Email Chain

its a good question about henry, I guess it's because bigger backs with average speed do not have a good track record in the NFL, and on top of that all these bama RB's who won Heismans and look like the next best great thing then they come to the NFL and for the most part become busts.  I guess playing in bama's system and behind a great oline can make any big time back look better than he is, and then once they get into the NFL if the line isn't that great and they don't have the elite level speed/quickness you need in the NFL they just become average backs.

with that said, if henry goes to the right team (say dallas *gulp*) I could see him being a good player for a few years.  I obviously like Elliott better because he has the traits an nfl rb needs (speed/quickness/can catch) but henry can def help out a team and be a good mid level draft pick.

I'm almost 100% sure everyone in the NFL knows who the rams are drafting (goff) they just don't want to announce it because they don't need to.  the draft is still 8 days away, why announce it now?  even though the % of something happening is probably 1% or less, but what if one of them gets hurt/injured in the next 8 days?  there's no need to announce anything now

as for the eagles, I hope they stay put at 8, keep their picks, and then draft an impact player (Elliott or if a guy on D falls out of the top 5) but as I said before, if the coaching staff/gm thinks wentz is a franchise qb is hard to argue with them wanting to make this move.  yes they paid a lot for Bradford/chase during FA, but both only really are on a 1-2 year deal, so again, if wentz is a potential 10-15 year starter then paying Bradford a lot for 1 year shouldn't stop them.  me personally, I think Bradford can be good with weapons around him (which is why I want Elliott) and risking all these draft picks would really F up the franchise for the next 3-4 years if they're wrong about wentz which has me worried, but I haven't seen this guy enough to be confident one way or another.  at the same time, I doubt eagles will have a shot at the #2 pick again (last time was in 1999 with mcnabb) cuz even when the eagles are bad, they are still normally 6-10 or 7-9 so I guess with the 8th pick and the browns willing to trade, the best time to act could be now.

the whole chargers report doesn't make sense to me either.  there's no way the eagles trade multiple high round picks for a corner back, but if they don't get #2 does that mean they think the browns are passing on wentz and sticking with RG3?  talk about a risky move there....

my overall review of the trade (sent this in an email to my boy at work):

It’s risky, that’s for sure.  I like the idea about going for it and trading up when a team identifies a qb as a potential franchise qb, because who knows when the eagles will have a shot at the #2 pick again (this team isn't going 3-13 next year).  Sure giving up the picks look like a lot on paper, but if he turns out to be a franchise qb then no1 will care, and these picks are spread out over a 3 year period.  So bottom line, if he becomes the player the eagles coaches/gm expect him to be then I’ll love it and we have our next mcnabb, but if he cant handle the pressure of going from NDS to philly and is a bust then this sets our team back 3-4 years and Howie better pay for it with his job.  Too early to tell obviously so stay tuned.

well first of all, Howie said they are good with either qb.  i don't 100% believe that, but what I believe to be 99.9% true is that the rams are taking goff. u don't think the rams and the eagles GM's talk to each other before making this trade?  these GM's have good relationships with each other and I'm pretty confident one wouldn't intentionally screw over another one for no reason and ruin their relationship for future trades, doesn't make business sense to do that.  the rams have nothing to gain by not telling the eagles who they're going with. todd mcshay said last night "it is the worst kept secret in the NFL the rams are going with goff." SalPal said on the radio yesterday he was "100% sure eagles were getting wentz" and guys in the media don't go out on the limb like that unless they are sure, so yeah I'd say wentz to the eagles is about as big of a lock as possible a week before the draft. on top of that, both wentz and goff have the same agent, I'm pretty sure he know which team is leaning which way as well...

with that said, I hit the film room last night, aka youtube, and I LOVED what I saw from wentz and see what the hype is about.  the kid is big (6'5 230ish), has a strong arm ("can make every throw" was a good theme I heard throughout the videos), he is fast (had a top 3 40 for all QB's at the combine) and is smart (got straight A's in school), I'm SOLD.  let the kid sit for a year behind Bradford while he adjust to the NFL and coach him up (eagles head coach, OC and QB coach all were QB's in the NFL) and by year 2 he should be ready to go.  I also like what I'm reading from mike mayock about his potential, and this was when he thought the RAMS were trading up to get him:

"There is no doubt in my mind, if you make a move like this, you make the move anticipating a quarterback that can become Andrew Luck, Tom Brady, Peyton Manning," Mayock said Thursday on NFL Network. "You don't make the trade unless you think he can be one of those guys, and Carson Wentz has the upside to be one of those guys."

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next Friday!

only thing that worries me is the fact he played D1AA his whole career and he only looks this good cuz he was on the best team in the country vs lesser comp and then can't adjust to the speed of the NFL.  hard to tell, but flacco and romo both made the transition from D1AA to NFL starter pretty well so it's not like their isn't some kinda track record where guys with similar background have had success.  and this guy won titles there where romo/flacco did not. also, I read he played real well in the senior bowl, so hopefully that will show he can play at the same level as all them. obv drafting a qb even as high as #2 is still 50/50 at best, so it's going to come down to coaching and how well he studies film but best case scenario in year 2-3 of his career hopefully eagles will have their franchise qb while romo would be 38, eli would be 37 and who knows what's going to happen with cousins.  worse case is he sucks and the eagles wasted 3-4 years and lost a lot of potentially good draft picks and then Howie gets fired and we're starting all over again in 2020 haha.

what a night!  started out rough for me and was def not as enjoyable as years past (since I couldn't text my back since I was on tape delay), but overall I enjoyed it.  here were some high lights:

- I had a friggin rehearsal dinner on a Thursday starting at 730, I was obviously not happy to be there but I sucked it up since allie went to 4 of my weddings last year with me.  I look at this night as me trading down from a high draft pick for many future high round picks down the line which allie will now owe me.  anyway, I tapped the draft and turned off my phone so that held the suspense for me, but it sucked that I couldn't text back and forth with my boys throughout the draft.  the dinner also wasn't very good and it was pretty boring.  stayed there for 90 minutes and the second she said I was allowed to go I booked it out of there.  now some real notes:

- wow what a surprise goff went 1st overall, who saw that coming?  oh wait, anyone who follows the draft closely knew the day the eagles traded to #2 that they knew rams were going goff.  the past few weeks Howie has been saying he would have been happy with either QB but after hearing their after the draft press conference it is clear to me they looked at wentz as their #1 player and I don't think they would have made the jump up to #2 for goff.  hopefully it pans out, because they gave up a lot to get it, so fingers crossed that we finally have our next franchise qb!

- Elliot at #4?  looks like all the debate we had for philly at 8 never was going to come close to happen.  As an eagles fan, I hate this move.  With their oline and his skill set he has a chance to be a really good and impactful player for a few years.  My only hope is that they wasted a top 4 pick on a RB which they could have gotten later in the draft, but we’ll see.

- ravens went Stanley at 6? That was a bit of a surprise, nick you had to of been happy with that.

- chip kelly and the 49ers going with an Oregon player is about as predictable as they come, but trading UP for a GUARD??  He didn’t draft a linemen the past 2 season and he started 2 undrafted FA guards last season and now they’re trading up to get one?  Shows he had no idea what he was doing last season as GM.

- man sucks to be the giants.  they went from wanting 2 guys and both of them looked like they were available (esp Conklin) and BOTH the titans and bears traded up ahead of them to get those guys haha.  apple was the most surprising pick of the draft for me, are they planning on getting rid of DRC soon because where is this kid going to play?  Throw in the fact of the maturity issues we talked about yesterday and this was another risky top 10 pick after flowers last year.

- speaking of risky picks how about tunsil’s night?  If 5 years ago you told me minutes before a draft in the future there was going to be a picture released of a top 5 prospect smoking weed with a gas mask on I would have said that an episode of “play makers” couldn’t even think of that, but here we go!  Throw in the fact his IG account was hacked and now there are rumors his step dad is the one behind this all, jesus!  How F*** up is this family and I don’t blame teams for wanting to stay away from this.  On the other hand, the dolphins might have gotten the #1 player on the board at 13…

- jets getting darron lee was surprising for me after watching his highlight package.  Dude looks like a free safety out there and not a WILL LB.  reminds me of what I I said about vic beasly last year, he’s gonna need to put on some weight and hope it doesn’t reduce his speed. 

- skins going WR?? I’m sure desean/garcon are going to open him with welcoming arms considering they’re both on the last year of their deals and here comes their replacement haha.

- Treadwell, the 3^rd WR taken that was surprising.  And what a weak draft for skill players in the 1^st round.  1 RB and 3 WRs/TE’s??

- who the hell is artie burns again?  Sorry nick, every grade recap I’m seeing says this was the worst pick of the 1^st round

- Denver going with Paxton lynch?  Sounds like a big risk to me, hopefully theyre ready for a lot of sanchize INTS’s this season!

- nkemdiche to the cards.  What a good situation (hopefully for him).  There was a report they want him to stop hanging out with his brother haha.  good luck telling him to not hang out with his bro any more…

- man sucks for myles jack.  Looking like a top 5 pick pretty much all the way until yesterday and now every team passed on him.  Guess his knee is in MUCH worse shape than anyone thought.  Someone might get an absolutle steal in round 2 tho, along with the bama dlinemen, I’m surprised they didn’t go in the 1^st as well.