Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Darryl Tapp is an Eagle

***

Chris Clemons + 4th round pick for DE Darryl Tapp

This trade caught me completely off guard.  I hadn't heard a word about this.  There is a lot of stuff to talk about so let's get to it. 

Good move.  This is a weird offseason.  You have to be aggressive and creative to find players this year.  Tapp is a solid DE.  This isn't a high impact move that thrusts us to the top of the NFC or anything like that.  It does make us a better team. 

Tapp is now the likely frontrunner at LDE.  We still have Juqua Parker there.  Both guys have started and had success in the league.  Tapp is younger, bigger, and more talented.  He should be the starter.  Parker is best when he's able to come off the bench.  Think of it this way.  Tapp is a better starter than we had in 2009.  Improvement.  Parker is a better backup than we had in '09.  Improvement. 

Clemons was not a lock to make the team in 2010.  Really, this deal is a 4th round pick for Tapp.  While this draft is talented and deep, the DE class isn't great.  Tapp is far and away better than any prospect who would have been available in the 4th round. 

By acquiring him, we can now focus on the back seven with our early picks.  That is good news.   We need help at CB, S, and LB.  We can now focus our resources on those positions, if the right players are available.  We don't have to reach for a LDE. 

Tapp has been up and down in his young career.  Here are the numbers:

2006 - 16 Gms, 0 Starts, 22 solo tkls, 3.0 sacks, 2 TFLs, 1 FFs, 1 PD, 1 INT
2007 - 16 Gms, 16 Starts, 41 solo tkls, 7.0 sacks, 5 TFLs, 3 FFs, 8 PDs, 1 INT
2008 - 16 Gms, 11 Starts, 46 solo tkls, 5.5 sacks, 3 TFLs, 4 FFs
2009 - 16 Gms, 5 Starts, 40 solo tkls, 2.5 sacks, 7 TFLs, 3 PDs



Darryl has played LDE and RDE in his career.  Most of his time was spent on the right side.  He was a full time starter in 2007 and posted really good numbers.  Injuries slowed him a bit after that and he also lost time with the arrival of Lawrence Jackson.  The reason the Seahawks dealt him is that he wasn't a great fit for what Pete Carroll wanted to do in the next few years.  Tapp was not a guy anyone was looking to get rid of because of his ability or attitude.   The vibe out of Seattle is that he'll do well with the Eagles. 

I am going to watch some tape of Darryl so I can post some notes on his play in the last few years.  For now I'll leave you with the notes I had on him coming out of college. 

Notes on Darryl Tapp

Goes about 6'1, 256. Very good college player, but is not a naturally gifted athlete. Gives terrific effort. Relentless. Thick-ish build. Good swim move. Spin move. Quick off the ball. Good inside move. Plays with good leverage. Makes his share of plays vs the run. Lines up at a really wide angle. Can shed blocks. Seems to make a lot of tackles. Gets the most out of his ability and works as hard as any player in CFB. A lot of people want to compare him to Dwight Freeney because of similar size, but that is a bogus comparison. Dwight was an explosive athlete who wowed the scouts and coaches at his Pro Day. I don't see Tapp being anywhere near that level of athlete. Effort is great, but the lack of explosive ability is a concern.

Tapp at NFL.com
__

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Tommy-

Your writeup makes him out to be similar to Brandon Graham. What do you think of that comparison/how they stacked up as prospects?

Seahawks fans seem to be doing some whining worthy of Eagles fans over this guy. Not sure if it's because he's actually very good, or for lack of other players for them to be enthusiastic about

Cliff said...

The thing to remember here is that this trade gives us a proven veteran who also happens to be fairly young and has "un-Tapp'd" potential.

Some fans will look at his numbers from last year and scoff at "proven veteran," however, the likelihood of Tapp giving us much more impact than a rookie this season is very high. Rookies are unknowns.

We made two really good moves yesterday. Both were upgrades. Were they as significant as adding Julius Peppers? No, but we got better nonetheless.