Email Chain

ya will hill had that crazy twitter it was great:

http://deadspin.com/5743250/will-hill-would-like-everyone-to-know-he-does-not-go-harder-than-a-russian-****-in-airports-etc

i cant imagine the parties they threw. pouncey twins as bouncers kicking out the nerdy kids, cooper as the DJ playing only kenny chesney, jenkins and spikes hotboxing the garage, rainey running around threating all the women with a good time, people staying faaaar away from hernandez to make sure they dont spill his drinks, jordan reed at the school nurse with some kind of injury, gilbert looking lost as usual...

and tim tebow in his dorm room praying and studying his playbook.

please read this article if you want to understand how hard it is to stop the eagles offense.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2091113-chip-kellys-offense-presents-biggest-challenge-to-nfl-defensive-coordinators

gimmick offense SMH, try hardest offense in the NFL to stop.  anyone who thinks defenses will "figure out" chips offense simply because there is now an off season and film on it is an idiot.  comparing the skins downfall or the fact the 49ers stopped running the read option as much and comparing that to what the eagles actually do and run shows me certain ppl (mainly skins fans) have no idea whats they are talking about.

does it matter? is richard sherman worth 50mil guaranteed (or whatever he got) or does him playing in seattles cover 3 along with earl thomas and chancelor make him look better than he is?  whatever the answer is, it doesn't matter because that's the system they play in.

if foles gets over 100 mil in his next contract it means he either just won the super bowl or came damn close.  so either way i'll take it!

6ixty wrote:

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because you keep saying chip kelly doesnt run a "gimmick" offense, but if the QB (the most important position on the field) cant be considered a top QB when they are scoring the most points in the league Id say thats the definition of a gimmick offense

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SMH.  ok you baited me into a rant time, luckily for me i have a ton of free time on my hands.  

1st of all, foles only just finished his 2nd year, if he has another dominate year, you don't think people are going to consider him a top 10 qb?  also, there's no proof (yet) that any qb can be successful in this offense.  vick put up decent numbers but was 1-3 before he was injured and barkley put up 3 points as i mentioned earlier which diminishes your main point of why this is a gimmick.  regardless, just because an offense makes one position seem very successful no matter who does it, that doesn't make it a gimmick. when the broncos back with mike shannahan had a 1,000 yard rusher every year drafting 6th rounders does that mean he ran a gimmick offense because he had a system that allowed a certain type of RB to be very successful? i guess those back to back super bowl teams had gimmick offenses cuz terrell davis wasn't a high draft pick.

the main thing that frustrates me when you say **** like this is because i actually think you know football, but yet you don't understand what the work "gimmick" means.  gimmick means a team only does one thing, such as when the dolphins ran the wild cat over and over again, that is a gimmick.  gimmicks also come to an end, which then teams don't run anymore, so by you calling the eagles offense a gimmick means you think teams are going to figure them out after a season of watching film (something i've heard many skins fans say) and then the eagles are going to have to go back to a traditional west coast offense or whatever else teams run.  that is not happening and here is why:  

what the eagles run is considered an "offense."  in fact, they run a spread offense with a lot of west coast principles (as explained in the previous article you probably didn't read) and while you might consider this a "gimmick" most teams call it a "hurry up offense." The goal is to run a play and get back to the line of scrimmage as quickly as possible to then try to run the next play as fast as possible without allowing the defense to line up.  the goal of them not being lined up properly is not to try to draw a cheap offside (which would be a gimmick) but more so to 1. tire them out and 2. to confuse them and not allow defenses the time to dissect their play formation and give them a hint to what play they might run next. the less time they have to call their play or figure out yours the better chances you have of gaining yards. successful teams such as the broncos and patriots try to do this as well, in fact there was even an article a year or 2 ago about how tom brady just calls 1 word out and every player knows what play it is which is something similar to what chip has done for years.    

the article also explained how the eagles run multiple versions of "packaged plays" which means there is more than one option on each play depending on how the defense reacts.  so for example, the eagles could run a read sweep option with a bubble screen going the opposite way so if the linebacker crashes to mccoy on the sweep, foles can pull the ball and throw it to the wr screen where the offense has a 3 x 2 advantage.  if this is what you consider an offense that consistently is able to find the weak side of the defense a "gimmick" then i guess you are right and teams will be able to figure out the eagles offense after this year and we're in trouble.  guess we will have our answer next year, and if the eagles are in the top 5 in scoring again we will know who was right.

for the steelers its all about the new guys...

safety -- how will the steelers prize of free agency mike mitchell take over for ryan clark. mitchell runs a sub 4.4, I think clark runs about a 6.4 these days so the speed is a (needed) upgrade. clark could lay the wood but mitchell is known for his hits as well. mitchell topped clark in sacks, ints, pass breakups and tackles last season. hes def an upgrade as a player, but clark was smart, knew the defense, and most importantly knew exactly where Polamalu would be at all times.

DE -- stephon tuitt was considered by some as a first rounder who fell to the second. hopefully he can step in across from wreck it heyward and the DE position will be an upgrade over ziggy hood from last year. Cam thomas was brought in from SD as well.

NT -- mcclendon is entrenched but how much can 6'7 350 lb danny mccullers get in there and push people around?

ILB -- shazier has gotten some glowing reports from football in shorts. he was even covering AB one OTA. the steelers are mad deep at ILB right now with timmons, shazier, last years starter vince williams and FINALLY healthy 3rd round pick who never played a snap his first 2 years after a devistating injury, sean spence. im excited how this will play out. athur moats will be both inside and out.

OLD -- worilds exploded last season and jarvis got better as the season went on. these guys could be a problem for opposing QBs

steelers defense has 3 player on the entire defensive roster over the age of 28. no longer are they old or slow!

on offense the RB position is greatly improved. Le'Backfield -- Le'Veon Bell and LeGarette Blount to go along with the fastest man in the draft Dri Archer soundd much better than an injured Bell, issaac redman, jon dwyer and felix jones

WR -- from an outsiders perspective the WR position looks thin but when you get into it it could be a strength. last years injured 3rd rounder markus wheaton is back on a tear, lance moore is equivelant to cotchery, this years 4th rounder martaveus bryant is going to be a beast, DHB may get bounced in favor of the steelers secret weapon, the other Brown -- second year man justin brown. most are unproven but if they live up to their potential AB - Wheaton - Bryant - Brown with Archer coming out of the backfield can be a good YOUNG WR corps.

heath millers coming back from injury and should be better this year. the oline will (better) be significantly better under munchuck who may be this seasons best FA pickup.

im suuuuper pumped about this steelers team. they have gotten better in almost all areas from last year.

78 days until kickoff!!!!

10. Charles
9. AP
8. Quinn
7. Sherman
6. Watt
5. Megatron
4. Brees
3. Rodgers
2. Brady
1. Manning

My wayyyy too fast top 10. personally i think if QBs are good enough to be top 10 (rodgers got screwed) then they should be in the top 5. my only one i even question is quinn over earl thomas or robert mathis. i dont see AJ green as a top 10 player, i dont see TE as a top 10 position (graham) and i cant believe 3 RBs were in the top 10 in todays NFL.

very good top 10, hard to disagree too much.  like I said last night, the players 100 has no voting criteria at all.  some players think its who had the best season in 2013 (even though its called top 100 players of 2014) while others think its more of a who would you want going into next year.  with that said, if I had to vote on my top 10 here is what I would do:

note: my voting critera is like madden.  who would be the highest ranked player in my mind and any tie would be broken based off importance of position (ex: qb > wr).  here we go:

10. Richard Sherman

9. Patrick Peterson

8. Joe Thomas

7. AP

6. Quinn

5. Brady

4. JJ Watt

3. Calvin Johnson

2. A. Rodgers

1. Manning

*Note #2.  all these guys would be a 95 or 96 in Fish Madden 2014 so some really good players are left out of this left such as Drew Breese, Shady McCoy, Nick Foles etc.

Now if we were doing a top 10 based off of importance the top 5 would be all QB's but that would be no fun

woooooo ur boy made the clayton mailbag for the second time!!

Q: Wouldn't an easy and effective solution to the tight end/wide receiver situation be to set aside a smaller set of jersey numbers for TEs? That will force them to decide before a season -- or really, a career -- whether they are a TE or WR. Then, when someone such as Jimmy Graham, who would be forced to wear, say, a number between 76-82 is assigned a franchise tag, it would be assigned to the number, not the player. This could also work for offensive tackles versus guards. Just divide the numbers allowed for O-linemen further into position brackets.

Nick in Washington, D.C.

A: This isn't a number issue. It's a collective bargaining issue. The players association would have to work out a deal with the NFL on reclassifying the tight end position. The Graham grievance brought up a valid point. The receivers who work the outside make the big bucks. The slot guys make less. If a tight end is in the slot, what does that mean? Halfbacks also line up in the slot. If the union and the owners can agree on a solution, they could make the uniform numbers work.

Just call me the commish, im out here getting **** DONE

you can nitpick almost any teams schedule.  if you wanna do that for the wins how about you (pft commenter) mention 5 of their 6 losses came with Vick/Barkley as the starter or Foles being hurt.  bottom line, they finished the season 7-1 and then lost in the playoffs to the saints on a last second FG, I think that's pretty good no matter how you cut it. 

this year the schedule is much tougher, facing the NFC West and then having a 1st place schedule.  Luckily all of the NFC east faces the West so we all are going to have some tough games, hopefully we can split in the west and do work in division and come out as nfc east champs again and hope to get some favorable matchups in the playoffs. 

eagles should be improved this year.  I know everyone wants to hope desean Jackson is this major loss but with maclin back and sproles in, it really isn't.  plus this is not only year 2 in chip kellys offense it is also year 2 in the 3-4 for the defense which should make some big improvements.  I don't know of too many systems where year 1 was successful and then year 2 went downhill.  most of the eagles main guys on defense are probably dudes you never heard of, but they are all home grown players such as cox, boykins, kendricks, curry all going into year 3 which hopefully will be big improvements for all of them.  this isn't the same 32nd ranked d as the past few years and with this offense coming back eagles should be one of the better teams in the NFC this year.

pretty good.  it's not madden season so this might be hard for me plus giants just signed half their team in FA this offseason so ill give it a shot:

JPP

Mathius Kiwa something

Antrel Rolle

DRC

Thurman

Prince

Mark Herlizck

Mike Patterson

Cullen Jenkins

I probably misspelled most of their names but not bad!

beason and stevie brown, should knew those 2.

whats the deal with beason, didn't he get hurt during OTAs?  I'm guessing nothing serious?