JARMON TALK
The Eagles had Kentucky DE Jeremy Jarmon in for a visit. I watched tape of him and posted some notes:
http://www.scoutsnotebook.com
Would he make sense for the Eagles? Very possible. Jarmon played LDE at UK. He would come here to help the rotation at LDE. Jarmon goes about 6'3, 275. That's the kind of size the Eagles like in a LDE, if not a bit bigger. Juqua Parker is more like 6'2, 250. The thought of adding a younger, bigger player would be of serious interest. Unfortunately Jarmon isn't a great pass rusher or athlete.
If the Eagles decide to spend a pick on him, they would have to deal Parker. There are already 5 DEs set (Cole, Howard, Smith, Abiamiri, and Clemons). You can carry 6, but not 7.
I know the Eagles wanted to add a LDE to the mix. Jarmon could be had at a good price. Josh Gaines was signed as a UDFA, but has little shot to make the team and isn't even likely to make the Practice Squad. Jarmon would be a legit roster prospect and near lock for the PS (assuming he played up to his ability). I think the Eagles would value Jarmon as a 5th or 6th. I don't see him being a target for us before that.
Some people will see that Jarmon is visiting Philly as a sign the team likes him a lot. Not so. Eagles scouts normally gather info on players all Fall long. The coaches meet prospects at the Senior Bowl, Combine, and/or Pro Days. Jarmon won't be able to go through that process. The Eagles brought him in for a close look to see if in fact they are interested. We'll see if they are.
INTERESTING STAT
Chris McPherson caught my eye with this fact in a recent blurb. The Eagles only had 3 sacks in the postseason. The defense had some good moments, but that stat is one reason I'm so interested to see how Abiamiri plays this summer. We've got to have a more consistent pass rush. LDE must be more productive. The starting DTs also need to get more pressure this year.
GOOD ARTICLE
There was a good article in the Daily News recently about the relationship between Joe Banner and Andy Reid. People for years have been speculating that they don't get along when that just isn't the case. Do they agree 100% of the time? No. No two executives agree all the time. Reid is on board with Banner's ideas of how to do things financially. Banner is on board with Reid's idea of how a team should be built. They both believe in building through the draft and keeping plenty of youth on the team.
Here's the link:
Reid / Banner
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6 comments:
I can't believe Samuel missed practice. I didn't read indepth but the quick blurb I read of AR's and it sounded like he wasn't happy about it. With all of this BS talk of being a leader - something I dont think professional athletes need because if they can't motivate themselves they would have never made it to this level - I was hoping Samuel would have stepped up. But skipping practice is definitely a no-no. I am also saddened that Ikewounda didn't step in in his and Brown's place. So it looks like Iguana is 5th or worse at this point.
I believe that the three sacks in the postseason stat reflects the fact that while the Eagles defense may be good it is not truly elite.
Statistically, I believe, the Eagles had the third best defense in the NFL last year. However, in my view, the Eagles defense wasn't much like that of Pittsburgh or Baltimore or even the Vikings. Those teams are disruptive on almost every play and leave you feeling like your hanging on by a thread. Those teams have a push from the defensive line that makes tackles behind the line and fumbles a threat on running plays, and deep penetration threatening sacks, blocked passes and forcing interceptions and fumbles on passing plays.
The Eagles get a lot of sacks but I would like to see the stats as to how many were on obvious passing downs and how many were on blitzes. Do you have a breakdown of that? In my view in order for the defense to enter the upper echelon it needs to be more consistently disruptive and generate sacks regularly without blitzing. When the Eagles do blitz the other teams should be really worried. As it was last year good teams could successfully finesse the Eagles blitz because they knew the Eagles had to blitz to get pressure on the QB.
I've been saying that for a while Izzy, we have a good defense but Trent Cole can't be the only guy on the front 4 getting a consistent pass rush. We saw last year that he's not the kind of player that can constantly battle double teams and still get pressure, he's just not that big, quick or powerful. Against single blocking he can make plays because he's explosive and has a tremendous motor, but he's not a James Harrison or Jared Allen type guy that is gonna get theirs even if you give help to that side all the time.
To help alleviate that and get Trent more sacks, you have to have a threat on the other side. Juqua Parker has been tremendous for us off the bench, but he just doesn't seem to make the same plays as a starter.
I'm looking to VA to be that guy who can provide 8-10 sacks off the other side and get some pressure. He's not a quickness kind of guy, he's more of a stout strong guy, but guys like that can be effective too. Strahan was never a dwight freeney kind of guy who used his speed to get around the edge, but he did all right over at the LDE spot pressuring the passer.
Im not saying VA is like strahan or going to be like strahan, but I hope that he fits somewhere in that kind of powerful yet still effective at rushing the passer mold.
His rookie year when he got on the field late in the season I remember watching him and he got tremendous push, he drove the OT back almost into the quarterback a couple of times, so I know he's got the strength to cause problems. Hopefully he can learn to incorporate a few more finesse type moves to go along with the strength to get there rather than almost get there.
I have to wonder about our DT's lack of sacks and I think about Mike Patterson, he had more sacks earlier in his career than lately, I wonder if its because we switched to more 2 gap type stuff rather than the 1 gap penetrating type stuff we had been using. It seems like Bunkley at least is ideally suited to more 2 gap stuff where he can use his raw power to collapse the pocket. I'd like to see more of that this year, cuz you know Bunk's got some serious strength and can really manhandle guys at times. Watching him use Ohara to tackle Jacobs on that 4th down run was a thing of beauty.
Also I agree Izzy about the blitzing situations, it seemed to me last year we almost never got any pressure at all only rushing 4, it felt to me like we had to blitz to get any pressure. I think Jim Johnson eventually wasn't blitzing out of desire to be a mad scientist or anything like that, but because he had to if we weren't going to give QB's a clean pocket for 4 seconds.
Stephen I agree with many points that you make.
Parker is able to make plays but wears down as the year goes on so he seems best suited to be a backup. VA was supposed to be the man last year but got injured so we still don't really know about him even if we are optimistic. If we could get more consistent pressure from that side we could make teams pay for doubling Cole.
The Eagles definitely need more push from the DT position to get that inside pressure that can be devastating to an offense. I guess Bunkley is the one you would most likely expect to improve in that regard but I think there is opportunity for Patterson as well. If those guys improve their pass rush then the zone blitz would become more effective as well and the Eagles wouldn't have to compromise their coverage too much.
If its fair to conclude that those guys have mastered run defense then the next thing to concentrate on is the pass. With the defensive backs and linebackers the Eagles have, even a modest improvement from the interior linemen should result in more turnovers. I am cautiously optimistic.
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