Email Chain

looks like this has a chance to be funny:

http://espn.go.com/blog/green-bay-packers/post/_/id/31162/jon-grudens-qb-camp-with-brett-favre-looked-like-1995-vintage-favre

brett favre still has a cannon!

i was thinking about this the other day actually haha and norman is by far the #1 most annoying player for me.  I'm not a fan of annoying loud mouth corners who always try to bring attention to themselves (*cough* Sherman, but at least hes smart and funny where norman is neither) and their game plan is to try to get under the skin of someone rather than try to play them as a man straight up. I couldn't stand him last year on the panthers, and now you add that he is a redskin and I have to listen to him even more making him my least favorite player in awhile.  obd at least backs it up on the field and I don't really mind him other than the fact he plays for the giants.  I like his dance moves and think hes pretty creative there, his head is starting to get pretty big tho so we'll see what happens there but with his talent I think he'll be fine.  norman on the other hand, man how about you do it for more than a season before you think you're the best player in the league which is what he said on the players top 100 which did not surprise me at all. He had one of the best front 7's in the league, is normally playing with the lead and had a great defensive coaching staff that made him look better.  theres not a great history of 1 year all pro cornerbacks switching teams/systems and having the same results with the new team, I hope he gets torched over and over again so I don't have to hear his loud ass all season, as well as their fans.

greeeaat, thanks nick for the great scheduling!! haven't you learned by now you should only schedule a vaca during your teams bye week! SMH

well, that hurts things since I like to schedule the draft after week 3 of the preseason games which is august 25th-28th. braj's wedding is the 26th so I'm assuming he will the busy from the 28th on and maybe even a day or 2 before that.  if your gone from the 30th on that means we have to do it like the 25th or 27th and pray nobody big gets hurt in that week of games.

i'll send out an email early in august and try to lock down a date for everyone, I feel like braj is gonna be the biggest issue tho.  

true, the 29th might be the best day...however, is braj going on his honey moon that week?

nick, does that day potentially work for u?

damn 4 of the top 5 teams in NFL are in the NFC, how you feel about being in the weaker conference again nick?

http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/17319873/nfl-2016-preseason-power-rankings-seattle-seahawks-arizona-cardinals-top-new-england-patriots-behind

they have the eagles at 25th?? I agree they are not going to be a powerhouse this season, but I also doubt they will be one of the worst 5-7 teams in football this season but I guess we'll see...

the afc is better cuz you have a bunch of more average teams??  that's like saying the east in the NBA is better than the west only after you remove the warriors, the spurs, the clippers and the thunder but our 4-8 seeds are better than your 4-8 seeds!  come on man, that makes no sense to say after removing the 4 best teams in the league the AFC is better cuz we you have more .500 teams than you!!!

ehh, when someone asks "who is the better conference" I tend to lean towards where more of the better teams are. In this situation, 4 of the best 5 teams are in one conference.  if the argument was who is the more well balanced division, then yes I would say the AFC is more balanced. 

but as you know, in the nfl only 6 teams make the playoffs, so if 4 of those 6 are the 5 best teams in the league, yea I prolly wouldn't want to have to go through that conference if that was my favorite team.  unfortunately for me, I prolly don't have to worry about that this season as I would be happy with a 9-7 season.  you on the other hand, this should be the year the steelers take advantage of not having to potentially face brady/manning or at least face the pats at home if they don't get off to a great start.

who you more worried about tho, the bengals or ravens?

i know you're joking about the jags but I also know you are serious about them being good and I want to be on record saying I am not buying the hype.  yes they have a lot of young talent that looks good on paper, but I think the talent is still too young.  ramsey, fowler, jack are all basically rookies, and you don't win in the nfl with rookies and 2nd year players.  I'm not buying the blake bortles hype just yet either.  he put up really good fantasy numbers last season which is making people think he is better than he is, but in reality, he put up big passing numbers cuz his team was down by 20 every week and they were playing prevent half the game.  I'm still not a fan of his (yet) and still think the jags are another year or 2 away and maybe even a new coach.  funny how 3 years ago the eagles almost hired gus Bradley but instead went with chip.  love how they get trashed for how bad they are but over the past 3 years:

eagles: 27-21

jags: 12-36

with Andrew luck coming back I still got colts ahead of them and I don't see the jags winning enough to get a wild card either.  this looks like a 7-9 team to me. 

and you're not scared of the ravens?  are you being serious about that because the ravens not only beat the steelers twice last year, they also had an extreme amount of bad luck that is probably not going to happen again.  on top of their what seemed like 10 best players having season ending injuries, they also started the year with 12(!) straight 1 score games going 4-8 in them which probably will not happen again either.  I don't think ravens win the division, but I could see them going for a wild card and def think they are better than the jags.

top 25 players in the league according to espns rankings:

http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/page/2016NFLRank25x1/2016-nflrank-25-1-nfl-best-greatest-players-jj-watt-houston-texans-aaron-rodgers-green-bay-packers

how does everyone feel about their team now that the preseason is basically over? for me, I had very low expectations prior to camp but after watching them destroy the colts in the most important 3rd preseason game I am back in!  just kidding, kinda.  in all seriousness, after last season when the eagles looked like super bowl contenders after their first 3 preseason games with Bradford going 10-10 with 3tds in game 3 I promised myself i would never trust the preseason again and I still wont.  WITH THAT SAID, i am hoping certain things still translate regardless of things being vanilla or not such as a dline dominating which they have done in every game so far.  not that the colts have a great oline or anything, but man luck was hit about 8-10 times in the half he played, and if any team can get consistent pressure that can fix a lot of issues a defense can have, and for us that is weak corners.  

on offense, I still think the lack of a playmaking WR is going to hurt us, but saw far I liked what I saw out of the new (or is it old?) offense and if the oline can give Bradford a clean pocket he has shown he can pick a team apart with the intermediate routes.  that looks to be the key to the teams success, a much improved D with a great dline brining a lot of pressure, strong running game and a lot of intermediate routes with the TEs/backs/ and slot WR's in huff and Matthews.  I think the eagles are going to surprise some people and contend for the division, esp with romo out which can only help us.

great recap, I wish I could add more but i'll be honest, I didn't get a chance to watch much of the other games with my only focus being on the 2016 rookie of the year carson wentz leading the eagles to victory #1 of his promising career.  before I give you some notes on this, lets address the fantasy dig you took at me...

- I never said I was the best team in the league but I do think I have a solid team and while I wish I wasn't down by 38 points with big ben and hyde still left to play you never know.

- I only made fun of your team cuz you drafted like 4 jaguars, but you traded/cut most of them away so I guess you realized I was right all along...

ok, eagles notes...

- I LOVED what I saw from wentz.  let me preference that statement by saying I know it was vs the browns who are probably the worst team in the league but still.  anyway, when you judge a qb you look for certain traits, things like standing tall in the pocket and not looking scared once rushers get close (cough *Bradford*), making a perfect throw when a blitzing LB is coming at him, the accuracies of his deep passes, the ability to make the correct audible at the line, etc.  you gotta remember, this kid barley played all preseason due to the rib injury, and when he was in he didn't play with the starters at all, and on 8 days notice he comes in and plays a great game and almost throws for 300 yards with no turnovers.  very impressive and I'm very excited for the first time in a while the eagles have a young qb to build around.  hopefully as he gets more comfortable with the playbook the offense will open up even more, maybe have some read option looks in there to get the run game going more as well.   

- the eagles d looked great as well but I think that had more to do with how bad rg3 is.  I said this when I watched him in preseason but after watching another full game its the same thing with him, he holds on to the ball too long and his only form of offense is the deep pass.  he completed 2 big ones against us which is the only reason why they got 10 points, but u cant put up consistent drives like that, and if he didn't complete a deep pass they basically went 3 and out.  on top of that he still takes too many big hits and our corner got him on one towards the end of the game and he is already hurt.  he will not last the entire season as the starter and hopefully the browns enjoy watching the guy they passed up on in wentz all season!  

about a week ago after trading away the teams starting qb if you said the eagles would go 7-9 I would have been ok with that but after yesterdays performance I'm thinking playoffs! just kidding, kind of...

for starters, I once again understand the win yesterday was vs the browns, but hey at least it was a convincing W right?  it's not like they snuck out with a last second FG to win, that would have been a concern.  last season eagles didn't have a good win until like week 5, so i'm just happy to look like a professional team again and I'm really trying to contain my excitement but the eagles do have a very favorable schedule to start the season with the bears next week on MNF, then the steelers, a bye, and then lions and skins.  bears and lions are very winnable and the steelers/skins games will be a good tests (esp the skins) to see if they can play with potential playoff teams or if they are still a year or so away.  if eagles lose to the bears and/or lions then I will go back to being happy with a 7-9 season and hope that wentz continues to develop and build for next year, but if they go 3-2 or 4-1 in that first stretch then I will feel like they can compete for a division title.  the defense is there, the oline was great yesterday and if wentz can make plays like he did yesterday and not turn over the ball this team will win its fair share of games. 

very pleased with last nights results.  skins fans are coming back down to reality that they are not true contenders although today they are trying to convince themselves it was one bad game against a better team.  that could be true, but most true contenders don't get smoked at home like that esp when the other team is missing key players.  sure the skins have a shot at the division still but I think best case for them is another 9-7 season and hope they sneak into the playoffs if the division is bad again.  But in reality, this team is never going to do anything serious with cousins as their QB.  they have no running game, apparently cant stop the run, and if you make cousins do everything he's not good enough to consistently win, or even beat good teams in general.  I feel like they are pretty much the same version of last years team, and while I'm not saying the eagles are clearly better than them, I think we can play with them this year and our future is much brighter with a qb that is still going to get better where I don't see that with the skins. 

i feel the same way about wentz.  loved what I saw and am excited for the future, but for this season I want to see how he looks vs an actual NFL defense (and on the road) before I will determine if the eagles have a chance for the division or not.  with that said, i still think its a joke to think the eagles are a bottom 5 team like some people thought due to their defense being much improved from last year which will help them win some games but yeah without a decent qb no team will go far as the rams are seeing now.

no the bears aren't a legitimate threat either, but its like stepping stones for wentz's progress, first he played the worst team in the nfl in the browns, then the test gets slighter harder with a not great but not awful bears team and then (*gulp*) the stillers come to town for the real challenge.  I guess what i am interested to see is if the bears come out and dominate the eagles and wentz looks lost then that will prove hes not ready and maybe last week was just a good performance vs a horrible team and he has a lot of work still.  that will show the eagles have no chance this season and this season will basically be a growing period for wentz improvements.  but if wentz does play well and the eagles do win, then it shows the eagles have a chance against these lesser teams and then who knows what will happen down the line.