick su ered four di erent injuries last season: a concussion against the Falcons, a bruised right hand against the Giants, an injured nger against the 49ers and two broken ribs against the Cardinals. Heres a look at what happened on each play: Concussion: Vick stayed in the pocket and completed a 9-yard pass to Jeremy Maclin. e problem? LeSean McCoy did a poor job of picking up blitzing Falcons safety William Moore on Vicks front side. Moore hit Vick, who spun around and collided with Todd Herremans. is injury had nothing to do with Vick being reckless. He executed the play well, and his teammate (McCoy) didnt do his job. Bruised right hand: e Eagles ran a playaction fake. is was not a designed roll-out. Vick stayed in the pocket and delivered a beautiful pass to Maclin for a 23-yard completion. However,
Giants defensive lineman Chris Canty nailed him right under the chin with his helmet. A penalty could have been called on the play, but wasnt, and Vick publicly complained about the o cials in his post-game press conference. But again, he was in the pocket and completed a pass on the play. Injured nger: By now, Im hoping youve begun to notice a pattern. Vick stood in the pocket and delivered a 7-yard completion to McCoy. 49ers defensive lineman Justin Smith got some pressure against Jason Peters around the edge on Vicks front side and hit his nger as Vick released the football. Broken ribs: Reid said Vicks broken ribs were sustained on the second play of the Cardinals game when linebacker Dar yl Washington came untouched on Vicks front side and nailed him as he got rid of the ball to Brent Celek for a 13-yard gain. What do all these injuries have in common? One, he was in the pocket when he sustained each of them. And two, he actually completed the pass each time. Sure, Vick puts himself at risk when he leaves the pocket and takes on defenders who are trying to rip his head o . But the notion that he was prone to injury last season because he ran too much and was reckless is o -base. VICKS TARGETS With Jackson and Maclin on the outside, the Eagles are still a big-play o ense. According to Pro Football Focus, 13.7 percent of Vicks pass attempts traveled 20 yards or more from the line of scrimmage. at ranked seventh among all quarterbacks. As for accuracy, Vick was pretty good with the deep ball (passes that traveled 20+ yards). He
completed 24 of 58 of those passes, and per PFF, six were dropped. So really, he threw 30 catchable balls. Or you could say 51.7 percent of his deep balls were on target. at ranked fourth in the NFL, behind only Rodgers (60.7 percent), Tony Romo (54.1 percent) and Drew Brees (52.1 percent). Below is a table of where Vick threw the ball (percentage of attempts), comparing 2010 and 2011. 2010 Behind LOS 1-10 yards 11-20 yards 21-30 yards 31-40 yards 41+ yards 20.1% 43.1% 21.7% 9.6% 2.5% 3.0% 2011 22.1% 38.7% 27.0% 7.4% 3.2% 1.7%
e main increase (5.3 percent) was on the intermediate throws from 11-20 yards. Heres a similar chart that shows completion percentages in the di erent ranges. 2010 Behind LOS 1-10 yards 11-20 yards 21-30 yards 31-40 yards 41+ yards 82.2% 67.5% 54.4% 40.0% 33.3% 45.5% 2011 71.1% 65.8% 58.2% 30.0% 30.8% 42.9%
e only area where Vicks completion percentage increased in 2011 was on the throws from 11-20 yards. Receiver drops in 2010 and 2011 were almost identical. According to PFF, 10.3 percent of Vicks catchable balls were dropped in 2011. In 2010, it was 10.6 percent. WHAT TO EXPECT?
is is Vicks rst full o season as a starting quarterback since 2006. At 32 years old, if he doesnt put everything together now, chances are its just not going to happen. Up front, the Eagles return four of ve starters. eres no question that the Peters loss is huge, but give Reid and Howie Roseman credit for acting quickly and signing Bell, who has 30 career starts under his belt and should at least be serviceable. Its reasonable to expect second-year players Kelce and Watkins to improve also. At wide receiver, Vick should have a happy DeSean Jackson, now that he received a new contract. Maclin, meanwhile, set a career high, averaging 66.1 yards per game last season, and provides a versatile weapon who can be e ective in the red zone.
Photo courtesy SRA Moses Ross.
McCoy is coming o a career year in which he piled up 1,309 yards on the ground and led the league with 14 runs of 20+ yards. And Celek averaged nearly 70 yards per game receiving in his last 10, while leading all tight ends with 500 yards a er the catch, according to STATS.com. e pieces are in place, which means Vick needs to get the most out of his o season with Reid and Marty Mornhinweg. Accuracy is not a major issue. When he targets an open receiver, Vick usually puts the ball where it needs to be. And we know theres no throw he cant make. e intangibles are not an issue either. I mentioned his toughness earlier. As soon as Vick was named the starter in 2010, and probably before then, he had the respect of his peers teammates and opponents alike. To cut down on turnovers, Vick needs to do a better job nding passing lanes while in the pocket. He needs to make better decisions and take care of the football when he scrambles. As for injuries, itd be great if Vick protected himself and avoided big hits, rather than ght for an extra yard here and there. But Im not sure that change is going to take place at this point in his career. As I mentioned above, the injuries last year took place when he was in the pocket. at means working with Howard Mudd and Kelce to identify whats coming before the ball is snapped and getting rid of the football on time. If Vick can master those things, he can lead the Eagles deep into the playo s. If he cant, the team will have a decision to make at quarterback before 2013. Sheil Kapadia has written Philly.coms Eagles/NFL blog, Moving the Chains, since 2008.
Focus:
The Eagles Passing Attack
Eagles Pass Targets Distribution by Position
70% 60% 50% 40% 30% 20% 10% 0% 2004 2005 2006 Wide Receiver 2007 2008 Tight End 2009 2010 Running Back 2011
Eagles TD percentage in red zone in 2011, 14th in NFL Eagles QBs interception percentage in 2011, 32nd in NFL
52 4.5
Eagles pass attempts per game in 2011, 14th in the NFL Eagles QBs yards per attempt in 2011, 8th in NFL
35 7.4
Fails Of The Tape

Juan Castillos Disastrous Defense
By Mike Tanier he 2011 Eagles defense reminded me of the Texas coroner who found a body with six gunshot wounds in the back and ruled it a suicide. Watching tape of some of the most disastrous plays, it is hard to comprehend how so many things can simultaneously go wrong. EAGLES VS. FALCONS, WEEK 2, FOURTH QUARTER: Michael Turners 61-yard run Its a simple play, from a simple formation. Michael Turner is the single setback, Tony Gonzalez the tight end on the right side. ere are three wide receivers. Le guard Justin Blalock pulls into the gap between right guard and right tackle. Turner takes the hando and follows Blalock. It is 1stand-17 a er a holding penalty, and the Falcons just want to gain ve or six yards. e Eagles are in their all-too-typical defensive front. Jason Babin lines up at least two yards to the right of Gonzalezs right shoulder. Cullen Jenkins is in three-technique, between the right guard and tackle, far away from Babin. e clich is literally true: you could drive a truck between them. Jamar Chaney stands three yards back, defending the gap between defensive tackle and end. Casey Matthews defends a similar wide gap between Trent Cole and Mike Patterson on the o ensive le . Its a bad run-stopping alignment, but the Eagles are more concerned
about the pass. If everyone executes, the Falcons will face 2nd-and-13. At the snap, Babin charges straight up eld, and Gonzalez obliges him. Jenkins is double teamed. Matthews misreads the blocks and stumbles into the line, where the center makes sure he doesnt accidentally do something heroic. Its Chaney versus Blalock and Turner on a turnpike onramp. Chaney is swallowed. Turner darts inside of him. Kurt Coleman knifes in from his safety spot on the o ensive le . He takes a perfect angle to tackle the spot on the eld Turner vacated well over one second earlier. Coleman changes direction, bumps into the right guard while beginning his pursuit, and falls backward. Jarrad Page is the deep safety. Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie the slot cornerback. DRC escapes the block of a receiver and pursues Turner. DRC has been accused of many faults, but his pure speed is never in question. Unfortunately, Page takes a bad angle when trying to corral Turner, gets juked, and bumps into DRC. Its a footrace, and the Eagles defense put a lot of extra e ort into making sure their best sprinter got bumped o by his teammate. DRC nally recovers and knocks Turner out of bounds for a 61-yard gain. e Falcons score a touchdown ve plays later. A 10-point Eagles fourth quarter lead has become a four-point Falcons lead. And Mike Ka a is the Eagles quarterback. Final score: Falcons 35, Eagles 31.
Fails Of The Tape: Juan Castillos Disastrous Defense
OVERRUN AND RUN OVER For the Eagles last year, every opponents running play was either feast or famine. e Eagles stu ed 23 percent of opposing ball-carriers, the third highest percentage in the NFL according to Football Outsiders. Yet they allowed 1,801 rushing yards, 4.4 yards per carry, and 55 runs of ten or more yards. e problems on run defense were most acute early in the season, when the Eagles were still adjusting to the Wide-9 philosophy, and when players like Page and Matthews were playing major roles. Unlike some of the plays we will look at in a few moments, Turners run was the result of personnel and execution failures, not system failure. If the Eagles did not have a completely inept linebacker and two very bad safeties on the eld, this would have been a seven-yard gain. Matthews will be relegated to special teams if he remains on the roster this year. DeMeco Ryans is a former Pro Bowler who became expendable in Houston because he did not t their 3-4 defense. He is an e ective in-the-box run stu er, the kind the Eagles have lacked since Jeremiah Trotter got old. Ryans allowed an average of 3.4 yards per tackle last year, in contrast to Matthews 5.9. (Chaney posted a more acceptable 3.6). Rookie Mychal Kendricks adds competition at outside linebacker: if the Eagles are forced to play mix-and-match, it will not be from among endless retreads like Akeem Jordan and Moise Fokou. Safety is a bigger issue. Coleman is still listed as a starter, with Nate Allen and last years second round pick Jaiquawn Jarrett in the mix as starters at free safety. Both Allen and Jarrett will appear later in this essay. Both still have the
potential to grow, which is a nice way of saying that neither has shown us much of anything yet. *** Have you ever played Madden against a teenaged nephew, or a neighbors kid? At rst, the kid seems awesome. He has the re exes and the innate gamer skills that come from being a youngster who can focus his energies on the controller, instead of on a mortgage payment. But the more you play against him, the more aws you nd in his game. He only selects a handful of plays, over and over, particularly on defense. He controls the middle linebacker, and he just runs around the eld, blitzing or chasing the running back, usually hitting the dive button or icking the big tackle stick far too soon. You beat him, because his talents are unre ned and misapplied, his strategic acumen undeveloped. Facing the Eagles defense last year must have been a lot like facing a teenager in Madden. EAGLES VS. 49ERS, WEEK 4, FOURTH QUARTER: Josh Morgans 30-yard touchdown e Eagles are blitzing. ey are making no e ort to hide it. ey have a 23-3 lead in the third quarter, the kind that should be safe for a team that acquired the deepest cornerback corps in the league and two top pass rushers in the o season. e 49ers have driven to the Eagles 30-yard line, and on 2nd-and-8, Juan Castillo calls a blitz. Not just any blitz, but a seven-man jailbreak. Before the snap, Nnamdi Asomugha creeps into the box on the o ensive right. So does Jarrad Page, inching down from his deep safety position. At the snap, Page and Asomugha blitz the le side, along with Jamar Chaney. All four defensive
linemen also rush. e Eagles are le with four defenders in coverage: Asante Samuel, Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, deep safety Nate Allen, and rookie linebacker Brian Rolle. Any resemblance between this Eagles blitz and anything Jimmy Johnson, Bud Carson, or (heaven forbid) Buddy Ryan ever drew up is purely coincidental. Asomugha looks tentative as he approaches the line. Page takes a wide, wide angle. e Eagles have clearly telegraphed their intentions, because the 49ers slide their protection to the o ensive right, with a running back waiting to neutralize Page and a tight end chipping a defender before running his route. e 49ers somehow do the impossible: they stop seven pass rushers with six blockers. It helps that the play is a quick slant, Alex Smith planting a er three steps and ring to Josh Morgan. Morgan is wide open because Samuel is playing deep. He is obviously in zone coverage, with his body angled so his back is toward the sideline. Freeze the tape when the pass is thrown, and you see Samuel begin to backpedal in the opposite direction from Morgan! He knows that he has allowed a completion, and he is preparing to pursue. While Samuel prepares for damage control, Rolle tries to close on Morgan. Unfortunately, he takes the O cial Bad Angle of the 2011 Eagles. Rolle aims for the spot Morgan vacates as soon as he catches the ball. Allen sees all of this from his deep safety position and decides the best thing to do is start running forward. Its as if both Rolle and Allen expect Morgan to stand still and wait to be tackled. Morgan does not wait. He turns up eld and nearly jogs into the end zone. Allen and Rolle are in no position to stop him. Samuel, never one to initiate contact, follows in not-so-hot pursuit.
ITEMIZED DEDUCTIONS Lets count all the problems with that Morgan touchdown. First, a team that signed Cullen Jenkins and Jason Babin as free agents should never have to resort to a seven-man blitz to apply pass pressure. Even with Cole out of the game at that point, the Eagles had the manpower to rush Smith. Second, in the event that a team does decide to blitz seven, that team should actually commit to it. Either place Asomugha and Page at the line so they can get a good jump, or keep them deep so the blitz is disguised. e Eagles gave Smith the Easy Reader version of a dangerous blitz. ird, two of the best man-coverage cornerbacks in the NFL are used as a zone defender and a pass rusher on this play. Fourth, as designed, a rookie linebacker is responsible for defending the entire short middle of the eld. is call was made against a 49ers team that uses many two tight end sets. A quick toss to Vernon Davis or Delanie Walker would have had the same result as the slant to Morgan. Rolle, who started the season on the bench, should not be given such an assignment less than ten weeks a er receiving his rst NFL playbook. Fi h, as noted on the Falcons play, no Eagles defender had any idea how to take an angle in the open eld in the rst half of last season. ats a lot of failure, but the guy who made the most apparent mistake was Samuel: he was covering Morgan, a er all. e problem is that Samuel was given an assignment almost as impossible as Rolles. He handled it poorly (it is appalling that he never gets a nger on Morgan), but it would have been impossible for him to not have allowed at least a rst-down catch unless he
abandoned his zone and freelanced. Come to think of it, ignoring coaches instructions may have been the best thing an Eagles defender could do last year. Nonetheless, it did not happen. Marcus Hayes ripped Samuel viciously, and inaccurately, in the Daily News a er the Eagles traded the former Pro Bowler to the Falcons for a seventh round pick. Asante Samuel was a fraud, wrapped in a mirage, inside an illusion, Hayes said. e columnists statistical breakdown of Samuel was also more entertaining than true: For each of his 23 interceptions as an Eagle, Samuel missed ve tackles. For every pick he turned into six, he gave up 10 touchdowns. ats 115 missed tackles and 20 touchdowns allowed, the latter number possibly true once you account for the fact that pick-6s are incredibly rare (Samuel had two in four years) and that ve touchdowns allowed in four years is not a particularly high total for a starting cornerback. H a y e s w a s e n g a g i n g i n c o m i c exaggeration, or preaching to the base of Eagles fans who hate so tacklers, or settling some writers grudge. Whatever he was doing, his credibility died the moment he wrote that the two Eagles cornerbacks who remain, Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie and Nnamdi Asomugha, can now play real NFL defensethe kind where they wrestle with a receiver at the line of scrimmage, run with him step-for-step and dare the quarterback to throw at them. Ladies and gentlemen: DRC, paragon of tackling virtue. Instead of made-up numbers, lets look at some Football Outsiders numbers. Samuel nished third in the NFL in yards allowed per pass in his direction: 4.4 yards. He nished third in Success Rate, holding his receivers to an incomplete pass, interception, or minimal gain on 67% of pass attempts. As for the tackling, no one
will ever mistake Samuel for Brian Dawkins, but he allowed an average of just 2.0 yards per catch a er receptions, second best in the NFL. e Eagles traded Samuel for cheap because he was angry about his role and his contract, not because he was a bad player. Hope for the Eagles secondary rests not just with a more motivated DRC, but with Joselio Hanson, the high-e ort survivor who o en outplayed DRC last year, or with Brandon Boykin, the fourth round pick with great athletic potential. More importantly, hope rests with the defensive coordinators ability to keep things simple and use his available resources properly. *** ere exists a default, standard-issue football playbook. It is used for high school all star games and the like. e Senior Bowl uses a version of it. It consists of the basic plays that are used at every level above Pop Warner, the 23-iso runs and bootleg passes. On defense, it is full of variations on base. In the default playbook, the four defensive linemen rush the passer. e free safety stays in the deep middle. e pass defenders play man coverage, with a little Cover-2 or Cover-3 mixed in. A linebacker blitzes once in a while. It is very vanilla, very generic. Had the Eagles used a default playbook last year, they may have nished 11-5. With Samuel and Asomugha at cornerback, they could have used man coverage on nearly every passing play. With Babin and Cole at defensive end, a fourman rush would have been adequate on 90% of passing downs. With simple schemes, the rookie linebackers could just be athletes. Instead, the Eagles ran Castillos playbook, with its strange fetishes for zone coverage and
Wide-9 defensive fronts. e scheme did not match the personnel. Worse yet, it did not match the situation: the lockout le the Eagles with little time to integrate complicated new philosophies into a defense lled with new faces. e results: lapse a er head-scratching lapse. EAGLES VS. CARDINALS, WEEK 10, SECOND QUARTER: Larry Fitzgeralds 10yard touchdown. ere is only one player on the Arizona Cardinals o ense you need to game-plan for. When John Skelton is on the eld with Beanie Wells, Andre Roberts, Je King, Jim Dray, and Larry Fitzgerald, it is no mystery who they want to get the ball to. Even my wife knew when I asked her. Particularly in the red zone, all eyes and the best available coverageshould be on Fitzgerald. Midway through the second quarter, at the 10-yard line, Fitzgerald is split wide to the right. King and Dray are tight on the le side. Roberts motions from split le to the right slot. Wells is in the back eld. You are just dying to know how the Eagles counter this simple formation, arent you? ey are in their base 4-3 personnel. Samuel is over Fitzgerald in tight coverage, Asomugha over Roberts before the motion. When Roberts moves, Samuel bails until he is ve yards o the ball. Asomugha stays put as the force defender on the le . is is zone defense. Any high school quarterback could read it. And it is wonderful news for Skelton, because Fitzgerald is about to run a drag over the middle of the eld, away from the Pro Bowl cornerbacks and into the realm of rookie linebackers and safeties like Rolle and Jarrett.
With one quick move, Fitzgerald is in front of Rolle. Dont blame the rookie: Ray Lewis in his prime could not cover Fitzgerald. Chaney, responsible for the middle zone, follows tight end King to the o ensive le . Skelton is looking that way, and Chaney is following the quarterbacks eyes. But Jamar? Hello, Jamar? Larry Fitzgerald is coming. Please do not sell out in your e ort to blanket a journeyman tight end. Fitzgerald makes one move and reaches the end zone. Where are the safeties? Coleman is tangled up with King in the end zone. Jarrett is helping Samuel double-cover Roberts. at King and Roberts occupied two defenders each on simple stretch the eld routes is not the most befuddling element of this defense: its the fact that Asomugha is stranded in the at, covering Dray, who caught two passes in all of 2011. It is easy to cherry-pick examples of poor coaching decisions, given hours of game tape. In the Cardinals game, it is di cult to nd examples of good coaching decisions, particularly in coverage. Yes, Samuel covered Fitzgerald on many snaps, and Fitzgerald hauled in one deep pass against Samuel-Jarrett double coverage. But on the most critical play of the game, Fitzgeralds 46yard diving catch that set up a game-tying touchdown, a Cover-2 call le Jarrett all alone with the All Pro Fitzgerald while Samuel and Asomugha covered the ats. On another big Fitzgerald reception, the Cardinals hid their star in the slot, and DRC could not stay with him; a er the catch, DRC stopped and watched Fitzgerald run down eld, a play Marcus Hayes must have missed. Occasionally, Asomugha drew coverage on Fitzgerald, but the Eagles decided to play zone in the rest of their secondary, as they did when Roberts caught a 20-yard pass between Rolle and Coleman.
e Cardinals game represented the nadir of common sense for the Eagles defense. eir coverage of Fitzgerald brought to mind Ned Flanders discipline-challenged parents from a classic Simpsons episode: Weve tried nothing, man, and nothing worked. GOOFY Andy Reid admitted during the 2012 owners meetings that he goofed when he allowed inexperienced defenders to start in the middle of the defense. We had young guys. I knew that going in, he said in the March press conference. e problem that I had, I didnt execute it very well. ats my responsibility. I goofed on that one. I thought that the young guys on defense could get where they ended up getting by the end of the season sooner. He also acknowledged that the lockout played a role. e lockout was di erent. e way free agency was set up was di erent. e ability to practice. e guys were standing on the sidelines you had all your free agents standing on the sideline for a period of time. All of that was new. But everybody had the same things. You cant use that as an excuse. And then there was Castillo. Listen, I thought he did a good job. I know everybodys got their own opinion on how he did things. But again, there were a lot of moving parts he was dealing with, not only with the coaching sta but also the personnel. I really thought coming into the season that the o ense, because we had the continuity, would carry the defense and the defense would gradually get better and better and better. It didnt work out that way. It sounds like Reid expected to win 35-31 and 31-24 games instead of losing them. e
problem is that the Eagles had the personnel to win 31-17 and 24-10 games. You expect the good job a rmation from Reid, who never calls out a subordinate, but the moving parts and the carry the defense remarks suggest a kind of bonkers logic: the Eagles signed or acquired Asomugha, DRC, Jenkins, and Babin for the express purpose of not being ready to start the season as anything more than a second- ddle role to the o ense. When the lockout erased weeks of preparation, and free agency rules erased another full week of practice opportunities for several new starters, Reid just shrugged his shoulders and told Castillo to go ahead with the recon gured defense, expecting the players to learn it on the y. By those standards, everything happened as Reid planned. e Eagles started to gure out their defense in mid-December. e o ense was forced to try to carry the defense in the early going: they just could not do so. e Eagles defense simply bloomed too late. If you can internalize that funnel cake logic, you can almost absolve Reid and Castillo for destroying a promising season. Je Lurie managed to do it. Why cant we? Hope for 2012 rides with that logic. e Cole-Babin-Asomugha-Ryans defensive core is incredibly talented. ey just need the chance to do their jobs properly. If the o ense hopes to carry the defense, the defense must stop ailing. Reid, Castillo, and the Eagles dont deserve a mulligan for 2011, but they got one. Lets hope they make the most of it. Mike Tanier covers football for the New York Times and is a senior writer at Football Outsiders. Author of The Philly Fan's Code.
Focus:
2011 Defensive Snap Charts
200
Chaney Clayton Rolle Matthews Jordan Fokou
Linebacker Snaps:
150 100 50 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Game 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
Hunt Parker Tapp Laws Landri Cole Patterson Jenkins Babin
320 240 160 80 0 1
Defensive Line Snaps:
250
Hughes Hanson R.-Cromartie 150 Samuel Asomugha 100
Cornerback Snaps:
8 9 Game
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
200
50 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Game 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
The Luxury of Feeling Okay

Being an Eagles Fan After Age 30
By Tom McAllister or most of your life, you are de ned by your status as an Eagles fan. You watch every game, know every player, have internalized every rumor, are as much an insider as the beat writers because you care more about the team than they do. To them its a job, but to you its a calling. People know you as e Eagles Guy because youre always wearing a hooded Eagles sweatshirt and hanging Eagles paraphernalia on your o ce door where others post comic strips and family photos. You own every Eagles-related accessory you can acquire, from bobbleheads to shoelaces to ags that ap patriotically in the breeze in front of your house. You have led the Eagles to ten consecutive video game Super Bowls. You spend hundreds of hours every year researching fantasy football statistics and adjusting your rankings so that you can be sure that, say, Jabar Ga ney is actually the forty-eighth best fantasy receiver rather than the forty-seventh. You have other interests and hobbies and friends, but you get in the habit of telling people the only thing you need for your life to feel complete is an Eagles Super Bowl. ...and then you turn 30. Which, okay, isn't that old, but, really, it is kind of old, isn't it? If you were a horse, youd be dead by now. If this were the Renaissance, youd be a village elder, making your peace with God just in case.
Photo courtesy Kevin Burkett.
If youd been born on the wrong continent even today, you would have beaten the odds by surviving to thirty years old. But, people remind you, you have the luxury of feeling okay about thirty, of believing its not even the halfway point, of thinking Im only just getting started. Which, in one sense, you have
The Luxury of Feeling Okay: Being an Eagles Fan After Age 30
to believe, because if you didnt, then why would you have stayed in college, and then grad school, and then terrible entry-level jobs until you were twenty-six? How could you have rationalized any of that without being guided by the faith that you have plenty of time? ink about the arrogance it takes to just assume youre going to get to live as long as you feel like living until youve accomplished everything you feel like accomplishing. Because, heres the thing: if you're a football fan, especially if youre an Eagles fan, you know thirty is the beginning of the end. Too o en, thirty is the end. Coaches hang around well until retirement age, but the lifespan of an athlete is uncomfortably similar to that of a Medieval serf. Players are more disposable, they disappear within a couple years, and theyre lucky to even stay in the league long enough to celebrate their thirtieth birthday. *** Sports are theater in which age is the primary antagonist. Imagine being twenty-seven and knowing youve peaked. Imagine devoting eighty percent of your life to doing one thing, and then not being allowed to do it anymore. Imagine the fans all blithely dismissing you as if youre ancient, lazy sportswriters comparing you to Methuselah just because you remember Murphy Brown and Dan Quayle. Imagine being perpetually connected with the label elder statesman just because you remember receiving hundreds of free CDs from AOL in the mail. Imagine being a hero in the morning and an a erthought by the evening. Imagine being thirty and having to answer daily questions about your legacy, as if youre a king
abdicating his throne, as if you would even be capable of eulogizing yourself. Imagine yourself as a fan who has lived vicariously through these athletes for your entire life, and now nding yourself in a situation where you have to live vicariously through the players who are washed up, the burnouts, the wounded, the punch lines and the sad cases who held on a few years too long. *** On birthdays, people like to ask: Do you feel older? And, usually, the answer is No, of course not, I feel exactly like I did yesterday except today everyone is paying attention to me and theres cake. But when youre thirty, you do feel a little older. Or maybe more accurately: you feel conscious of being older. Dates and times are arbitrary and such milestones are arbitrary and yet they still carry weight, they demand a certain level of introspection, and they require you to take stock of where you are, who you have become, if only because you need to have some answers ready for the inevitable questions from well-wishers and co-workers. Yesterday you were twenty-nine, a week ago you were twenty, and today you are thirty years old: At which point you have a real, adult job with real responsibilities. At which point, you can no longer eat food court pizza without feeling sick for the rest of the day. At which point, it becomes a chore to meet a friend for a happy hour beer, the end result of twelve emails and extensive schedule juggling, rather than a spur-of-the-moment decision. At which point you have a mortgage (or two).
possibility of reaching the pinnacle. is is the point when the league can get someone hooked on their product for life. And, like countless others, I bought in because I loved watching games with my family, and besides it was nice to dream for a while. Even a er it became obvious that I would never be a great athlete which I never verbalized, but having to must have intuited by the time I got to high school, live vicariously *** when I didnt even make the through the rst cut on the freshman I cant pinpoint exactly soccer team, actually fell players who are the moment of epiphany asleep in the grass behind washed up, the maybe it was while I was the goal during practice watching a game or maybe while the others played on burnouts, the reading a fawning interview without meI still felt wounded, the with an arrogant rookie in a bonded to the Eagles. Still glossy magazinebut I dreamed about possibly punch lines and remember distinctly the meeting them, still felt okay the sad cases who about rooting for strangers realization that I have nothing in common with because I felt like Id gotten held on a few these players who I have to know them via Sundays in years too long. idolized for so long. ey front of the TV and press live in a world I cannot conferences and pro les in access. eyve had experiences I cannot the Inquirer, and maybe in my youthful understand. ey are, by necessity, largely enthusiasm I vaguely connected with them, saw unplugged from real life and ignorant to world an exciting rookie like Charlie Garner whistling a airs. And they are bizarrely, almost grotesquely past 49ers defenders and viewed him as athletic to the extent that we may as well be analogous to my own life as an ascending student. classi ed as a di erent species. When I was Or maybe I was just a kid and I liked things kids younger, I thought I could relate to the players, like, and I wanted to spend time with my dad and felt like maybe someday I could be them. e my brother, and I never progressed beyond the league relies on this collective delusion, needs simplistic notion that it would be cool, one day, to kids everywhereeven chubby kids, lazy kids hang out with Andy Harmon or Seth Joyner. with a negative vertical leap who would rather Never wanted much beyond the excitement that stay inside playing Tecmo Bowl than be outside seemed inherent to football Sundays. Never tried risking sunburn or bee stingsto believe in the to process what is so thrilling about waiting in At which point you either have a child (or two) or you spend half your waking hours explaining to people with children why you dont have a child (or two) yet. At which point you dont invest your emotional well-being in football anymore, dont allow your self-esteem to hinge on the outcome of a sporting event, cannot bring yourself to care like you used to. Imagine
line at West Chester for a half hour just to get autographs from Roy Green, David Archer, and Je Kemp. ( ink about thata twelve year old kid in Philly bragging to his friends that he got an autograph from Je Kemp, of all people, without knowing any of the context around him, the Senator father, the familys NFL legacy, the fact that Kemp grew up in a di erent universe than I did, and also was overall a pretty terrible NFL quarterback.) And so we return to the realization: I dont know anything about these guys and, truthfully, there is very little chance that I want to know more about them. e paradox here is that I actually could know the players better than ever before, can access their lives, however super cially, via Facebook and Twitter, and yet I nd the idea deeply o -putting. My football obsessions used to be a specialized knowledge, but now all the information in the world is streaming toward us whether we like it or not, and it all seems like too much. Now if Im reading the twitter feeds, Im just one of thousands of people who know the same thing, Im just another guy with some opinions. Whereas my 17 year-old selfor, lets be honest, my 27 year-old selfwould have spent full days skimming players twitter feeds, searching for clues as to their whereabouts, maybe even trying to accidentally bump into them somewhere in the city, now I can barely bring myself to look. Really, its for the best that these options werent available when I was younger because theres a good chance I would have burrowed myself so deeply in my Eagles lair that I would have su ocated. e thing is, I know there are perfectly reasonable people who can view these feeds in moderation and not lose themselves, but that has never been an option for
me, and anyway, it seems clearer than ever that Im better o knowing less about the players I cheer for. What kind of conversation could I possibly have, for example, with DeSean Jackson? How long would I allow Jason Avant to quote Bible passages to me before I moved on and tested my resolve against one of Babin or Coles hunting stories? How many times in a row could I listen to Jamar Chaneys story about that one time he made a tackle behind the line of scrimmage? How long until I wandered down toward the kickers, who at least are built a little more like I am, and then found out that, no, theyre actually elite athletes who have lived inside the elite athlete bubble their entire lives too, and, no, they dont particularly care about the dumb things I care about either. How long could they tolerate me talking about a great novel by Michael Ondaatje or complaining about property taxes or explaining pedagogical issues in freshman composition classes? Our common ground is the Eagles, and yet we have completely di erent histories with the team, completely di erent motivations. Maybe this seems obvious. But it took me a while to get there, and there is probably still a small part of me that thinks I could be friends with Sheldon Brown if we ever somehow met. Regardless, this realization is time-centric in that a) it took me such a long time to gure it out, and b) part of the gulf between me and the players is age-based, now that the Eagles have begun dra ing players who were born in 1990 and soon enough they will be dra ing players who were born when I was in high school, and theyll be cutting guys who are younger than me because they are too old to perform adequately. Eventually, they will come to exist as an
abstraction, something so far removed from my experience that I cant even remember it.
phone for sending and receiving text messages from friends because its too hard to coordinate schedules with one another to actually watch *** games together, and there were U-haul boxes stacked in the corners because we had bought a is is what game day used to look like: new place and were moving in a few weeks. When there were a dozen people in my living room, Marshawn Lynch ran through the entire Eagles there were empty bottles scattered across the defense for a touchdown that was symbolic of last co ee table, there were seasons e ortit doesnt paper towels wadded up on seem possible now, but I the carpet to soak up spilled Why should I have remember him breaking beer, there were numerous twelve tackle attempts by to defend my artery-clogging dips, there Kurt Coleman on a single fandom anyway? was a whole array of lucky playI should have been charms and accessories, and outraged and there should there was actually a printed list of house rules on have been destruction (stabbing a box with display so that the occasional interloper would scissors, maybe? Putting my foot through the understand that this was not just a game but an drywall?), but instead I laughed and I turned o important and essential ritual that was to be the TV before the game was over. And I didnt run respected. ere was yelling, and there was to message boards or sports radio like I used to. I profanity, sometimes a competition to see who didnt watch postgame shows. I went to bed, and could nd the most creative way to spew in the morning when I woke up, I wasnt angry or obscenities at the opponents and Joe Buck. ere inconsolable. I was too tired and distracted by were items hurled across the room and there were other responsibilities to worry about why the minor injuries, usually self-in icted but Eagles decided to use 2011 as a test case for sometimes incurred in ghts with roommates. running a ag football defense. ere was silence during plays, strategic phone calls placed between quarters, and a week full of *** brooding if the Eagles lost. e remainder of the day was wasted on message boards and postgame A few years ago, I published a book partly shows and talk radio. about being an Eagles fan. e second chapter is is what game day looked like during was titled Confessions of an Obsessed Football the Eagles loss to the Seahawks in 2011, the Fan, in which I listed seven confessions. Well, pitiful performance that both typi ed and heres the eighth: I dont care what happens to the e ectively ended the season: there was me and Eagles this year. there was my wife for one quarter before she went Does this make me a bad fan? Probably it to bed, and there was a glass of water because Im does. Probably it makes me a sellout and not a trying to adopt a healthier diet, and there were diehard and all of the things that would get me student essays to grade, and there was my cell kicked out of any respectable tailgate party. Ten
years ago, I would have felt like I had to do in the immediate a ermath of a loss, and they can something stupid to atone for my sins against the turn their focus toward their responsibilities Eagles, to re-establish my credibility. Get a tattoo, without having to decompress for two or three or vandalize the car of a Cowboys fan, or post a days. YouTube video in which I cursed Jerry Jones Mostly, it happened because they got older. existence. We got older. eres no reason this has to happen But I cant bring myself to do it. Why should exactly at thirty, although it basically did for me. I have to defend my fandom anyway? I still root Its not even necessarily about maturity, but about for the Eagles to win, of course, although mainly I having too much other stu to do. What happens do so because its more fun to see a win and I like is, you get too busy to burn so much energy on some of the players (even though I generally the game. Or you run into real world problems found the 2011 team to be the least likable bunch and your fantasy escape either ceases to exist or of Eagles since Rich Kotite becomes condensed into a was in town). And I know a smaller window. It becomes lot of my friends and family stupid (maybe even reckless) Is it maturity to are as deeply devoted as ever, acknowledge that, to invest so much of yourself so Id like them to enjoy it, into the game because you or is it immaturity have other things going on want them to get that parade and experience the catharsis re e to take so long to a n d t h e r e ayou p e o p l a Id been waiting on so long. depending on to be figure it out? Sometimes I try to will functional adult regardless myself to feel about it the of football outcomes. ere way I did before, because I feel obligated to do so are bosses to appease, wives or girlfriends to people count on me for Eagles news, I have impress, hardwood oors to re nish, building whole years-long relationships with people built inspections to pass, bills to pay, books to read, entirely on the foundation of football fandom to children to raise. the extent that I know literally nothing about their personal lives. But nothing works: spending *** the morning researching reasons to hate the opponent, listening to the sports talk stations, In my memoir, I portray myself engaging in getting drunk so that I might get rowdy, none of it a wide range of reprehensible fan behavior, sticks. ranging from violence to vandalism to Some friends have undergone this same mistreating and neglecting my wife in favor of the transformation; they watch the games, they would Eagles. I spent a year writing it and another two like the Eagles to win, but then they move on years promoting it, an all-consuming process at when the game is over, can sometimes even the end of which I felt like I had to make a choice: appreciate the skill of the opponent, admitting if I wanted to claim to be an intelligent, thinking that the other team deserved to win. ey are person, then it was not possible to justify capable of engaging in rational human behavior continuing to act the same way I had in the book.
ere was something fundamentally wrong with me as a person before, and with all the evidence now recorded for posterity, I had no excuse if I kept being that person. It would change from being a pathology to a consciously anti-social choice. I dont want to sound like Im proselytizing, I dont want to convert anyone or elevate myself above people who still care the way I used to. Some people manage to juggle the intense devotion with their real life duties and they rarely bleed into each other. ats not something Im capable of doing. If Im all in, then it means I am allowing myself to be imprisoned by my reactions to the Eagles, allowing football to dictate the daily ow of my life, and it turns me into a worse person. Is it maturity to acknowledge that, or is it immaturity to take so long to gure it out? *** On sports radio, two hosts in their mid-40s are debating whether its a violation of some sacred man code for a player to have tweeted gossip about another player. One shouts, he doesnt have a right to say anything behind anybodys back! e other screams, ese athletes dont understand Twitter etiquette! e rst host says: Its just ridiculous, his attitude, thinks hes too good for the team! inks hes bigger than the game! e second says something about teamwork and heart and love of the game and respect and tradition and trust. ere are ve layers of irrelevancies to peel back in this argument before you reach the core issue, which is this: you used to care about the minutiae too, just like these guys do, just like they want you to, but you cannot do it anymore.
Time seems more valuable to you than it did ten years ago, seems harder to excuse wasting than when you were twenty, nestled safely in the cocoon of college life, when our cultural expectations gave you license to be frivolous and irresponsible. en, it seemed like a perfectly good use of ones days to fritter hours trying to debunk a dumb argument made by Skip Bayless or to proving to Internet Cowboys fans that, in fact, their team sucks. ere are dozens of reasons (half of them related to hygiene and diet) that you could never live like you did ten years ago, and yet you still feel the need to defend yourself, still feel guilty for dropping out of your fantasy football leagues or for not having the Eagles schedule memorized or for sometimes feeling particularly squeamish about the fact that youre watching grown men ruin their long-term health for your short-term entertainment. But heres the thing: you were reasonably happy ten years ago, and youre reasonably happy now. ere is nothing else to explain, even if it feels like you need to keep explaining yourself, to your friends, to your past, to the Eagles themselves. If your feelings hadnt evolved over the past decade, then you would have to feel badly, then you would have to justify why youre the same person at thirty that you were at twenty, that you were at ten. *** For the longest time, pro athletes seem like your future, and then suddenly they become your past. Tom McAllister is the author of Bury Me in My Jersey, and is the non- ction editor of Barrelhouse Magazine.
Focus:
2011 Offensive Snap Charts
220
Hall Avant Smith Cooper Maclin Jackson
Wide Receiver Snaps:
165 110 55 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Game 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
Schmitt Harbor Celek
140 105 70 35 0 1
Tight End/Fullback Snaps:
80
Lewis Brown McCoy
Running Back Snaps:
8 9 Game
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
60 40 20 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Game 10 11 12 13 14 15 16
Post-Apocalyptic Living
Dealing With Another Giants Super Bowl Win
By Gabe Bevilacqua hen I spent much of last January announcing to my civilian friends that I didn't want to live in a world where the Giants have won two of the past ve Super Bowls, it was the sort of statement I knew would draw disapproving stares and surely-he's-exaggerating giggles from the normals. I mean, sure, the full implications of this ultimatum were somewhat troubling (Would I really so cavalierly announce that I was ending it all over the outcome of an episode of a TV show? Would we need to make it look like an accident for life-insurance reasons? A er how many years of therapy would my daughter start to understand it?), but this was the Giants we were talking about. As much as the Eagles are my favorite thing in the NFL, the Giants are decisively my least favorite thing. I won't bore you with my rationale as to why, but I will note that this is a longstanding prejudice not casually arrived at. And I don't want to hear anything about how that's silly, that it's just game, and it's not worth the energy to root against a speci c team. Please. If we're going to allow that my passionate support for the Eagles and the imaginary fantasy world that surrounds that support is a legitimate set of feelings for an adultand I'm not sure that we shouldthen I don't see why we would want to start drawing arbitrary borders in said imaginary fantasy world. If I can love this ridiculous thing called the Eagles, why can't I hate this other ridiculous thing called the Giants?
Photo courtesy Shealah Craighead.
Initially, my declarations regarding increasingly drastic actions that would be taken in the event of another Giants Super Bowl Win were nothing more than a challenge to the Fates. Surely the unfortunate events surrounding Super Bowl XLII had ful lled the Good Fortune For e Giants quota for the 21st century, and we wouldn't be subject to the injustice of further humiliations. But when Hakeem Nicks caught the Hail Mary at the end of the rst half of the GiantsPackers Divisional Playo Game, the challenge
Post-Apocalyptic Living: Dealing With Another Giants Super Bowl Win
turned into a plea. Maybe even a desperate whimper. Don't do this to me again, I was saying. Not like this! Not the Giants! At that point, there was really nothing le to do but bet the Giants heavy for the remainder of the playo s and hope that those ill-gotten gains would dull the pain. ( ey didnt. Should have bet heavier.) And yet, here I am. And here we are. e Giants won again, and I've forgone drastic measures out of deference to the love of friends and family members as well as the knowledge that too many witnesses heard my outrageous threats to really make the life-insurance thing pan out. But still, I struggle to deal with a world in which not only does my favorite imaginary thing never win the thing I want them to win, but also my least favorite imaginary thing appears to win the thing I don't want them to win with ease and regularity. I'm not saying I have answers. I'm just saying we need to make our peace with the following regarding the Eagles and the Giants: Eli Manning is in the Hall of Fame. Until this most recent Super Bowl, we could comfortably explain away Eli Manning's Super Bowl ring as the combination of being clever enough to stand near a great defense (or at least a great defensive line) and an Extremely Unlikely And Fortuitous Helmet Catch By Guy Who Is No Longer In e NFL. Sure, he won a Super Bowl, but he also threw 25 interceptions in 2010. But now? We're a couple seasons away from folks claiming that he was actually a better quarterback than his older brother. Really, the best we can hope for is for him to break the single-season interception record (42, will be tough) or get caught gambling on Giants games (more on that later). Some sort of unsanctioned competitive
animal killing would also do the trick. Otherwise, Eli's in Canton. Related ings at Suddenly Seem Very Quaint. Remember con dently arguing that Donovan McNabb was a much better quarterback than Eli Manning? Yeah. at's what e Wrong Side Of History feels like. One More Eli ing, Step Away From e Windows As You Read is. Inasmuch as Tim Tebow signing with the Jets is bad news for Mark Sanchez's con dence and ability to succeed in a media market as intense as New York, the opposite is true for Eli Manning. at is, Tim Tebow coming to the Jets means that Eli Manning who should rightfully be subject to A-Rod levels of scrutiny and doubt from the New York tabloidswill the third-most-discussed NFL quarterback in New York City. Itll take an a air with Lindsay Lohan to leapfrog the Jets chaos. Sigh. America's Most Self-Involved Fan Base May Try To Crash Our Pity Party. Citizens of the Northeast corner of the United States, I understand that you're disappointed to have lost two Super Bowls to the New York Giants, and that you aren't terribly fond of the baseball team from New York, so I can see how you'd think that the Giants are some sort of arch-nemesis to your beloved Patriots. I see it. I do. But this is our little special corner of hell, and and we'd prefer not to share. Yes yes, the Yankees suck. We can all agree on that. ere's Something (Very Very Small) To Be Said For Andy Reid Making e Playo s And Not Winning e Super Bowl. e last two times the Eagles missed the playo s, the Giants won the Super Bowl. I'd take one-and-done at home over that. I really would.
Our Favorite Former Houston Oilers Assistant Coach's Success Has Been Matched By e Former Houston Oilers Assistant Coach at Our Favorite Former Houston Oilers Assistant Coach Assaulted On e Sideline. Kevin Gilbride now as many Super Bowl rings as Buddy Ryan. e Giants' Cheating Was Much Less Rampant an In Previous Years. I nd the recent fairness and squareness of the Giants success to be particularly galling. People don't want to hear about the Giants' complicity in the Manning family's manipulation of the NFL dra , or the extra home game they got when Hurricane Katrina ooded New Orleans, or how, just two years a er that, they were allowed to be the away team for their trip to London (no home game lost!). Not that all of that wasn't sketchy and indicative of a larger conspiracy that merits, no, demands Congressional Oversight, it's just that it's been a few years since the cheating was that overt. Exhale. As you may have noticed, it's all a bit grim when it comes to the Giants. Still, the rst step to recovery is admitting that we have a problem, and the Giants are most de nitely a problem for Eagles fans. at said, there are little things that we can all think about and do to make sure that this avor of unpleasantness isn't visited upon us again; my advice to you: Open A Sportsbook.ag Account Right Now. Since gambling is now legal (it is, right?), I suggest you head posthaste to sportsbook.ag and create a new user account. I would recommend the following as potential usernames: elimanning, eli_manning, eli_manning10, elitheqb10, moresuperbowlsthanpeyton, or my-name-is-elimanning-and-i-like-to-gamble. When they ask
Photo courtesy White House/Pete Sousa.
you for your name and address, enter "Eli Manning" and "1500 Washington Street Hoboken, NJ 07030." I would then recommend betting as many Giants games as you can nd a line on, as well as season win totals and Eli Manning-speci c props (2012 passing yardage and touchdowns). Print out copies of your betting slips and post them to "NFL Commissioner's O ce" at "280 Park Avenue New York NY 10017"; send additional copies to "New York Post Sports Desk" at "1211 6th Avenue New York, NY." Continue to do this until the restraining order is led. Make Friends With Supermodels and Drug Dealers. Jason Pierre-Paul, in his spare time away from haunting Brandon Graham's career, has blossomed into one of the most promising defensive players in the NFL who has a
decent chance of terrorizing the Eagles for most Super Bowls, the more honest Giants fans will of the next decade. Still, as a young man, it's admit to being somewhat spooked by the Eagles. important that Jason enjoy himself a bit and not is is a positive thing, and in these darkest of focus too much of his time on football. A er all, times, its important to focus on positives where you're only going to be 23 and a Super Bowl you can nd them. champion in New York City once. erefore, it is And really, in the grand scheme of things, it essential that he begin hanging out with cokecouldnt have felt awesome to be on the business addled supermodels as soon as possible. I suggest end of the Miracle At e New Meadowlands, that you take this on as a which was a pretty dramatic project. Find the most cokeway to lose the division title. addled supermodels you can maybe this second So maybe this second Super on the Twitter and introduce Bowl should be understood Super Bowl should as some sort of Cosmic them to JPP. Send them messages indicating that be understood as Balancing of the DeSean Jason has lots and lots of Jackson punt return as time some sort of cocaine and wants to share it expired? Maybe this Super with friends, and that they cosmic balancing Bowl is the price that the should contact him directly Football Gods made us pay of the DeSean for more details and/ or for getting to enjoy the most invite themselves to his Jackson punt amazing seven minutes of apartment to hang out. If he football comma ever? Maybe return as time is unresponsive, recommend the Fates were just evening expired? they send him pictures the football ledger, and the pictures that make him more glory of the Miracle At e likely to want to share his cocaine. Oh, and New Meadowlands demanded a signi cant mention that the models should also bring some adjustment in favor of the Giants? of their own cocaine, just in case Jason plays Of course, in our hearts, we know thats just dumb and acts like he doesn't do drugs. at's ridiculous. eres no such thing as Cosmic just his way of irting. Balancing, or Football Gods, or Fate(s). eres Focus On Positives. While obviously just a game played on Sundays (and sometimes nothing can trump Yeah, but our team just won Monday; occasionally ursdays and Saturdays) the Super Bowl it is worth noting that the Eagles by men like you and me. And a single, vengeful have won seven of their last eight meetings God, who deeply hates the Philadelphia Eagles against the Giants, and beat what was arguably and doesnt want you to ever be happy. the best Giants team of the last ve years in the See you September 30th, 2012. playo s in 2008 (in the Giants own stadium, no less). e Giants also managed to lose to Vince Gabe Bevilacqua (@BountyBowl) is a reformed Eagles blogger living in New York Young at home last year. In between reminding City with his wife and daughter. you that their team has won two of the last ve
Focus:
The Curious Case of Evan Mathis
LeSean McCoy, one of the most elusive running backs Ive ever seen, was tackled at or behind the line of scrimmage on more than 25 percent of his carries last year. And yet people still believe the Eagles had a good o ensive line. Now, we all love the story of the Eagles o ensive line. Just by typing the words Howard Mudd I can make you smileand Jason Peters really was as great as everyone said he was. But this wasnt a good unit overall. Football Outsiders o ers a statistic called Adjusted Line Yards that attempts to tease out the contribution of the o ensive line to the success of a teams rushing attack. eres a lot that goes into it, but if you think of it as not counting any yards the running back gains a er the rst 10 you wont be far o . By this measure, the Eagles had the Leagues th-best run-blocking o ensive line in 2011. If 26 you think that sounds low, consider the teams #2 and #4 rankings in second-level yards and open- eld yards, which came on all those plays where the line managed to block the rst wave, then let Shady do his thing down eld. My lasting image of the 2011 run game involves Shady taking a hando , immediately juking whichever defensive lineman we decided not to block on that play, and only then thinking about things like Which hole was I supposed to run through again? Ah, screw it, Ill just get behind Peters again. To get some sense of where the problems lie, lets compare McCoys directional rushing stats from 2010 to 2011. e table below lists four sets of numbers. e rst two columns are simple averages, meaning a few long runs can skew the stats. e second set of numbers use the same process I described above, where all rushes of at least 10 yards are counted as 10-yard gains. Average Yards 2010 Le End Le Tackle Le Guard Middle Right Guard Right Tackle Right End 8.0 6.7 5.0 5.1 5.8 3.7 3.2 2011 5.1 2.5 3.6 5.7 3.1 4.8 5.9 Modi ed 2010 4.2 4.4 4.2 3.9 3.9 3.6 2.8 2011 4.2 2.3 3.3 3.6 2.2 4.0 3.5
As be ts at unit that saw turnover at four positions, theres a lot of change here. Looking just at the modi ed numbers for a bit, we see no change on runs to le end (aka around Peters), sizable drops from le tackle to right guard, and improvement on runs to right tackle and end. e story with the raw averages is broadly similar. My story here is pretty simple. Peters and Herremans were both really good, both years. Its just that Todd switched positions, so he took his performance with him. But then Im not Pro Football Focus. e folks at that website would tell you Evan Mathis was the leagues best guard. In fact, theyll tell you his run blocking was so good that his proprietary run-block grade was almost three times better than the next best guy at his position. ey even have their own LeSean McCoy distribution stats that dont match the o cial play by play:
YPC - 2010 Le End Le Tackle Le Guard Middle Le Middle Right Right Guard Right Tackle Right End 7.1 7.7 6.6 4.7 4.6 4.6 2.6 4.0
YPC - 2011 2.8 7.5 5.0 3.4 4.2 4.4 8.7 4.6
Negative & Zero Yard Rushes 2010 Le End Le Tackle Le Guard Middle Right Guard Right Tackle Right End Total 4 3 1 11 2 5 7 33 2011 13 16 5 13 4 4 16 71 2010 16.7% 15.8% 5.6% 12.4% 12.5% 22.7% 28.0% 15.5% 2011 19.4% 40.0% 29.4% 22.8% 26.7% 16.7% 28.6% 25.7%
Even so, the pattern repeats. e le guard numbers go down, the outside right numbers go upwhile Evan Mathis 2011 run block grade was more than four times higher than Todd Herremans had been in 2010. I emailed Mathis a few months ago to ask him about this discrepancy between what people were saying and what the numbers demonstrated. He sent me a very nice note back saying, basically, that the numbers dont match the game tape. Which would be the typical athlete response if the typical athlete was prone to responding to emails that contained the words [Your predecessor] is a better run blocker than you are. I actually did have a theory about this, and its one I shared with Mathis in a follow-up email. What if the two guys to Mathis right were so bad plausiblethat even though he and Peters were great at making their blocks at the point of attack, their inability to get to the second level meant the linebackers were always ready to shut down le side runs a er two-yard gains? Not so much. e stu ed percentages were bad across the board, but the real problem area looks to be LT/ LG. Although Im willing to credit the explanation that the new blocking system cause issues across the line, the biggest dropo is again Herremans to Mathis:
So why, in the face of all this evidence that Mathis is wildly overrated as a run blocker, were the Eagles so concerned about retaining him? Clearly, you might say, if these numbers actually meant anything, he wouldnt still be around. Ah, but rememberAndy Reid doesnt care about the run game. And besides, LeSean McCoy could gain four yards a carry behind a blocking sled. What makes Evan Mathis a perfect t for this team is what he does when Mike Vick drops back to pass. Pro Football Focus has Mathis allowing no sacks, three quarterback hits, and only 12 pressures all year, on 628 pass blocks. ats a bad play gure of 2.4 percent. In 2010, playing in front of the same quarterback and in the same position, Herremans allowed three sacks, six hits and 24 pressures on 662 pass blocks. Mathiss bad play percentage was less than half as high (although Herremans was still better than what Danny Watkins managed). ats how you keep a job as a lineman on this team. Derek Sarley used to write about the Eagles at IgglesBlog, but now he mostly just tweets @IgglesBlog.
Who Are These Rookies?

The Comprehensive 2012 Eagles Draft Review
By Tommy Lawlor he Eagles went into the 2012 dra with few needs. e team had used recent dra s, free agency, and even trades to build a talented roster. at gave the Eagles the exibility to go a er who they wanted instead of focusing on who they needed. e results look really good on paper. You can't accurately judge a dra class until a er they have hit the eld and shown that they can play and can stay healthy. Still, it is hard to look at the team's group of picks and not get excited if you are an Eagles fan. 1ST ROUND: DT FLETCHER COX 6-4, 298, Mississippi State Background: Cox is a junior who had a breakout season in 2011. He had 14.5 tackles-for-loss (TFLs) and ve sacks for the Bulldogs and was the key to their defense. e coaches put such value on him that they decided the way to keep o enses from shutting him down was to move him around. If you put on MSU game tape, you'll see Cox lining up both le and right. He played both end and tackle. ey really got creative with him. Cox declared for the NFL dra and was somewhat under the public radar at that point. NFL teams had taken notice of him while studying senior prospects at practice and on tape. Cox then went to the NFL Scouting Combine and blew people away. He ran the 40-yard dash in 4.79
seconds. To put that in perspective, receiver Anquan Boldin ran it in 4.72 seconds while 80 pounds lighter. Cox also showed o strength, ability, and quickness in his workouts. How he ts in: Cox's athleticism shows up on game tape. Many scouts feel he could play defensive end in the 4-3 if asked to do it. He is that fast o the edge. Cox also bends and turns well. is may sound like something simple and obvious, but it really isn't. Many pass rushers are straight line types. ey can get into the back eld, but struggle to get to the quarterback because he's able to step away from them. Cox is a natural pass rusher. He can line up anywhere and has the speed/movement skills to get to the passer. Eagles defensive line coach Jim Washburn went to MSU to work Cox out. He was blown away by what he saw. Washburn will get Cox involved in the game-plan right away. Cox is likely to start out as the backup to Cullen Jenkins at under tackle, but you can bet Washburn will try and nd ways to get Cox on the eld in creative ways. He could use Cox at end in some sets. He could play Cox and Jenkins on the eld at the same time to give the Eagles a dynamic set of interior rushers. Dra value: Cox went from being of casual interest to fans and the media prior to the Combine to being mentioned as the top defensive tackle. ere was talk in scouting circles of Cox going as early as pick six to the St. Louis Rams. He ended up falling down to the 12th spot. e
Who Are These Rookies? The Comprehensive 2012 Draft Review
Eagles traded fourth and sixth round picks to move up three spots and get him. Great value. NFL comparison: Cullen Jenkins. Both guys are athletic pass rushers that can line up inside or outside and get to the quarterback. 2nd ROUND: LB MYCHAL KENDRICKS 5-11, 240, California Background: Played outside linebacker until 2011 when he was shi ed to the inside. Responded by having a great season and being named the Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year. When used on the outside, Kendricks was allowed to attack up the eld quite a bit. Cal even had him line up as a defensive end and rush the passer on a regular basis. Kendricks nished his career with 155 solo tackles, 36.5 TFLs, 13.5 sacks, and 4 interceptions. Kendricks is a complete linebacker because of the way Cal used him. He spent time blitzing, rushing the passer, covering, and playing the run. He has experience playing up on the line of scrimmage as well as back o the ball. He moved all over the place. How he ts in: Kendricks comes to the Eagles to compete for the SAM linebacker spot right away. At only 5-11 he lacks ideal height, but the Eagles love his versatility and athleticism. Kendricks had the best overall workout of any linebacker prospect at the Combine. Defensive coordinator Juan Castillo prefers speed and athletic ability to size when it comes to his linebackers. e Eagles use of the Wide-9 front allows Kendricks to stay o the ball and he is somewhat like another inside linebacker. at's what he played as a senior at Cal and it should help him to t in as a rookie.
Dra value: Kendricks went where he was expected to go in the middle of the second round. NFL comparison: Mike Peterson (IND, JAX, ATL) is someone that comes to mind. He's a bit taller, but like Kendricks was a second round pick who could play all three linebackers spots and had a versatile skill set. 2nd ROUND: DE VINNY CURRY 6-3, 266, Marshall Background: Highly productive pass rusher that had a great career at Marshall. Curry nished with 26.5 sacks, 49 TFLs, and 10 forced fumbles. He was the Conference USA Defensive Player of the Year in 2011. Curry's consistent production is all the more impressive when you consider that he wasn't surrounded by other NFL type talents. He was the one guy o enses had to stop and they couldn't do it. Curry opened some eyes when he went to the Senior Bowl and had a terri c week. at showed that his big numbers werent just a matter of playing mediocre competition. Curry was a force during the practice sessions and then in the game itself. He used speed, pass rush moves, and an excellent motor to win his battles. How he ts in: Washburn went to Marshall to work out Curry in person and came away very impressed. He was a player that Washburn and the Eagles wanted. One reason they like him is his versatility. Curry can play on the le or right side. He can even line up on the inside on passing situations and rush up the middle. Curry uses his hands well to ght o blockers and stay clean. He's not just an athlete, but rather a skilled pass rusher and that should help his transition to the NFL. Curry won't start early, but will be part of
the rotation. He has a good chance to backup Trent Cole, if he plays well at Lehigh. If for some reason Curry struggles, there is enough depth he can sit and learn. Dra value: Curry was thought of as a late rst round/early second round pick. e Eagles traded back from no. 51 to no. 59 to recoup a fourth round pick and were still able to get Curry, a player they had targeted. Excellent value. NFL comp aris on: He reminds me somewhat of former Eagle Derrick Burgess. Both guys were more football player than athlete. Burgess was a good pass rusher and Curry has the potential to be a similar NFL player. 3rd ROUND: QB NICK FOLES 6-5, 243, Arizona Background: Started o at Michigan State before realizing that he wasn't happy and returning to the Southwest. Found a home at Arizona and became a three-year starter. rew for 67 touchdowns and more than 10,000 yards. Set numerous school records. e Wildcats had mixed success during Foles' tenure. ey did go to a pair of bowl games. e bad news is that they were shutout in the rst by Ndamukong Suh and Nebraska. e second game they lost 36-10 to Oklahoma State. e Wildcats fell apart in 2011 due to an awful defense and went just 4-8, leading to the ring of coach Mike Stoops. Foles went to the Senior Bowl and had a very up and down week. He just never looked all that comfortable during the practices. He did come alive in the game, going 11-15-136 with a touchdown. ose numbers led all quarterbacks. Foles is a big talented passer, but only a limited athlete. He was a good enough basketball
player in high school to get some scholarship o ers from big time schools, but as he bulked up for football over the years it appears his athleticism faded away. He does move well in the pocket, but Foles isn't a guy who will do much running out in space. Foles has the size, skills, and natural gi s to be an NFL pocket passer. He's got a good arm. He is an accurate passer. ere are times when he is really impressive. Foles can take a beating and keep right on playing. He is fearless in the pocket. He will keep plays alive as long as possible. He's not one to dump the ball quickly. Foles gives his receivers a chance to get open. How he ts in: Michael Vick is the starter. A er him, things get jumbled. e team hopes that Mike Ka a is the backup. Ka a will battle veteran journeyman Trent Edwards for that spot. Foles should have the number three spot all to himself. 2012 will be a learning year for him. Dra value: Most people thought Foles would go in the fourth or h round so the Eagles taking him in the mid-third was somewhat of a surprise. It is hard to classify this as a reach since most quarterbacks are taken earlier than expected. NFL comparison: Reminds me of a lot of big pocket passers. e way Foles can hold the ball forever and then nd a way to get rid of it at the last second is eerily reminiscent of Eli Manning. 4th ROUND: CB/RS BRANDON BOYKIN 5-9, 183, Georgia Background: Boykin was a force on defense and special teams for the Bulldogs for three years. He played in the slot and outside as a cornerback.
Boykin picked o nine passes and broke up 18 more. He had a very impressive total of 20 TFLs, which shows you that he was an active run defender and would attack plays in the back eld. While Boykin lacks ideal size, he has excellent speed and is an all-around good athlete. Despite not being big, he is very muscular. Boykin was so gi ed that Georgia got creative with him. He was the primary kicko returner (24 yards per return and four touchdowns) and also got mixed in as the punt returner on occasion. As a senior the Bulldogs decided to give him touches on o ense. Boykin responded with an 80-yard run in the season opener, a 42-yard touchdown catch at mid-season and even a 13-yard touchdown catch in the bowl game. He had 12 o ensive touches and averaged 14.5 yards per play with three scores. How he ts in: e Eagles have a good set of starting corners in Nnamdi Asomugha and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie, but they do need help in the slot. Joselio Hanson has been the nickel corner for most of the last four years, but age seemed to catch up to him last season. Boykin will get a chance to be the nickel corner right away. He played in the slot for most of his senior year and that should ease the transition. Boykin should be the primary kicko returner from day one. He has the experience to handle the job and has the kind of game-breaking speed the Eagles have lacked there in recent years. He could get some reps as the punt returner, but DeSean Jackson will likely keep that role for the most part. Dra value: Many thought Boykin was worth a second or third round pick, but he fell to the bottom of the fourth round. Boykin broke his leg and was never able to workout for scouts/ teams. at hurt him. ere was some thought
that lacking ideal size and having some concussions in his background hurt his value. NFL comparison: Javier Arenas is a slot corner and return specialist for the Chiefs. He and Boykin have similar builds and backgrounds, although Boykin is faster and more athletic. 5th ROUND: OT DENNIS KELLY 6-8, 321, Purdue Background: Kelly was recruited to Purdue as a 240-pound project. He started bulking up right away and the coaches liked his talent enough to get him on the eld as a freshman. He got bigger, stronger, and better each year. Kelly started three years at le tackle and was a co-captain as a senior. He was even voted the o ensive MVP if that gives you an idea of what the coaches and players at Purdue thought of him. For some reason, Kelly was widely overlooked in the pre-dra process. He wasn't invited to the Combine or an all star game. Kelly trained for his pro day and had a good workout, while also measuring in at 321 pounds. He showed NFL skills and size to the teams who were looking at him. How he ts in: Kelly will ght for a backup job in 2012. e Eagles already have a solid pair of starters. King Dunlap is the number three tackle. D.J. Jones and Kelly will battle for a roster spot. Kelly has starting potential for the future because he is such a good t for Howard Mudd's blocking system and that gives him a leg up. Dra value: Not many people expected Kelly to be dra ed in the h round. e Eagles felt he was very good value at this point and didn't want to risk losing him so they made the pick.
NFL comparison: Watching Kelly makes you think of a young Todd Herremans. Kelly is a bit more polished at this point than Herremans was, but isn't as good an athlete. 6th ROUND: WR MARVIN MCNUTT 6-3, 216, Iowa Background: McNutt went to Iowa to play quarterback before switching to receiver as a sophomore. He then proved to be an ideal t for the Hawkeyes pro style o ense. He got better each year and nished his career with 170 catches and 28 touchdown receptions. As a senior he was 82-1315-12. ose are big time numbers for someone not playing in a spread attack. McNutt is a solid athlete, but isn't special or dynamic. He uses size to get the best of smaller defensive backs. at helped him to be e ective in the red zone. McNutt had a good showing at the Senior Bowl and then surprised some people with how well he ran at the Combine. ere are a couple of knocks on McNutt. First is that he's still somewhat new to receiver and has a lot le to learn. Also, he struggled when facing top ight corners this year. Can he be a starter in the future or is he strictly a role player? How he ts in: e Eagles needed a big receiver to add to the mix. DeSean Jackson is a pure speed guy. Jeremy Maclin has some size and some speed. Riley Cooper is a big guy, but is still unproven a er two seasons. McNutt comes in to add size to the group. He will be a role player initially. McNutt has to show that he's got NFL speed before the team can even think about him ever starting on the outside. He could get a chance to play in the slot. Jason Avant is very good there for now, but isn't the fastest receiver in
the world and that makes him vulnerable. McNutt must do well on special teams as well as o ense if he wants to secure a roster spot. Dra value: Many people were shocked to see McNutt slide down to the sixth round. is was an exceptionally deep receiver class, but that is still a major fall for a player with McNutt's size, speed, skill, and background. He was originally projected to go in the third or fourth round. e Eagles considered taking McNutt in the h, but felt Dennis Kelly was too good to pass up. NFL comparison: James Jones of the Packers is one name. David Gettis of the Panthers is a good comparison that not many people will know. 6th ROUND: OG BRANDON WASHINGTON 6-3, 320, Miami Background: Washington started some at guard as a freshman and showed good potential. He was the full-time le guard in 2010 and played very well. He was a rst team All-ACC selection. 2011 rolled around and the coaches asked him to move to le tackle. Washington lacked ideal size and athleticism, but accepted the challenge and did his best. He was over-matched in a a few games, but did his part to help the team. Washington made a curious decision to turn pro early. He wasn't coming o a strong year, but might have needed to jump into the NFL for nancial reasons. Washington can be a good run blocker with his size and strength. He can be a good pass blocker on the inside. He lacks the agility and footwork to play tackle in the NFL. He's not an ideal t for the Mudd system, but has enough
upside that you take a chance on him and see what happens. How he ts in: e Eagles studied Washington at tackle, but knew his real value was at guard so they went back and watched the 2010 tape. ey came away impressed. Andy Reid said that they liked his feet and hips and thought he could be a good guard in the NFL. Washington is coming in to ght for a backup spot. e team only invested a sixth round pick in Washington so he's guaranteed nothing. e good news is that the backup guards aren't set at all so he could win a roster spot with a strong showing at Lehigh and in the preseason games. Dra value: It was a surprise to see Washington fall as far as he did. If he can get back to his 2010 level of play, the Eagles got a steal. NFL comparison: Willie Colon, guard for the Steelers. Both guys have a similar build and both have guard/tackle experience. 7th ROUND: RB BRYCE BROWN 5-11, 224, Kansas State Background: Brown has a very complicated story. He was the number one recruit in the nation just a few years back. He began his career at Tennessee, but then le that school when coach Lane Ki n le for USC. Brown was asked to go to Kansas State by his father. Brown's brother Arthur was playing linebacker there and the father wanted the two of them together. Brown made the move, but his heart was never at Kansas State. He injured an ankle and then just quit the team. He decided to focus on getting ready for the NFL. Normally this sounds like a prospect you want to avoid. Reid talked to Ki n, who is a
friend. Ki n said good things about Brown. Reid then talked to a friend who is on the Kansas State sta . at coach said enough positive things that Reid wasn't scared o . e Eagles sent running backs coach Ted Williams to work Brown out. Williams was very impressed. He saw a running back with size, movement skills, and speed. ere is limited game tape of Brown, but he does show good vision and footwork, two critical elements for a successful running back. While he lacks experience, he does show good skills. is is very encouraging. Most young backs rely on size or speed to succeed. Brown is a lot more polished than you would expect from a guy with his background. Brown is also a good receiver, which I'm sure the Eagles like. How he ts in: Brown is essentially a lottery ticket. e Eagles love his talent, but clearly can't make any serious plans around a guy who le two di erent colleges and only has three carries since the end of the 2009 season. Brown could be the Eagles backup at running back. He could be number three. He could also get cut. You don't know how he'll adjust to life in the NFL. He must show that he can be a solid pass blocker in order to make the roster. Dra value: Some teams were shocked the Eagles spent a pick on Brown, but the Eagles felt he was worth a seventh round gamble. He has good talent. NFL comparison: Arian Foster, Texans. Foster also played at Tennessee and was undra ed, but his combination of size and speed have turned him into a big time NFL back. Brown has that kind of potential, even if he's a long shot. Tommy Lawlor runs IgglesBlitz.com, covers the draft for ScoutsNotebook.com, andwrites a weekly column forPhiladelphiaEagles.com.
Focus:
More Eagles Draft Nuggets
Eagles Draft Picks by Position - Since 1999
QB RB FB WR TE OT G C DE DT LB CB S ST
14 6
2 6 12 2 14
18 6 9 11 4 15 6
Tommy Lawlors 5 Undra ed Free Agents to Watch

FS Phillip omas Syracuse Good player who went undra ed due to character concerns. RB Chris Polk Washington Very good player who slipped due to some medical concerns. CB Cli Harris Oregon Big time playmaker with character concerns. TE Chase Ford Miami Big player with limited experience and production, but has NFL talent.
WR Damaris Johnson Tulsa Diminutive, but highly productive player. Excellent returner.
The bEast Breakdown

The Boys, the Skins, and the *gulp* 2011 Champs
By Jimmy Kempski n what was one of the most disappointing seasons in recent memory in 2011, the Eagles bumbled their way to an 8-8 record, and had to watch from their living rooms as one of their division rivals improbably fought their way to their second Super Bowl victory in ve years. However, one of the many abnormalities of the Eagles 2011 season was that they actually nished 5-1 in the division. e Eagles week three loss at home to the Giants was their lone NFC East loss, and it was a killer. It seems hard to believe in hindsight, but the Eagles entered that game as eight point favorites. e Giants played mistake free football, while the Eagles most certainly did not. It was part of the Eagles awful 1-4 start to the season that ultimately proved to be too big of a hole to crawl out of.
Otherwise, in each of the their ve NFC East wins, the Eagles largely controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball and won by playing excellent defense. See a quick snapshot of those games, defensively, in the table below. In the ve Eagles NFC East wins, they gave up an average of 73.4 rushing yards per game, 216 passing yards, 289.4 total yards, and 9.4 points per game. To put those numbers in perspective, heres how they would stack up against the rest of the NFL during the 2011 regular season: 73.4 rush yards: would be 1st 216 passing yards: would be 10th 289.4 total yards: would be 4th 9.4 points: would be 1st Last season, heading into the playo s, the NFC East was viewed by many as a weak division, and rightfully so. e Giants were able to up their
Eagles Defensive Stats in NFC East Wins Opponent @ Redskins vs. Cowboys @ Giants @ Cowboys vs. Redskins Average Week 6 8 11 16 17 Rushing 42 85 29 81 130 73.4 Passing 245 182 249 157 247 216.0 Total 287 267 278 238 377 289.4 Turnovers 4 1 2 0 1 1.6 Points 13 7 10 7 10 9.4 Outcome W (20-13) W (34-7) W (17-10) W (20-7) W (34-10)
The bEast Breakdown: The Boys, the Skins, and the *gulp* 2011 Champs
game during the playo s, so the stink of the bad regular season in the NFC East has subsided to a large degree. In my opinion, each team could make the argument that they improved this o season, including the Super Bowl Champion Giants. Lets look around the rest of the division at each team, beginning from the bottom with the Washington Redskins:
Redskins Received Rams 2012 1st rd. pick (2nd overall)
Rams Received Redskins' 2012 1st rd. pick (6th overall) Redskins' 2012 2nd rd. pick (39th overall) Redskins' 2013 1st rd. pick Redskins' 2014 1st rd. pick
WASHINGTON REDSKINS:
Head Coach: Mike Shanahan, 3rd year O . coordinator: Kyle Shanahan, 3rd year Def. coordinator: Jim Haslett, 3rd year Andy Reids record against: 17-9 Whats new? More would have been new if the NFL hadnt stripped the Redskins of $36 million in cap space as a penalty for dumping the salaries of DeAngelo Hall and Albert Haynesworth into the uncapped 2010 season. at said, there is plenty of reason for optimism in D.C. due to the arrival of the new golden child of the beltway. For the rst time in the Dan Snyder era in Washington, the Redskins have themselves a true face of the franchise-type QB that they can build around in rookie Robert Gri n III (to be hence forth referred to as RG3). e Redskins made a bold move to trade up from the sixth overall pick to the St. Louis Rams second overall pick so that they could get their guy. Here are the details of that trade:
ats an extremely steep price to pay for any player, but it was an understandable move for the Redskins to make. Over the course of the Dan Snyder era, here is a list of the starting QBs theyve gone to battle with: Brad Johnson, Je George, Tony Banks, Shane Matthews, Danny Wuer el, Patrick Ramsey, Tim Hasselbeck, Mark Brunell, Jason Campbell, Donovan McNabb, Rex Grossman, and John Beck. Yikes. In the NFL, you either have a QB, or you are not a viable threat to seriously challenge for a Super Bowl, unless of course you have some sort of historic, record-shattering defense (see the Trent Dilfer-led 2000 Ravens as Exhibit A). For the rst time since Dan Snyder bought the team, the Redskins may have their legitimate di erence maker at QB. Projected o ensive Starters, key reserves: QB: Robert Gri n III, Rex Grossman RB: Roy Helu Jr., Evan Royster FB: Darrel Young WR: Pierre Garcon, Santana Moss, Leonard Hankerson, Josh Morgan TE: Fred Davis, Chris Cooley LT: Trent Williams LG: Kory Lichtensteiger
C: Will Montgomery RG: Chris Chester RT: Jammal Brown O ensive strengths: Over the last few years, the Redskins receiving corps have been unanimously thought of as the weakest group in the division. I believe they have since closed that gap. Fred Davis is one of the most underrated o ensive weapons in the game, and he could be the next in line of the dominant receiving TEs in the NFL, in the same vein as players like Jason Witten and Vernon Davis. Last season, Fred Davis had 59 receptions for 796 yards and 3 TDs. While those numbers dont sound particularly impressive, it should be noted that he missed the last 4 games of the season because he was suspended for a positive marijuana test. Project those numbers over a 16 game season, and its a much more impressive stat line of 79 catches for 1061 yards and 4 TDs. If you compare that with the rest of the leagues TEs, heres what that looks like: Player Rob Gronkowski Jimmy Graham Fred Davis (Proj.) Jason Witten Aaron Hernandez Tony Gonzalez Dustin Keller Brent Celek Vernon Davis Antonio Gates Rec. 90 99 79 79 79 80 65 62 67 64 Yds 1327 1310 1061 942 910 875 815 811 792 778 TD 17 11 4 5 7 7 5 5 6 7
Expect RG3 to look to Fred Davis as his primary weapon his rookie season. In addition to Davis, the Skins brought in Pierre Garcon in free agency, although they drastically overpaid for him. Garcon will be a signi cant upgrade over the Skins leading receiver in 2011, Jabar Ga ney. Ga ney has since been released. Filling out the WR corps is the veteran Santana Moss, and a couple young players with lot of potential in hyear player Josh Morgan and second-year pro Leonard Hankerson. With a decent 1-2 combo in sophomores Roy Helu and Evan Royster at RB, along with do-everything Tim Hightower, this is no longer a group of skill players to be taken lightly, and they should only get better, especially if RG3 turns out to be the real deal. O ensive weaknesses: e Redskins OL was a disaster in 2011. ree of their o ensive linemenTrent Williams (suspension), Kory Lichtensteiger (torn ACL and MCL), and Jammal Brown (various injuries)missed signi cant time last season. e replacements for each o ensive lineman were bad, and Brown himself was atrocious when he did play. Additionally, Will Mongomery and Chris Chester are both JAGs (just a guy), Lichtensteiger is returning from a devastating knee injury, and Williams, while talented, is immature and one failed drug test away from being suspended for a full season. At least the Redskins are aware that their OL is weak, as they dra ed o ensive linemen with their third, h, and sixth-round picks. At the very least, they should have better depth this season, but the OL remains a signi cant weakness, and the health of RG3 should be a concern for throughout the entire season.
Projected defensive starters, key reserves: DE: Adam Carriker, Jarvis Jenkins NT: Barry Co eld, Chris Neild DE: Stephen Bowen, Kedric Golston OLB: Ryan Kerrigan, Lorenzo Alexander ILB: London Fletcher, Keenan Robinson ILB: Perry Riley, Jonathan Go OLB: Brian Orakpo, Rob Jackson CB: DeAngelo Hall S: Brandon Meriweather, Reed Doughty S: DeJon Gomes, Madieu Williams CB: Josh Wilson, Kevin Barnes Slot CB: Cedric Gri n Defensive strengths: When most people think of strong front seven attacks in the NFC
Photo courtesy HomerFanboy.
East, they tend to come up with guys like DeMarcus Ware, Jay Ratli and Sean Lee in Dallas, the trio of Jason Pierre-Paul, Osi Umenyiora and Justin Tuck in NY, and the dominant pass rushing DL of the Eagles. e Redskins dont immediately jump into your head. However, when you look at Washingtons front seven as a whole, its probably the most complete unit in the division, without any major holes. e Redskins 3-4 defense is led by their impressive linebacking group of Brian Orakpo, London Fletcher, Ryan Kerrigan, and Perry Riley. Orakpo is already a stud pass rusher, Kerrigan had a very impressive rookie season in 2011, and London Fletcher is a tackling machine and one of the true leaders in the NFL. e only semiunknown is Riley, who took over midway through the season for the ine ective Rocky McIntosh at ILB. Riley played well in 2011, and at the very least, should be an upgrade over McIntosh. e Skins defensive line is also in good shape. It lacks the star power of the linebackers, but is full of solid players and plenty of depth in Adam Carriker, Barry Co eld, Stephen Bowen, Kedric Golston, and 2011 second rounder Jarvis Jenkins, who missed last season with a torn ACL. Defensive weaknesses: While the front seven looks strong, the secondary has all the makings of an absolute horror show this season. Lets start with cornerback. Football Outsiders has a stat they use for corners that they refer to as success rate, which charts the percentage of passes that dont manage to get at least 45 percent of needed yards on rst down, 60 percent of needed yards on second down, or 100 percent of needed yards on third down. Its an imperfect stat (as every stat is) that
also requires some level of football knowledge to determine which defensive back is being targeted on any one play. Still, it provides a pretty good framework of which corners are playing well, and which ones arent. In 2010, DeAngelo Hall had the second worst success rate in the NFL at 39%. He also gave up the third-most yards per target (10.5), and the third-worst yards a er the catch (5.8). 2011 wasnt much better. is past season, Hall was eighth-worst in the NFL in success rate (41%). Missing in action, however, were Halls trademark big plays, as he managed just three interceptions (his lowest total since his rookie season in 2004) and one forced fumble. On the other side is Josh Wilson, who is entering his second year as a Redskin. Solid player. Not bad, not great. For the slot corner role, the Redskins signed Cedric Gri n to a one year deal. A quick roundup of his issues below. Its not an ideal recipe for your main slot corner: Two torn ACLs since January of 2010. Abysmal season in 2011 with the Vikings. Reportedly refused to run play calls. Benched on multiple occasions. Unfortunately for the Skins, the corners might actually be the strength of their secondary, as the safety situation is an absolute mess. e Skins have six safeties that will be competing for starting spots this preseason. Not one of them is even a lock to make the team. Ill explain LaRon Landry was a very good player when he actually played, but his inability to stay healthy forced the team to let him seek employment elsewhere. In a much more surprising move, the Skins cut Oshiomogho Atogwe in a salary dump. Atogwe wasnt the playmaking ballhawk he once was in St. Louis on some very bad Rams
teams, and he too battled injuries, but at the very least he was a solid, skilled player. e Redskins have not yet adequately replaced either player. e six contestants: 1) Brandon Meriweather In the last seven months, Meriweather has been cut from one team (the Pats) and had another team (the Bears) show zero interest in bringing him back for a second season. Although physically talented, he has red ags galore, running the gamut from a shooting, to kicking opposing players in an on eld brawl at Miami, to repeated nes for helmet-to-helmet hits, and most recently, a refusing a breathalyzer at a 3 a.m. tra c stop. A meeting with Roger Goodell could be on the horizon. 2) Madieu Williams Williams was a good player in the early part of his career with the Bengals, and he parlayed his play into a six-year deal with the Vikings for $33 million in 2008. A er three disappointing seasons in Minnesota, Williams was released. He landed in San Francisco, where he played the rst four games while Dashon Goldson and Donte Whitner were out with injuries. Once Goldson and Whitner were healthy, Williams never saw the eld again. In his eight-year career, Williams has 12 INTs (1.5/season) and 4 FF (0.5/ season). Big plays should not be expected. 3) Reed Doughty Doughty was with the team last season, and he was attacked/exposed regularly when he had to ll in for LaRon Landry. Doughty is not a viable starting NFL safety. 4) Tanard Jackson e Redskins added Tanard Jackson a er the Buccaneers cut him.Last year, according to Pro Football Focus, Jackson had 57 opportunities to make a tackle. He missed 24 of them.
5) DeJon Gomes Gomes is a second-year player that impressed me during the preseason last year, but struggled when he got his chances in the real games. Above, in the projected starters section, I have Gomes listed as a starting safety for no other reason than that hes still at least somewhat of a mystery, while the others are pretty much locks not to be legitimate starters. 6) Jordan Bernstein Seventh-round dra pick out of Iowa. In other words, the Redskins are playing the Lets sign as many crappy safeties as we can and hope that one of them pans out game. Consider me unconvinced that it will work. Overview: is season in Washington is a honeymoon. Fans will marvel at the occasional big play by RG3, and theyll roll with the inevitable growing pains. Mike Shanahan is in Year ree of his ve year plan. So far, his record is 11-21. I would expect the gap between wins and losses to widen further this year, as this is not a team that is going to compete for the NFC East title in 2012. e Redskins will have to at the very least show that they have the look of a contender in 2013, or Shanahan could be gone. However, I certainly dont expect the Skins to be a pushover. is is a team that didnt just sweep the Super Bowl Champions last season they manhandled them. ey have a really solid front seven on defense and some young up-andcomers at the o ensive skill positions. e major worries, as noted above, will be the o ensive line and the defensive secondary. If the Skins can somehow win seven games and RG3 shows progression throughout the season, 2012 should be viewed as a success.
DALLAS COWBOYS:
Head Coach: Jason Garrett, 2nd full year O . coordinator: Bill Callahan, 1st year Def. coordinator: Rob Ryan, 2nd year Andy Reids record against: 17-10 Whats new? e biggest additions to the Cowboys this year came in the form of a couple new cornerbacks, and the Cowboys paid a he y price for both of them. First, they signed Brandon Carr, formerly of the Chiefs, to a ve-year deal worth $50.1 million. A month later, they traded their rst and second-round picks to get up to the sixth overall spot in the dra to select LSU standout Morris Claiborne. Longtime Cowboy corner Terence Newman is gone, and 2007 rst round pick Mike Jenkins could soon be out the door as well. e Cowboys were also very busy in free agency, snagging the following players: Dan Connor: Will be paired with former Penn St. teammate Sean Lee at ILB. Nate Livings: e former Bengal is projected to start at LG. Mackenzy Bernadeau: When the Cowboys signed Bernadeau, the idea was for him to start at RG, but he has since had surgery on his hip, and will be out until the start of training camp. Kyle Orton: Tony Romo injury insurance. Brodney Pool: Played under defensive coordinator Rob Ryan in Cleveland. Will replace another player that Ryan coached in Cleveland, Abram Elam. Lawrence Vickers: Starting FB.
e Cowboys will likely have a minimum of nine positions where the 2011 starter will not be the 2012 starter, listed here: Pos RB LT LG RG RT ILB CB CB S 2011 Felix Jones Doug Free Bill Nagy Kyle Kosier Tyron Smith Keith Brooking Terence Newman Mike Jenkins Abram Elam 2012 DeMarco Murray Tyron Smith Nate Livings M. Bernadeau Doug Free Dan Connor Brandon Carr Morris Claiborne Brodney Pool
Projected o ensive starters, key reserves: QB: Tony Romo, Kyle Orton RB: DeMarco Murray FB: Lawrence Vickers WR: Miles Austin, Dez Bryant TE: Jason Witten, John Phillips LT: Tyron Smith LG: Nate Livings C: Phil Costa RG: Mackenzy Bernadeau RT: Doug Free O ensive strengths: Tony Romo, Miles Austin, Dez Bryant, and Jason Witten form a very talented, very dangerous passing attack. Romos numbers, over the course of his career, are stellar. His worst QB rating in any one season was 91.4. To put that in perspective, over the course of his 13 year career, Donovan McNabb broke 91.4 just three times. One of the
rst things people typically think of when they hear the name Tony Romo is the late-game ga es, and to a certain extent thats fair. However, it should also be noted that Romo is a highly accurate passer who has the ability to extend plays and make big gains out of nothing. Romos most reliable target is the great Jason Witten. In 2011, Witten had his worst season statistically in ve years, and he still managed to catch 79 balls for 942 yards and 5 TDs. Hes also a rare Cowboy that plays every week, as he hasnt missed a game since his rookie season in 2003. On the outside, Miles Austin is a player that broke out in a huge way in 2009, catching 81 passes for 1320 yards and 11 TDs. He cooled o some in 2010 a er Tony Romo was lost for the season, and then struggled through an injuryriddled 2011. Austin has become somewhat of an under-the-radar player this o season, but he still has enormous talent and it should not come as a surprise if he rebounds in a big way in 2012. On the other side, the hype hasnt matched the production of Dez Bryant, the Cowboys #1 dra pick in 2010. Bryant has scary athletic ability, but has not yet grasped the mental side of the game. He has ability comparable to the best WRs in the game, but so far has the production of a #2. Also worth noting is the Cowboys young LT, Tyron Smith. Smith has the makings of being an absolute star in the NFL. With Jason Peters lost for the season, Smith is clearly the best LT in the division. O ensive weaknesses: While Smith is likely to be a Cowboys great for the next decade, the rest of the o ensive line is a mess. A quick history lesson on the Cowboys o ensive line: In 2008 and 2009, with an aging OL in place, the Cowboys had a total of 18 dra picks.
With those 18 picks, they selected one o ensive lineman, Robert Brewster. Brewster is no longer with the team. In 2010, the Cowboys dra ed one lineman, Sam Young, in the sixth round. Young, like Brewster, is no longer with the team. ey headed into the 2010 season with the oldest o ensive line in the NFL. Leonard Davis celebrated his 32nd birthday just before the start of the season, with Marc Colombo and Kyle Kosier celebrating their 32nd birthdays shortly therea er. Andre Gurode was 31. e one player that was still relatively young was the 26-year-old Doug Free, who was taking over at LT for the departed Flozell Adams, who was 35. e Cowboys were the overwhelming favorites to win the NFC East that season, but in what should have been a fairly predictable outcome, the o ensive line went into a sharp decline and the o ense sputtered.It didnt help that the defense was surprisingly bad. ey nished that season 6-10. e following o season, in 2011, Jerry Jones made the obvious decision to cut bait with Colombo, Davis and Gurode, three players that were playing poorly and making far too much money. e Cowboys were, in a way, forced into going young along their OL. For the rst time in 20+ years as the Cowboys GM, Jones spent a rst
Photo courtesy Bigcats lair.
round pick on an o ensive lineman, scoring the extremely talented Tyron Smith out of USC. ey would take a couple more o ensive linemen in the fourth and seventh rounds, grabbing David Arkin and Bill Nagy, respectively. ey also locked up Free to a long term deal, paying him $32 million over four years. It appeared that a er years of ignoring the OL, it was nally becoming a priority, albeit way too late. To begin the season, the Cowboys started two rookies: Nagy at LG, and Tyron Smith at RT. ey also plugged in second-year player Phil Costa at center. Kosier was moved from LG over to the right side to be sort of an o ensive tackle whisperer for Smith. In one o season, they went from the oldest o ensive line in the league to one of the youngest. With so many new and unproven players inserted into the lineup, the Cowboys o ensive line once again sputtered all season, this time even more predictably than in 2010.Smith had a great rookie year, but the two other new pieces, Costa and Nagy, both had brutal seasons. Costas poor play lasted 16 games, while Nagys bad season was cut short in week six, when he was lost for the season with a broken ankle. Kosiers decline and health issues continued. Free, meanwhile, was a major disappointment, having a surprisingly bad season. e Cowboys were learning that turning over a full o ensive line in a short amount of time isnt exactly easy. ey hit with one player, missed with two, and were heading into the 2012 once again scrambling to nd answers. is year, the Cowboys had seven dra picks, and once again, amazingly, they dra ed no o ensive linemen. Enter Nate Livings and Mackenzy Bernadeau as the new guards, ip op Tyron Smith and Doug Free at the tackle
positions, show no apparent plans to replace the horrid Phil Costa at center, and for the third year in a row, the Cowboys are heading into yet another season of easily foreseeable problems protecting Tony Romo. Heres what a lack of o ensive line continuity looks like: Pos LT LG C RG RT 2010 Free Kosier Gurode Davis Colombo 2011 Free Nagy Costa Kosier Smith 2012 Smith Livings Costa Bernadeau Free
middle, Sean Lee has outstanding instincts and always seems to be around the ball. On the outside, the Cowboys made a big splash this o season by signing Brandon Carr away from the Chiefs for ve years, $50 million, and moved up to sixth overall to dra rookie CB Morris Claiborne. Carr faces the adjustment of learning a new defense and moving from RCB to LCB while Claiborne has to make the jump from college competition to the pros, but their corner play should be drastically improved. Defensive weaknesses: In the third round of the 2012 dra , the Cowboys dra ed Tyrone Crawford. Crawford is the rst defensive end theyve dra ed in the rst three rounds in the last six dra s. In the same way theyve ignored their o ensive line over the years, theyve given a similar lack of attention to their DL. Jay Ratli has been an excellent player for the last six seasons, but he has logged quite a bit of mileage. Ratli is by far the smallest 3-4 NT in the NFL, and over the last three years, he has averaged 776 snaps per season, according to Pro Football Focus. ats asking a lot of an undersized NT that faces constant double teams in the run game. Ratli turns 31 in August, and his production has slipped quite a bit in the past two years: Years 08-09 10-11 G 32 32 Tckl 91 69 Sack 13.5 5.5 TFL 12 6 FF 2 1
Projected defensive Starters, key reserves: DE: Jason Hatcher, Sean Lissemore NT: Jay Ratli , Josh Brent DE: Kenyon Coleman, Tyrone Crawford OLB: Anthony Spencer, Victor Butler ILB: Dan Connor, Bruce Carter ILB: Sean Lee OLB: DeMarcus Ware, Alex Albright CB: Brandon Carr, Mike Jenkins S: Gerald Sensabaugh, Barry Church S: Brodney Pool, Matt Johnson CB: Morris Claiborne, Orlando Scandrick Slot CB: Orlando Scandrick Defensive strengths: e Cowboys dont have any speci c units on their defense that I would consider a true strength, but they do have a collection of some great players scattered throughout. DeMarcus Ware remains the premier pass rusher in the game. Ware had 19.5 sacks last season. Jay Ratli , meanwhile continues to be a force at NT. Eagles center Jason Kelce said that Ratli is the best player he has ever faced. In the
Ratli can still play, but he isnt getting much help from the DEs. Jason Hatcher is the closest thing to a legitimate starter at DE for the Cowboys, and Sean Lissemore provides good
depth. Otherwise, the Cowboys could do much better than Marcus Spears, Kenyon Coleman and Cli on Geathers as their other DEs. e hope is that Crawford can come in and contribute immediately, but DE has been a weak position for the Cowboys for the last half decade, and I dont see much of a reason why that will be any di erent in 2012. As a side note, theres an odd perception that Rob Ryan is an accomplished coordinator. He is not. Heres where his defenses rank: Overall Run Pass Pts 2004 OAK 2005 OAK 2006 OAK 2007 OAK 2008 OAK 2009 CLE 2010 CLE 2011 DAL 30 27 3 22 27 31 22 14 22 25 25 31 31 28 27 7 30 18 1 8 10 29 18 23 31 25 18 26 24 21 24 16 Rec 5-11 4-12 2-14 4-12 5-11 5-11 5-11 8-8
disappointments for either failing to qualify for the playo s, or getting knocked out early. But it really shouldnt come as a huge surprise why the Cowboys are 14-18 over the last two seasons. eyve been weak in the trenches, their other starters and role players have underperformed, and theres no depth up and down the roster. All sizzle, no steak. In my opinion, this is an average team, and is pretty clearly behind the Eagles and Giants.
NEW YORK GIANTS:

Head Coach: Tom Coughlin, 9th year O . coordinator: Kevin Gilbride, 6th year Def. coordinator: Perry Fewell, 3rd year Andy Reids record against: 14-12 Whats new? e Giants will have an extra tan line on one of their ngers, but otherwise, not much. e Giants, as we all know, won the Super Bowl last season, and their roster will largely be unchanged, at least in comparison to the Eagles other two NFC East rivals. e only really noteworthy changes are that RB Brandon Jacobs, WR Mario Manningham, and CB Aaron Ross have all moved on. Otherwise, aside from some smaller signings and a full slate of dra picks, the Giants were quiet in acquiring talent, partially because t h e y d ont n e e d many upgrades, but also because they didnt have much salary cap space. Projected o ensive starters, key reserves: QB: Eli Manning, David Carr
In the same way that Casey Matthews is not Clay Matthews, Rob Ryan is not Rex Ryan or Buddy Ryan. Overview: Seemingly every year, youll hear NFL analysts refer to the Cowboys as one of the most talented teams in the league, and its easy to see why. With players like DeMarcus Ware, Tony Romo, Miles Austin, Dez Bryant, Jay Ratli , and Sean Lee, the Cowboys dont lack star power. And again, seemingly every year, the very same analysts call the Cowboys underachievers or
RB: Ahmad Bradshaw, David Wilson FB: Henry Hynoski WR: Hakeem Nicks, Victor Cruz TE: Martellus Bennett LT: Will Beatty LG: Kevin Boothe C: David Baas RG: Chris Snee RT: David Diehl
at honor would go to Hakeem Nicks. Just like his QB, Nicks had quite a playo run of his own: Oppo ATL GB SF NE Avg. Rec 6 7 5 10 7 Yds 115 165 55 109 111 TD 2 2 0 0 1
O ensive strengths: e Giants passing game is outstanding. Eli Manning went from a guy who threw the most interceptions in the league in 2010 (a whopping 25 of them), to a bona- de top ve QB in the NFL in 2011. His run through the playo s was incredible. Beginning with what was essentially a playo game in Week 17 against the Cowboys, here were Elis numbers: Oppo DAL ATL GB SF NE Avg. Comp Att Yds TD INT 24 23 21 32 30 26 33 32 33 58 40 39 346 277 330 316 296 313 3 3 3 2 1 2 0 0 1 0 0 0.2 QBR 136.7 129.3 114.5 82.3 103.8 113.3
Nicks, however, does come into 2012 with some uncertainty. In OTAs, he broke the h metatarsal in his foot, and the prognosis was that he would be able to return in 12 weeks. e injury occurred on May 24, so a 12 week recovery would put him back on the eld sometime around the middle of August. Giants CB Prince Amukamara had the same injury last season, and he was out 15 weeks. However, Will Beatty had the same injury a couple years ago, and he was able to return in 8, so recovery times vary. Nicks is such a fundamentally sound and uid receiver, that I dont expect the missed practice time to a ect him much, despite his ripe young age of 24. e bigger question is whether or not Nicks will be 100 percent healthy when the season starts. O ensive weaknesses: What makes Eli Mannings stellar play last season even more impressive was that his o ensive line was terrible. He had to shoulder the load because he had no run game whatsoever, mainly due to poor OL play, and rarely had a clean pocket when he dropped back to pass. In 2010, a strong argument could have been made that RG Chris Snee and RT Kareem
Obviously, those were all wins. Eli, of course, doesnt do it alone, as he has an excellent duo of receivers in Hakeem Nicks and Victor Cruz. Cruz came out of nowhere last season to catch 82 balls for 1536 yards and 9 salsa dances. To put that yardage total into perspective, Terrell Owens never reached 1500 receiving yards in any one season in his entire NFL career. And yet, Cruz isnt even the best receiver on his team.
DE: Jason Pierre-Paul, Osi Umenyiora OLB: Michel Boley, Keith Rivers MLB: Chase Blackburn, Mark Herzlich OLB: Mathias Kiwanuka, J. Williams CB: Corey Webster, Prince Amukamara S: Kenny Phillips, Tyler Sash S: Antrel Rolle, Chris Horton CB: Terrell omas, Jayron Hosley Slot CB: Prince Amukamara
McKenzie were the best RG-RT tandem in the NFL. However, in 2011 the performance of both players fell o a cli . Snee went from a no-brainer Pro Bowl player to a very average one, and McKenzie played poorly enough that the team had zero interest in bringing him back. But the real culprit was LG/LT David Diehl. Diehl started the season at LG, played terribly, and when Beatty was lost for the season in Week 11 with an eye injury, Diehl was forced to kick out from LG to LT, where he would be protecting Eli Mannings blind side. At the time, Beatty was, in my opinion, the Giants best o ensive lineman. I remember thinking, Well thats the end of the Giants. Diehl continued to play poorly at LT. He was so bad all season, in fact, that Pro Football Focus rated him as the worst o ensive lineman in the league in 2011. But ultimately it didnt matter, as Eli simply completed passes anyway with rushers constantly in his face. is season, Beatty will return to his spot at LT, and Diehl will slide over to RT. Jason Babin should be licking his chops. Projected defensive starters, key reserves: DE: Justin Tuck DT: Chris Canty, Marvin Austin DT: Linval Joseph, Shaun Rogers
Photo courtesy Alexa.
Defensive strengths: Duh. e defensive line won the Giants a title back in 2007, and they had a lot to do with them winning it again in 2012. I really cant say enough of how good Jason Pierre-Paul is. I remember watching the SaintsGiants game last season, a game in which the Saints absolutely destroyed the Giants. With 1:02 le in the game, the Saints had the ball with a 42-24 lead. e game was over. Instead of just running a simple fullback dive, they ran a pitch to the outside to Mark Ingram, who had essentially a clear path to the end zone. Most of the Giants just watched Ingram run down the eld for a meaningless touchdown. Not JPP. He sprinted the whole way, chasing Ingram all the way to the goal line, and almost catching him. at really impressed me. But hustle aside, Pierre-Paul is one of the best pass rushers in the game (16.5 sacks). He also defends the run extraordinarily well, is a big weapon on special teams (he ended the rst Cowboys-Giants game when he blocked a wouldbe game-tying FG attempt with no time le on the clock), and also bats passes at the line (had a league high 10 in 2011). In a division that includes DeMarcus Ware, I felt that Pierre-Paul was the best defensive player in the NFC East in 2011.
Supplementing the play of JPP along the defensive line last season was Justin Tuck and Osi Umenyiora. rough week 14, Tuck was in the midst of his worst season as a pro, as he had just 24 tackles, 2.5 sacks, just 1 TFL, and no forced fumbles. And then, seemingly out of nowhere, in the last three games of the regular season Tuck began to climb out of his funk. It was almost like he had two di erent seasons: Weeks 1-14 15-SB Total Tckl 24 25 49 Sack 2.5 5.5 8 TFL 1 1 2 FF 0 1 1
Rolle gave up more yards (642) than any other safety in the league, with a cushion between him and the second-highest player (the Jets horrid Eric Smith) of over 100 yards. He gave up the second-most yards a er the catch, behind only Eric Smith. He had just one pass defensed. His ve penalties were good for h most in the NFL. ose numbers dont include the playo s, so were talking about an even playing eld in comparison to the rest of the league. Rolle is the weak link of the Giants defense, and hes a big reason why the Giants ranked 29th against the pass last year. Overview: Without question, the reigning champs are the Eagles biggest obstacle to winning the NFC East next season. Eli Manning has become a con dent passer and leader, and is the best (or at least the most trustworthy) quarterback in the division right now, with a pair of outstanding weapons to throw to. On the other side of the ball, dealing with the Giants ferocious pass rush was made much more di cult with the loss of Jason Peters for the season. For the Giants, it will all boil down to whether or not Eli Manning can continue to make plays behind what is likely going to be a very bad o ensive line. e trick with the Giants is keeping them out of the playo s, because once they get in, as theyve already proven twice in the last ve years, all you need to do is make the tourney, and there is a chance that you can make a run. Jimmy Kempski is the founder of Blogging the bEast, editor at Bleeding Green Nation, and contributes at SNY and The Washington Post.
e third player in the mix is Osi Umenyiora. Umenyiora has been whining about his contract for the last thee or four years, but his unhappiness hasnt a ected his ability to get to the QB. Including the playo s, he had 12.5 sacks in 13 games last season. In 2010, he broke the single season record for forced fumbles, with 10. e guy simply makes huge plays. Defensive weaknesses: I dont think people realize how bad Antrel Rolle was last year, especially for all the talking he did.According to Pro Football Focus, Rolle had the following dubious distinctions: He was targeted more than any other safety in the league (76 times). Opposing QBs completed more passes on Rolle than any other safety in the league (57 completions). ats a completion percentage of 75% (4th worst in the league). e next closest player on completions allowed was Bu alos Bryan Scott, who allowed 42.
Focus:
NFC East By The Numbers
2011 NFC East Final Standings
Win Giants Eagles Cowboys Redskins 9 8 8 5 Loss 7 8 8 11 PtDi -6 68 22 -79
O DVOA 15.6% 14.3% 10.8% -2.1% O Rank 7 8 11 19 Def DVOA 6.9% 0.3% 4.8% 2.8%
Def Rank 20 12 16 14
Total DVOA 9.0% 14.1% 4.4% -5.9%
Total Rank 12 10 14 21
All Games Since 2000:

15 Wins 11 Losses 16 Wins 9 Losses
16 Wins 9 Losses
Eagles NFC East Regular Season Wins

6 5 4 3 2 1 0
2000
2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
2010
2011
Make Or Break Season

Last Chance for Andy Reid?
By Jason Brewer hen the rst ball is kicked in the 2012 season, it will mark the beginning of Andy Reids 14th year as head coach of the Philadelphia Eagles. As fans, weve become so used to Reid and hes such a familiar presence that I fear the magnitude of that number is somewhat dulled. 14 years as the head coach of any NFL franchise, any franchise in any sport really, is rare. For the Eagles, its unprecedented. Andy Reid has coached more games here (208) than Buddy Ryan, Rich Kotite & Ray Rhodes (the three coaches who preceded him) combined. He has won more games (126) than any previous Eagles coach has even been in charge for. When Je Fisher departed Tennessee, Andy Reid assumed the mantle of the longest tenured coach in the NFL. In fact, Reid ranks among the longest tenured coaches in any professional American sport. Only Gregg Popovich in the NBA along with Lindy Ru and Barry Trotz in the NHL have been in their jobs longer than Reid. So Ive su ciently hammered home the idea the Andy Reid has been here forever. So what? You are probably asking... Well, this year, probably more than any other, Reids position as coach is under real threat. It has now been four years since his last playo win. Last season, when Je Lurie opened the purse springs for nearly a quarter of a billon dollars worth of new contracts and almost every NFL pundit had the Eagles as Super Bowl favorites everything went terribly
Photo courtesy SRA Moses Ross.
wrong. Why that exactly happened has been scrutinized and theorized at length elsewhere in this almanac, but in the end theres probably no one thing you can blame it on. ere were execution issues, personnel issues, coaching issues etc. In this organization one guy is responsible for getting the players to execute, has nal say on all player acquisitions and hires all the coaches: Andy Reid. So it stands to reason that if you had to pick one guy to answer for the failure of last season, its Andy. Really the same thing applies if you look for someone to blame for the inability to win a playo game in the past four seasons. In his season-ending press conference, Eagles owner Je Lurie did not mince words in
Make Or Break Season: Last Chance for Andy Reid?
his evaluation of Reid and the teams performance in 2011. Were a team, and Andy is a coach who has been in the playo s nine out of the last twelve years, and its just completely unacceptable to be 8-8 and watching these other teams play starting next week, said Lurie. Incredibly, incredibly disappointing. Lurie would later call it the most disappointing season in Andys tenure. Ultimately though, the owner came to the conclusion that Reid was still the best man for the job in 2012, but only in 2012. Reid has two years le on his current contract and Lurie said that right now, the team has no plans to talk about an extension. He also said that he expressed his anger and frustration over last season to Reid very directly and told him theres no legitimate excuse for a team as talented as the Eagles were to perform the way they did last year. Fast-forward to this season and the Eagles have only gotten more talented. eyve added a much heralded dra class, theyll be getting 2010 rst round pick Brandon Graham back from injury and theyve added a two-time Pro Bowl LB in DeMeco Ryans. So if there was no legitimate excuse last season, I think its pretty safe to say Luries view on that wont change in 2012. If we play Luries statement out to its logical conclusion, Andy Reid is on thin ice. If your boss says to that theres no legitimate excuse for your completely unacceptable performance, what do you think would happen if you repeated that performance? is is the position Andy Reid nds himself in. I dont think he necessarily has to win the Super Bowl next season to save his job, but I do believe that merely making the postseason wont guarantee him a 15th year in Philadelphia. is begs the question, if Reid doesnt win a Super
Photo courtesy AJ Guel.
Bowl next year but generally does have a good season what should be done with him? e problem with guring this out is, of course, that theres no roadmap. ere really arent many historical examples of coaches that have been as successful as Reid without winning a Super Bowl. Usually, this kind of sustained success (9 playo appearances in 13 years) results in a title. So lets look at a few examples of teams faced with a similar decision on their head coach and what approach they took. THE BILL COWHER/JEFF FISHER APPROACH: aka Stand By Your Man.
Bill Cowher and Je Fisher make for pretty good comparables to Andy Reid because, along with Bill Belichick, theyre the only modern era coaches with the kind of longevity Reid has had. Cowher spent 15 seasons in charge of the Steelers while Fisher spent the better part of 17 seasons running the Houston Oilers/Tennessee Titans franchise. Like Reid, Cowher had steered his club to nine postseason appearances over his rst 13 seasons. Je Fisher, whose record has never quite matched up to his reputation in my opinion,
made six playo appearances, but those accounted for 43% of the seasons that the franchise played in Tennessee. Both coaches had the longevity and a strong track record of success. Both had been to Super Bowls and lost. As they approached their 14th year (where Reid is now) they had still yet to deliver a title, but both their owners made the same decision. ey stood by their man. Both coaches had been so close to winning it all that they had to eventually get over the hump right? Yes and no. Cowher did, winning Super Bowl XL in his th season as Steelers head coach. He would 14 then retire a er the following season. Fisher, on the other hand, did not. He got to the playo s in year 14, but lost in the wildcard round. e Titans were one and done the following year as well. In year 16, the record fell to 8-8 and in year 17 it deteriorated to 6-10 and Fisher was done in Tennessee. Cowher represents the best-case scenario. Hes the guy optimistic Eagles fans point to as why the team should stick with Reid. He does make for a good comparable. He and Reid have the same amount of playo appearances; theyve won a similar amount of games and division titles; both lost four conference title games and a Super Bowl ere are a lot of parallels. Fisher is the worst-case scenario. ere was no glorious end for him, rather he just zzled out. And actually, there is a pretty decent parallel to be made with Reid here as well. e downfall of Fisher came when the QB position became unsettled. He made back-to-back playo s with Vince Young one year and Kerry Collins the next. Reid made back-to-back playo s with Donovan McNabb and Michael Vick prior to last year. But Collins got old and the relationship between Fisher and Young soured and the team su ered.
Photo courtesy USAF.
While Vick is nowhere near as old as Collins was and isnt likely to fall out with Reid, the bulk of the guaranteed money in his contract is up a er this season. If Vick were to get hurt against this year or regress like in 2011, the Eagles could very well decide hes not worth the $16.5 million hes owed in 2013. With no clear heir apparent in place at QB, you can easily see how things could go the way of Fisher a er Vick leaves. Standing by your man is obviously not the only decision. An owner can decide to move on from his long-tenured and relatively successful coach. We call this THE TONY DUNGY APPROACH: aka To Gruden or not to Gruden?
Tony Dungy spent 6 seasons in charge of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and while that is nowhere near the 13 Reid has spent here, its still a pretty lengthy tenure for an NFL coach. Plus, he was good there. Dungy had a record of 54-42 and made the playo s in four out of his six seasons. He was red a er the Bucs 2001 campaign, when
he had made the playo s for the third straight year. Rather than stand by his man, Bucs owner Malcolm Glazer red Dungy. He had decided that while Dungy had built a great defense, his o ensive philosophy was overly conservative and would prevent the team from getting over the hump. So with the great defense Dungy had built, Glazer hired an o ensive specialist, Jon Gruden, and won the Super Bowl the following year. He would only make the playo s two more times and would be red a er seven seasons, but history certainly looks back on Glazers choice positively. e interesting parallel to the Eagles is that if Reid were to be red a er this season, you can be certain that the most speculated-about name to replace him would be Gruden. Plus, Glazers reasoning could certainly apply to Reid. Hes built a very good o ensive team that has broken the franchise record for points scored several times in the past few seasons. However, since the passing of Jim Johnson, theres been inconsistency with the defense. Could the Eagles decide to move on from Reid and grab a defensive coach to put them over the top? Of course, Tony Dungy did not fade into obscurity a er he got red in Tampa Bay. He was immediately hired by the Indianapolis Colts where, in his 11th season as an NFL head coach, he won the Super Bowl. In seven seasons with Indy, he did not miss the playo s once. As I said earlier, Gruden only made the postseason twice in the six seasons following his Super Bowl win and was eventually red. All things even, if you had to pick one of those two guys to run your franchise, which would pick? For me, its Dungy and its really not even close. Barring a Super Bowl victory, this is the decision that Je Lurie will face a er this season
and these are his options. When you consider that Reid will only have one year on his deal a er the 2012 campaign, Lurie has to make a rm decision one way or the other. If the Eagles once again miss the postseason, the decision likely becomes pretty easy. Hes already said that missing the playo s was unacceptable, so if Reid missed them again and came back wouldnt that mean it was acceptable? If Lurie is indeed a man of his word, hed have to re Reid if we see a repeat of 2011. Where things get murky is if we get something between a parade and a repeat of 2011. What level of success would Reid have to reach next season to convince the owner and us fans that hes closer to becoming the next Bill Cowher and not the next Je Fisher? In conclusion, Ill give you my best guess as to what Lurie will do: Super Bowl or NFC championship game appearance I say hes back with strong conviction. One playo win in the wildcard round I say hes back with medium conviction. Division title, but no playo wins Im going to say that hes back, but not with strong conviction. What the Eagles decide to do with Andys contract here would be very interesting. Wildcard berth, but no playo wins I dont say this with strong conviction, but I could really see the Eagles thinking that this simply isnt good enough. I say hes gone. Lets all just hope Andy Reid wins us a Super Bowl and renders this whole thing moot. Its clearly whats best for all involved. So make that happen Football Gods! Jason Brewer runs the Eagles community Bleeding Green Nation as well as SBNation Philly.
Focus:
Andy Reid By The Numbers
Years since Reid became assistant at BYU, at the ripe age of 24 NFL coaching changes since Reid was hired on Jan. 11, 1999
30 110
1
Former Reid assistants who have become NFL head coaches Eagles starting quarterbacks with whom Reid has won a game
6 9
Career Wins By Eagles Coaches

Reid Rhodes Kotite Ryan Bruney Campbell Vermeil McCormack Khayat Williams Kuharich Skorich Shaw Devore Trimble Millner McMillin Kiesling Neale Bell Wray
126 29 36 43 17 54 16 8 7 28 15 19 7 25 2 2 5 63 10 9
Looking To The Future

Reading the Tea Leaves for 2013 and Beyond
By Sam Lynch he e nd of Jo e B an ne rs t i me i n Philadelphia is, if nothing else, the dawn of a new era of Eagles football. As we watch the 2012 season play out, for the rst time in recent memory we will be watching the long-term path of the franchise develop with similar drama. What follows is an examination of some of the most important things to watch, from the top down, and how they will impact the future of the team. THE LEADERS Andy Reid and Howie Roseman are now the men in charge of the team. Reid has had a good run here, even in the absence of a Super Bowl. Roseman has drawn a tremendous amount of praise for the moves that he made this o season. If Reid and Roseman produce a Super Bowl together in the near future, then this arrangement will be in place as long as Reid wants to coach and Roseman wants to work in Philadelphia. ats the easy bit of forecasting. How long do they have to accomplish that, though? Reids contract expires in 2013; realistically, he has to have a very good 2012, one that justi es the excitement of the past two o seasons, in order to see the end of that contract. He cant merely produce a happy locker room, not this year. In the wake of Banners departure, there was a great deal of speculation that a spot in the front
o ce had been cleared for Reid to gracefully step upstairs a er years of loyal service. And again, if Reid wins a Super Bowl here and wants to then move upstairs, I have no doubt that space will be cleared for him. What happens if there is no short term Super Bowl, though? If Reid isnt good enough to coach the team anymore, what is it that he does that Roseman doesnt? Or, just as importantly, what does he do as a member of the front o ce that you wouldnt let your next coach do instead? As Executive Vice President of Football Operations, Reid gets to clearly de ne the players he wants, starting with the conceptual level and progressing all the way to the speci c players that are acquired. If the coach is Not Andy Reid, that coach will want di erent players. And the person guring out who those players are probably should not be Andy Reid. To illustrate this point, consider the transition from Jim Johnson to Sean McDermott. One was the long time lieutenant to the other, someone who you would expect to run a scheme that was really similar to his mentors. at was not the case. McDermott did very innovative things in coverage, especially with the linebackers. He needed a di erent skill set at LB than Johnson didand a di erent skill set than he was given. us, even if Reid hops upstairs and hands the reigns to Marty Mornhinweg, the new head coach will want to do some things his own way,
Looking To The Future: Reading the Tea Leaves for 2013 and Beyond
and that will require a di erent type of player. Is extended, who were aging, but who were good Reid the guy who is best tasked with making sure representatives of what the Eagles look for in that those needs are ful lled? players and who would be culture carriers in the e reality is that once Reid stops coaching, locker room (i.e. if you play like Todd and Trent the team will need to move on. e next head do, you will be rewarded). coach will be chosen by Howie Roseman. e ese things are, for me, good signs for the GM will work with the new general manager. I dont coach to gure out how to think there is necessarily a In my view, the get the type of players he single right way to build a needs to execute his own long-term future roster or manage a team, but schemes. Reid will move on I do think that a GM should of the Eagles is to another team that needs be continuously looking at stability, someone with the his approach to see where it Howie Roseman. vision to set up a strong can be improved. He can process that allows the coaches and the front hire better scouts if he is not getting good o ce to work well together. at stability is evaluations of talent. He can hire a cap specialist already in place in Philadelphia. if he cant manage the nancial side of the house. Roseman himself has a lot to prove. So far, But he cant make the team better at all if he isnt he has been a Te on GM. He seems to get credit continuously looking to see what can be for every popular move that is made while he gets improved in how he approaches his job. absolutely none of the blame for the various In my view, the long-term future of the debacles in free agency and the dra that have Eagles is Howie Roseman. Andy Reid, on the happened under his watch. e obvious next other hand, still has a lot to prove a er 13 years in sentence is that this cant last much longer, but the charge. truth is that it can. It could last until the person who does get the heat when things go badly, the THE FRANCHISE PLAYER head coach, is red. at cynical comment aside, one of the Michael Vick, improbably, has become the most encouraging aspects of the 2012 o season most important player on the Eagles. e team is has been the level of self-criticism that Roseman really operating without a net with him, much as appears to have done in the wake of the Dream they did early in Donovan McNabbs career. If he Team disaster. When he discussed his dra fails, the team likely doesnt have another strategy this year, he spoke of things that they franchise quarterback on the roster. ere is no needed to do di erently in terms of strategy, Kevin Kolb-type waiting in the wings, as whether it was doing a better job of focusing on promising as Nick Foles may have looked in value over need or whether it was being less OTAs. Puritanical with respect to character. Roseman What makes that especially di cult is that extended two veteran players in Trent Cole and Vicks contract was structured in a way that allows Todd Herremans who did not really need to be the team to escape if 2012 proves to be a bad year.
e view on how to get a franchise quarterback changes frequently. Right now, the way to get a franchise QB is to dra one in the rst round, preferably in the top couple of picks. e Eagles arent likely to pick that high in the near future. As a result, it isnt just Andy Reids eggs that are all in Vicks basket, he also controls the future of the franchise. Because unless the Eagles have good fortune with a QB taken later in the dra , like they thought they had with Kolb, or with a QB in free agency, like they had with Vick, the team is going to have to get very bad before they have a shot to get another QB who could be very good. erefore, while much ado will be made of Vicks deal being escapable in 2013, Vick is really in relatively little danger of losing his job as long as he is merely adequate. And that is likely to be the case even if the team changes coaches. THE OFFENSE e Eagles have secured their top o ensive playmakers, DeSean Jackson and LeSean McCoy, for years to come. On the o ensive line, the starters with the shortest contracts are Jason Kelce, who is only signed through 2014, and Jason Peters, who has a replacement in Demetress Bell signed through 2016 getting an audition to take his job. TE Brent Celek is signed through 2016, slot WR Jason Avant through 2014. e o ense is, in many ways, in the ideal situation for the long term future of the team. It has young players under control, continuity in terms of system, and proven success. e player who I will watch most carefully this year on o ense is Jeremy Maclin. e 2009 rst round pick has a deal that runs through
Vicks contract jumps starting in 2013. From 2013 to 2015, Vick is due $16.5 million each year in salary and bonuses. Of that amount, only $3 million in 2013 is guaranteed. So starting in 2013, the Eagles each year will have to decide if they want to invest another $16.5 millionwell more than 10% of the salary cap in Vick. at decision will have to be made not just on the basis of how good Vick is but based on what the teams alternatives are. is year, for instance, the best QB on the free agent market was probably Matt Flynn. How bad does Michael Vick have to be in order to decide to go with Matt Flynn?
Photo courtesy Ed Yourdon.
2013. is is the year he has to prove himself. Is he a legitimate #1 WR? If so, he and Jackson are clearly going to be one of the top tandems in the NFL and the Eagles would be fools to let him walk. But if Maclin proves only to be a good #2, is he then worth extending? If youre Roseman, shouldnt you be thinking about nding an upgrade in the 2013 dra ? e biggest risk that this o ense faces, long term, is related to coaching. Howard Mudd is an old man. Hes retired from the NFL once already. He missed OTAs this year, reportedly to save his strength for the regular season. His system was very impressive last year, and the composition of the o ensive line re ects that system. His replacement, assuming Reid remains head coach, is currently on the team. Eugene Chung has coached the o ensive line in Mudds absence this spring. But Chung is a man of varied experience. He played for 3 NFL teams during his career, and was schooled in Juan Castillos line system prior to Mudds arrival in Philadelphia. e point is that we have no idea what system Chung would run, nor whether the current o ensive line personnel could best execute that system. THE DEFENSE In contrast to the o ense, the defense is full of question marks, both short and long term. e linebackers are the most obvious area for focus. Can DeMeco Ryans still play, two years a er his Achilles injury? Is Mychal Kendricks a legitimate NFL starting LB? Can any of last years group of suspects grow into a quality NFL LB? But the better long term question for these guys is what a LB is worth to this team. Ryans has
Photo courtesy Christopher Brown.
a deal that will pay him at least $6.6 million a year through 2015. Is any LB really worth that to the Eagles? ats a di cult question on its own. It becomes easier, though, if Ryans fails to live up to his Pro Bowl reputation. But if he is good maybe not Pro Bowl good, but only a notch below what do the Eagles do? Weve seen the problems that not having a good MLB can bring. And that brings us back to Kendricks. When discussing Vick, I noted that it is hard to move on unless you gure out what, exactly, you are moving on to. If Kendricks is for real, then the team can move on from Ryans if he is not as good as his reputation. So as much as I love the idea of potentially having two real, honest-to-God threedown LBs on the eld, I am skeptical about how long it will last.
e secondary is similarly complicated. of a position, this is a pretty ideal situation to Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie is a free agent have. a er the season. He has been erratic throughout Of course, thats a lot to get through before I his NFL career. e Cardinals were willing to deal discuss the elephant in the room: Juan Castillo. him for a reason. Its hard to imagine that hes going to win many Nnamdi Asomugha, however, presents a strategic battles this year against opposing similarly large long-term problem. His contract o ensive coordinators. e most realistic hope seems to be designed to be for him is to not interfere reopened a er the 2012 with what could be a very season. His base salary One has to wonder strong overall set of players. jumps from $11.3 million at makes defense a what, in truth, this year to $15.3 million in striking contrast from the Castillos role 2013. All of the 2012 amount teams o ense. We expect is guaranteed, while only $4 Reid and Mornhinweg to will be. million of the 2013 amount spend all hours coming up is guaranteed. Just like Vicks deal is prime for with the perfect play. We expect them to come up dumping a er 2012, so is Asomughas. with a gameplan a couple of times a year that is Again, evaluating the long-term future of exceptional. With Castillo, on the other hand, I the starters is contingent on evaluating their two have no expectation of that happening. most-likely successors. Curtis Marsh, the 2011 But the Castillo situation is complex. Last third round pick, and Brandon Boykin, the 2012 year, he was really the Back 7 Coordinator to Jim fourth round pick, both have the physical talent Washburns Defensive Line Coordinator. is to start on the outside in the NFLthough year, the team added Todd Bowles to the Boykin may be even better operating in the slot. If coaching sta , a guy who was considered for they show something this season, it would have a defensive coordinator jobs. One has to wonder substantial impact on the Eagles next season. what, in truth, Castillos role will be. At safety, there are several players on their If the Eagles can augment Washburns rookie contracts who need to show that they are expertise with that of Bowles, and can reinvent NFL starters. Maybe they are, maybe they arent. Castillo to merely be the supervisor of the e issue here is short term. Long term comes defensive coaches rather than their leader, it is later. possible that a long-term scheme is in place. e e defensive line situation is the best on alternative, of course, is that the team brings in its the defense. While there are aging DL in Cole, fourth coordinator (and scheme) in six years for Jason Babin, Cullen Jenkins, and Mike Patterson, the 2013 seasonand with him, most likely, a who are signed long term, there are also young new head coach. guys who could grow into their replacements in Fletcher Cox, Vinny Curry, and Brandon Sam Lynch is a contributor to Iggles Blitz on Graham. If you are planning the long term future salary cap and other matters.
Focus:
Why Position Coaches Matter
If youd asked me ve years ago if the identity of the teams defensive line coach mattered, Id have told you no. Despite years of rumors regarding the preferred playing styles of Jim Johnson and Pete Jenkins, we all knew it was Johnsons blitz scheme that really made the di erence. Its not like the Eagles seemed to value the position all that highly either. Why else would they have made failed special teams coordinator Rory Segrest the defensive line coach in 2009 unless they thought hed be able to do less damage there? But then came Jim Washburn. e Giants line gets all the glory something about multiple Super Bowl rings does thatbut the Eagles always have a great pass rush. e team hasnt been out of the top eight in Football Outsiders Adjusted Sack Rate since 2005 that season we dont talk about, and theyre usually somewhere in the top ve. Part of the reason, of course, was the blitzbased schemes of Jim Johnson and Sean McDermott, which either brilliantly exploited weaknesses in other teams pass protections or traded sacks for fundamentally unsound coverage schemes, depending upon which guy was running the show. en Washburn came along, and the Eagles stopped blitzing as much (obviously): Rushers 3 4 5 6+ Snaps 2010 2011 25 3 315 435 125 52 92 55
And then when they did blitz, they were a lot more e ective with it: Rushers 3 4 5 6+ Sack Rate 2010 2011 4.0% 0.0% 6.0% 9.0% 7.2% 11.5% 8.7% 12.7%
Which made quarterbacks uncomfortable: Rushers 3 4 5 6+ Comp % 2010 2011 62.5% 33.3% 59.5% 56.1% 50.0% 43.5% 40.5% 41.7%
But didnt result in interceptions at the historical rate: Rushers 3 4 5 6+ INT Rate 2010 2011 4.2% 0.0% 3.4% 3.3% 6.9% 0.0% 3.6% 4.2%
Mostly because Asante played the whole season looking like a guy who didnt want the ball, because that would involve extra work. Derek Sarley used to write about the Eagles at IgglesBlog, but now he mostly just tweets @IgglesBlog.
Running With Shady

Breaking Down LeSean McCoys Game
By Brian Solomon othing is more clich in todays NFL than the notion that running backs have short careers. But theres no better example of that swi decline and rapid rise than the Eagles running back transition in the 2009 o season. We didnt know it at the time, but the baton had been passed, and it was in good hands. *** Lets take a trip back to the a ermath of the 2008 season. While the big story of the o season had been the acrimonious departure of Brian Dawkins, another Brian was on the mind of many Eagles fans. People wondered how much more Brian Westbrook had le in the tank. For a small guy, Westbrook constituted nearly the entire Eagles o ense during most of the previous ve years. rough seasons where Todd Pinkston, Reggie Brown, L.J. Smith, and Kevin Curtis remained the best receiving options, the diminutive back was the primary, secondary, and tertiary o ensive weapon. In fact, only LaDainian Tomlinson had more yards from scrimmage than Westbrook from 2004 to 2008. Still, there were signs that the inimitable #36 was fading. Despite amassing over 1300 yards in just 14 regular season games, Westbrooks per carry and per catch metrics were both down. More worrisome, he was plagued by injuries and seemed to fade down the stretch. Westbrook
needed 50 carries over the course of three playo games just to reach a total of 119 rushing yards. With the stench wearing o from the teams performance in the NFC Championship Game, there was hope that Westbrook could shake o those pesky injuries and return to his former self for at least another couple of years. But there was also the undercurrent of hope that the Eagles would spend an early dra pick on a running backsomething they hadnt done since since taking Charlie Garner in the second round in 1994. With Westbrook entering his age 30 season, we knew a successor would be needed before too long. e Eagles obliged, selecting LeSean McCoy in the in the second round of the 2009 dra . e University of Pittsburgh product was considered, in many ways, to be the perfect apprentice behind Westbrook. While not as short as Westbrook, McCoy also relied on speed and quickness rather than sheer power to beat defenders. He was considered a natural receiver with great skills in space, the shi iness to make guys miss at the second level. So the 2009 narrative seemed set: Westbrook remains the star, while McCoy learns. At least, until the veterans wheels nally fell o . A er averaging over 250 carries during the last three seasons, Westbrook managed only 61 in 2009. He started just seven games, su ering from
How To Live In A GIants World: Dealing With Yet Another Super Bowl Win
two concussions in the process, and was out the door less than two full years a er signing a veyear, $32 million contract extension. Before anyone expected, McCoy was thrust onto the eld for meaningful minutes. All elements of his play clearly needed more polish, especially his pass blocking, and he failed to register a single game with more than 100 rushing yards (with an assist to run-averse Andy Reid on that one). But Shady showed promise in limited time. A er breaking the Eagles rookie rushing record, he looked like he might be able to hold down the fort in the post-Westbrook era. Still, no one really expected the production jump McCoy experienced in his second season, breaking the 1000 yard rushing mark, averaging 5.2 yards per carry, while also catching 78 passes. He had bulked up from his rst season, and bene tted from that extra time spent in the weight roomas well as the lm room. While he
Photo courtesy LeSean McCoy/Instagram.
was overshadowed by the Michael Vick revelation, McCoy established himself as perhaps the o enses most consistent option in 2010. Of course, that jump pales in comparison to his level-up in 2011, when he entered the conversation for best running back in the NFL, and potentially even better than his mentor Westbrook (gasp). Here are some highlights from McCoys 2011 season: Broke the Eagles single-season rushing record (1309 yards), despite sitting out the nal game. Broke the Eagles single-season touchdowns record (20 TDs), despite being part of a historically bad red zone team. Pro Bowl, Fed Ex Ground Player of the Year Award, and AP All-Pro First Team running back, despite playing for Andy Reid. Oh, and he signed a ve-year contract extension worth $45 million, with $21 million guaranteed. But lets go behind the numbers a little bit to examine where exactly McCoys success is coming fromand where he can still improve. MAKING DEFENDERS MISS: e hallmark of McCoys rushing ability is his tendency to perform Barry Sanders-like changes of direction, juking would-be-tacklers and ying by them down the opposite sideline. e missed tackles alone could ll a highlight reel, and the stats back up his slippery running style. Football Outsiders charts broken tackles, both due to breaking through the arms of a defender and avoiding a defender in position to make the tackle. Even though you wont o en see McCoy do the former, but he excels at the latter.
He placed third in the NFL in total broken tackles in 2010 (10th per touch) and rst overall last year (4th per touch): Broken Tckl 2010 2011 38 50 BT/ Touch 13.3% 15.6%
SHADY RECEIVING NUMBERS: Out of the back eld, McCoy has caught 166 balls over the last three seasonsthird-most among all running backs. Despite all those catches, however, there seems to be room for improvement in the receiving department, especially in comparison to Westbrook, who was a more natural receiver. In fact, he was probably the best wideout the Eagles had for a number of years there. At a basic level, Westbrook averaged 8.9 yards per catch over his entire career. McCoy has only managed 7.3 yards. ats a large di erence, but its hard to tell exactly why McCoy is de cient in that area. One way to get a second-level look at McCoys receiving stats is to look at his receptions by distance. Pro Football Focus tracks passes thrown by direction, including whether those passes were thrown behind or in front of the line of scrimmage. Here is McCoys receiving production by year, delineated by passes thrown behind the line of scrimmage and past it: Year 2009 2009 2010 2010 2011 2011 Distance Behind LOS Past LOS Behind LOS Past LOS Behind LOS Past LOS Tgt 31 19 59 32 47 14 Rec 28 13 54 28 35 13 Yds 231 86 408 205 217 98 YPC 8.3 6.6 7.6 7.3 6.2 7.5
Rank 3rd 1st
Rank 10th 4th
McCoys ability to avoid defenders is spectacular, and its what makes him so dangerous. He breaks a tackle and soon hes o to the races, making big plays commonplace when hes in the game. In 2011, he had 19 rushes of 15 yards or more, according to Pro Football Focus, tied for second-most in the NFL. In this way McCoys become the o enses equivalent of DeSean Jackson. Hes always capable of breaking a game wide open. Unfortunately, that comparison is also apt when it comes to breaking tackles the oldfashioned waywith power. McCoy is great at avoiding contact, but not as special at busting through a defender when necessary. Pro Football Focus measures yards gained a er contact, and by that metric, McCoy is only a middling performer. In 2011, he averaged 2.5 yards a er contact. at places him tied for 15th among the top 30 starting running backs by snap count. Its a rare middle-of-the-pack statistic for Shady. Perhaps it is unfair to expect McCoy to be an above-average back in all areas. And despite his lack of power and his tendency to run away from his blockers, McCoy is still 12th (out of 51 backs with at least 100 rushes) in Football Outsiders success rate statistic that measures consistency. As far as weaknesses go, this is a minor one.
For starters, McCoy has always been targeted more in the back eld. Most of those are swing passes, screen passes, and shovels. However, at least until this year, he was also turning those passes into bigger gains. Note the trend, which may or may not be signi cant, where McCoys screens have become less e ective each season while his receptions on pass routes past the line of scrimmage resulted in bigger gains. at might mean that hes already focusing more on his route-running. But in order to get any context for those numbers, we have to compare them to other running backs. I averaged the 2011 reception gures for ve comparable backs: Darren Sproles, Ray Rice, Chris Johnson, Arian Foster, and Matt Forte. Year 2011 2011 Distance Behind LOS Past LOS Tgt 37 54 Rec 32 39 Yds 214 425 YPC 6.7 10.8
at extra element made Brian Westbrook a multidimensional threat, and McCoy would be wise to follow in his footsteps. *** At the end of the day, its di cult to compare McCoy with the man he replaced. McCoy has only three seasons under his belt, while we can look back fondly on Westbrooks entire nine-year career. Still, so far at least, McCoy is outpacing Westbrook in total production, as measured by Football Outsiders DYAR stat: 600 Total DYAR 450 300 150 0 1 2 3 4 5 Season 6 7 8 Westbrook McCoy
In many ways, these backs had the opposite production of McCoy. Most of their receptions came from routes past the line of scrimmage, not screens and swing passes. ey were also more e ective running those real pass routes than McCoy, averaging 10.8 yards per catch beyond the line of scrimmage. Granted, the reason McCoy runs few wide receiver-type routes is because hes so valuable in the back eldeven as a decoy. But thats true about these other running backs as well. One way McCoy can take his game to an even higher level would be to apply himself this o season to becoming a better route-runner and receiver when put in motion out of the back eld.
Whet her McC oy c an cont inue his excellence, or potentially even improve on that head-start, depends partially on how he approaches his few (admittedly nit-picky) aws, such as ghting for yards a er contact and improving his route-running. If he can confront those de ciencies, not only will Shady blow past Westbrook, hell position himself to become one of the best running backs in recent memory. Brian Solomon blogs about the Eagles at McNabb or Kolb and contributes to NBC Philadelphia.
Focus:
The Dog That Didnt Bark
e NFLs decision to make the All-22 lm available for post-game dissection represents an incredible step forward for fan-level football analysis. No more will a blogger or game charter be able to write the words: Couldnt see what the safeties were doing, not sure who blew coverage. On the other hand, just because we have better camera angles doesnt mean fans will stop making all the same cognitive errors we already do. Well just be able to rush to judgment, overgeneralize from a limited number of plays, and watch only the guy with the ball from a tremendous new camera angle. On the other other hand, at least now when a blogger says he watched the lm, it wont just be an a ected way of saying he has a DVR. If I sound a little grumpy about all this, its because I foresee a (near) future when my beloved statistical analysis faces an even greater struggle for acceptance among regular fans than it does right now. A er all, if we can all watch the lm, whats the point in crunching all those numbers? Ill just watch every player on every playfrom every angle! is will be unfortunate, because there are still things stats can tell us that our eyeballs cant. Like, for example, how the decline of Nnamdi Asomugha may actually have begun in 2010. It turns out horizontal pass distributions are pretty consistent from year to year, league-wide. In a league full of right-handed quarterbacks, teams collectively throw the ball to the le / middle / right about 35% / 24% / 41% of the time, respectively. ( e vertical distributions are similarly consistent.)
Photo courtesy Matthew Straubmuller.
So if you look at a team that varies signi cantly from those percentages, theres a pretty decent chance youre seeing a player e ect, i.e., if you put Asante Samuel across the eld from
a gaping hole at the RCB spot, nobody will be dumb enough to throw at Asante Samuel. Its (sort of) fun to read the recent history of the Eagles cornerbacks in this chart: Defensive Pass Distributions vs. Five-Year League Average Philadelphia Eagles 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 LEFT -15.3% 0.8% 4.2% 16.8% -2.5% MIDDLE 8.5% 2.8% -6.1% -13.9% -2.2% RIGHT 8.2% -2.4% -0.1% -6.2% 3.5%
as much as we werent all that impressed with Nnamdis performance last year, teams still threw at his side of the eld less o en than they did on average against everyone else, even with Asante Samuel playing on the other side and no obvious hole in the middle. But lets look at Nnamdis past body of work for a moment: Defensive Pass Distributions vs. Five-Year League Average Oakland Raiders 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 LEFT -12.9% -26.2% -24.2% -4.9% -0.9%
MIDDLE 0.2% 22.3% 47.1% 9.1% 21.5%
RIGHT 11.0% 9.4% -7.0% -1.2% -11.9%
Let no one ever forget that Howie Roseman the boy genius was the GM who decided we were just peachy with Dimitri Patterson in 2010. Going back a few more years, you can see why Lito Sheppard punched his ticket out of town in 2007. Its worth noting that these are just attempts. eres nothing in this chart that tells us how good the coverage was on all these passes, just that, for example, opposing QBs were 8.2% more likely to throw to Lito Sheppards side of the eld than they were the average LCB. ese are also numbers for all throws to one side of the eld. Some of the variation wed see if we just focused on cornerbacks washes out when youre including all running back screens, etc. is matters a great deal when you start looking at Nnamdis historical data. At his press coverage peak, teams simply didnt throw to his side of the eld within 10 yards of the line of scrimmage. at last chart shows something interesting, by the way, although its been noted by a number of other Eagles commentators this o season. For
e rst three rows of that chart are eyepopping, but then something weird starts to happen in 2010. As Stanford Routt re-established himself as a starter on the other side, teams stopped avoiding Nnamdis side quite as much as they had. He still saw 5% fewer throws to his side of the eld than the average in 2010right-side targets didnt really plummet until a er he le but if you put the rst four rows of that table together with the h row of the other one, it sure doesnt look like the same guy anymore. at said, Im still not sure Id want to be Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie this year. Derek Sarley used to write about the Eagles at IgglesBlog, but now he mostly just tweets @IgglesBlog.
1-2-3, J.B.
One Fans Look Back at the Wild 1992 Season
By Tommy Lawlor remember sitting in a bar in June of 1992 when I got the shocking newsJerome Brown was dead. A buddy and I were out having some beers and trying to gure out how to conquer the world or whatever recent college graduates think about (probably girls, beer, and football). Something came up on the TV about Jerome Brown. It was like a punch to the stomach. JB, as many called him, was gone. He had died in a car accident. at was a staggering blow to me as an Eagles fan. Brown was the man in the middle, literally and guratively. His pressure up the middle allowed Reggie White and Clyde Simmons to wreak havoc o the edges. JB's presence in the locker room allowed a highly diverse group of personalities to get along. It really was ironic that a person could be so disruptive on the eld and so cohesive in the locker room. Eagles fans lost a great player. Brown's teammates, friends, and family lost so much more. Jerome was a special person. Dealing with his death was hard for everyone involved. One thing that provided some sense of relief was the upcoming football season. e great defense was back and ready for business. Randall Cunningham was returning from his knee injury. e Eagles got a huge addition when they signed Herschel Walker. e Eagles might actually be able to run the football like a real NFL team.
I remember killing time at a mall one day (something else recent college graduates did back then). I went to my usual ve or six stores. I happened to stumble on a newsstand. It had a copy of e Football News, the 1992 season preview no less. Who did they pick to go to and win the Super Bowl? e Philadelphia Eagles. Seeing that in print from a national publication made my day. It was a huge sign of respect, not to mention the fact that it validated my lo y expectations for the upcoming season. You have to understand where the Eagles were back then. e team was coming o the really tough 1991 season. 1991 had started o terribly. Injuries to Cunningham and Jim McMahon derailed the o ense and the team was 3-5 at the midway point. McMahon returned and the o ense improved greatly. e team won six in a row and got to 9-5. at led to a late season showdown with Dallas. A playo berth was on the line. Dallas won 25-10 and that killed the season for the Eagles. e defense, a ectionately called Gang Green, nished rst across the board (run, pass, total yards) and was absolutely dominant. e defense had some amazing performances. ere was an 11-sack game against Dallas that resulted in a 24-0 shutout. A Monday night game with the Oilers became known as the House of Pain game. Brown had a great line a er the game: " ey brought the house. We brought the pain." e Oilers used the run 'n shoot o ense and shredded
1-2-3, J.B.: One Fans Look Back at the Wild 1992 Season
defenses on a weekly basis. e Eagles held them to a pair of eld goals and absolutely dominated Warren Moon and his explosive receivers. e feeling at the end of the 1991 season was that the one team nobody wanted to play was the Eagles. ey had missed the playo s, but had nished so hot that the teams in the postseason were lucky to not have to deal with them. ose positive feelings spilled over to the spring and summer of 1992. Gang Green plus Cunningham plus Walker meant the Eagles were stacked on o ense and defense. Losing Brown was a huge blow, but the team still had Mike Golic and Mike Pitts. Combine that with White and Simmons and the addition of Leon Seals and expectations were sky high for Gang Green, even without Brown. A er all, the linebackers were arguably the best in the league and the secondary had three stars in Wes Hopkins, Andre Waters, and Eric Allen. 1992 wasn't just another year. It was going to be special. It had to be special. You have to understand that things were very di erent back then. ere was no unrestricted free agency as we know it today. White and a handful of players led lawsuit against the NFL asking for their
Photo courtesy Delaywaves.
freedom. e players won the case and free agency hit the Eagles immediately. Tight end Keith Jackson was allowed to leave and signed with the Dolphins for the 1992 season. Reggie White was still under contract, but was in the nal year of his deal. No one truly thought White would leave. He was the Eagles, a er all. Still, the fact that it was even possible was scary. I think Brown's death, Jackson's departure, White's uncertain future, and Cunningham's 1991 injury all brought a heightened sense of urgency to the 1992 season. Buddy Ryan started building the Eagles up in the mid-1980s. ere was no more tomorrow. It was time to deliver. Brown's death served as a unifying point. e Eagles had been very unlucky in recent years (the Fog Bowl, Randall's injury, etc.). Now the team was going to go and win the Super Bowl to honor Jerome Brown's memory. He was going to be a good luck charm, helping the team along from his perch in Heaven. At least that is what players and fans allowed themselves to believe. Such is the optimism of players and fans in the summertime leading up to a season. Brown was gone, but certainly not forgotten. e defense broke huddles by yelling out "1-2-3, J.B." e team held a special ceremony for him prior to the kicko of the season opener and his number 99 was retired. A er big plays during the season, Eagles players would point to or salute at fan signs that had Jerome's name or face on them. e theme for 1992 was "Bring it home for Jerome." Whether it was the emotion of playing for Brown's memory or simply the fact that the Eagles were healthy and talented, the team did get o to a fast start. ey were 3-0 when the Cowboys came to town for a big Monday night showdown. Gang Green did a number on Dallas.
Troy Aikman was sacked four times and threw to 10 points and provided a spark. In a semithree interceptions. Emmitt Smith was limited to shocking move, Kotite stuck with McMahon the 67 yards. Herschel Walker ran for 86 yards and a next week against the Raiders. at woke up the pair of touchdowns as the Eagles o ense did their whole team and especially the o ense. part in the convincing 31-7 win. e NFL world Back to the Dallas game. e other huge took notice. e Eagles were the best team in the event was the emergence of Emmitt Smith. He league. had never run for 100 yards on the Eagles (75 was at didn't even last for a week. e Chiefs his high total). In fact, the last running back to do upset the Eagles on the following Sunday. e that against Gang Green was Gerald Riggs in week a er that Andre Waters got injured and the 1989 when he went for 221 yards. at is an team lost to the Redskins. e low point of the amazing streak. e Eagles played sti ing run season came a couple of weeks later when Dallas defense. ey shut down every running back they got revenge and beat the Eagles, 20-10. at was faced. Waters was the one player that Smith the Eagles third loss in four games and dropped admitted being scared of. Waters, still dealing their record to just 5-3. with an injury, wasn't anywhere close to 100 ere were a pair of signi cant events that percent at the rematch and that hurt the defense. happened in the game. Both shi ed the balance of Right tackle Erik Williams dominated Reggie power in the NFC East and put Dallas on the fast White and Smith ran for 163 yards. From that track to ruling the division. First up was the game on, Smith owned the Eagles. e balance of benching of Cunningham, the man that Sports power had shi ed. e NFC East basically Illustrated had dubbed " e belonged to Dallas from that Ultimate Weapon" just a day until the late 1990s. Brown was gone, What a horrible day for couple of years earlier. He went from being the face of but certainly not Eagles fans. Seeing Gang the franchise to standing Gre e n pu she d arou nd, forgotten. The beside Rich Kotite as Jim White getting physically McMahon ran the o ense. manhandled, and Smith defense broke At hal ime of the running wild was the low huddles by yelling point of the whole season. Dallas game, Kotite could no longer ignore the obvious e Eagles did get hot a er out "1-2-3, J.B." Cunningham was struggling. the Dallas debacle. e team e o ense only put up 36 points total in the won six of eight, with the only losses being to three games leading into the Dallas rematch. Brett Favre and Steve Young. Both games were Cunningham wasn't delivering big plays or tight contests where the other team had better moving the chains. He had lost his con dence quarterback play, a theme that has haunted the and the o ense was once again a liability. e Eagles over the years. o ense hadn't scored in the rst half of the Dallas e rest of the season wasn't without drama. game and that was the straw that broke the A er the loss to the Packers, Joyner was not very camel's back. McMahon came in and led the team happy with Kotite. Joyner made his feelings
public and he was borderline mutinous. e following game was against the Giants, a team that was unhappy with their coach (Ray Handley). Players on both teams warned that if things didn't go as hoped, they would take matters into their own hands. e Eagles trailed 20-6 and the season was on the brink when Joyner delivered a huge play. He picked o a pass and ran it back for a touchdown. e o ense contributed a couple of scores and then Vai Sikahema ran back a punt 87 yards for a score. e Eagles ended up winning 47-34 in one of the wildest games of all time. e team ended the regular season on a four-game win streak. e biggest win in that period came in the next-to-last game, when the Eagles beat Washington 17-13 to secure a playo spot. Eric Allen batted down a pass in the end zone to seal the game and then ran up the eld in joyous celebration. at was truly a great moment for that team. e defense played a major role in the hot nish. So did the o ense. Walker, Cunningham, Keith Byars (now at tight end to replace Jackson), Fred Barnett, and Calvin Williams all played well. e o ensive line was a bunch of no-names, but they got the job done. Ron Heller, Mike Schad, David Alexander, Eric Floyd, and Antone Davis never get the recognition they deserve for the success of the 1992 o ense. e Eagles nished h in scoring and second in rushing. e line opened some big holes for Walker, as he became the rst Eagle to rush for more than 1,000 yards since 1985. Another player emerged down the stretch. Running back Heath Sherman had shown ashes in his young career, but he really broke through in 1992. He averaged more than ve yards per carry and 12 yards per reception. e Eagles used the
ace formation a lot with him and it delivered great success. is is when the o ense has one back with two tight ends and two wide receivers. In Sherman's rst three years of action, he had three games with 80 or more yards on the ground. In 1992 he matched that total in a seven-game stretch. He also scored six touchdowns. Sherman and Walker made a very good one-two punch. e Eagles got into the postseason and hit the road to go play the Saints in the Superdome. is was not going to be an easy task, but Eagles nation was riding high. e winning streak, the emergence of Sherman, and the usual good defense meant the Eagles were ready for the playo s. e team was hot at the right time of the year. e mid-season slump seemed like years ago. Add in the fact that Jerome was watching from above and the Eagles truly felt like a team of destiny. e players bought into this notion. e fans did. I sure did. e Saints got o to a hot start. ey led 17-7 at hal ime. I certainly hadn't given up on the Eagles, but I was highly discouraged. Where was the defense? Where was the o ense? e lead grew to 20-7 before the Eagles did wake up. Early in the fourth quarter Cunningham hit Barnett for a 35-yard touchdown to cut the lead to 20-17. e Saints were still winning, but the Eagles had seized control of the game. Was this going to be the team's rst playo win since the Ron Jaworski-Dick Vermeil era? Buddy Ryan had built the Eagles into an NFL anomaly. His team could dominate anyone on a given Sunday, but always found a way to come up short in the postseason. e team had genuine bad luck in the Fog Bowl loss to the Bears. at Eagles team might have won with clear playing conditions. e following two years the Eagles hosted playo games and had healthy,
talented teams, but simply came up short. e two punch in the back eld. Sherman ran for 105 o ense had been the biggest culprit, only scoring yards in the Saints game. He was red hot and one touchdown in the two games combined. ready to go. I was also excited to see Gang Green Cunningham and Gang Green hadn't come get a chance to shutdown Emmitt Smith and wipe through in the postseason before, but now were away the memory of his breakout game. in position to win. Sherman ran for a short Alas, what I wanted and what happened touchdown to give the Eagles a 24-20 lead. ere could not have been more di erent. Dallas was was no let up. White sacked better on o ense, defense, quarterback Bobby Hebert and special teams. ey won for a safety. at made the The beginning of 34-10. e y phy s i c a l ly game 26-20. e Eagles the end for Gang dominated the Eagles. Smith added a eld goal to stretch ran for 114 yards. Reggie did Green. the lead to 29-20. Allen have a sack in his nal game sealed the deal when he as an Eagle, but that was not picked o a pass and ran it back for a touchdown. much of a consolation prize. 36-20. Eagles win. at was the beginning of the end for Gang at wasn't the Super Bowl, but boy did it Green. White and Byars le in free agency. feel like it. A er the late sack, White jumped up Cunningham would never start another playo and used his arms to give the signal for a safety. game for the Eagles. Joyner and Simmons would He was happier than a kid on Christmas leave a er the 1993 season. Allen le a er 1994. morning. at was the highlight of the 1992 Age and injury really caught up with Hopkins and season for me. Reggie was my favorite player (still Waters. 1992 was the nal year for them as the is). Seeing him with that smile on his face as he full time starters in the deep patrol. realized his team was going to win a playo game 1992 was an amazing season for a variety of was really a special moment for me. All the drama reasons. It is one of my all-time favorite Eagles from Kotite, Joyner, Jackson, and Cunningham years. ere were great highs and miserable lows. was wiped away for that one moment. Forget ere was the Joyner-Kotite mutiny angle. ere losing streaks and quarterback controversies. e was the benching of Cunningham. ere was the Eagles were winning a playo game. at was a 4-0 start. Jerome Brown wasn't there on the eld, magical feeling. but he was front and center in the hearts of e talk of the Eagles being a team of players and fans alike. ere was that one magical destiny only heightened a er the comeback win moment with White running around in the Saints over the Saints. Next up was another meeting end zone a er sacking Hebert for the safety. His with Dallas. e Eagles had dominated the rst smile, his joy that made the wild ride of 1992 game, the Cowboys the rematch. What would all worth it for me. happen? at was one of the longest weeks of my life. I thought about that game morning, noon, Tommy Lawlor runs IgglesBlitz.com, covers and night. Dallas had shutdown the o ense in the draft for ScoutsNotebook.com, andwrites a weekly column forPhiladelphiaEagles.com. November, but now the Eagles had the great one2012 Eagles Almanac | 82
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The Definitive Guide to the 2012 Philadelphia Eagles Season

EAGLES ALMANAC 2012

What Happened to Michael Vick?

e Eagles Passing Attack

Fails of the Tape

Focus: 2011 Defensive Snap Charts

e Luxury of Feeling Okay

Focus: 2011 O ensive Snap Charts

e Curious Case of Evan Mathis

Focus: More Eagles Dra Nuggets

Focus: NFC East by the Numbers

Make or Break Season

Focus: Andy Reid by the Numbers

Looking to the Future

Focus: Why Position Coaches Matter

Running With Shady

Letter from the Editor

Letter from the Editor

Until next time,

Brian Solomon June 2012

Meet the Writers

2012 Eagles Almanac | 6

A Special Thank You

2012 Eagles Almanac | 7

What Happened To Michael Vick?

What Happened To Michael Vick? Interceptions, Injuries, and More

Pass Rushers 3 or fewer 4 5 6 7 or more

Comp. % 77.5% 57.8% 64.1% 52.8% 42.9%

Yards per Att 11.8 7.4 8.9 4.9 3.1

2012 Eagles Almanac | 9

What Happened To Michael Vick? Interceptions, Injuries, and More

What Happened To Michael Vick? Interceptions, Injuries, and More

2012 Eagles Almanac | 11

What Happened To Michael Vick? Interceptions, Injuries, and More

What Happened To Michael Vick? Interceptions, Injuries, and More

2012 Eagles Almanac | 13

What Happened To Michael Vick? Interceptions, Injuries, and More

Fails Of The Tape

Fails Of The Tape: Juan Castillos Disastrous Defense

2012 Eagles Almanac | 17

Fails Of The Tape: Juan Castillos Disastrous Defense

Fails Of The Tape: Juan Castillos Disastrous Defense

2012 Eagles Almanac | 19

Fails Of The Tape: Juan Castillos Disastrous Defense

Fails Of The Tape: Juan Castillos Disastrous Defense

Fails Of The Tape: Juan Castillos Disastrous Defense

Fails Of The Tape: Juan Castillos Disastrous Defense

2012 Eagles Almanac | 23

Fails Of The Tape: Juan Castillos Disastrous Defense

2012 Eagles Almanac | 24

150 100 50 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Game 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

Hunt Parker Tapp Laws Landri Cole Patterson Jenkins Babin

320 240 160 80 0 1

Defensive Line Snaps:

The Luxury of Feeling Okay

2012 Eagles Almanac | 26

The Luxury of Feeling Okay: Being an Eagles Fan After Age 30

The Luxury of Feeling Okay: Being an Eagles Fan After Age 30

The Luxury of Feeling Okay: Being an Eagles Fan After Age 30

The Luxury of Feeling Okay: Being an Eagles Fan After Age 30

The Luxury of Feeling Okay: Being an Eagles Fan After Age 30

The Luxury of Feeling Okay: Being an Eagles Fan After Age 30

2012 Eagles Almanac | 32