Finding a pattern in Howie Roseman's drafts, Duce Staley and his future and the latest with Matt McGloin.
Even in the middle of February, there are 10 Random Eagles Observations!
1. Take a long look at this list of Eagles:
Nick Foles
Vinny Curry
Mychal Kendricks
Fletcher Cox
NFL
Bennie Logan
Zach Ertz
Lane Johnson
Marcus Smith
Isaac Seumalo
Carson Wentz
Derek Barnett
Dallas Goedert
Miles Sanders
Andre Dillard
Pretty strong group, right? Obviously Smith was a bust, but the rest range from functional pros like Curry, Seumalo and Logan to budding stars like Goedert and Sanders to Pro Bowlers like Cox, Ertz, Johnson and Wentz. This is a list of every player Howie Roseman has drafted in the first three rounds since 2012 … with the WRs and CBs removed. It’s pretty remarkable. That’s 23 guys and one swing-and-a-miss. Howie’s record drafting corners and receivers is brutal. His record drafting everything else is pretty damn good. Imagine if the Eagles can get that WR / CB thing figured out?
2. For the record, the corners Howie has drafted in the first three rounds during that period are Curtis Marsh, Rasul Douglas and Sidney Jones, and the receivers are Josh Huff, Jordan Matthews and J.J. Arcega-Whiteside. (Eric Rowe and Nelson Agholor from that 2015 draft are the responsibility of Chip Kelly).
3. All that said, the Eagles can’t shy away from drafting what they have to draft in April: Corners and receivers. That has to be the focus. They just have to be better.
4. There’s been a lot of talk the last few days about Duce Staley, people wondering why he would stay with the Eagles as running backs coach when he’s been bypassed for promotions three times now. It’s a valid question. I can’t speak for Duce, and I’m sure we’ll have a chance to talk to him at some point this spring. I don’t know if he’s frustrated or not. But I do know one thing. He loves what he does. He loves coaching Eagles running backs, and he’s not going to quit just because he’s mad about not getting a promotion. From talking to him over the years, he doesn’t think that way. I’m sure he’d love a chance to be an offensive coordinator or college head coach or one day NFL head coach, and he'd be great at it. But he doesn’t think of what he’s doing as some sort of lowly job that he has to get out of. He takes so much pride in the work he does with the Eagles’ backs, and he’s damn good at it. Whether it’s squeezing one more big year out of LaGarrette Blount, getting a remarkable Super Bowl performance out of undrafted rookie Corey Clement, getting a decent year out of undrafted rookie Josh Adams or guiding Miles Sanders to a remarkable rookie season, Staley has that ability to get the most out of the guys he works with. There’s a reason Chip Kelly and Doug Pederson both kept him after he began his coaching career under Andy Reid. If you’re looking for Duce to be disappointed, maybe he is. I wouldn’t blame him. But if you’re looking for him to be anything less than the best running backs coach in the NFL as long as he’s in that role, that’s just not happening.
5. How much has quarterback play evolved in the NFL recently? As of 1990, only four QBs in NFL history had a season in which they threw for 235 yards per game, had a passer rating over 90 and an interception percentage under 2.4 INTs per 100 attempts (Joe Montana twice, Ken O’Brien, Bernie Kosar and Warren Moon). This past year? Those marks — 235 yards, passer rating of 90 and a 2.4 INT average — were the NFL averages.
6. A day doesn’t go by where it doesn’t just hit me how special Miles Sanders is. Some reminders:
—> This past year, Sanders became only the 7th rookie in NFL history with 750 rushing yards, a 4.5 rushing average and 50 receptions. Only one player in NFL history has reached those milestones in his first two seasons, and that’s Sanders college teammate, Saquon Barkley.
—> The only other Eagles to reach those plateaus even once in their entire career are Brian Westbrook three times, LeSean McCoy twice and Timmy Brown once.
—> In the last 50 years, only nine running backs have netted more scrimmage yards in a season on fewer touches.
7. It’s a shame Harold Carmichael and the other Centennial Hall of Famers won’t have the chance to be inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame with the other honorees during the usual summer enshrinement weekend. The Hall still won’t even confirm when the Centennial inductees are going in, but it’s apparently going to be sometime in September, after the regular season has begun instead of during enshrinement weekend with the Class of 2020. Every summer, Hall of Fame Weekend, the weekend before the preseason games begin, is the focus of the football world, and the inductees are treated like Gods in Canton, from the parade through town to the lavish dinner to getting interviewed during the Hall of Fame Game broadcast to the ceremony itself inside Fawcett Stadium. Harold and the other Centennial inductees won’t get to experience any of this. I understand there are logistical issues with so many people going into the Hall, but they could have worked around those. Putting Harold and the other all-time greats into the Hall when nobody is paying attention does them all a grave disservice.
8. Hard to believe this coming season will be the Eagles’ 18th at the Linc. After their 18th season at the Vet, they only had 14 years left there. Somehow I think the Linc will last a little longer.
9. Shocked things aren’t going well in the XFL for Matt McGloin. Never saw that coming.
10. Every time I see that Clowney hit it blows my mind that he wasn’t penalized or fined. What a joke. The NFL can never talk about player safety if they’re going to allow that kind of stuff to happen.
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