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02-07-2007, 01:41 PM
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#101 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: East Lothian, Scotland
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NFC Championship Game
The Green Bay Packers come into this game following a closely-fought 30-27 win over the #2-seeded Seattle Seahawks, and will be a very tough opponent. They have one of the strongest offences in the league, led by QB Moe Regalia (4046 passing yards, 96.1 QB rating), ably supported by RB Upshaw (1204 rushing yards, 48 catches) and WRs Sheldon (1074 yards) and Pollard (1031 yards). Their defence is not the strongest, however, ranking only 18th in yardage given up - the offence, 2nd in the league in points scored, more than makes up for this, though. While the Eagles are in relatively good shape entering this game, the Packers have been slightly harder hit by injuries, with a few starters unable to play due to injury. It's a relatively warm day at Lambeau Field, with the sunny weather likely to give a high temperature of slightly above freezing for the game. The Eagles came out flat, and had to punt on their first possession - the Packers, on the other hand, didn't, and drove the ball rapidly down the field, Regalia hitting Sheldon with a 30-yard TD pass for the opening score of the game. Things got worse for Philadelphia - after going three and out on their second possession, the Eagles defence was unable to stop the Green Bay offence putting together another touchdown drive, this time finished off with RB Upshaw's 2-yard TD dive. 14-0 Packers, and we weren't even at the end of the first quarter - not a good start... The Philadelphia offence showed some signs of life on their next possession, managing to pick up two first downs, but the Packers forced a stop near midfield. P Howard got away a perfect punt, however, putting the ball out of bounds at the Green Bay 1. While the Packers were able to get out of their own end, a big hit forced a fumble, which backup LB Sylvester recovered at the Packer 24. The offence took advantage of the good field position, with FB Vaughn leading the way on RB Walsh's 4-yard TD run - the Eagles back in it at 14-7. The game was now much more competitive, and the Eagles kept the momentum going when backup CB Polamalu picked off a Regalia pass near midfield. Philadelphia's offence now seemed to be over their earlier problems, and drove confidently down the field for the tying TD, Roosevelt Walsh scoring his second TD of the quarter from 6 yards out. Green Bay came back with a very competent two-minute drill, getting to the Eagles 19 before Philly DT Warren blew past his man for a sack-fumble, recovered by DT Campbell to snuff out the scoring threat. 14-14 at the half, but it was clear where the momentum lay in this game. Neither offence was able to get into scoring range in the third quarter - both teams put together decent drives, but the defences stiffened up near midfield. The quarter ended with a Green Bay punt, but the Eagles weren't able to move the ball on their first possession of the fourth quarter. Green Bay QB Regalia was hit hard on a scramble on the Packers next possession, LB Tayoun's hit knocking the ball loose and DE Salerno picking it up to give the Eagles great field position. The Packers looked set to limit the damage to 3, though, as the Eagles had 3rd and 12 on the Packer 13, but G Zack Martin made a perfect lead block to spring RB Walsh for his third TD of the game - Philadelphia took their first lead of the game, 21-14 with 7 minutes left. After setting up the go-ahead TD, the Philadelphia defence came out fired up on Green Bay's next possession. LB Larry Knoblett timed his blitz perfectly to force Regalia into another sack-fumble, DT Warren recovering the ball to set up 1st and 10 at the Green Bay 11 for the Eagles offence. Two plays later, Hutchins hit Samanta on a receiver screen, the 2-yard TD pass extending the lead to 28-14 with 4:25 to play. The Eagles defence held strong the rest of the way, and an Eagles team that had to win its last regular season game just to get into the playoffs is now going to play in the Bowl game! While Roosevelt Walsh's three TDs (on 23 carries and 99 yards) were a big part of this win, the game MVP was DE Rod Salerno, who fought through his injury to finish with 2 sacks, 2 blocks and a hurry, as well as recovering a fumble. Seven other Eagles defenders also had at least half a sack as Green Bay QB Regalia went down 8 times, with three fumbles. This was a tough game for the Eagles, with several players being added to the injury report in the lead up to the Bowl - RDT Christian Campbell is the most serious, with MLB Les Schwartz also a big doubt for the game. Starting C Thomas Dawson broke some ribs in the Green Bay game, and is definitely out - he will be replaced by rookie C Willie Barber. Starting S Jumbo Hopkins is now recovered from his injury, and will take his accustomed place in the defensive backfield as our starting free safety. Our opponent will be the New England Patriots, who upset the #1-seeded Jacksonville Jaguars 17-12 in the AFC Championship game. |
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02-07-2007, 01:42 PM
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#102 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: East Lothian, Scotland
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2017 Front Office Bowl
Two unexpected teams in the Bowl game this year - we're probably the bigger surprise after just scraping into the playoffs at 9-7, but New England (11-5 regular season, #3 seed) were not expected to get by either Pittsburgh (12-4) or Jacksonville (13-3) in their last two games. New England are very much a passing team, with QB Hardy Richard (4283 passing yards, 103.5 QB rating) one of the best in the league - he is injured, and missed the Championship game last week, but I expect him to play. His main targets are WRs McElroy (1440 yards, 14 TDs) and Cannon (1519 yards, 9 TDs), but McElroy has been ruled out of the game through injury. The New England defence isn't quite as strong, but is still a solid unit, particularly up front where DT Berry (8.5 sacks, 28 hurries) and DE Sims (8.0 sacks, 18 hurries) provide a very useful pass rush. Both offences looked tight on their opening drives, with the defences forcing a three and out on both sides. Philadelphia's offence then managed to put a decent drive together, but came away with no points after stalling inside the 10, then missing the field goal due to a bad snap. New England took advantage of this mishap by putting together a solid drive of their own - they too, though, were stopped inside the 10, but the Pats kicked the field goal to go up 3-0 early in the second quarter. After the Eagles were forced to go three and out, New England's offence started rolling again - 14 plays and 61 yards later, an errant Richard pass was picked off by CB Linville to end the scoring threat. That was the end of the scoring for the first half - 3-0 Patriots at the break, with the defences firmly on top. New England had first possession in the second half - they had obviously made some good adjustments in the interval, as they put together another solid drive - 15 plays, 69 yards this time. Unlike their previous drives, this one ended with a TD, with Richard finding Cannon with a 3-yard TD pass. 10-0 quickly became 10-3, as the Eagles offence finally got started with a decent drive, and Oden booted one through from 43 yards. Neither team could move the ball for the remainder of the third quarter, so New England held on to their 7-point lead with 15 minutes to play. The Patriots started the fourth quarter with the ball deep in their own end after a good Howard punt, but were able to get themselves out of trouble with a mix of Mills runs and Richard passes. The drive stalled in the red zone, but the resulting field goal put New England back up by two scores at 13-3. The unheralded Patriots defence then took over the game, not allowing the Eagles to get past the New England 45 for the rest of the game. The Patriots added an insurance touchdown after the two-minute warning after Philadelphia failed to convert on a desperation fourth down, making the final score 20-3 Patriots. New England QB Hardy Richard (22/40-236-1-1) was the Bowl MVP. A disappointing game for the Eagles on both sides of the ball - the offence simply couldn't get a passing game going (Hutchins (11/27-93-0-0) was ineffective all game) and the defence couldn't stop New England on those back-breaking long drives. |
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02-07-2007, 01:42 PM
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#103 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: East Lothian, Scotland
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2017 Summary
Code:
Definitely a strange season - start out with 5 straight wins, then lose 7 out of the next 10 before sneaking into the playoffs by the back door with a week 17 win. The mid-season injury to QB Hutchins was a big blow, and I compounded that by going with the wrong QB for a few games - I went with the guy I thought I knew better rather than the better QB. Once we did make it into the playoffs, however, I fancied that we might win a game or two with Hutchins back in control of the offence - it was still a surprise that we made it to the Bowl game, but the performance was definitely sub-par. The offence was much more diversified this year - solid running game and a more downfield passing attack (still relatively short, but at least the passes were going a bit further downfield!). Hutchins was very solid when he played, and Anthony a reasonable replacement. Walsh had a lot of problems hanging onto the ball, but was productive, while Burnett continued to be the ideal backup RB. Our starting receivers had good years, as did Oskolkoff before he got injured. The offensive line was a bit unsettled for most of the year due to minor injuries, but generally played solidly, although not quite as well as in previous years. The defence played about as well as anyone can expect a defence to play this year - solid against the run and virtually impregnable to the pass. Our defensive MVP was definitely RDE Rod Salerno, who was a constant threat to the opposing QB, even if he didn't get all that many sacks. LDE Hansen provided solid pressure from the other side, and the DTs were also effective in the pass rush. LCB Jerome Jordan was having another solid year before his injury - it's difficult to say if he's going to be able to play at anything like the same level when he's recovered, but it's going to be difficult to replace him next year. Zachery was a good addition, putting in a good year without making too many big plays, while Linville was a solid nickel back. After a down year, K Matt Oden was back to his best in 2017, hitting on 33 of 37 field goals, including 6 of 9 from 40 yards or more. P Levon Howard was decent (net average of 37.4 yards), and will get another shot next year. The return game didn't produce any TD returns, but yardage was consistent and solid - kick coverage was also good. 2017 Awards Two Eagles were mentioned this year: S Wally Ross - 1st Team All-Pro WLB Shannon Long - 2nd Team All-Pro Looking ahead to next year This year was a good start on the road towards moving away from the veterans who helped us win the Bowl in 2013 to a younger group of players - can't complain when you end up playing in the Bowl game in a rebuilding year! The strength of this team continues to be the defence, but losing CB Jordan for what's likely to be all of next season is a big blow - Jordan was the sort of cornerback you could use to take the other team's top receiver out of the game, which really changes how you play defence. The defensive backfield is likely to be a priority in the offseason, as we're without a top-end starter there. On offence, we have a lot of solid players but very few stars - Hutchins is the only high-end starter we have at the skill positions (and he's unlikely to have many good years left, as this year was his 10th). With the defence we have, though, we don't need to have an explosive offence. This remains a solid team that should be in playoff contention, but a couple of injuries at key positions will cause us big problems - plenty of work to be done in the upcoming offseason... |
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02-09-2007, 05:05 PM
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#104 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: East Lothian, Scotland
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2018 season
Herb's evaluation for 2017: 69/67/72/81, for an overall score of 71. The team showed a profit of $66.46m on revenues of $227.11m last year - costs went up a little bit (coaching costs were higher due to the new contracts signed last year, and bonuses went up from the abnormally low level of 2016), but revenues went up a lot (almost 20%). One retirement this year - safety Wally Ross. Wally Ross was the Philadelphia Eagles' pick in the 11th round of the original expansion draft, and played his entire career in Philadelphia, starting 155 games over 12 years. A rock in the middle of our secondary, he was a consistent performer who was tough in run support and hard to throw on in coverage - one of the best safeties of his generation. Despite this, he was only named to an All-Pro team once, in his final year. He had 25 interceptions and 697 tackles in his career, both Eagles records. Staff Hiring All members of staff are under contract, so no action required here. Pre-free agency At the start of the season, the Eagles have 39 players signed and $55.70m of a $156.4m salary cap free. Our draft picks are expected to take up $6.81m of cap room - we have the 31st pick in each round of the draft, as the team that lost in the Bowl game. We have some free agents this year: SE Josh Musial (5th year, 34/34) - decent backup receiver, but definitely replacable RG Ty Burgess (6th year, 35/35) - decent backup lineman, but replacable SLB Larry Knoblett (5th year, 50/50) - solid starter, but a guy we could replace if needed SLB Ricky Rayburn (5th year, 13/13) - great special teamer, and someone we want back (but at veteran minimum if possible) LCB Jerome Jordan (5th year, 96/96) - the guy we would be franchising if he hadn't got injured Jordan would have received the franchise tag if he hadn't picked up a serious ACL injury during last season - at the moment, it's looking likely that Jordan won't play at all this season. We also have a few restricted free agents: QB Ray Perroni (4th year, 21/41) - decent but not brilliant - we may have a better player in 2nd-year man O.J. Hume RB Chad Burnett (3rd year, 27/27) - has been a very solid backup for us - definitely want to bring him back RB Norman Reese (3rd year, 25/30) - decent backup, special teamer and return man - want to resign FL Rex Murray (4th year, 31/31) - decent backup, but don't want to pay more than the minimum for him LDT Reggie Necaise (3rd year, 33/38) - solid backup lineman, but would be the 5th defensive tackle if we bring him back WLB Burt McGlockton (4th year, 31/31) - decent backup, would like to bring him back RCB Nicky Strong (4th year, 39/39) - currently our third CB - not a big playmaker, so we may be able to do better FS Jumbo Hopkins (4th year, 45/45) - likely starter at FS if we brought him back - safety is a weak spot at the moment, so will resign him After last year's fairly significant dip into the rookie free agent market, we have a lot of second-year players to choose from for picking someone to go overseas for the summer league. As short as we are in the defensive backfield, it would make sense to send a defensive back for some seasoning, and either RCB Grady Linville or FS Xavier Burlsworth would benefit from the experience. Burlsworth is more of a career backup, while Linville should develop into a mid-level starter at least, so Linville is chosen to go to Europe. While our ticket prices are among the cheapest in the league, I don't see much point in raising prices when we're making decent amounts of money - prices remain at 45/55/70/85/200/85,000. |
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02-09-2007, 05:06 PM
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#105 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: East Lothian, Scotland
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2018 Free Agency
Two derisory trade offers at the start of free agency - Indianapolis offer a 4th-round pick for RCB Grady Linville, while Kansas City offer a fair RB and a 4th-round pick for WLB Shannon Long. Neither are anywhere close to what I'd value these players at, so are rejected without wasting too much though. The first action in free agency is to offer contracts to restricted free agents: RB Chad Burnett - $3.17m over 3 years (a lot for a guy of his apparent talent level, but he's produced enough over the last two years to be worth it) RB Norman Reese - $750k over 1 year RDT Reggie Necaise - $750k over 1 year WLB Burt McGlockton - $910k over 1 year FS Jumbo Hopkins - $3.69m over 3 years (is going to be a starter, so worth tying him up for a few years) Looking at the roster, we (as usual) have a few areas that need to be addressed through either free agency or the draft: RB - find a starter who doesn't fumble as often WR - starters are OK, but need a bit more depth OL - need a couple of decent backup guards LB - need a starter at SLB, plus better quality depth CB - I could live with starting Zachery and Linville, but another starter-quality guy would be a good pickup S - need a starter-quality guy to replace Ross (and one to replace Hopkins wouldn't be a bad thing either) The first big question in free agency is what do I do about LCB Jerome Jordan? After his serious ACL injury last season, he's not going to play at all this season, and is not guaranteed to come back at the same (very high!) level after his injury. He's going to want serious money to resign - while we do have plenty of cap space to offer him a contract, I don't want to be giving out $20m of bonus to a guy who's going to end up being a mediocre starter (which is a definite possibility). Something to think about going into free agency. Looking at the draft pool, it's a bit of a strange group of rookies - very weak in some positions, pretty deep in others. Fortunately for me, G and S appear to be two of the deeper position groups, with LB and WR looking reasonably strong too. Into free agency proper, then, and first up is a check on how much our guys are looking for. LCB Jordan has some fairly significant demands, as I had suspected - he's looking for $85m-90m over 5 years, with about $25m of bonus guaranteed. SLB Knoblett is looking for around $5m per year, which isn't too bad for a solid starter. Our other free agents (SE Musial, RG Burgess and SLB Rayburn) are all looking for close to veteran minimum. While we have over $50m of cap room free, there are a few important guys on the roster who are in the last year of their current deals (QB Hutchins, FL Samanta, RG Jordan, MLBs Tayoun and Schwartz), so we'll need to do some renegotiating. SLB Knoblett doesn't hang around - he signs a contract with Dallas in week 2 before we even offer him a deal. We don't have any real depth at linebacker, so I make an offer to the best young OLB on the market - SLB Daniel Grove (4th year, 51/51), $40.00m over 5 years. I also make an offer to RB Courtney Bruce (5th year, 58/58) - for this level of RB, and a guy who's already started 60 games, he's not looking for all that much money, as he's willing to consider an offer of $5.40m over 3 years. There's also a solid WR I like the look of in FL Derrick Burgess (6th year, 58/58) who would be a very useful addition - the offer here is $20.40m over 4 years. RB Bruce decides to stay with the Raiders on a 1-year deal, so I turn my attention to RB Levon Rose (6th year, 45/45), offering him $4.35m over 3 years - he signs in week 6. Better luck with SLB Grove, though, who decides to join the Eagles in week 5. Burgess is still wavering between a number of offers, so I bump our offer up to $21.20m over 4 years in week 6 - the increased offer works, and Burgess signs with us in week 7. At this point, I start looking at resigning a few of our own free agents: SE Josh Musial - $3.15m over 3 years (good special teamer and useful backup receiver - signed week 7) RG Ty Burgess - $3.41m over 3 years (decent backup guard - signed week 7) SLB Rickey Rayburn - $3.15m over 3 years (only rated at 13, but great special teams guy - signed week 9) That ends our activity in free agency - a bit more active than usual, and we've managed to pick up a few guys who should be contributors in the season ahead. At this point, we have 50 players signed and $34.05m cap room free ($27.24m after allowing for the expected cost of the 7 draft picks to come). |
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02-09-2007, 05:08 PM
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#106 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: East Lothian, Scotland
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2018 Draft
We have a few areas needing attention in the draft, but it's difficult to say which way I'm going to look at this point, when 30 guys are going to come off the board before we pick. We didn't address the defensive backfield in free agency, though, so it's very likely that we're going to take at least one defensive back in the first three rounds... After a long wait, we finally get on the clock for pick 1.31. Guys I'm considering taking here: TE Anthony Lazuka (5.1/4.4) - no workout, very volatile, would need a lot of work, but very high ceiling - definite risk-reward pick RG Lewis Ahern (5.0/4.8) - solid technician who projects as a quality starter - would be able to step in sooner rather than later RG Melvin Fau (5.1/4.8) - better prospect than Ahern, but will need more time to develop LDT Hugh Farrell (5.5/5.9) - undersized DT who projects as a DE - raw and didn't work out, but looks to have seriously good potential - another risk-reward pick FS Eric Bove (5.7/5.4) - best safety prospect left on the board - should be able to step in and start straight away SS Justin Flowers (5.6/5.3) - good safety, but may also be able to play corner - would contribute straight away SS Xavier Wilcox (5.5/5.2) - big hitting safety, but not the best in coverage - still a starting-calibre prospect, but a bit of a risk with no combine workout The best player here, irrespective of position, is LDT Farrell, but defensive line is not really a need area - we're pretty much set with our starters, and they're mostly younger players with a few years still ahead of them. The defensive backfield is a big need area, but it's not obvious which of the three safeties will help the most - Wilcox is the most suited to playing strong safety (which is where our need is - the three safeties on the roster are free safeties by position and skill set), but Bove and Flowers are better in coverage. I go with Wilcox here, as I feel he's the best fit for our needs right now (and there are a few slightly lower-rated guys who would be a decent fit at CB/FS on the board I feel may be available in rounds 2 or 3). Wilcox is rated at 37/71 initially, so looks to be a good bet to be our starting strong safety come opening day. The players I was looking at start to go off the board in round 2: FS Eric Bove (2.3) - 33/56 DT Hugh Farrell (2.4) - 35/73 FS Justin Flowers (2.12) - 34/55 With a few of the guys I was considering in round 1 still available, I should get decent value for 2.31. RG Melvin Fau is a good fit for our needs on the offensive line - a guy to develop this year and hopefully step in and start when current starter Willie Jordan becomes a free agent next year. It's maybe a bit early to be taking Lazuka when there's still a lot of value on the board. Other prospects that catch my eye at this point: RDE Spencer Flannery (4.7/5.2) - undersized defensive end who looks like a solid pass-rushing specialist SS Reggie Brew (5.1/4.8) - looks a decent player, but has the small return skills that suggest he isn't as good as advertised SS O.J. Brooks (4.5/4.2) - likely to be a good fit at corner, has good coverage skills While Flannery is the sort of guy who would be a very useful specialist on most teams, we're already pretty well set at DE. I have a feeling that I'll be able to pick up one of the DBs further down, so RG Fau is our second round pick - rated at 22/71, this looks like good value at this point (as long as that potential stands up...) TE Lazuka is taken at pick 3.5, and is initially rated at 41/67, so would have been worth taking in the second round. SS Brew (28/62) goes a couple of picks later. RG Ahern, RDE Flannery and SS Brooks are still available at pick 3.31 - I feel I can't pass up on Flannery at this point purely from the 'best player available' angle, so we pick RDE Spencer Flannery with our third round selection (inital rating of 31/44 suggests his upside isn't quite as good as I thought). RG Ahern finally goes with pick 4.7, and is rated at 24/64 - great value this late in the draft, even if he is a guard. SS Brooks is still available at pick 4.31, but I'm also tempted by FS Matthew Ackerman (4.5/4.2) at this point - Brooks is better developed, but Ackerman looks to have more potential. I go with Ackerman here (initially rated at 18/58) - a bit more risk involved, but I'm willing to take a bit of a chance if there's a chance of getting a solid player out of it with this late a pick. Ackerman is able to convert to corner reasonably well, so I make the switch - he's now rated at 17/58, but may not live up to this, as he now has those small return skills that are usually a bad sign. While Brooks is still available at 5.31, I feel that I've managed to pick up enough defensive backs for now. Backup linebacker is a need area (as it always seems to be!), so the pick here is ILB Brandon Flemming - initially rated at 19/53, Flemming is an undersized linebacker with good instincts who excels at stopping the run. We don't really need a MLB, so Flemming is switched to SLB with no change of ratings. (S Brooks is finally taken at 6.14, and is rated at 25/44.) Late round picks are a good time to take a chance on a player, and that's what I do with 6.31 - RB Cory Sawyer isn't going to see much action as a runner, but looks to be a decent prospect as a third down back and has a fair bit of talent as a return man. He's rated at 24/35, but I have a feeling that he may make a solid contribution irrespective of his overall rating. Special teams is also a strength of our 7th-round pick - SE Mitchell Bennett (13/34) is very raw, but looks likely to develop into a reasonable receiver, and is a solid return man to boot. 2018 Late Free Agency We get a trade offer in at the start of the late free agency period - Carolina offer us a 4th-round pick for backup QB Cedric Anthony. There are quite a few decent QBs still available in free agency and the cap hit isn't a big deal (around $100k next year), so this is a fairly easy trade to accept. The initial round of rookie contract offers is fairly successful, with only 1st-rounder Wilcox and second-round pick Fau rejecting our first offer. After trading our backup QB, we ideally need to pick up another veteran to back up Keith Hutchins - there are a few guys who look to be a decent fit, but I offer QB Shaun Langham (5th year, 30/52) $3.27m over 3 years. We also make a few offers to rookie free agents: RB Dominic Sweeney (29/47) - $1.06m over 2 years (signed week 3) FL Thomas Asturias (22/48) - $1.06m over 2 years (signed week 2) LT Shannon McKenzie (16/55) - $1.06m over 2 years (signed week 3) WLB Jay Bermudez (21/50) - $1.06m over 2 years (signed week 3) RCB Cory Sears (21/48) - $1.06m over 2 years (signed week 3) The other issue to be addressed is free agent CB Jerome Jordan - he's still available, but still wants a multi-year contract for a scary amount of money (around $75m over 5 years). My thinking right now is to wait until the season starts so I can sign him for one year, then see how he recovers from his injury - if he's still as good as he was pre-injury, we franchise him and sign him long term, but it gives us the option to let him go back to free agency if he's been significantly impaired. Wilcox and Fau agree to contracts at the end of the free agency period, meaning we have 62 players signed and $29.47m cap room free. A fair bit of this cap room will be used for renegotiations, but I'll wait until after camp to start on these. |
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02-09-2007, 05:14 PM
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#107 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: East Lothian, Scotland
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Rookies before and after camp
Code:
A pretty decent camp from our rookies, particularly the high picks - SS Wilcox looks like a solid starter already, while Fau looks like a guy who should be able to step in next year and Flannery will be a solid pass-rushing specialist. A bit of a mixed bag further down, but we should get a few players from our later picks and rookie free agents. Some renegotiations with veteran players: QB Keith Hutchins (11th year, 69/78) - $53.00m over 4 years (probably his last contract, but good value for a high-end starter at QB) FL Antoine Samanta (8th year, 66/66) - $35.60m over 5 years (again his last contract, but a solid starter and good return man - good guy to tie up) MLB Les Schwarts (7th year, 46/46) - $4.24m over 3 years (was either Schwartz or Tayoun, and I go with the younger guy here) Injured CB Jordan is looking for around $10m for the year - we have the cap room (still have almost $16m left), so there's no harm in signing him to give us first refusal at him next year - it also has the advantage of giving us a mentor for our young CBs. We sign him for $9.96m for the year, and will put him on IR before we start the season. 2018 Roster We have 63 players on the roster at the moment - CB Jordan is going on IR, so 9 players to cut to get us to the 53 we'll take into the season. Code:
Probably not the best roster I've had with this team (particularly in the defensive backfield), but it's not far away - the AI agrees, giving us a roster rating of 100, with the next best team at 72. |
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02-09-2007, 05:15 PM
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#108 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: East Lothian, Scotland
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2018 Preseason
Keeping the same gameplans as we finished last year with, as they seemed to work reasonably well. I'm using the usual approach to preseason - lots of playing time for the backups in the early games, with the starters getting their spots back for the last game. Week 2: Indianapolis 20-17 Philadelphia A bit of a surprise in that our second string were fairly competitive, although RB Burnett (13-97) was a big part of that. The QB play was respectable, with Hume (12/20-103-1-1) getting most of the time. Week 3: Philadelphia 23-20 Cleveland (OT) The opposition wasn't great (the spread suggested Eagles by 20!), but a good solid performance here - Hume (22/28-188-1-0) and Burnett (15/92) led the offence, while rookie S Wilcox had a pick and 2 pass defences. Week 4: Jacksonville 10-14 Philadelphia The classic 'how to win a game with no offence' performance - the offence managed only 4 first downs and 126 total yards, but a Sawyer punt return for a TD and a TD off a turnover-inspired short field were enough here. Week 5: Philadelphia 27-21 Pittsburgh Not our best game, but some nice opportunistic play got us the win - Samanta took an offensive fumble in for a score, while rookie CB Ackerman had a pick-six as one of his two interceptions. We had a bit of a scare in our last preseason game, as QB Keith Hutchins was forced to leave the game very early on, but it was only a minor knock, and he's ready to go for week 1 of the regular season. We do have a few injury worries, though, with RCB Linville out for a few weeks and rookie DE Flannery likely to miss the entire regular season with a high ankle sprain. |
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02-09-2007, 05:16 PM
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#109 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: East Lothian, Scotland
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2018 Regular Season
Week 1: Philadelphia 6-20 Washington Not the best way to start the year - a fair bit of rust showed up here. The yardage numbers were similar for both teams, but the Redskins took advantage of good field position and the Eagles' inability to score TDs in the red zone. Week 2: Jacksonville (1-0) 3-23 Philadelphia (0-1) Normal service is resumed, as Hutchins (22/27-269-1-0) started to find his receivers with his usual accuracy. The defence also managed to shut down the Jaguars' passing attack, allowing them only 21 completions on 47 attempts. A good win, but not a good week for injuries - FL Samanta and DE Salerno will miss three weeks, while DE Hansen is out for about six weeks. This, combined with the longer-term injury to DE Flannery, means we have one healthy defensive end - to get around this, Flannery is put on IR, and we sign rookie LDE Kenny Schokora (22/37) to fill in until our starters recover. Week 3: Philadelphia (1-1) 14-31 Seattle (2-0) Losing your two starters at defensive end while having a weakened secondary is not a good combination, and so it proved in this game. Add to that the little matter of 6 interceptions (4 by Hutchins before he got pulled, then 2 more by Langham), and it's a shock that we managed to keep it as close as this. Week 4: Atlanta (1-2) 31-16 Philadelphia (1-2) The lack of our usual big pass rush is really hurting here, as Atlanta were able to hit the big pass play all day long. While our offence played decently, it simply isn't built for shootouts - Hutchins (28/44-275-1-0) played well, but the offence struggled in the red zone once again. More injury problems after this game, as starting FS Hopkins is out for a couple of months, and DTs Clayton and Necaise are out for a few weeks - we're struggling to put a team with the minimum number of healthy defensive linemen out right now. Just to make sure that we're really happy with our injury situation, QB Hutchins now has a little niggle in his knee - won't stop him playing, but means our injury list is that much longer... To give us enough bodies on the defensive line, I put backup S Qaderi on injured reserve (he's only out for a couple of weeks, but we really need the roster spot right now) and sign DT A.J. Thigpen (5th year, 35/35), who's probably going to have to start in week 5... Week 5: New Orleans (1-3) 17-24 Philadelphia (1-3) I had a bad feeling about this one, as the Saints have the best young QB in the league right now, but our banged-up defence held up pretty well, holding New Orleans to 175 yards passing and picking QB May off twice. QB Hutchins (27/36-238-1-0) wasn't about to be outplayed by the kid, either... Another week, another major injury - I played DE Salerno before he was fully fit because of our problems on the defensive line, and we've paid the price. Salerno went down with a major ACL injury, and will be out for the rest of the season. He goes on IR after the game, and we sign DE Tito Nieman (2nd year, 23/35) to help out on the defensive line. Week 6: Philadelphia (2-3) 29-17 Carolina (2-3) For a banged up defence, this unit can still perform - with the game on the line and less than 4 minutes left, the Panthers went fumble, downs, interception (returned for TD). The offence was able to take advantage this week, with Hutchins (19/29-240-1-0) getting good support from RB Rose (14-84-1). Week 7: Philadelphia (3-3) 24-17 Tampa Bay (3-3) QB Hutchins (23/29-227-2-0) got the game MVP, but this was the Chad Burnett show, the RB finishing with 58 yards and a TD on the ground plus 5 catches for 62 yards and 2 TDs. The defence came up with the big plays when needed, most notably just before the two minute warning in each half, when forcing a 3 and out gave the Eagles offence the ball deep in Tampa territory. Just when it looked like the team was starting to get over the injuries, DT Reggie Necaise suffers a serious hamstring pull, and will miss the rest of the season - another guy goes on IR (the fourth defensive player for the year, not counting LCB Jordan!). No signing to replace him on the roster, though, as DT Clayton is finally ready to go again. This means that we have our top three guys at DT, but our starting defensive ends are both undrafted guys, with another former UDFA backing them up. Week 8: New York (4-2) 14-26 Philadelphia (4-3) This one's on the defence, even though Hutchins (22/29-273-1-0) had another solid day - CB Zachery came up with the big play of the game just before the half, picking off a pass and taking it back 98 yards the other way for a TD when the Giants were looking like going in for the go-ahead TD. The pass rush from the banged up defensive line was impressive, with DT Warren having 6 QB hurries and DE Sanderson 4. The injury bug continues to bite us, with SS Wilcox likely to miss a couple of weeks and LT Tanner out for a month. With only one safety able to play, we bring a former player back into the fold - SS Vincent Harper (6th year, 34/34) is signed to help out in the defensive backfield. Where's that bye week when you really need it? |
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02-09-2007, 05:17 PM
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#110 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: East Lothian, Scotland
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Mid-season summary
Code:
It's been a patchwork team for much of the year, but you can't fault the effort from the guys we've put out there - it would have been very easy to give up on the season with all the injuries we've had, but we're halfway through the regular season and still very much in playoff contention. The offence has been reasonably healthy, so it's not really surprising that the numbers on that side of the ball are decent - the defence is the real story here, as we've been struggling to put a team out for much of the year (including starting two street free agents on the defensive line in one game). |
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02-09-2007, 05:19 PM
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#111 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: East Lothian, Scotland
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Week 9: Washington (3-5) 3-28 Philadelphia (5-3)
Another solid performance in shutting down the Redskins completely - the offence put together a number of long drives behind the passing of Hutchins (19/24-176-3-1) and the running of Rose (19-70-1) and Burnett (15-76), while the defence held Washington to 9 first downs and 153 total yards. It probably doesn't come as a shock to find out that we picked up more injuries during this game - newly signed S Harper tweaked a groin, while backup WLB McGlockton is out for a few weeks with a separated shoulder. Week 10: Dallas (6-3) 13-27 Philadelphia (6-3) This one didn't look good late in the third when RB Rose fumbled on 2nd and goal at the 2, and the Cowboys took the ball back 99 yards the other way for a TD to tie it at 13, but QB Hutchins (25/32-280-2-0) hit FL Samanta with a 50-yard TD strike with 50 seconds remaining, then CB Linville picked off the Cowboys QB (his second of the day) and returned it for an insurance TD. Week 11: Bye (FINALLY!) Week 12: Philadelphia (7-3) 13-17 Tennessee (2-8) We've struggled on the road this year, and it continued here. The yardage numbers seem to indicate that the Eagles were the better team, but not being able to convert red zone into TDs caught us again. Hutchins (21/24-194-0-0) had his usual efficient performance, while DE Hansen had 2 sacks. Week 13: Green Bay (6-5) 7-33 Philadelphia (7-4) A good way to come back after a disappointing defeat. It looked for a while like our red zone problems would bite us again, but two late TDs put the game well out of reach for the Packers. QB Hutchins (24/33-263-1-0) continues to spread the ball around, while our RB by committee approach is getting results (RB Sweeney leading the way this week with 10-70-1). The defence did a good job of stifling the Green Bay offence, and chased starting QB Regalia by forcing three interceptions. Week 14: Houston (10-2) 7-44 Philadelphia (8-4) This looked like a tough game coming in, but the Texans simply never got started here. After a miscue on our opening drive, the Eagles' offence scored on five straight possessions to put Houston in a big hole, down 31-7 at the half. RB Burnett was the star, scoring 3 TDs among his 19 carries for 77 yards. Starting CBs Linville and Zachary both had picks, and Samanta took a punt back 77 yards for a TD. With three games left in the regular season, the Eagles lead the NFC East by a game over Dallas and New York. We finish the year with three tough road games, though, including divisional games against New York (week 15) and Dallas (week 17), so there's a lot of work still to be done before we can think about playoffs. Week 15: Philadelphia (9-4) 6-3 New York (8-5) A defensive slugfest decided by the kickers, but we'll take the win any way it comes in a game like this. After being shut out in the first half, the team improved just enough to take the win, with QB Hutchins (22/26-167-0-0) doing enough to be game MVP. CB Linville continued his great play in the secondary with another interception. Week 16: Philadelphia (10-4) 6-14 Indianapolis (8-6) Another defensive game, and our problems in the red zone resurfaced at the worst time - the Colts got two TDs, we got two field goals, and you can see the final score. Hutchins (26/36-193-0-0) was accurate without being particularly penetrating, being outplayed by former Eagle Jeremy Wason in this game. Going into the last game of the regular season, it looks like we have at least a wild card tied up (although it's not guaranteed at this point), but we need a win over Dallas (10-5) to win the division. Detroit (12-3) have home-field advantage tied up already, but we have a chance at a first round bye with a win. Week 17: Philadelphia (10-5) 37-13 Dallas (10-5) Not quite a must-win game, but definitely important, and the Eagles came to play in this one. The defence was immense, holding the Cowboys to 127 total yards and sacking the Dallas QBs six times. QB Hutchins (19/24-213-2-0) played his usual accurate game, while DT Warren (2 sacks) and CB Linville (1 pass defence, 1 interception) finished off good regular seasons in style. The victory means that the Eagles finish on top of the NFC East, but only gives us the #3 seed - Seattle also finished at 11-5, but came out on top in the tiebreakers. A familiar opponent in the first round of the playoffs - Dallas got in as the second wild card, and will travel to Philadelphia for the wild card round. |
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02-10-2007, 01:26 PM
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#112 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: East Lothian, Scotland
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2018 Playoffs
Wild Card Round Well, at least we're familiar with our opponents - the Cowboys are a solid all-round team with a big-play passing attack and a tough pass defence. They aren't loaded with stars, though, with veteran QB Dwayne Lee (3283 passing yards, 89.8 QB rating) more a game manager than a guy who can carry a team. His supporting cast is solid, though, with RB Dawson (1150 rushing yards, 11 TDs) and WRs Washington (81 catches, 1266 yards, 6 TD) and Strong (73 catches, 1196 yards, 5 TDs) all strong players. The defence is a little suspect against the run, but definitely tough to pass on - league-leading in passing yards against, yards per attempt and yards per catch. The Eagles have beaten them twice this year (by a combined score of 64-26), but this isn't going to be an easy game. As a team, we're about as healthy as we've been all year - apart from the long-term injuries, we're down to minor knocks, most of which won't stop the guys playing. A couple of guys who are sitting this week are normal starters RG Willie Jordan and FS Jumbo Hopkins. The Eagles got the ball first, but couldn't do anything with it - Dallas did worse on their first possession, though, with QB Lee getting sacked on his first two drop-backs. The Cowboys' defence stayed strong, though, forcing another Eagles punt, and this time the Dallas offence got things moving, the drive finishing with Lee hitting Strong with a 9-yard TD pass - 7-0 Cowboys. That was the last drive allowed in a defense-dominated first quarter, with neither offence clicking at this point. The Philadelphia offence got something going early in the second quarter, but poor starting field position meant that they didn't get out of their own half. Dallas also put a drive together, and their better field position told, as they were able to get into field goal range, making the kick to extend their lead to 10. The lead was cut to 7 soon after as the Eagles got into scoring range for the first time on the day, only to stall in field goal range - Oden was good from 43 yards to make it 10-3. The Cowboys' offence was starting to click, though, and another nice drive gave them first and goal just inside the two-minute warning - solid defence from the Eagles limited them to the short field goal, and a 13-3 half-time lead. The first drive of the second half was vital to both teams - Dallas got the ball first, and could virtually put the game away with a scoring drive. A perfect mix of Lee passes and Dawson runs took the ball down the field, and Lee found Strickland from 8 yards out to put the Cowboys 17 points up with 7 minutes of the third quarter played. Game over? Not quite - the Philadelphia offence finally woke up, a decent kick return from Samanta leading to a 60-yard TD drive capped by a 1-yard TD pass from Hutchins to Adamov. 20-10 meant the game was still alive, but there was a lot of work left to do for the Eagles. That work needed to start with stopping the Dallas offence - easier said than done, as the Cowboys were on a roll, and got back into field goal range. Lee misfired on a 3rd and long, though, and was picked off by CB Zachery to end the scoring threat. The Eagles only just got past midfield on the ensuing possession, though, and were forced to punt with just under 10 minutes left. Leading by two scores, the main aim of Dallas's next drive was to milk the clock, and they did exactly that, running 8 plays but taking almost 6 minutes off the clock, leaving the Eagles deep in their own end to boot. Four incomplete passes, and the game was effectively over. Dallas added an insurance field goal, but had already secured the victory - the Cowboys' 23-10 win means that they advance to play #1-seeded Detroit in the Divisional Round. A disappointing peformance, but the Cowboys dominated this one - our offence struggled to get anything going, with Hutchins (18/35-131-1-0) forced to misfire by a strong Dallas pass defence. The Eagles defence also struggled, with Dallas QB Lee throwing for over 300 yards while only missing on 3 passes. Last edited by MartinD : 06-03-2007 at 04:15 PM. |
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02-10-2007, 01:27 PM
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#113 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: East Lothian, Scotland
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2018 Summary
Code:
A solid year despite all the injuries, but it all fell apart with one poor performance in the playoffs. Offensively, everything runs through QB Keith Hutchins, who is the most accurate QB in the league - there were no other stand-out performances on offence, but plenty of solid contributors. The offensive line had a decent year, despite a number of minor injuries forcing lots of little changes - RT Huffman was the stand-out, hitting on 46% of his key run block chances, while rookie G Fau ended up starting 9 games and playing solidly. On defence, the guys who stayed healthy did a good job of filling in for the many injury victims - DE Sanderson did a solid job as the only defensive end to be healthy all year, DT Warren showed his versatility by filling in at DE for a good part of the year, while DE Hansen was a threat when he was able to take the field. The linebackers were solid if not spectacular, while the secondary did a decent job, particularly CB Linville, who had 6 picks in the last 8 games of the regular season. K Matt Oden had another good year (35/39 on field goals, including 10/14 from 40+), while P Howard was less impressive, managing a net average of only 36.5 yards. The return game was reasonable (9.8 average on PR, 27.4 on KR, compared to 6.3/19.1 on returns allowed). 2018 Awards Only a couple this year: K Matt Oden: First Team All-Pro CB Grady Linville: First Team All-Pro Looking forward to next year... This season showed that we've managed to build up a deep and talented roster here, but it would be good if we could have a season or two with all of our best players available for the majority of the year... I can sense that we may be coming to the end of our window of opportunity with this team, as some of our key players are getting towards the end of their careers (notably QB Hutchins, who's just finished his 11th year in the league). No pressure for next season, then!  |
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02-10-2007, 01:28 PM
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#114 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: East Lothian, Scotland
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2019 season
Herb's evaluation for 2019: 74/75/53/81, for an overall score of 64. The team showed a profit of $8.12m on revenues of $218.02m last year - only having one home playoff game hurt revenues a bit, but player costs were more 'normal' in 2018 than they had been in 2017. No retirements this year. While our stadium is still in good condition, I decide to try to get an upgrade through - support for the project isn't great, but I think I may as well try for as good a stadium as I can get (but offer to pay a significant proportion of the costs). Our current stadium has 75,500 seats, 7,400 club seats and 220 luxury boxes, is in Excellent condition, with Very Good turf and parking lot - the proposal is to upgrade to 99,900 seats, 19,900 club seats, 399 luxury boxes and to renovate the parking lot and turf, all using a high-quality construction firm. Unsurprisingly, this doesn't come cheap - almost $800m for the project. I put in a team contribution of $390m - I don't expect this proposal to have much chance, but no harm in giving it a try... Staff Hiring Our coaching staff are tied up for the next few years, but scout Andrew Baicy (44, VG/F/G/G/G/F/G/VG/A) has come to the end of his current contract. The pool of available scouts is not particularly strong, however - Baicy looks like as good a guy as there is out there. I make him an offer of $650k per year for 5 years, which he accepts in week 1 of the staff hiring period. Pre-Free Agency We go into the season with 41 players signed and $40.74m of a $164.2m salary cap free (not allowing for the $7.87m cap space expected to be taken up by drafted rookie contracts). There is good news in that LCB Jerome Jordan is fully recovered from his serious knee injury at the end of the 2017 season - this makes the decision about the franchise tag very easy, as Jordan was always going to get franchised if he came back at close to 100%. This does mean a sizable hit on the cap ($11.3m for the franchise salary, and the long-term deal won't be any cheaper, for sure!), but this is a guy who's worth that sort of money. We do have a few other free agents: RG Willie Jordan (8th year, 53/53) - has been a solid starter for us, but I'm happy for 2nd-year RG Melvin Fau to take over now WLB Burt McGlockton (5th year, 31/31) - decent backup, but not happy about his lack of playing time - probably won't be coming back SS Vincent Harper (7th year, 34/34) - mid-season injury cover - decent backup, but no more - probably won't resign him We also have quite a few restricted free agents: QB O.J. Hume (3rd year, 32/44) - likely to be our #2 QB this year, as he developed significantly last year (was 23/43 in camp last year) FB Marc Vaughn (3rd year, 36/46) - solid but unspectacular FB - will probably resign him TE Randall Anstaett (3rd year, 31/44) - good blocking TE, which our other two guys aren't great at, so want to resign SE Fred Britton (4th year, 34/34) - decent backup receiver, good special teams guy - will probably try to resign RT Harvey Gerhart (3rd year, 25/40) - has played well when given the chance, so will be resigned P Levon Howard (3rd year, 54/54) - has been a bit disappointing, but will be resigned (although will probably have competition in camp) LDE Bernard Sanderson (3rd year, 29/49) - played well last year, but will be a backup this year - want to bring him back, though LDE Tito Nieman (3rd year, 24/35) - signed as injury cover last year, and won't be asked to return RDE Kenny Schokora (2nd year, 24/37) - signed as injury cover last year, and won't be asked to return RCB Ellis Polamalu (3rd year, 31/46) - decent nickel/dime back, so will be resigned FS Xavier Burlsworth (3rd year, 45/45) - low endurance means he's better suited as a backup, but a solid player we want to bring back Only two serious candidates for the summer league this year - SS Xavier Wilcox and RG Melvin Fau. Both will be starters this year, and both have a fair bit of development potential remaining. I see Wilcox as more likely to benefit from the additional seasoning, so he gets the call. While the team is reasonably healthy from a financial point of view (as in we're making reasonable profits), we're still among the cheapest tickets in the league so I feel a bump in ticket prices is reasonable - they move from 45/55/70/85/200/85,000 to 50/60/80/100/240/100,000. |
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02-10-2007, 01:29 PM
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#115 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: East Lothian, Scotland
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2019 Free Agency
First item on the agenda for free agency this year is negotiating a long-term deal with CB Jordan. We manage to agree on a 5-year deal worth $70.00m - a lot of money, but he's the sort of player that's worth using almost 10% of your salary cap on (as long as he can stay healthy...) While it's unlikely that we'll be active players in free agency this year (we already have over 40 players signed, with 8 draft picks to come and restricted free agents to resign), it's still worth looking over the roster for strengths and weaknesses: QB: Pretty much set, with Hutchins the starter and Hume this year's likely #2 - will be looking for another developmental guy in the draft though RB: Rose, Burnett and Sweeney are all productive, and Sawyer is a nice change of pace and special teams guy - don't see much point in adding anyone here FB: Will try to resign Vaughn, but may look for an upgrade here TE: We have three average guys here - may want to try to find a quality starter FL: Pretty much set - four solid players as our top four, and Britton and Musial provide depth and special teams ability OL: Interior of the line is solid, but need to start looking for a tackle or two - Huffman's in his 11th year, and Tanner isn't anything special (and may not be back after this year) P: Actively looking for a better guy here K: Oden is solid, but how many good years does he have left (now in his 13th year) DL: Pretty much set if we can resign Sanderson and Necaise LB: Starters are decent, but no real depth here - worth looking for an upgrade CB: Three solid guys here in Jordan, Linville and Zachery, with Polamalu a decent dime back - can do better than Sears and Ackerman, though S: Wilcox is a solid starter at SS, but we only have backup-quality guys at FS We start negotiations with our restricted free agents before getting into free agency proper: QB O.J. Hume - 880k over 1 year (third year guy, so not much point in signing him for longer right now) FB Marc Vaughn - $790k over 1 year TE Randall Anstaett - $790k over 1 year SE Fred Britton - $3.23m over 3 years (minimal bonus, so no risk in going with the longer deal here) RT Harvey Gerhart - $1.43m over 1 year (more money because he had a fair bit of playing time last year - can afford to pay a little more here though) P Levon Howard - $790k over 1 year LDE Bernard Sanderson - $1.20m over 1 year (again more than the minimum because of playing time - not too much for me not to offer the contract though) LDT Reggie Necaise - $3.23m over 3 years RCB Ellis Polamalu - $790k over 1 year FS Xavier Burlsworth - $970k over 1 year These signings don't leave us with a lot of cap space (around $9m after allowing for signing the draft picks to come), and we have a few renegotiations coming up this year, so not much leeway for going after free agents this year. Looking at this year's draft class, it appears to be reasonably strong for defensive backs (although more corners than safeties), and there are a few TEs who look to be potentially a good bit better than the guys I have on the roster at the moment. There are a few offensive tackles worth looking at, and some quarterbacks with a bit of potential as possible late round targets (the top-rated QB is interesting too, as he's called Backbreaker Bradley - not that I'm going to get anywhere near him, but that's just a great name...) It actually looks to be a draft where having extra high picks is a very good thing indeed - I can see four or five guys I expect to go in the low first or high second that I think would really improve the team. Given the strength of the draft pool where I'm most looking to upgrade, there isn't much point in being too active in free agency (not that we have the cap room anyway!) - if I make any moves, it's likely to be to bring a mentor or two in at positions where we have young players to develop. RG Willie Jordan doesn't last long in free agency - he signs for Baltimore in week 2. I wait for prices to come down a little before offering contracts to SLB Ernie Ferguson (8th year, 38/38, mentor) - $2.72m over 2 years (veteran minimum) - and FS Toby Chubb (11th year, 37/37, mentor) - $3.12m over 2 years (again, veteran minimum). Both guys sign fairly quickly, and that's all she wrote for the Eagles in free agency. |
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02-10-2007, 01:30 PM
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#116 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: East Lothian, Scotland
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2019 draft
We have 8 picks in this year's draft - our 'usual' one per round (ranging from 26 to 29, with the first-rounder being 1.27), plus an additional fourth-round pick (4.25) obtained in a trade last year. While we have a long time to wait before our first pick this year, I feel that we should be able to find a quality player - defensive back is the priority, but a decent developmental OT or a solid starting TE wouldn't go amiss either. QB 'Backbreaker' Bradley goes first overall to Cincinnati, and looks like the real deal (46/83 rating immediately after being picked). A couple of players I was hoping would fall are taken in the early 20s (notably CB Melvin Crumpler, taken at 1.23 by Carolina - a big CB who would do well at S initially rated at 26/74), but there are still a few guys to choose from when 1.27 comes round: TE Tommie Lyle (5.9/5.1) - good blocker, decent receiver, likely starter if we go with him RT Leo Skupin (5.6/6.2) - best OT on the board, but a natural RT, and would need time to develop - not a mauler, but good technique LDT Shane Womble (5.7/6.2) - best DT remaining - solid run-stuffer who offers some pass-rush threat SS Bucky Covington (5.1/4.8) - best safety remaining - good all-round player, but not a guy I'd like to see starting this year, as he's very raw If we're going for best player available here, DT Womble is an easy pick - a guy who projects as a high-level starter. Defensive tackle isn't an immediate need, though (although starting RDT Christian Campbell is in his 11th year), so Womble isn't the guy I go for. RT Skupin isn't an ideal fit (would prefer a left tackle), but Huffman is more than capable of playing on the left side if needed, so Leo Skupin is the pick here. He's initially rated at 26/70, so should be able to step into the starting lineup at some point fairly soon. The other guys I was looking at start to come off the board as we wait for our next pick: LDT Shane Womble (1.29) - 37/73 TE Tommie Lyle (1.30) - 40/60 With our second-round pick approaching, S Covington is still on the board - there is also a running back (Vince Compton - 5.0/5.3) who I feel is a good fit for our system. I try to trade up a few picks to make sure of getting one or the other, but am not willing to pay the price - waiting it out is tough, particularly when Pittsburgh take a good RB off the board right in front of us, but both Covington and Compton are still there when the Eagles go back on the clock. While safety is a bigger need right now, I feel that Compton will be a very good player - Compton is also rated as the top RB, while Covington is the 3rd safety, so I go with the RB here. Compton is initally rated at 33/48, so this may have been a mistake - we'll just have to wait and see... I wait until the middle of the third round before thinking about trading up to take Covington, but Cleveland take him at 3.10 (before either of the higher-rated safeties are taken) - his initial rating is 23/63, so he looks like a good prospect. When our third round pick comes around, there are a few possibilities - one is to go with a safety, with Raymond Lowe (4.4/4.1) and Brady Jamison (4.3/4.0) being the best guys remaining. We already have an offensive tackle on board, but LT Gabe Bishop (4.5/4.9, 48% developed) looks like a solid player - not the strongest, but a good technician. A guy who isn't at a need position, but looks to be good value here is RG Perry Hernandez (4.7/4.5), who is a solid blocker who has the potential to be a solid starter at least. With two safeties of a similar level, I hold back a bit more on the defensive back and take LT Gabe Bishop (initially rated at 25/58). RG Hernandez goes to San Francisco with pick 4.3 - rated at 25/61, he would also have been a good choice there. We're next up with pick 4.25, and finally go after a safety here. Our pick is FS Raymond Lowe, who I felt was the safer pick of the two - he's initially rated at 26/54, so looks like being a decent player. We also have a pick at 4.28, which also goes on an offensive lineman - not a big need area, but LG Jumbo Welker (4.5/4.3) looks to be another good prospect - his initial rating of 23/60 certainly suggests that he's got a bright future. QBs start to come off the board fairly quickly in round 5, so I go after a guy I was hoping to pick up at some point with pick 5.27. QB Tyrus Monpoto (initial rating 14/58) is a highly intelligent guy, but also a great athlete - a project, to be sure, but a guy who has a chance to be a decent player. At 6.26, I go with FB Randall Boswell (initial rating 23/52), who projects as a good run blocker. Our last pick of the draft (7.29) goes on a guy who may add a bit of competition at the TE position - TE Frankie Lindsay (19/41) is very much a receiving tight end. At the end of the draft, the results of the vote on our stadium proposal comes in - surprisingly, enough of the people of Philadelphia voted for the proposal for it to pass (although only just - 50.2% in favour). We'll be playing in an expanded and renovated Veterans Stadium in 2022. (Yes, I know that the Eagles have moved in real life, but the stadium we play in was opened in 1989 (level playing field on stadiums and finances option on startup), so it seems more realistic for us to be playing at the old place.) Now all we have to worry about is finding the little matter of around $100m per year to meet our share of the costs! Late Free Agency Denver approach us at the start of the late free agency period with a trade offer for CB Grady Linville - the Broncos' second-round pick in next year's draft plus a scrub TE. Linville (3rd year, 50/54) is currently slated to be a starting cornerback for us, so it's not a matter for a lot of thought - we reject the trade offer. Rookie signing talks are a bit of a mixed bag - it's not unexpected that first-rounder Skupin decides to wait for another offer, but both fourth-round picks (LG Welker and FS Lowe) also refuse our initial offer. We do manage to get everyone else under contract, though. We offer a few rookie free agents a chance to come to camp with us: QB Michael Morin (18/46) - $1.11m over 2 years (signed week 3) TE Harold Galloway (25/50) - $1.11m over 2 years (signed week 2) SE Freddie Hampton (25/48) - $1.11m over 2 years (signed week 1) P Rico Bullock (44/58) - $1.11m over 2 years (signed week 3) P Melvin Scott (45/56) - $1.11m over 2 years (signed week 2) SLB Jerome Parham (20/28) - $1.11m over 2 years (signed week 1) SS Bart Stevens (13/60) - $1.11m over 2 years (signed week 2, and moved to RCB - new rating of 15/58) We have a bit of cap room left over, so some contract renegotiations were carried out before heading to camp: FL K.C. Oskolkoff (5th year, 50/50) - $15.70m over 5 years LDE Juan Hansen (4th year, 52/52) - $23.00m over 4 years WLB Shannon Long (8th year, 78/78) - $42.00m over 4 years Our remaining rookies without contracts agree deals at the end of the free agency period, and we head to camp. |
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02-15-2007, 05:56 AM
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#117 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: East Lothian, Scotland
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2019 Roster
A couple of trade offers coming out of training camp before we get on with the roster for the year: San Francisco offer a 6th-round pick and a fairly poor defensive end for MLB Les Schwartz - doesn't take a lot of thought to turn this one down, as Schwartz is our starting MLB, and we don't really have anyone behind him that we'd be comfortable starting. Tampa Bay offer a 2nd-round pick for QB Shaun Langham - while Langham is a solid QB, he's been demoted to #3 this year because of the unexpected improvement in O.J. Hume. Langham is also unhappy about his lack of playing time (maybe he should have thought a bit harder about signing with us when we have a top-end starter in Hutchins!), and isn't going to cause too big a cap hit on the trade (all of $40k this year and next). I don't quite bite the Bucs' hand off in accepting this trade, but wasn't far short of it. We carried 69 players into camp with us (before trading Langham), so a lot of cuts to be made. Code:
These cuts leave us with 56 players on the roster - two of the extras are punters, but I have to find one other cut from somewhere. RB Cory Sawyer has basically been replaced by players brought in this year (in that rookie RB Compton is a better third down back and kick returner, and rookie SE Hampton is a better punt returner), so is our final cut. |
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02-15-2007, 05:57 AM
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#118 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: East Lothian, Scotland
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2019 preseason
Week 2: Philadelphia 13-16 Denver Looks like that second round pick may not have been a waste after all - rookie RB Vince Compton (18-83-1) shows signs of being a decent starting running back. QB Montopo (6/13-51-0-0, sacked 3 times) struggled in relief of O.J Hume, though. Punter watch: P Melvin Scott had the first opportunity to impress, and did a decent job (gross 40.9, net 37.3, allowed 1 return for 5 yards) on a tough day for the kickers. Week 3: Miami 10-7 Philadelphia Not much offence in this one, but the Dolphins did just enough more to deserve the win. The Eagles passing game was a bit lacklustre, although Monpoto (17/22-94-0-0) showed signs of getting to grips with the pro game. Punter watch: P Rico Bullock's turn this week, and he didn't do himself any favours (38.7 gross, 35.5 net, long of 45, 7 returnable kicks). Week 4: San Diego 17-27 Philadelphia A better offensive showing, with RBs Compton (14-61-1) and Sweeney (12-68) carrying most of the load. Rookie QB Morin (15/27-107-0-2) got most of the playing time in this one, and didn't do much to help his chances of getting back on the field. DE Rod Salerno saw his first action since his ACL injury early last season, and was back to his usual ways, knocking the Chargers QB down 5 times. Punter watch: Levon Howard's turn this week, and he did a decent job (48.4 gross, 40.9 net, allowed 3 returns for 13 yards). That's enough for me to narrow it down to 2, with Rico Bullock getting the chop. Week 5: Philadelphia 0-23 New Jersey Not quite as bad as it looks, as the game was close while QB Hutchins (8/10-95-0-0) was in the game - the Jets only took over when Monpoto went in at QB. Punter watch: Melvin Scott did enough in week 2 to earn another try, but he had a very poor day (35.8 gross, 28.1 net, long of 46), although he was given a short field to work with on a number of occasions (and promptly put it in the endzone for a touchback on most of them). Looks like Levon Howard has managed to keep the job for another season... The injury situation isn't too bad going into the season with one exception - LCB Jordan has a knee ligament sprain, so will miss a few weeks at the start of the year. |
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02-15-2007, 05:59 AM
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#119 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: East Lothian, Scotland
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2019 Regular Season
Week 1: Philadelphia 16-3 New York The Giants don't look very good this year, but this was still a good solid performance to open the season with. Hutchins (25/34-234-1-0) kept the offence ticking over, while the defence took it in turns to beat the **** out of the Giants QB, sacking him 11 times. DE Hansen took more turns than most, though, finishing with 4.5 sacks. Week 2: Buffalo (0-0-1) 10-20 Philadelphia (1-0) This one was looking bad for a long time, as the Eagles dominated in terms of yardage, but couldn't get the ball into the endzone - QB Hutchins (14/22-182-1-0) found SE Adamov with a 36-yard TD pass just before the two-minute warning to put Philadelphia ahead for good. DE Salerno had 2 sacks, while CB Linville made an interception. Week 3: Carolina (0-2) 7-34 Philadelphia (2-0) A dominant display on both sides of the ball, with the offence ticking over nicely behind Hutchins (20/29-183-2-0) and Burnett (18-118-1). On defence, the line put the Panthers QB under pressure all day, and rookie S Lowe took advantage, making two interceptions. Week 4: Minnesota (2-1) 3-30 Philadelphia (3-0) This was close until half-time, but the Eagles defence took over in the second half - the Vikings simply couldn't pass the ball, their QB hitting on only 12 of 37 passes while getting sacked 7 times. Unsurprisingly, DE Salerno was the cause of much of the chaos in the Minnesota backfield, finishing with 2.5 sacks, 5 hurries and 2 knockdowns. Week 5: Detroit (4-0) 35-9 Philadelphia (4-0) They scored TDs, we kicked field goals - OK, there's a bit more to it than that (in particular, the Lions offence was very solid all day), but you don't win big games like this if you can't get the ball in the end zone. Week 6: Philadelphia (4-1) 0-27 Green Bay (2-3) One of those games where absolutely nothing worked on offence - Hutchins (6/13-40-0-1) couldn't get into anything like a rhythm, and Hume (5/16-57-0-1) did even worse when called into action. The defence was pretty good, forcing a couple of fumbles and making two interceptions, but couldn't carry the offence all game long. Week 7: Washington (1-4) - Philadelphia (4-2) Just the opponent we needed after two big losses - the NFC East doesn't look all that strong this year, and the Redskins simply aren't all that good. Hutchins (19/27-212-0-0) got his accuracy back, and Compton (25-99-4) put the points on the board, with Martin (6/12 KRB, 3 pancake) leading the way. The defence was also solid, allowing only 10 first downs and forcing 4 turnovers. With two of our three offensive guards struggling with injury, I cut backup SLB Jerome Parham and resign former Eagle RG Ty Burgess, who was unfortunate to be cut after training camp. Week 8: Bye Week 9: Philadelphia (5-2) 23-20 Chicago (4-3) (OT) QB Keith Hutchins (31/39-334-2-1) had the first 300-yard passing day in Eagles history, and Matt Oden kicked a 23-yard field goal with 22 seconds left in overtime as the Eagles win a tough game on the road. A Shannon Long interception with 43 seconds left stopped the Bears from winning the game in regulation, one of his two on the day. RT Leo Skupin broke his collar bone in this game, and will miss the next month to six weeks. I would tell you who's going to take his place, but our offensive line is in a state of flux right now (due to lots of little injuries, including C Barber and LG Welker both having turf toe injuries). |
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02-15-2007, 06:00 AM
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#120 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: East Lothian, Scotland
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Mid-season summary
Code:
A decent first half of the year (apart from those two games where the offence disappeared!). The defence has been very strong, as usual, even though CB Jordan has only just come back from injury - Salerno's injury doesn't seem to have slowed him down any, and Long continues to be a very solid player against both run and pass. Compton looks to be a solid starter, with Burnett productive behind him (if he could only hang on to the ball!) - Sweeney might get a bit more time in the second half of the year. |
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02-15-2007, 06:01 AM
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#121 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: East Lothian, Scotland
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Week 10: New York (3-5) 3-20 Philadelphia (6-2)
Not our absolute best performance, but a good solid win nonetheless. Hutchins (17/21-168-1-0) and Sweeney (25-94) got the job done on offence, but the defence won the game for us here, with DE Rod Salerno (3 tackles, 2.5 sacks, 2 blocks, 1 hurry) and DE Juan Hansen (1.0 sacks, 3 hurries, 3 knockdowns) leading the way. Week 11: Philadelphia (7-2) 26-20 Dallas (4-5) (OT) Our second fifth-quarter win of the season, but we'll take road wins any way we can get them! QB Hutchins (16/30-145-3-0) threw the game-winning TD, but RBs Sweeney (23-91) and Compton (20-84) did a lot of hard work in keeping the offence moving. CB Jordan led a solid defensive performance with 2 interceptions. Week 12: Miami (7-3) 7-13 Philadelphia (8-2) The Eagles defence played their best game of the year in shutting down a highly-rated Miami offence, holding them to 130 total yards, 6 first downs and no offensive points, but the Dolphins did a good job against the Philadelphia offence, making the game a lot closer than it could have been. DEs Salerno (2 sacks, 1 hurry, 1 fumble and recover) and Hansen (1 sack, 3 hurries, 2 knockdowns) led the defensive effort in this game. Week 13: Philadelphia (9-2) 17-13 Seattle (8-3) A very big win in terms of playoff position, as a loss would have made it very difficult for us to earn a first-round bye. Seattle scored early in the fourth to pull within 4, but the defence didn't allow a first down the rest of the way to seal the victory. As has been the case for most of the season, DE Rod Salerno (2.0 sacks, 3 hurries, 3 knockdowns) led the defensive effort. This win clinches the NFC East, although this hasn't been in much doubt for some time, with Washington (at 5-7) the second-placed team at the moment. Week 14: Philadelphia (10-2) 35-38 New Jersey (6-5-1) This one turned into a bit of a shootout, and this team isn't really built to be successful in shootouts... Hutchins (24/36-243-3-2) played well, but made mistakes at critical times, while FL Burgess (4-106-2) had a big game. The defence struggled to contain a well-balanced Jets offence, which produced 5 TDs despite giving away 4 fumbles. Week 15: Dallas (5-8) 17-3 Philadelphia (10-3) We always seem to have problems against the Dallas defence, and that was definitely the case here - both of the Cowboys TDs came from their defence. The Eagles defence also played a solid game, but didn't get as many big plays as Dallas's D. Week 16: Philadelphia (10-4) 10-17 New England (9-5) Another tough game for the offence, but the Patriots were the better team here. Hutchins (16/26-198-0-0) and Adamov (8-132) put up good numbers, but had very little support from their offensive teammates. This loss makes it very unlikely that the Eagles will get a first-round bye, as the Lions (13-2) and Saints (11-4) are now ahead of us. Week 17: Philadelphia (10-5) 14-6 Washington (5-10) Not pretty, but any win is welcome after losing three straight. The offence scored two early TDs, then the defence took over the game - DE Hansen was the game MVP following a 3.0 sack, 2 fumbles forced performance. New Orleans won their last game, so the Eagles will be playing in the Wild Card round of the playoffs - we are #3 seed, though (on a tiebreaker over Seattle), and will play 8-8 Arizona. |
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02-15-2007, 06:02 AM
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#122 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: East Lothian, Scotland
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2019 Playoffs
Wild Card Round Our opponents are the Arizona Cardinals, who scraped into the playoffs with an 8-8 record despite losing their last two games. We're catching a bit of a break here, as the Cards' starting QB, Kelvin Brentlinger, suffered a broken ankle in week 16 and will miss this game. QB Derrick Stallings will start the game, despite being on his third team in a month. This will put more pressure on star RB Wendell Brown (1,215 rushing yards, 52 catches), but Stallings does have a decent supporting cast to work with. The defence is tough to pass on, with DT Erxleben (11.0 sacks, 17 hurries) a force in rushing the passer and CB Trippi (3 interceptions, 28 pass defences, PD% 92.1) a shutdown corner, but isn't all that strong against the run. We go into this game with a few injury concerns, most notably QB Keith Hutchins, who is strugggling with a sprained knee - he's going to start the game, but it's not certain if he's going to be able to finish. SS Xavier Wilcox is also nursing a sprained knee, and will sit out this game. Our offensive line is finally healthy, though, with the five guys I'd consider my starters all fully healthy for this game. On a damp, overcast day, the Eagles got first possession, but were unable to move the ball - nerves appeared to play a part, with the Philadelphia offensive line called for two false starts on the possession. The defence, however, made up for the offence's slow start as DE Salerno burst through the line, forcing Stallings to fumble - Hansen recovered to give the Eagles great field position. The Cardinals defence was able to step up as well, though, with a third-down sack forcing the Eagles to punt. The Arizona offence put together the first extended drive of the game, but a Long sack on 3rd down near midfield forced a punt. The punt-fest continued on each team's next possession, as the defences forced three and outs. After a first quarter totally dominated by the defences, it came as no suprise that the quarter ended with the Eagles about to punt away possession as their drive stalled near midfield. No score at the end of one, and, if I'm being totally honest, neither team looked remotely like scoring. A good Howard punt to start the second quarter saw the Cardinals pinned back at their own 4-yard line. A nice pass on third down appeared to relieve the pressure and give the Cards a bit of room, but the play was called back on a holding penalty and Arizona were forced to punt. The Eagles were able to take advantage of the good field position, and finally opened the scoring in this game with an Oden field goal from 43 yards. After forcing another three and out, Philadelphia put together their best drive of the game, but they stalled just outside field goal range once again, with a couple of penalties not helping at all. Neither offence was able to do anything for the rest of the quarter, but the Eagles dodged a bullet on the final play of the half - a Hutchins fumble was recovered by Arizona at the Philly 25, but time had run out. 3-0 Eagles at the half, but defences have been so far on top that it's a surprise that any points have been scored. The pattern from the first half didn't appear to have been changed during the interval as the Eagles forced the Arizona offence into another three and out to open the third quarter. A Hutchins-to-Burgess pass and a Sweeney run earned the Eagles a couple of first downs, and got them in range for Oden to double the lead, the kicker hitting on a 49-yard field goal this time. Arizona finally made a positive play on offence, with Stallings finding Paul for a first down, but consecutive sacks rattled the QB, and he picked out Shannon Long on the third and long, the interception giving the Eagles yet another chance to score. The Cardinals defence continued to offer stout resistance, though, holding the Eagles to another Oden field goal try - the normally reliable veteran kicker didn't hit this try solidly, though, and the attempt fell short from 47 yards. In keeping with the game up to this point, the quarter ended with back-to-back punts after three and outs - the Cardinals return man, however, fumbled on his return - Barber's recovery gave the Eagles the ball deep in Cardinal territory once again as the third quarter ended. After being stopped on 3rd and 3, K Oden trotted onto the field once again to try a 41-yard kick, but missed it wide right. The miss didn't cost the Eagles, though, as their defence came up big on 4th and 1 after a debatable decision by the Cardinals coaching staff to go for it at their own 40. They were made to pay straight away as Hutchins found Burgess in space - the veteran wide-out took advantage by running the ball into the endzone for a 40-yard TD. 13-0 Eagles with 12 minutes to play, but the Cardinals had shown nothing at all on offence up to this point. In keeping with the rest of the game, there was precious little offence from either team in the fourth quarter - the Arizona offence was unable to move the ball anywhere close to scoring territory, and the final points of the game came after a Jordan interception of Stallings, Oden kicking a 44-yard field goal to make the final score 16-0 Philadelphia. To say that the Eagles defence dominated in this game isn't going too far - the Cardinals managed only 6 first downs and 87 total yards in this game, and turned the ball over four times. DE Rod Salerno was given the game MVP award after making 7 tackles and picking up 3.5 of the Eagles' 9 sacks while forcing two fumbles. OK, this is facing a team that's been forced to start a street free agent at QB, but all you can do is beat the team you're playing against! While the defence had one of its best games of the year, the offence was often ineffective - Hutchins (13/21-129-1-0) was solid without being particularly penetrating, while Sweeney and Burnett struggled to gain yardage consistently. As the #3 seed in the NFC playoffs, the Eagles now head to New Orleans to play the #2-seeded Saints. |
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02-15-2007, 06:03 AM
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#123 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: East Lothian, Scotland
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Divisional Round
New Orleans finished the regular season with a 12-4 record, good enough to win the NFC South by a margin of 5 games. They are a fairly well-balanced team, but their undoubted star is QB Keith May (2,612 yards, 99.9 QB rating), one of the best QBs in the league - while May has missed some time this year with a couple of minor injuries, he's healthy and ready to go for this playoff game. Veteran FL Clifton Marrero (1053 yards, 7 TDs) is May's favourite target, but the Saints spread it around a bit in their passing game. The defence isn't all that highly-rated statistically, but is a solid unit - in particular, the pass rush, led by DT Bateman (13 sacks) can put a lot of pressure on opposing QBs. The Eagles came through the wild card game without any serious additions to the injury list, although FL Derrick Burgess will be held out of the game with a sprained thumb. QB Hutchins will again start despite a balky knee. After a lacklustre showing against the Cardinals in the wild card game, the Philadelphia offence came out like it had a point to prove - Hutchins hit Hampton for 17 on 3rd and 10, then found Adamov for 31 more to set up first and goal. Burnett punched it in from 1 yard out to put the Eagles up 7-0 after a 9-play, 65 yard drive. The Saints came out to try to respond to that opening salvo, but May misfired on his first pass, with S Lowe making the pick. The Philadelphia offence couldn't take advantage of the turnover, and punted possession away. May found his range with three consecutive completions to get the Saints into Eagles territory, but the Eagles defence tightened up to hold New Orleans out of field goal range. The quarter ended with the Eagles on the drive in New Orleans territory, already leading 7-0. A costly penalty for an illegal block stopped the Philadelphia drive in its tracks, and Oden compounded the mistake by missing a 41-yard field goal try. New Orleans couldn't take advantage, though, with Salerno blocking May's third-down pass to force another punt. The Eagles were forced to punt the ball right back, however, as their drive stalled near midfield. Howard's short punt gave the Saints good field position, and they were able to utilise this to get on the board, but Salerno again stopped the drive with a timely hurry of May on third down - the field goal made it a 7-3 game. 4 became 11 in a hurry, though, as Hutchins hit Samanta in stride for a 69-yard catch-and-run TD pass to put the Eagles up 14-3 just before the two minute warning. The Saints were unable to mount a successful two-minute drill, so the Eagles led by 11 at the half. New Orleans didn't become the #2-seeded team by chance, though - the first possession of the second half was a 10-play, 71-yard march ended by May-to-Marrero from 7 yards for the TD that brought the Saints back within 4 at 14-10. The Eagles' next drive stalled, but Howard kept the pressure on the Saints with a good punt to the New Orleans 7 - a quick three and out gave the Philadelphia offence the ball back in Saints territory. A 16-yard run from Sweeney put the Eagles in field goal range, but good defence from New Orleans meant it was another field goal try, not a TD - Oden put it through from 41 yards out, extending the Philadelphia lead to 17-10. The Saints opened the fourth quarter on the drive, but the drive was ended abruptly at midfield when May misfired and was intercepted by CB Ackerman. The Eagles offence took advantage, but only with a field goal - a nice call with a draw play on 3rd and 12 got the ball into Oden's range, and he hit on the 43-yard field goal attempt. 20-10 Eagles with less than 11 minutes to play meant that all the pressure was on New Orleans to mount a comeback. A 15-yard scramble by May on 3rd and 10 kept the drive alive, but a run for no gain and two incompletions forced a punt from midfield - the New Orleans defence forced a quick punt from the Eagles, but left less than six minutes on the clock. With a quick score absolutely essential, May hit on three of four pass attempts, finding Marrero in the endzone from 27 yards out for the TD which kept the Saints alive - 20-17, with four and a half minutes left. Needing to mount a drive to run down the clock (and give their defence a chance to rest), the Philadelphia offence managed one first down on a 21-yard Burnett run, but were forced to punt with 2:30 left. May hit TE Lofton on a deep route to get the Saints to midfield, but was unable to drive his team any further, with Eagles CBs Jordan and Zachery doing a great job in defending the passes. After the Saints turned it over on downs, Hutchins took a knee three times to run out the clock and seal the 20-17 victory. This was a much better all-round team effort, but the offence deserved a lot of credit for producing this performance after a below-par showing against Arizona. Hutchins (20/26-216-1-0) was very solid, and received good support from his running game - Burnett (20-106-1) and Sweeney (14-73) both had good days. On defence, the Eagles only got to May once, but put him under pressure all day, with DE Salerno leading the way (1.0 sack, 1 block, 2 hurries, 2 knockdowns). The pass defence was also solid - S Lowe and CB Ackerman had interceptions, while five different Eagles were credited with pass defences. In the other NFC Divisional round matchup, the Packers were on the verge of pulling of a huge upset in Detroit, but the Lions pulled off a great fourth-quarter comeback with 22 unanswered points to win 42-38. Lions QB Bo Fiebelkorn had a big day with 5 TD passes in a real shootout. |
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02-15-2007, 06:04 AM
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#124 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: East Lothian, Scotland
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NFC Championship Game
With the #1-seeded Lions winning, the Eagles are forced to travel to Detroit to play the NFC Championship Game against a team that took them apart in the regular season - the Lions won 35-9 in an extremely one-sided game. Detroit have one of the best offences in the league, led by 11th-year veteran QB Bo Fiebelkorn (3,716 yards, 32 TDs, 107.3 QB rating), who has started for the Lions since being their first draft pick (15th overall) in 2009. Providing balance to the offence is RB Brock George (1440 yards, 4.6 ypc, 10 TDs) - the other skill-position players are solid without being spectacular, but the success of this offence lies in a talented and experienced offensive line. On defence, DEs Pearson (12.5 sacks, 27 hurries) and Lap (10.0 sacks, 15 hurries) provide the pressure that make the Lions defence one of the toughest to pass on in the league. Going by the statistics, the run defence is poor, but that's at least partly due to the quality of the team - a team that leads in most of its games will expect to be passed on more, so is a bit more vulnerable to the run. Again, we appear to have come through our previous game relatively unscathed - no enforced changes to the lineup through injury for this game. On a sunny but chilly day in Detroit, the Eagles got the ball first - a 4-yard Sweeney run on 3rd and 4 got things moving, but the Lions stopped the drive in a hurry, forcing TE Anstaett to fumble after a short reception on the next play. A brief jaunt onto the field from the Lions offence put them 7-0 up - Fiebelkorn to Washington, 15 yards, TD. The Detroit defence continued to dominate the early going on the next Eagles drive, this time picking off a Hutchins pass. This scoring drive wasn't quite as quick (4 plays, compared to the 1 on their first possession), but Fiebelkorn put another TD on the board by finding Russo from 13 yards out - 14-0 Lions, and the game was less than 6 minutes old. The Philadelphia offence returned to the field still trying to get over the two early mistakes, but started to settle down with a couple of first downs - while the drive eventually stalled just past midfield, it was a great improvement on what had gone before. Detroit's offence, however, was most definitely in the groove, and ended the first quarter at the Eagles' 12-yard line. The Philadelphia defence managed to hold Detroit to just a field goal on that drive, making the score 17-0 Lions early in the second quarter, but the offence couldn't feed off the stop, going three and out. Fiebelkorn went back to work, and hit on three long passes to set up another first and goal, which RB George convertedwith a 4-yard TD run - 24-0 Lions, and this one was looking like a rout. The Eagles weren't quite finished yet, though, with Hutchins hitting TE Lindsay on a deep pass to put the offence into striking range, then Burnett getting the team on the board with an 11-yard TD run - 24-7 was still a bad position, but the offence had at least showed that it could put points on the board. The defence fed off this positive momentum, forcing a fumble by Lions WR Espinoza to set up first and goal at the 9 - good Detroit defence limited the damage to a field goal, though, making it 24-10. Neither team was able to get into scoring range before half-time, so the Lions went in at the half leading by 14. Down two touchdowns, the Eagles defence knew that it needed a stop to open the third quarter, and that's what they delivered. The offence started deep in their own end, though, but made it almost to midfield before Hutchins missed intended receiver Adamov and was intercepted. Detroit know how to punish mistakes like that, and Fiebelkorn found former Eagle Winston Hadley with a 27-yard TD pass to put the Lions up by 21. After being stopped before reaching midfield, the Eagles at least pinned the Lions back with a good Howard punt, but Detroit simply took it down the field on a 95-yard TD drive, backup RB Corbett scoring from 7 yards out to end the third quarter with the Lions firmly in control and on their way to the Front Office Bowl, leading 38-10. 28 points is a long way behind if you've only got 15 minutes to make up the deficit, but Philadelphia started the fourth quarter like they were going to pull off the comeback, Hutchins finding Adamov with a 9-yard TD pass to round off a drive that took only three and a half minutes. Back to 21 points down, and the defence joined in by forcing the potent Lions offence into a three and out. The spell was broken when Hutchins put up a poor throw and was intercepted on the first play after the Lions punt - another short field, another short but efficient drive, another TD for Detroit, basically ending the game as a contest at 45-17. Both teams basically knew that the game was over at this point, and played out the rest of the game without further scoring. Detroit win the NFC Championship game by the comfortable margin of 45-17, and take a lot of confidence into the Front Office Bowl. Obviously not our best performance, but the Lions are that good a team this year - they're very tough to stop on offence, and have a defence that isn't long on star players but performs very well as a unit. That said, turnovers killed us in this game, as the Eagles lost the turnover battle 4-1, and most of those turnovers gave Detroit a very short field to work with - four of the Lions' TDs came after starting in Philadelphia territory. The win came at a big cost to the Lions, however - QB Bo Fiebelkorn was stretchered off the field late in the third quarter with what appeared to be a very serious head injury. Backup QB Ike Holtz came in with the game already won, but this will have a serious effect on Detroit's Bowl chances (in the short term) and status as a top NFC contender (looking further down the line). Missing their star QB and leader, Detroit failed to perform to anything like the level they had showed in the Championship game, losing the Front Office Bowl to Miami by the score of 30-7. Holtz, forced to start after Fiebelkorn's injury, had a tough day, throwing three interceptions. |
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02-15-2007, 06:05 AM
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#125 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: East Lothian, Scotland
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2019 Summary
Code:
Another solid year for the Eagles, but a couple of annoying lapses cost us the chance of a first-round bye (and then, of course, we ran into Detroit...) The offence was solid and well balanced, but didn't really show any real explosiveness - Hutchins had another solid year, Compton emerged as a decent starting RB and Adamov put up good numbers, but there were too many games where the offence simply didn't produce. The offensive line had a mixed year, not helped by a number of minor injuries (meaning that it was rare for us to put out a settled unit). LG Zack Martin (51/121 KRB, 16 pancakes) returned to his best, though, after a couple of sub-par years. On defence, it was a different story - the pass rush was as good as any, with Salerno having a big year (ably supported by Hansen and Campbell), and the pass defence was tough to throw on, particularly after Jordan's return from injury. The run defence was also solid, and the defence as a unit forced more than their fair share of turnovers. The reworking of the secondary appears to have been pretty successful, as we now have three solid young starters (Linville (3rd - 56/56), Wilcox (2nd - 67/77) and Lowe (1st - 47/53) to play alongside Jordan. Special teams were decent, with Samanta (10.8 average, 1 TD) continuing to prove that he's one of the best punt returners of all time. He isn't as strong on kick returns, though, and no-one else really stepped up (25.9 average kick return for the team. Coverage units were decent (4.4 average punt return, 19.7 average kick return). Oden (30/38 FG, 7/13 40+ regular season, 5/9 40+ playoffs) had a decent year, although he seems to be starting to struggle with the longer kicks, while Howard showed a little bit of improvement over previous seasons. 2019 Awards Three mentions in the All-Pro teams this year: LG Zack Martin - First Team All-Pro RDE Rod Salerno - First Team All-Pro WLB Shannon Long - Second Team All-Pro In addition, SE Drew Adamov was the League's Fastest Man. Looking ahead to next year... While we have a few grizzled veterans on the roster, this is a fairly young team with a number of very good young players - we should still be in playoff contention, and may be a Bowl contender if we can get a bit more consistency out of the offence (and maybe a bit of luck...) |
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02-20-2007, 05:23 AM
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#126 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: East Lothian, Scotland
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2020 season
Herb's evaluation for 2019: 78/86/9/82, for an overall score of 44. The team showed a loss of $113.75m on revenues of $247.11m last year - the major factor in this was the first of our stadium payments (the little matter of $129.87m!), so we actually made a decent profit ($16.12m) after allowing for this. One retirement this year - SLB Ernie Ferguson decided to call it a day. We signed him last offseason as a veteran backup who would also act as a mentor to our young OLBs. Staff Hiring All members of staff are under contract, and I see no need to make any changes. Pre-Free Agency After bumping ticket prices last year, I don't see much point in changing them again this year - prices remain at 50/60/80/100/240/100,000. This year's franchise tag is a very easy decision - DE Rod Salerno is an absolute beast on the offensive line, and we have to keep a guy who can play at that level. The franchise salary for a DE is $15.22m, but that may end up being cheap compared to the long-term deal I hope to negotiate with Salerno. After using the franchise tag, we have 38 players signed and $26.45m of a $172.0m salary cap free. Our draft picks (the usual one in each round, alternating between 28th and 27th, starting with 1.28, plus 2.15, obtained in trade from Tampa Bay last year) are expected to take up $9.35m of cap room. With Salerno tagged, the following guys are free agents: SE Drew Adamov (10th year, 60/60) RG Ty Burgess (8th year, 33/33) RDT Irv Warren (9th year, 41/41) LCB Leon Zachary (9th year, 43/43) My initial feeling is that none of these guys will be returning - Adamov would be a good player to bring back, but is likely to want more money and a longer contract than I'd be willing to give a 10th-year receiver. We also have quite a few restricted free agents: QB O.J. Hume (4th year, 37/43) RB Dominic Sweeney (3rd year, 30/39) TE Randall Anstaett (4th year, 35/35) C Willie Barber (4th year, 53/53) C Todd Collins (2nd year, 13/42) RT Harvey Gerhart (4th year, 29/29) P Levon Howard (4th year, 51/51) LDE Bernard Sanderson (4th year, 30/49) RCB Ellis Polamalu (4th year, 37/37) FS Wade Qaderi (4th year, 33/33) FS Bryan Norris (3rd year, 21/40) My initial impression is that we'll look to resign Hume (solid backup QB), Sweeney (has been productive when given the chance), Barber (starting center), Sanderson (decent backup DE), Polamalu (good cover corner) and Qaderi (decent backup S and kick returner). Resigning these restricted free agents is unlikely to leave us with a lot of cap room to use in free agency, but I prefer to use free agency to provide depth and to pick up decent players at reasonable prices rather than as a means of acquiring top-end talent. The last task before heading into free agency is to decide which player is to be sent to the summer league. The two most obvious candidates in my mind are RT Leo Skupin (34/64) and FS Raymond Lowe (47/53) - both are expected to be starters in the season ahead, so should get significant playing time. My feeling is that Skupin is more likely to benefit from the additional experience, so he's the guy chosen to spend a bit of time in Europe over the summer. |
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02-20-2007, 05:24 AM
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#127 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: East Lothian, Scotland
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2020 Free Agency
The first task in free agency is to negotiate contracts with our franchise player and restricted free agents: QB O.J. Hume - $3.75m over 3 years RB Dominic Sweeney - $1.02m over 1 year C Willie Barber - $5.70m over 3 years P Levon Howard - $1.00m over 1 year (he isn't great, but this is a no-risk contract with no bonus) LDE Bernard Sanderson - $3.75m over 3 years RDE Rod Salerno - $103.2m over 6 years (including $37.2m of bonus money - a lot of money, but this guy's worth it as long as he stays healthy) RCB Ellis Polamalu - $3.75m over 3 years FS Wade Qaderi - $1.00m over 1 year These contracts leave us with 45 players signed and $6.45m cap room free (after allowing for the expected $9.35m cost of drafted rookie contracts). We do have a few renegotiations to carry out (notably with LG Zack Martin, LDT Toby Clayton and RCB Grady Linville), so it's unlikely that we'll be doing much in free agency this year. Looking at our roster at this point, there are a few areas that need attention: QB: Not an immediate issue, but would be nice to pick up a QB for the future to groom as Hutchins' replacement WR: While the guys we have are solid, they're not all that young - would be good to pick up a solid youngster to ease into the rotation OT: With Huffman getting to the end of his career, we need a guy who can play at LT (as Skupin looks to be a guy who can only play RT) - also need a backup C DT: I can live with Necaise and Clayton playing opposite Campbell, but wouldn't want to see us starting the two younger guys - a young DT to groom as a starter would be useful LB: Our starters are starting to get on a bit, and there's precious little depth DB: I'm reasonably happy with the starters, but you can never have enough good defensive backs While our options are limited in free agency, we should be able to pick up a couple of impact players through the draft - although we pick fairly late in the first round, we have two second-round picks to work with. SE Drew Adamov was a hot commodity on the free agent market, as I suspected he might be, and signs with Arizona (for over $20m over 3 years!) in week 2. RDT Irv Warren also catches on with another team fairly quickly - he'll play for the Falcons this year. We do go after one player in free agency - LT Andy Fortmann (5th year, 27/45) isn't a great player, but is that rare breed, a young mentor. We already have one young tackle in , and are looking to bring in someone else to play LT at some point. The offer is $7.20m over 3 years, a bit more than I really want to play a backup, but worthwhile for the mentoring side - he signs in week 10. |
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02-20-2007, 05:25 AM
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#128 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: East Lothian, Scotland
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2020 Draft
We start with the long wait that's the 'reward' for a solid season the previous year, and eventually go on the clock when 27 picks have been made. The players I consider taking here are: SE Austin Rice (5.0/5.2) - raw, but good fit for the scheme we run and solid combine C Marvin Pierce (6.1/5.3) - probably early to go after a backup center, but this guy has the potential to be a very good player RT Otis Sims (5.4/5.9) - will be able to play the left side - not strong, but good technique, and would be able to step into the starting lineup fairly quickly SLB Rich Weber (5.7/5.5) - struggles in zone coverage, and would only be able to play outside, but a good player apart from that - will need very little development SILB Horace Robertson (5.5/5.3) - not the best in coverage, but a good player who projects as a solid starter at worst RCB Hugh Wooden (5.7/5.9) - solid combine, good development, good all-round corner, but maybe doesn't have all that good an upside FS Wade Tripplehorn (5.8/5.5) - good coverage skills, decent development, good combine - may be able to play corner, too In terms of filling a need, T Sims is the obvious pick - we'll need a startable tackle sooner rather than later - but I don't feel he gives us best value for the pick here. My gut feel is that ILB Robertson is the best guy to go after here - he's a significant upgrade at LB at worst, and looks like a guy who should be a solid starter for a long time if he develops to his full potential. Robertson is our pick here - he's rated at 42/67 immediately after, so looks to be a solid choice. As always, the guys I was looking at start to come off the board before our next selection: RCB Hugh Wooden (1.30) - 32/56 S Wade Tripplehorn (1.32) - 37/66 RT Otis Sims (2.4) - 31/66 SLB Rich Weber (2.5) - 32/61 SE Austin Rice (2.7) - 30/68 Our first second-rounder is pick 2.15 - I'm still really looking for a starter at this pick, so C Pierce isn't really an option, even though he's about as good a player as there is at this point. Guys I am considering taking here are: TE Kirk Bell (5.6/4.9) - strong blocker, decent receiver, good combine - will need a bit of time to develop, but should be able to start fairly quickly FL Leo Burnett (5.0/5.2) - best receiver left on the board, but a guy I see as being a career 3rd receiver rather than a guy I'd be happy to start SE Orlando McIndoe (4.0/4.2) - raw, but I actually see this guy as having more upside than Burnett - think he'll be there at 2.27 (if not 3.28) C Marvin Pierce (6.1/5.3) - would be the pick here if we needed a center, but we're pretty much set for interior linemen right now RT Bryan Wischhof (5.5/6.1) - top OT on the board - looks like a guy who can play LT, but also looks like the sort of guy who's going to end up at around 50/50 LT Hunter Hartman (5.1/5.6) - no workout, low endurance, but a guy who appears to be a potential starting-quality tackle LDT Phillip Kerr (5.0/5.4) - best of the DT prospects still on the board (in my eyes at least) - not particularly strong, but good technique WLB Justin Small (5.0/4.8) - high volatility makes this guy very much risk/reward, but has _serious_ upside (as in could be a top-end starter - emphasis on 'could'...) SS Thurman Wynn (5.5/5.2) - should be able to switch to corner, and looks to be a good nickel back at worst - had a good combine (4.37 40, 30 strength reps, 10'+ jump) Definitely a lot of guys to choose from here! We do have another pick in the second round (2.27), so should hopefully get at least 2 of these guys, so I'm wanting to go after the guy who's most likely to come off the board before we pick again. S/CB Wynn looks like a guy who would get a lot of playing time this year as a nickel back, while I'm very surprised that a guy with the upside of WLB Small is still on the board. While offensive tackle is a position I'm targeting in this draft, I'm not sure that either Wischhof or Hartman is a significant improvement on the guys we have at the moment (starters will be Huffman and Skupin, with a few high 20/low 30 guys in reserve). McIndoe looks like a guy who might be available in the third round, so I'm going to hold back on receiver right now. There's also a reasonable TE (Sedrick Broderick - 5.0/4.4) who should be around further down, so I'll pass on TE Bell as well. The pick at 2.15 comes down to LB Small or S/CB Wynn - while Small has a higher potential upside, I feel that Wynn is likely to contribute more this year (if he's as good as I think he is, he'll be our nickel back). The pick here is SS Thurman Wynn, who's initially rated at 28/46 - he will switch to CB pretty well, so I go ahead with the switch, resulting in an adjusted rating of 29/54, which I can live with at this point. Both tackles I was looking at come off the board soon after we pick Wynn - Wischhof (26/51) at 2.16, Hartman (25/59) at 2.19. TE Bell (36/58) goes at 2.20, but all of the other players on the list above are still there at 2.27. This makes the pick easy - we go with WLB Justin Small, who gets an initial rating of 22/70. FL Leo Burnett (25/51) is taken at 3.6, with DT Phillip Kerr (22/64) taken at 3.22. C Marvin Pierce (32/74) is taken immediately before our pick - the Seahawks nip in with 3.27 to get a guy who should be a quality center in years to come. SE McIndoe is still there, but is a long way down the receiver list, while TE Broderick is the second-rated TE. Other possibilities here are: RT Irv Horn (4.6/5.1) - strong run blocker, but not as accomplished in pass protection - good value at this point, but not what we need (i.e. a solid LT) RT Zach Lehan (4.4/4.8) - would be able to play LT, but I don't see him as a significant improvement over the guys we have MLB Bo Breeze (4.7/4.6) - I know that we've already picked two LBs, but this guy would be a solid backup at worst (and is a good special-teamer) SLB Paul Stauder (4.9/4.7) - see the comments for Breeze above - solid backup at worst, good special teamer My feeling here is that TE Sedrick Broderick is the best fit here - while he's not the strongest of blockers, I would guess that he's probably a guy who could start fairly quickly and provide Keith Hutchins with a solid additional weapon in the short-range passing game. Our pick here is TE Broderick, who's initially rated at 24/58. The guys on our list stick around for a while, with SLB Stauder (23/49) the first to go at pick 4.16, followed by MLB Breeze at 4.19. While the offensive tackles would be good value at this point, WR Orlando McIndoe is our guy at 4.27 - we need another receiver after losing Adamov, and McEndoe looks to be a decent prospect. His initial rating of 20/53 suggests he'll need a bit of development time, but he should be able to contribute on special teams straight away. RT Irv Horn (22/51) goes at 5.8, which is a pretty good value pick for Kansas City, who get a decent backup tackle for only a fifth-rounder. While RT Lehan is still available at 5.28, we need a backup center more than another backup tackle, so I go with the best C left, Leo Hewko (initial rating of 24/65). Lehan finally goes at 6.10 - our decision to pass looks reasonable, as he's only rated at 19/44. After a run on QBs during the sixth round, the QB pool looks fairly weak (which is a pity, as I tend to use 6th and 7th round picks on developmental QBs). The one guy I think may be worth taking is QB Reggie Froehlich (3.7/4.2 - not the most physically gifted guy, but decent development, reasonably intelligent and good intangibles), but I'm happy to hold back until the 7th for him. We do need a DT to be the fourth guy in our rotation - possible candidates for this vacancy are LDT Thomas Kravitz (4.1/4.4 - raw and a little small, but looks like a decent run-stuffer), RDT Deion Pullen (3.9/4.2) - not the strongest, but decent development and technique) and RDT Joel Skeen (3.9/4.2 - decent combine, and looks like he can play both run and pass fairly well). I go with Skeen, who comes in with an initial rating of 15/46. Our last pick of the draft (7.28) is used on QB Reggie Froehlich, although his initial rating of 10/39 does not bode well for his chances of making the team after camp. Miami offer us a trade immediately after the draft - a fourth-round pick for LDE Juan Hansen. This would mean us taking a hit of around $3m on next year's cap and losing a guy we expect to start at defensive end, so it's a fairly easy trade to turn down. |
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02-20-2007, 05:27 AM
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#129 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: East Lothian, Scotland
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2020 Late Free Agency
The initial rookie offers are a bit of a mixed bag - first-round pick Robertson not signingn our initial offer isn't a surprise, but we're usually better at getting the later-round picks signed - TE Broderick (3rd-round) and SE McIndoe (4th-round) both reject the contracts we offer. We go after our usual crop of rookie free agents, including this year's challenger to P Levon Howard: RB Bo Prall (28/41) - $1.17m over 2 years (signed week 1) TE Tony Korzuk (9th year, 32/32, mentor) - $2.82m over 2 years (worth bringing in a mentor to our young TEs - signed week 1)) FL Tom Nelson (22/49) - $1.17m over 2 years (signed week 3 - ratings go to 23/55 after signing) P Roosevelt Houston (36/61) - $1.17m over 2 years (signed week 1) WLB Marshall Poston (16/52) - $1.17m over 2 years (apparently 61% developed, which suggests that he's not going to reach that 50-odd potential - worth a look, though - signed week 3) The three remaining unsigned rookies put pen to paper at the end of the free agency period, and we head to camp with 59 players signed and $4.28m cap room free. (We do have a few contracts to renegotiate, but I'll do this after camp.) Rookies before and after camp Code:
The high-round picks seem to have come through camp fairly well, with LBs Robertson and Small looking like they are going to be solid players. CB Wynn now looks to be a seriously good pick, as he's one of those rare players to improve their potential during training camp (although asking him to lose a little weight (he's now 191) may have helped here). The rest of our draft picks and free agent pickups are a mixed bag - most had a fairly significant drop in potential during camp. One other training camp ratings change worth mentioning here - C Willie Barber had a veteran breakout, and is now rated at 76/76 (he was rated mid-50s before camp). I've been looking for a decent punter for a while now - am not happy with last year's starter Howard, and don't see rookie free agent Houston being good enough to displace him. There is a decent veteran punter on the free agent list - P Anthony Hawks (9th year, 57/57) has been Tennessee's punter for the last 8 years, and has performed respectably well. I sign him to a 1-year deal worth the veteran minimum of $1.40m. |
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02-20-2007, 05:30 AM
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#130 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: East Lothian, Scotland
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2020 Roster
With the signing of Hawks, we have 60 players on the roster at this point - 7 cuts to be made. Code:
The cuts detailed above leave us with 54 players on the roster, so one more cut to make. The guys on the bubble here are QB Froehlich, RB Burnett and LTs Lindsay and Bishop. While Burnett has been productive for us in the past, his increasing tendency towards fumbling doesn't inspire confidence in me - I'm also comfortable going with the three backs that this move would leave us with, so Burnett is the last guy to be cut. With our 53-man roster settled, I now turn to renegotiating a few contracts - we have $5.47m of cap room to work with. LG Zack Martin is starting to decline, but he's still a very good player, and will be a starter for a few more years - we agree a 3-year deal worth $25.50m. LDT Toby Clayton signs a 3-year deal worth $12.90m, while RCB Grady Linville accepts $5.40m over 3 years. |
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05-19-2007, 07:38 AM
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#131 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: East Lothian, Scotland
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Apologies for not posting in this dynasty thread for a while - just got out of the way of playing SP for a bit. I do have a bit that I'd written but not posted, then I'll get on with the new stuff (starting with the 2021 offseason - have since added the 6.0e patch, which may make a bit of difference...)
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05-19-2007, 07:42 AM
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#132 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: East Lothian, Scotland
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2020 Preseason
No changes to the gameplans for this season. Week 2: San Diego 16-13 Philadelphia Initial signs are good for rookie free agent RB Bo Prall (12-62) and second-year QB Tyrus Monpoto (10/12-114-1-0), but QB Reggie Froehlich (8/19-48-0-0) struggled, and the offensive line didn't have their best game. The defence, missing a few starters, played a decent game. Week 3: Philadelphia 24-16 New Jersey Another good game for RB Prall (15-76-2), while Monpoto (6/8-53-1-0) and Froehlich (12/15-93-0-1) had decent outings. The defence put good pressure on the Jets' QBs (4 sacks, 5 hurries) and did a solid job against the run. Week 4: Denver 10-34 Philadelphia A pretty dominant performance, with all areas of the team working well - while our top two QBs got some action, Monpoto (12/15-88-1-0) played most of the game, and got good support from RB Prall (16-112-1). The defence harried the Denver QBs all game, while not allowing them to establish a running game at all. Week 5: Philadelphia 19-23 Miami A tight game all the way, but we came out on the wrong side of the result. More important is our injury status, with two starters (C Barber and SS Wilcox) out for at least a month. 2020 Regular Season Week 1: Philadelphia 24-19 Dallas A good win to open the season on a hot day in Texas. The Cowboys scored 10 unanswered points to pull within 5, but the Eagles offence managed to run off the last 4:24 to seal the victory. Hutchins (17/23-216-3-0) led the offence, hitting nine different receivers, while Salerno (2 sacks) was the standout on defence. Week 2: Philadelphia (1-0) 13-17 Cincinnati (0-1) One of those games where the team struggled to get going - the offence was ineffective, and the defence gave up almost 200 yards on the ground. Not a good game for our injury list either - MLB Robertson is out for a few weeks, while SE Oskolkoff and CB Jordan both picked up knocks which will see them miss at least one game. Week 3: Philadelphia (1-1) 20-13 New Orleans (1-1) Bo Prall scored the go-ahead TD with 1:40 left in the game, and Grady Linville sealed it by picking off Saints QB Keith May in a very useful road win over a strong NFC team. Hutchins (29/36-233-1-0) led the offence with good support from RBs Compton (12-67) and Prall (10-53), while the defence did a good job of pressuring May and containing a decent New Orleans ground game. Week 4: Bye (at a useful time, when we have a few niggling injuries to clear) Week 5: Philadelphia (2-1) 40-17 Seattle (2-2) Three wins out of four road games is definitely a good start to the season! This win was down to QB Keith Hutchins (28/37-317-4-0) and a strong defensive showing, with the Seattle QB completing only 16 of 47 passes, and being picked twice (both by the now healthy Jordan). Week 6: Arizona (3-2) 31-21 Philadelphia (3-1) We finally make it through to our home opener, then play a game like this... The Cardinals scored TDs after a fumbled kickoff return and a blocked punt, and the Eagles were unable to overcome these errors. QB Hutchins (22/42-252-2-2) was forced to pass more than he would have liked, and the Arizona passing game was able to pick the Philly defence apart. Week 7: Washington (1-5) 10-38 Philadelphia (3-2) This is more like it in terms of performance - a dominant game against a weaker team. While the Redskins were able to put up similar yardage numbers, winning the turnover battle 4-0 is always going to make a big difference. Hutchins (17/21-137-2-0) got game MVP, but Shannon Long (8 tackles, 1 sack, 1 interception, 1 forced fumble) had a very good game. Week 8: Philadelphia (4-2) 34-3 New York (4-2) Another dominant performance against a division rival - the defence, in particular, completely snuffed out the Giants offence, allowing 160 total yards and 7 first downs, with the New York field goal coming on a drive where they started on the Eagles 14. Hutchins (20/30-238-1-0) was solid, with Samanta (6-86, plus an 86-yard punt return TD) having his best game of the year. Starting WLB Shannon Long will miss the next month after needing an emergency appendectomy after the game - rookie WLB Justin Small will deputise. Week 9: Philadelphia (5-2) 3-14 St. Louis (3-4) Another of those games where our offence couldn't get going. The defence did a good job of limiting the Rams for most of the game, but a Hutchins interception gave the St. Louis offence 8 yards to drive (which they did comfortably) for all the points they were going to need. Mid-season summary Code:
Despite our winning record, these are the numbers of a fairly average team - while the defence has been solid, we're giving up more yards on the ground than I'd like, and the offence has struggled for consistency. |
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05-19-2007, 07:43 AM
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#133 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: East Lothian, Scotland
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Week 10: San Francisco (5-3) 3-27 Philadelphia (5-3)
Back to the Dr. Jekyll Eagles this week... The offence was solid and consistent, led by Hutchins (21/24-263-2-0) and the receivers (Samanta 8-71, Oskolkoff 4-70, Burgess 3-70-1), while DT Campbell (2.5 sacks) led the defence in terrorising the 49ers QB. Week 11: Dallas (5-4) 26-20 Philadelphia (6-3) (OT) The Cowboys have been our bogey team recently, but it looked like things were changing when we took a 20-3 lead into half-time. Dallas came back with 23 unanswered points, though, with QB Lee burning the Eagles secondary for 438 passing yards. Backup RB Dominic Sweeney was lost for the year in this game with a serious knee injury. Veteran RB Shane Sample (9th year, 32/32) was signed to take Sweeney's place in the RB rotation. Week 12: Cleveland (8-2) 24-27 Philadelphia (6-4) A case of hanging on by our fingernails at the end, but a good win over a solid team, despite the secondary struggling for the second straight game. The Eagles offence was efficient rather than explosive, with Hutchins (20/26-158-2-0) doing his usual solid job, while starting safeties Wilcox and Lowe both had interceptions. We need to go back out and sign another RB this week, as rookie RB Bo Prall is out for 6 weeks after pulling a calf muscle in this game, and goes on IR - the guy we sign isn't going to need much time to get used to the system, though, as we bring back RB Chad Burnett (5th year, 29/29). Week 13: Detroit (4-7) 10-38 Philadelphia (7-4) The Lions are definitely not the same team without their star QB Fiebelkorn, and it showed here. Hutchins (19/24-276-2-0) and Oskolkoff (7-171) had big days, while DT Toby Clayton (6 tackles, 4 sacks, 2 hurries, 3 knockdowns) was instrumental in chasing the Lions's starting QB. Week 14: Philadelphia (8-4) 26-15 Baltimore (8-4) A big road win against a very good team - the defence shut down one of the more prolific passing offences in the league, while the Eagles offence were able to move the ball with both pass (Hutchins 20/28-188-1-0) and run (Compton 20-86-1, Sample 17-114). Week 15: Philadelphia (9-4) 24-27 Washington (2-11) (OT) Another game where our opponent was able to burn our secondary, this time for the little matter of 380 yards. The Eagles offence put in a solid effort, with Hutchins (23/30-194-1-0, 1 rush TD) having another good game, but our pass rush was ineffective, giving our secondary too much to do. Week 16: Pittsburgh (7-7) 24-38 Philadelphia (9-5) A game of big plays, but the Eagles were able to make more of the plays that mattered. Hutchins (20/27-224-2-0) got good support from his receivers (Samanta 6-59-1, Burgess 4-68-1, Oskolkoff 4-90-1) and running game (Compton 20-82-1, Burnett 14-69-1), while the defence did enough to keep the Steelers offence in check. This win came at a major cost, though, with QB Keith Hutchins suffering a broken leg late in the game. O.J. Hume will start in week 17, with Tyrus Monpoto as the #2 QB. Our week 17 game against New York is very important, as both teams have a 10-5 record. The winner will get a first-round bye (and possibly home-field advantage), while the loser will end up as a wild card team. Not the ideal situation to have a QB making his first career start... Week 17: New York (10-5) 37-10 Philadelphia (10-5) The inexperience at the quarterback position really hurt us in this game - neither Hume or Monpoto were able to produce, despite good support from our running game (Compton 16-85-1, Burnett 11-72), and the Giants took full advantage. In a very close NFC playoff race, the loss drops us to either 5th or 6th seed (depending on how the tiebreaker with Tampa Bay turns out) - we will travel to St. Louis for the wild card round. The Giants get the week off, and are seeded #2. |
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05-19-2007, 07:44 AM
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#134 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: East Lothian, Scotland
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2020 Playoffs
Wild Card Round Our opponents for this game are the St. Louis Rams, who won the NFC West division with a 10-6 record (all six NFC playoff teams finished at either 11-5 or 10-6). This Rams team is led by their defence, with DE Benjamin Willis (13.0 sacks, 22 hurries) leading the front seven and S Larry Mayes (6 interceptions) the best player in the secondary. The offence is relatively ordinary - the passing game, with QB Phil Wickland (3,248 passing yards, 83.7 QB rating) in control, is better than the running game, where St. Louis run a 2-back system. Apart from the obvious big injury to Hutchins, the Eagles are in reasonable shape for this game, with all other starters able to play. The Rams won the toss, and got the ball first - their opening drive was a disaster, however, with Salerno hitting RB Wayne in the backfield, forcing a fumble. Eagles CB Ackerman recovered the ball, and took it into the endzone for a TD - 7-0 Philadelphia, with just over half a minute played. Neither offence was able to do anything with their next possession, but St. Louis got on the board with a long field goal later in the first quarter to make it 7-3. The Philadelphia offence showed some signs of life on their next drive, but the Rams defence forced a punt with the Eagles just outside of field goal range. A good Hawks punt pinned the Rams back deep in their own end at the end of the first quarter. Philadelphia's offence started the second quarter in St. Louis territory after a short punt, and were able to get into field goal range this time (but no further) - Oden hit from 49 yards out to put the Eagles ahead by 7 once again. The Rams offence then went on the march, but stalled inside the red zone - the field goal attempt was true, making it 10-6 to Philadelphia. Neither team was able to get into scoring range before the half, so the Eagles went into the break 4 points ahead despite not producing much of a threat offensively to this point. A 30-yard Qaderi kick return to open the third quarter gave the Eagles good field position, and a mix of Hume passes and Burnett runs put the Eagles into field goal range. The Rams came up with a sack on third down to stop the drive and push Oden back, but the veteran kicker got enough into the kick to make the resulting 50-yarder - Eagles lead 13-6 five minutes into the third quarter. Consecutive sacks of Wickland forced a punt from the Rams, but the Eagles were unable to move the ball either - in fact, neither offence mounted a significant drive for the remainder of the third quarter. Some great punting from Hawks gave Philadelphia the field position advantage, though, with the Rams starting the fourth quarter pinned back at their own 3. Wickland was able to extricate his team from this hole, though, with a combination of accurate passing and timely scrambles - the building momentum of the drive, however, was halted by a holding penalty. After falling a couple of yards short on third down, the Rams went for 4th and 2 at the Eagles 31, but Hansen managed to force Wickland into a bad throw. The decision didn't hurt the Rams, though, as Compton fumbled on the next play, giving the Rams' offence the ball back inside field goal range. Philadelphia's offence allowed one first down, but didn't let St. Louis get any further - the resulting field goal pulled the Rams within 4 at 13-9. With just over 7 minutes left in the game, the Eagles were able to put a bit of a drive together, taking over 4 minutes off the clock, and pinning St. Louis back deep in their own end once again. Needing to drive 98 yards in the last 2:40 for the go-ahead TD, Wickland hit one nice pass to get out of the shadow of the goalposts, but pushed for too much on his next throw and was intercepted by Eagles S Lowe. The Rams' defence gave their offence one last chance by forcing a punt, but Wickland was unable to move his team past midfield. Hume took a knee to seal the win in his first playoff start, the Eagles moving on to the Divisional Round after a 13-9 win. It's fairly safe to say that this was not a classic - the Eagles ended up gaining only 111 total yards and 7 first downs, with the only TD of the game being scored by the Philadelphia defence. While the Rams' offence was more productive, it also made more mistakes - the Eagles special teams, particularly P Anthony Hawks (42.1 net average on 7 punts) were instrumental in keeping Philadelphia in good field position for most of the game. The statistical standouts were all on the defensive side for Philadelphia - FS Lowe came up with the big late interception, while Salerno (1.5 sacks, 2 hurries) and Hansen (1.0 sacks, 2 hurries) were part of a very solid pass rush. The offensive stats were as unimpressive as 111 total yards would make you think, but Hume (12/17-58-0-0) did the main thing we were looking for - he didn't turn it over. The win means that the Eagles take a trip to Carolina in the Divisional round. Divisional Round Carolina are a big running team, with RB Collins (1483 yards, 4.45 ypc, 11 TDs) the main threat, backed up by a solid second option of RB Mustard (874 yards, 4.65 ypc, 5 TDs). Their passing game, however, is unexceptional, with two solid veterans doing a reasonable job at QB - 5th-year QB Jim Roseman has been getting the starts late in the year, but QB Cedric Anthony is seen as a slightly better player by my scout. Outside of FL Sammie Perdue (959 yards, 7 TDs), there isn't a lot of threat from the Panthers' receivers. On the other side of the ball, Carolina have an efficient defence without any real standout performers - still good enough to be 8th in yards allowed and 5th in points allowed, so it's a good unit. The Panthers started with the momentum despite Philadelphia getting the ball first - Hume was sacked on consecutive plays to force a punt. The Eagles defence was also able to force a stop, but only just outside field goal range - Carolina definitely on top in terms of field position early on. A three and out from Philadelphia made things worse for the Eagles, and this time Carolina took advantage - a 41-yard field goal opened the scoring. A 30-yard pass from Hume raised hopes of the Eagles offence mounting a drive, but no further progress was made, and Hawks was called on yet again to punt it away. In return, Carolina's offence put together a decent drive, but this stalled just outside of field goal range - the quarter ended with Philadelphia on their own 7 after a good Panthers punt. The poor field position didn't hurt the Eagles too much, though, as Hume passes and runs from Burnett and Compton took the Philly offence down the field - the drive was capped by a perfectly-thrown pass from Hume to Samanta for a 30-yard TD. The Eagles defence made the 7-3 lead stand up for a little while by stuffing the Panthers on their next drive, but the Philadelphia offence was also unable to make much progress on their next drive. A perfect strike from QB Anthony to FL Perdue put Carolina back in front - the 40-yard TD pass made it 10-7, and was the last score of the second quarter. Carolina's offence came out of the half-time break firing on all cylinders, marching the ball down the field with relative ease. RB Mustard applied the finishing touches on the drive, scoring with a 12-yard run to put his team up by 10 at 17-7. With backup QB O.J. Hume in control of the offence, this wasn't going to be easy for Philadelphia... Neither offence did much in the remainder of the third quarter, leaving the Eagles with it all to do in the fourth. Carolina started the fourth quarter with the ball, and were moving into scoring range when backup S Qaderi picked off an Anthony pass near midfield. The turnover didn't hurt the Panthers, though, as their pass rush came through with consecutive sacks to force the Eagles back. A clock-draining drive saw the Carolina offence run over 5 minutes off the clock, but the Panthers' kicker missed a chance to extend the lead, missing a 44-yard kick short. With the Eagles now in desperation mode, Hume tried to force the ball too much, and was picked off, ending Philadelphia's last real chance of a comeback. The Panthers defence held the rest of the way, and Carolina advance to the NFC Championship Game after a 17-7 win. Looking at the stats, it's surprising that this game was as close as 17-7 - the Eagles were totally unable to get their running game going, leading to Hume being under serious pressure virtually every time he dropped back to pass. On the other side of the ball, the Panthers RBs gained consistent yardage, allowing QB Anthony plenty of time to find his receivers. Not a great way to end the season, but I can't say that I expected to get this far in the playoffs after the injury to Hutchins. |
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05-19-2007, 07:45 AM
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#135 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: East Lothian, Scotland
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2020 Summary
Code:
Not our best season, as the defence appeared to regress significantly this year - the run defence wasn't great, and the lack of a consistent pass rush really hurt the pass defence. On offence, things were going reasonably well until Hutchins suffered a broken leg in our week 16 game - while Hume is a respectable backup QB, he's not capable of carrying the team in the same way that Hutchins does. 2020 Awards Only one this year - QB Keith Hutchins was voted onto the All-Pro Second Team. Looking forward to next season... The pressure is certainly starting to build for this team - we have a few key veterans who are on the verge of retirement (notably QB Hutchins, who's just finished his 13th year), so our window is definitely closing. We have done a decent job, however, of bringing in solid young players over the last few years, so all is not lost just yet... |
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05-19-2007, 07:45 AM
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#136 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: East Lothian, Scotland
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2021 season
Herb's evaluation for 2020: 63/100/0/80, for an overall score of 38. The team made a loss of $123.59m on revenues of $242.63m last year - this is pretty much wholly due to the team's contribution to our stadium upgrade ($129.87m). Apart from that, the team is in reasonable financial shape, although ticket and suite revenue was down slightly due to not having a home playoff game. Two retirements this year: S Toby Chubb, a solid veteran who played his last two years in Philadephia, and DT Christian Campbell, who played his entire career in Philadelphia. Christian Campbell was the fifth overall pick in the 2009 draft, my first year as GM of the franchise, and turned out to be everything that you would expect from a high draft pick. He was the anchor of our defensive line for 12 seasons, starting 177 games, and was both solid against the run (505 tackles, 10.4 tackle %) and a useful pass-rusher (59.5 sacks, 110 hurries, 4.8% pass rush %). While he made only one All-Pro team (was a 1st Team DT in 2016), he was one of our best defensive players for his entire career, and will be very hard to replace. Staff hiring I'm not trying to be boring in this section, but no changes again - I'm very happy with the coaching and scouting staff in place. Head coach Wesley Bandle and co-ordinators J.C. Clemons and Kent Ford are all out of contract next year, though. Pre-Free Agency We start the season with 39 players signed and $32.66m of a $179.8m salary cap free. We have our standard one pick in each round - these range from 23rd to 27th, with our first-rounder being 1.26 - with an expected rookie signing cost of $7.77m. Quite a few free agents this year: RB Shane Sample (10th year, 33/33) - mid-season injury cover, won't be resigned RB Chad Burnett (6th year, 29/29) - mid-season injury cover, won't be resigned SE Josh Musial (8th year, 32/32) - likely to be our sixth receiver this year, so we may let him go LT Roger Lindsay (5th year, 23/47) - has been decent in limited action, but simply isn't developing - probably won't try to resign RT Norman Huffman (13th year, 44/44) - has been a great servant to the franchise, but is only going to be a backup if we bring him back P Anthony Hawks (10th year, 60/60) - was an improvement over the guys we had before, but still only competent rather than good - will bring him back at minsal only K Matt Oden (15th year, 65/65) - still a very solid kicker, and will be franchised MLB Les Schwartz (10th year, 48/48) - has been replaced as our starting MLB, but would be a good guy to bring back as a backup/special teamer SLB Rickey Rayburn (8th year, 13/13) - still one of the best special teams guys in the league - will resign for minsal FS Wade Qaderi (5th year, 34/34) - would like to bring him back, but he wasn't happy at the end of last year We also have a few restricted free agents: RB Dominic Sweeney (4th year, 30/37) - a guy who's been solid for us, but will miss pretty much the entire season with the injury he suffered last year TE Harold Galloway (3rd year, 35/44) - decent receiver, good special teamer - will resign him SE Freddie Hampton (3rd year, 35/35) - a useful 4th or 5th receiver - will resign him RCB Matthew Ackerman (4th year, 37/45) - it's always a good idea to have reasonable depth at DB, and this is the sort of guy you need for that - will resign him We have a few guys who would benefit from a bit of time in Europe over the summer - LBs Robertson and Small, and CB Wynn are the obvious candidates, in my opinion. While Robertson is already the most developed of the three, he's also the one who's going to get the most playing time (he's our starting MLB, while the other guys don't start and get most of their playing time in nickel sets), so Robertson is the guy to get the call. No change to ticket prices this year - still at 50/60/80/100/240/100,000. |
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05-20-2007, 04:17 PM
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#137 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: East Lothian, Scotland
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2021 Free Agency
This year's free agency started with signing K Oden to a longer-term deal and getting the restricted free agents under contract. K Matt Oden - $9.60m over 3 years (a bit of a risk for a guy in his 15th year, but he's performed well enough in past years to deserve it) TE Harold Galloway - $860k over 1 year (3rd year guy, so will be restricted next year too) SE Freddie Hampton - $860k over 1 year RCB Matthew Ackerman - $3.66m over 3 years These deals leave us with $18.37m of cap room (after allowing for the expected cost of signing draft picks) and 43 players signed. We do have a few areas that need some attention: RB: An upgrade at starter would be nice, but need at least one more guy here TE: We have three respectable guys, but no stand-out to start for us OL: Need someone to start at LT, and some additional depth at T and G P: Want to either bring Hawks back or sign someone else who can do a solid job for us DT: I could live with starting Necaise and Clayton, but would be good to bring in another starting-calibre guy LB: We're fairly well set for starters, but depth is needed S: We have two solid starters in Wilcox and Lowe, but no-one behind them Looking down the roster, we also have quite a few guys in the last year of their current deals: QB Keith Hutchins (14th year, 81/81) - the backbone of our offence - think our best bet is to franchise him next year (as he could retire at pretty much any time...) FL Derrick Burgess (9th year, 54/54) - has been a useful contributor, but should be replacable - don't like giving extensions to guys on the decline RG Melvin Fau (4th year, 63/63) - solid starter who's worth giving a decent extension to LDT Reggie Necaise (6th year, 45/45) - borderline starter who's never going to produce big numbers, but is a good guy to have on the D-line SS Xavier Wilcox (4th year, 75/75) - has been a bit injury-prone, and is never going to be great in coverage, but is an important player on this defence. Fau signs an extension worth $20.8m over 5 years, with Necaise getting $11.8m over 4 years and Wilcox $34.0m over 4 years - these moves leave us with $8.63m of cap room free to use in free agency. With 43 players signed and seven draft picks, there is a bit of freedom to look at what's available in free agency. The first move we make in free agency is to make an offer to P Anthony Hawks - $3.18m over 2 years is minsal plus a small bonus, which is reasonable for Hawks. He signs in week 5. Rickey Rayburn is also brought back for a year on a minsal contract for 1 year - that's all we do in free agency, though, as there are no young players I feel are worth spending the money that would be needed to bring them in. |
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05-20-2007, 04:17 PM
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#138 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: East Lothian, Scotland
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2021 Draft
We have our standard allocation of seven picks this year, ranging from 23rd to 27th in the round - our first-round pick is 1.26. This is a fairly strong draft, though, so we should have a chance of picking up a quality player even that low down. The teams up the top, though, have a couple of franchise-calibre QBs to go after (although both look a bit raw...) Almost inevitably, the QBs go 1-2 (Washington get a guy who may be a superstar in Justin Hanks - his 12/83 rating suggests that he'll need a couple of years to develop, though, and he may struggle to get playing time behind a solid QB who was picked in the top 5 last year...) After a relatively long wait (in which quite a few solid-looking defensive linemen are taken), the Eagles get on the clock, with the following guys looking like possible selections at this point: RB Sammie Peterson (5.7/6.0) - a bit raw and doesn't have great endurance, but looks like the real deal apart from that TE Charlie Kelley (5.4/4.7) - maybe a bit early to take a raw prospect like this, but a solid all-round prospect LT Phillip Webster (4.8/5.3) - not the prototypical left tackle, but a solid run blocker who would step straight in and start LT Emmanuel Lester (4.4/4.8) - raw, but looks like the best tackle prospect remaining RDE Mel Manning (5.2/5.7) - not a need position and an undersized DE, but definitely a quality prospect RDT Chuck Cooley (5.7/6.2) - a guy who probably won't ever be a full-time starter, but a good run-stopper who should be able to contribute from the start SLB Jack Malone (5.3/5.1) - again, not a need position, but a very solid all-round linebacker (could play inside, too, which raises possibilities of 3-4...) SS Wesley McNeil (5.5/5.2) - good coverage safety, but not a position where we need a starter SS Butch Harvey (5.3/5.0) - will need time to develop, but projects as a top-end starter While there are better players (in terms of value) out there, I feel that we need to fill that gaping hole at LT before looking at other positions. While Webster is more ready to play, I see Lester as the better long-term prospect - pick 1.26 is used on LT Emmanuel Lester, who rates at 21/65 immediately after the pick (which looks fairly respectable at this point). Inevitably, the guys I was looking at start to come off the board right away: 1.27 - RB Sammie Peterson (50/62) 1.31 - DT Chuck Cooley (33/53) - decent player, but probably not great value as a first-rounder 2.8 - SS Wesley McNeil (40/65) 2.17 - RDE Mel Manning (27/63) - very good value at this point, particularly after taking a lesser player at DE in the first round This means that a few of the guys I was considering with the first-round pick are still on the board. TE Kelley is the best player at a position of need, but I really like the look of SLB Malone, particularly as we don't have a lot of depth at linebacker (and Shannon Long is going into his 10th season). Pick 2.25 is used on SLB Jack Malone, who is initially rated at 29/67 - looks like a guy who can be a quality backup this year, and work his way into the starting lineup over the next couple of years. I really like the value from this pick, as I would have been happy to take him at 1.26 if linebacker was a bigger need. I did consider trading up to get one of the other players I was looking at, but decided to wait a little. Unfortunately, SS Harvey is taken at 2.27, and looks like an absolute steal at that point (rated at 25/82). With TE Kelley being the only starter-quality TE remaining on the board, I decide to make a trade - Tampa Bay accept the Eagles second-round pick next year for pick 3.6, which we use to take TE Charlie Kelley - initial impressions suggest that the trade was worthwhile, with Kelley rated at 29/69. If this rating holds up, this may finally be the solution to our problem TE position... LT Phillip Webster is finally taken at 3.8, and looks like a very solid pick at that spot with an initial rating of 28/59. Our original third-round pick comes round at 3.24, and we still have a few areas that need to be addressed - a potential starter at running back would be very useful, youth at wide receiver is a longer-term need, while we still need depth on the offensive and pretty much all the way through on defence. Possibilities are: RB Sammie Shipman (4.4/4.7) - not all that fast or strong, but a guy who looks like he's going to be productive nevertheless FL Rondell Vance (4.6/4.8) - very much a possession receiver, but has good hands and will go over the middle - would be a good complement to the guys we have RG Ross Conway (5.1/4.8) - will struggle with pass-blocking, but a strong run-blocker LT Steven England (4.8/5.3) - while I've already taken a guy at this position, this is a guy who projects as a solid backup at worst LDE Winfred Sticha (4.7/5.2) - big defensive end who could play inside - more of a pure pass-rusher, though, so would be a situational guy in our rotation LDT Scott McNown (4.6/5.0) - not the strongest, but solid against the run and a good reader of the play - looks like a guy who could develop into a starter ILB Erik Shannon (4.6/4.5) - solid inside linebacker, particularly good in coverage (a good fit for us, as starting MLB Robertson isn't all that good against the pass) Again, it looks like there are a lot of players who would be solid value here, so trading for another third-rounder might be a very good move. Most of the guys in the list above are a fair bit of the way down the list at their position. This pick is used on ILB Erik Shannon, as I feel that he's most likely to be taken in the next few picks - an initial rating of 22/60 isn't quite what I expected (thought he was a bit more developed than that), but we'll have to wait and see how he turns out. Guys coming off the board in the next few picks: 3.29 LT Steven England (22/45) 4.8 FL Rondell Vance (19/55) 4.15 RG Ross Conway (21/56) I managed to resist the temptation to trade another of next year's picks to go after one of the guys on the list above - I'm a little surprised that I still have quite a few to choose from at this point. As RB is the biggest need (it's as simple as we really need a guy who can start for us), the pick at 4.23 is Sammie Shipman - initial rating is 31/48, which suggests that he may well be our starter come opening day. A big run on offensive linemen means that the two defensive linemen I was looking at fall into the middle of the fifth round, so I decide to give up our fourth-round pick next year to acquire pick 5.7 from San Francisco. This pick is used on DT Scott McNown, who comes in with a rating of 19/59 - looks like he should be a solid backup at the least. DE Sticha is taken at 5.24 (rated at 24/42, so think I may have gone with the right guy here...) As usual, the last few picks go on depth - 5.27 is used to take SS Kelly Lynn (18/54) - must have been hard growing up when your parents have lumbered you with two girls' names... Our pick at 6.26 is SE Fred Jurkiewicz (19/34), who will compete for the sixth receiver slot, and 7.25 goes on our annual developmental QB prospect, QB Jay Griffin (16/42). A slightly bigger draft than we initially had in mind, but it certainly seemed to be a pretty deep group of guys this year - will just have to wait and see if trading a couple of next year's picks was worthwhile... Rookie signing goes fairly well - only first-round pick Lester and sixth-rounder Jurkiewicz decide to wait on a better offer. (Not sure why Fred decided not to sign - if he's going to cause problems, it's not a big loss simply to not bother to sign him...) |
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05-20-2007, 04:19 PM
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#139 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: East Lothian, Scotland
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2021 Late Free Agency
A few rookie free agents to go after here... QB Otis Zaiser (16/44) - $1.22m over 2 years (minsal with minimal bonus) - signed week 3 RB Earnest McIndoe (30/47) - $1.22m over 2 years - signed week 1 RB Jumbo Marceau (32/41) - $1.22m over 2 years (with the intention of moving to receiver - changed ratings to 13/45) - signed week 1 FB Cris Lane (32/52) - $1.22m over 2 years - signed week 1 SE Dominic Weintraub (20/52) - $1.22m over 2 years - signed week 3 RT Martin Brooks (22/47) - $1.22m over 2 years - signed week 2 LDT Julio Hartman (21/45) - $1.22m over 2 years - signed week 2 ILB Albert Gaines (20/43) - $510k over 1 year - signed week 1 SS Shawn McGuire (19/41) - $1.22m over 2 years - signed week 1 Lester and Jurkiewicz sign their rookie deals, and we head to training camp. Players before and after camp Code:
A bit of a mixed bag, with first-round pick Lester particularly disappointing - we may be in trouble at left tackle this season... There are some bits of good news, though - in particular, TE Kelley looks like he's going to be a very good player. |
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05-20-2007, 04:22 PM
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#140 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: East Lothian, Scotland
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2021 Roster
We take 63 players to camp this year, so a few cuts to be made. Code:
The cuts detailed above leave us with 54 players on the roster - the last cut is RB Bo Prall, a guy who would only contribute if he was getting a reasonable number of carries (the other RBs are decent special-teamers). |
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05-22-2007, 10:38 AM
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#141 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: East Lothian, Scotland
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2021 Preseason
Week 2: Jacksonville 20-6 Philadelphia Not much offence here, but that probably shouldn't come as a shock given I was playing most of the backups, including the two young QBs. Week 3: Philadelphia 27-17 Cleveland Better on offence, with Monpoto running the offence better. DE Flannery had a solid game here, and was MVP after posting a sack, 4 hurries and a couple of knockdowns. Week 4: Philadelphia 10-0 Tennessee Tight defensive game, but the offence just about managed to put enough points on the board. Defensively, things went very well, putting consistent pressure on the Titans' QBs and giving up very little yardage. Week 5: Cincinnati 21-3 Philadelphia The starters go back in to shake off the rust - looks like there was plenty of rust to shake off! A few injuries, but none to starters - backups C Hewko and CB Ackerman will miss about a month, while FL Weintraub is gone for the year after tearing a triceps. |
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05-22-2007, 10:39 AM
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#142 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: East Lothian, Scotland
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2021 Season
Week 1: Philadelphia 23-13 Washington Good solid start to the year, with Hutchins (23/29-241-2-0) spreading the ball about with some success. On defence, the run defence wasn't as good as it could have been, but the Redskins never really looked like staying close once the Eagles went ahead. Week 2: Philadelphia (1-0) 24-34 Denver (1-0) Tough game on the road, with the Denver offence pretty much having its way with our defence, racking up 440 total yards, including 187 on the ground at over 6.5 yards per carry. The Eagles offence was solid (Hutchins was 33/44-241-2-0), but couldn't do enough to keep up with the Broncos. We're starting to look a little light at receiver at this point, with SE McIndoe pretty much out for the year after needing shoulder surgery. With only 4 receivers on the roster (and Samanta playing through a thumb injury), reinforcements are required - SE Grady Sullivan (4th year, 31/31) is the guy added to the roster. Week 3: Philadelphia (1-1) 27-3 Detroit (2-0) The last of three straight road games to open the season goes about as well as could be expected - solid offensive performance, led by Hutchins (24/29-223-1-0) as usual, with the defence doing a good job of keeping the Lions in check. Week 4: Atlanta (0-3) 10-17 Philadelphia (2-1) Just a light breeze for this game - only 59mph... Unsurprisingly, it was a scrappy game, with the Falcons coming back from 10-0 behind to tie the game with 74 seconds left, then getting the ball back with a chance to win the game - Jordan's sack and forced fumble (his third of the day) took the game the other way, though, with Wilcox taking it back for the winning score. Week 5: New Orleans (3-1) 21-27 Philadelphia (3-1) A game with playoff implications, as the Saints are usually there or there abouts in the NFC. A big game from Keith Hutchins (22/27-261-2-0, plus a TD on the ground) was the difference, although the Saints had a couple of chances to go ahead in the last few minutes of the game. Week 6: Philadelphia (4-1) 10-17 Carolina (3-2) Not our best offensive game, with very little in the way of yardage or big plays - the defence played a solid game, but wasn't able to pick up the slack. Week 7: Philadelphia (4-2) 24-34 Tampa Bay (3-3) Another tough game, this time for the defence as the Bucs moved the ball at will both on the ground and through the air. Hutchins (21/31-252-3-1) did his best, with Samanta (8-119-1) his main target, but the offence wasn't able to keep up in a shootout. Week 8: New York (3-3) 10-16 Philadelphia (4-3) (OT) Big overtime win here - the Giants tied the game just after halfway through the fourth quarter, and had the better of the chances to score through the rest of the fourth quarter and for most of overtime - two interceptions kept the Eagles in it. Hutchins (33/46-335-2-0) took advantage of the reprieve by finding Oskolkoff for the winning TD with 71 seconds left of the fifth quarter. C Willie Barber picked up an elbow injury in this game - he'll hopefully return in time for the last game or two of the regular season. Mid-season summary Code:
While the offence has been pretty solid so far, the defence has struggled - both against the run and the pass. The RB by committee approach seems to be working fairly well, but all of the guys are putting the ball on the ground too often. |
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05-22-2007, 10:39 AM
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#143 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: East Lothian, Scotland
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Week 9: Washington (3-5) 10-22 Philadelphia (5-3)
Good solid performance against this year's bottom team in the NFC East. Hutchins (30/35-269-1-0) was the driving force for the offence, with CB Linville scoring on an interception return for a TD. Week 10: Philadelphia (6-3) 21-20 Dallas (7-2) A big game to win on the road against our biggest rival for this year's divisional title - Hutchins (28/40-245-3-0) threw his third TD pass of the day, a 17-yarder to Burgess, with 2.54 left for the go-ahead score. Another injury this week - DE Rod Salerno will miss the next month after picking up a knee injury. Week 11: Bye (finally!) Week 12: Philadelphia (7-3) 18-28 Kansas City (3-7) Not our best defensive effort, as the Chiefs were able to rack up over 200 yards on the ground. Hutchins (23/38-279-1-1) was solid as usual, but couldn't do everything by himself. Not the sort of game we needed after the big win over Dallas... Week 13: Seattle (7-4) 10-27 Philadelphia (7-4) This one can be described as 'the one where our running game woke up'... RBs Shipman (27-120-2) and McIndoe (10-67) provided the platform, and Hutchins (25/32-252-1-0) did the rest. Week 14: Oakland (9-3) 14-17 Philadelphia (8-4) Two TD passes from Hutchins (33/39-247-2-1), the second to Oskolkoff with less than 5 minutes left, gave the Eagles the lead late in the game - the defence was able to hold strong to preserve the lead, and seal a very important victory. Starting CB Grady Linville is our latest injury victim, but should be back in time for the playoffs - now all we have to do is make sure that we have a game for him to play in! Week 15: Philadelphia (9-4) 31-26 New York (7-6) Not quite as close as the score may suggest, as the Giants scored a consolation TD as time expired. This game was a case of taking advantage of the opportunities that came our way - the offence put a lot of points on the board, but many of these came after taking advantage of great field position provided by the defence. A minor emergency in the defensive backfield sees us having to pick up a guy to play corner at very short notice - Raymond Madison (8th year, 32/32) is in to cover for short-term injuries to Jordan, Linville and Ackerman. Week 16: San Diego (5-9) 14-30 Philadelphia (10-4) It's not a good idea to play a good passing team with a banged-up secondary, and it showed early on as the Chargers put two quick TDs on the board. The Eagles responded brilliantly to adversity, though, with Hutchins (30/40-360-1-1) and Samanta (12-209-1) leading the offence to 30 unanswered points and the defence keeping San Diego off the board the rest of the way. (Debutant CB Madison finished with 5 tackles, 1 pass defence and an interception, by the way...) Going into week 17, the Eagles are one game up on Dallas (10-5) in the division, but play the Cowboys in week 17. We're assured of a playoff spot whatever happens, though - the second wild card is currently at 9-6, so we're going to be #5 seed at worst. A win would give us a (much-needed) week off, though... Week 17: Dallas (10-5) 31-38 Philadelphia (11-4) This would have been a great game for the neutral to watch... A couple of early Hutchins TD passes were offset by 17 Dallas points in the first half, with Dallas QB White also throwing two TD passes. The aerial duel continued into the second half - Hutchins to Burgess , 7 yard TD pass to put the Eagles up 21-17, Dallas reply with another White TD pass (24-21), Hutchins to Oskolkoff (28-24), White's 4th TD of the day (31-28 with less than 4 minutes left). Hutchins (27/33-315-5-0) threw his 5th TD of the game, finding Burgess with a 9-yard pass to put the Eagles ahead for good just before the two-minute warning, and Oden added an insurance field goal to complete the scoring. While Hutchins was the star, Oskolkoff also had a big day (7-105-3). The win secures another NFC East division title, and gives us a week off as #2 seeds (San Francisco finished 13-3 to take home-field advantage) - a lot of our injured players are recovered or will be healthy after the bye, so things could be a lot worse heading into the postseason... |
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05-22-2007, 10:40 AM
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#144 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: East Lothian, Scotland
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2021 playoffs
Divisional round Chicago, NFC North champions, win their wild-card game to earn a trip to play the Eagles in Philadelphia. The Bears won a very weak NFC North with an 8-8 record - this was a significant improvement on previous years, though, as they drafted #2 overall last year. That pick was used on a very solid QB who is unfortunately injured - the backup, Will Sherry, is a former top-5 pick who turned into a relatively mediocre journeyman. Their top RB, Claude Donovan, missed most of the season with a knee injury, but is now healthy. On defence, the strength is the line, with four solid players fronting their 4-3. Chicago got the ball first and put a nice drive together, but stalled in the red zone and settled for a field goal. Neither team was able to do much with the ball for the rest of the first quarter, but the Eagles got things going at the start of the second, with Hutchins leading a smooth drive downfield before finding Burgess in the endzone from 2 yards out - the point after was blocked, but the Eagles led for the first time at 6-3. Each team went three and out on their next possession, but the Bears got a big special teams play, taking Hawks' punt back 81 yards for a TD - 10-6 Chicago. Philadelphia responded in the best way possible, though, putting together a 65-yard TD drive, topped off by a 20-yard Hutchins to Burgess TD, to retake the lead at 13-10 going into the half. Getting the ball first in the second half, the Eagles continued where they left off in the first half, driving the ball smoothly downfield, with Hutchins again finding Burgess in the endzone, this time from 4 yards out. Now up 20-10, this was more like how things were expected to go. The Bears didn't give up hope, though, putting together another decent drive deep into Eagles territory. The Philadelphia defence made a stand, though, forcing a short field goal after facing first and goal at the 2 - Chicago now within a score, but 20-13 is a lot better position than 20-17... Into the fourth quarter, traditionally where the Eagles have been able to keep hold of leads in playoff games. Hutchins continued to spread the ball around, finding four different receivers and handing off to each of the three RBs on a time-consuming drive to open the fourth quarter. A holding penalty meant that the drive stalled in the red zone, but Oden put his field goal try through from 26 yards to extend the lead to 10. After forcing the Bears to punt, the Philadelphia offence just kept on grinding the clock, taking almost five minutes to drive for another Oden field goal, this time from 30 yards - 26-13 Eagles with less than 3 minutes to play. Great coverage on the kickoff meant that Chicago started their next drive from their own 12 - forced into the deep pass, Sherry held the ball a little too long, and was sacked by Salerno for a safety. Now 28-13 up, the Eagles were able to run out the clock to seal the victory. Keith Hutchins continued his strong regular season form into the playoffs, hitting on 30 of 37 passes for 221 yards and 3 TDs, although he did throw an interception. Derrick Burgess was his favourite target on the day, catching 6 balls for 64 yards and the three TDs. There were no defensive standouts (although Salerno's sack for a safety was a highlight) in a solid all-round defensive performance, with Chicago only able to gain 128 yards and 6 first downs on offence. With the 49ers also winning, the road to the Bowl game runs through San Francisco. We'll be playing this game without leading receiver Antoine Samanta, though, as he strained his Achilles during the Chicago game. NFC Championship Game The Eagles travel to San Francisco to face the NFC West champion 49ers, who are the NFC's standout team this year. Their offence is normally led by QB Turnage and RB Ellis (particularly Ellis, a 3rd year back who is one of the best in the league), but both are injured - Ellis is definitely out of this game, but Turnage will probably try to play despite a thumb ligament injury. Without these guys, the 49ers will rely even more on the league's best defence (least yards allowed (255.6/game), least rushing yards (88.9), least passing yards (182.3), least points per game (14.6)), led by DEs Jacques (11 sacks) and Landrum (10.5 sacks, 28 hurries), with young CB Terrell leading a talented secondary. Defences were definitely on top starting out in this game, with both teams going three and out on their first possession. A Necaise sack/forced fumble/recovery gave the Eagles good field position, but that 49ers defence was able to snuff out the danger, forcing another three and out. San Francisco made up for the earlier error by putting together a nice solid drive, with Turnage finishing it off on a 15-yard TD pass - 7-0 49ers late in the first quarter. After forcing another three and out from the Eagles, the 49ers went downtown on their next drive, Turnage hitting a 61-yard TD pass to double his team's lead early in the second. A short kickoff gave the Eagles good field position, but Hutchins continued to struggle against a strong defence, throwing an interception when the Eagles looked like threatening. The rest of the quarter was about field position, with the Eagles finally managing to get on the board at the two-minute warning after forcing the 49ers back over a number of drives - Oden kicking a 42-yard field goal to make it 14-3 at the half. At this point, the Eagles had managed all of one first down and only 48 total yards - lots to think about in the locker room over the interval... The half-time team talk seemed to pay off, as Philadelphia's offence came out with a good drive to start the second half - the 49ers defence tightened things up in the red zone, though, forcing another Oden field goal try - the veteran kicker made the kick from 31 yards to pull the Eagles back to 14-6 down. Not to be outdone by the offence, the defence came up with another turnover - a Robertson sack forced another turnover from Turnage, with Hansen recovering the fumble. That San Francisco defence held strong once again, though, pushing Philadelphia back and forcing a punt. The 49ers ended the quarter with the ball, having changed the field position by putting together a solid drive up towards midfield. The Eagles started the fourth quarter in the shadow of their own goalposts, but were able to get out of their own end - the drive stalled near midfield, but a good Hawks punt pinned the 49ers back. The San Francisco offence sensed an opportunity, though, and drove the length of the field - backup RB Sganga scoring with a 3-yard run to put the 49ers up by two scores at 20-6 with only three minutes left. Hutchins was able to mount a scoring drive, finding Sullivan with a 14-yard TD pass with 88 seconds left, but the onside kick failed, and the 49ers ran out the clock to seal a 20-13 win. The score may suggest that this was a close game, but the 49ers were dominant in pretty much every phase of the game - in particular, their defence made it very tough for the Eagles to move the ball on offence (Hutchins finished with 19/27-160-1-2, probably his worst stat line of the year). The Philadelphia defence tried their best to keep the Eagles in it, and made a number of big plays, but were not able to stop the 49ers offence when it mattered. The 49ers' offensive injury problems finally caught up with them in the Bowl game, Baltimore coming out on top by a score of 23-3. |
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05-22-2007, 10:41 AM
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#145 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: East Lothian, Scotland
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2021 Season Summary
Code:
This was definitely a strong offensive team, with Hutchins having his best year as a pro (and staying healthy enough to start every game, which hasn't happened all that often). Our RB by committee approach was reasonably effective, wtih Shipman in particular giving us enough of a running game to open up the pass. Samanta and Oskolkoff had big years, with Burgess also solid (despite missing a few weeks through injury). On defence, the picture is not quite as rosy - the team were able to stop the run fairly well, but struggled to consistently stop the pass - the lack of a solid pass-rush didn't help, and the team struggled to force turnovers. (Aside: This is the first season in this career in which I've been using the 6.0e patch - I didn't make any major changes to the offensive gameplan (altered it to be slightly more biased towards the pass without changing the distribution of passes too much), but the short-passing system I had in place seemed to be more effective this season, despite not having the same amount of quality at receiver or running back as in previous seasons - Samanta was very effective as the third receiver, but is nothing like the player he was at his peak (was rated low 70s at his best, is now mid-40s).) Unfortunately, the team now has something of an air of a team in transition - quite a few of our key players are coming to the end of their careers, particularly at wide receiver, where Samanta has just finished his 11th year, and Burgess his 9th. While the trades using next year's draft picks were fairly successful (TE Kelley, in particular, was definitely worth a second round pick despite the numbers above), it does mean that we don't have a lot to work with to try to reinvigorate this team next offseason... 2021 Awards Otherwise known as the Keith Hutchins Appreciation section - our veteran QB was named the Player of the Year, Offensive Player of the Year and First Team QB. RB Sammie Shipman was the only other Eagle to make the awards list, being named the Offensive Rookie of the Year. Looking forward to next year... The first thing here is getting past the retirements - we have a number of players who may decide to call it a day (with QB Hutchins being the most important...) After that, this may be the start of a rebuilding phase... |
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05-25-2007, 09:06 PM
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#146 |
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Head Coach
Join Date: Sep 2004
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Just wanted to say that I'm glad you brought this back. It's probably my favourite of the 2K7 dynasties on the board
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2006 Golden Scribe Nominee 2006 Golden Scribe Winner Best Non-Sport Dynasty: May Our Reign Be Green and Golden (CK Dynasty) Rookie Writer of the Year Dynasty of the Year: May Our Reign Be Green and Golden (CK Dynasty) |
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05-26-2007, 02:29 AM
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#147 | |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: East Lothian, Scotland
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Quote:
That's very good of you to say (particularly coming from someone who has two threads on here that I class as 'must-read' - the Park High quick-sim has been a lot of fun, and I really like 'The Beautiful Girl and the History Class' story.I can't guarantee that I'll post regular updates, but I'll try to keep things moving... Martin |
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05-26-2007, 02:33 AM
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#148 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: East Lothian, Scotland
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2022 season
Herb's evaluation for 2021: 83/98/16/83, for an overall score of 51. The team made a loss of $63.87m on revenues of $264.49m last year - quite a bit better than last year, and it's only going to improve next year as the stadium upgrade has now been completed. (In other words, we're immediately going to be around $130m better off from not having to make stadium payments, and we should get more income from the improved stadium...) Two retirements this year - TE Tony Korzuk (who was primarily a mentor for our young TEs in his time with the team) and SLB Daniel Grove, a high-profile free agent acquisition who lost his place in the starting lineup last season. This, of course, means that QB Keith Hutchins is back for another year, his 15th as a pro. Staff Hiring A bit of work to do here, as all of the coaching staff are out of contract this year. These guys are very good coaches, though (offensive co-ordinator Ford E/G/V/E/E/E, defensive co-ordinator Clemons (G/E/E/E/E), head coach Bandle (VG/VG/E/VG/A)), so I would be very happy to bring them all back for another 5 years. I make initial offers of $4.00m for 5 years to Ford, $4.50m for 5 years to Clemons and $9.00m for 5 years to Bandle. Bandle accepts his offer, but both Ford and Clemons receive better offers (both over $6m per year). The coaches available aren't anywhere like as good as the guys I've just lost, but I manage to find a couple of younger guys who have a chance of developing into solid assistants - Bubba Meier (36, A/A/G/G/A/G) could be a respectable defensive co-ordinator, but there aren't as many decent options on the offensive side of the ball, so I make him an offer of $2.20m for 5 years to run our offence. On defence, Emmanuel Blackburn (41, G/A/A/G/VG) is the guy I go for (at $2.00m per year) - I can see us bringing in a lot of young players over the next few years, so a guy who's good on the development side is pretty much an essential. These are both young guys (and Bandle is only 42 at this point, despite being our head coach for the last 10 years!), so should have plenty of opportunity to develop on the job. Scout Andrew Baicy is doing a solid job, and there aren't any quality replacements out there - easy call to keep hold of the guy we have there. A look at the team going into the offseason... This year may be a turning point for the Eagles - do we try to squeeze one more year out of a still-solid but aging group, or do we decide to move in a different direction and start building with younger players? At quarterback, Keith Hutchins (15th year, 83/83) has been our starter for the last nine seasons, and has been a great leader during that time. Even in his 15th year, he's still one of the league's elite QBs. Hutchins, however, is a free agent this year - the franchise tag would be a little over $13m (and signing him for the next two or three years would cost quite a bit more than that...) Behind Hutchins is veteran backup O.J. Hume (6th year, 38/45), an undrafted guy who has developed very well - unfortunately, his skillset is not a great fit for the offence I'm running (based on the short pass - Hume is a better QB in a vertical offence). Our running back situation is fairly fluid, as it usually is - with Hutchins throwing lots of short passes, the run is used more as a diversion than as a serious threat to gain yardage. The guys we have are solid backup material, but no more (which probably explains the RB by committee approach I've used recently...) Trading a second-round pick this year to pick up TE Charlie Kelley now looks like a very good move - Kelley (2nd year, 60/71) is already a very solid player, and should be our starter for a long time if we can keep resigning him. Wide receiver has been pretty settled for a number of years, but I need to look at making changes this year - starting flanker Derrick Burgess (10th year, 52/52) is a free agent I don't plan on resigning, while backup flanker Antoine Samanta (12th year, 46/46) has never been a starting option, and is purely a backup and special teams guy at this point in his career. On the other side, starting split end K.C. Oskolkoff (8th year, 49/49) is a reliable target, but not a game-breaker. The remaining receivers are very much respectable backups and special teams guys, so this is a position where we really need an injection of youth. The offensive line is fairly solid and mostly made up of younger players - the only veteran is long-term starter LG Zack Martin (12th year, 69/69). We have two young tackles in RT Leo Skupin (4th year, 60/60) and LT Emmanuel Lester (2nd year, 30/60), while the rest of the interior starters are in their prime - C Willie Barber (6th year, 73/73) and RG Melvin Fau (5th year, 64/64). The backups are fairly solid, but contracts are a bit of an issue here - only Fau and Lester from the offensive line group are signed past this year. Our kicking specialists are veterans, but solid players - K Matt Oden (16th year, 54/54) is the only kicker we've had since I took over as GM, while P Anthony Hawks (11th year, 60/60) has done well for us since joining as a free agent a couple of seasons back. At defensive end, we're very fortunate to have a one-man wrecking crew in Rod Salerno (8th year, 90/90) - Juan Hansen (7th year, 50/50) has been starting opposite Salerno. With pass-rush specialist Spencer Flannery (5th year, 42/42) a free agent, we need to look at finding a backup here. Defensive tackle isn't as strong as it has been, but we're still pretty well set with Reggie Necaise (7th year, 46/46) and Toby Clayton (6th year, 56/56). Second-year guys Julio Hartman (28/44) and Scott McNown (22/51) are the backups - would be nice to bring in a top youngster here, but this is a group we can be fairly comfortable with. Linebacker is one of our youngest positions, with Horace Robertson (3rd year, 66/66), Justin Small (3rd year, 51/62) and Jack Malone (2nd year, 40/58) looking like our starters this year. Long-time weakside starter Shannon Long (11th year, 56/56) is still playing well, but won't be around much longer. We do appear to be pretty much set here, though... The defensive backfield is also in fairly good shape - standout corner Jerome Jordan (10th year, 80/80) isn't the player he once was, but is still a shutdown corner, while Grady Linville (6th year, 54/54) and Thurman Wynn (3rd year, 48/58) fill out a solid top three. At safety, Xavier Wilcox (5th year, 75/75) and Raymond Lowe (4th year, 52/52 - restricted free agent, but will resign him) are competent starters, although Wilcox isn't all that good against the pass. Depth is a little bit of a concern, but there aren't many teams with better situations for starting defensive backs. Franchising Hutchins is pretty much a given - while we would probably be reasonably productive with Hume running the offence, Hutchins is a much better QB, even at this stage of his career (hardly playing in his first five years may also be a factor here - he doesn't have a lot of wear on the tyres - 127 starts for a 15th-year veteran is not all that many...) I am certainly considering making a few changes on offence, though - our starters on the offensive line are pretty much all good run blockers, so starting to move towards a more balanced offence (at least - maybe go a bit further towards a run-first offence in preparation for not having Hutchins?) makes a lot of sense, particularly when you take our relatively weak receiving corps into account. On the other side of the ball, things are fairly settled, although there are issues with the pass rush and pass coverage - the interior line isn't as strong against the run as I'd like, either... If we didn't have Hutchins, I would certainly be looking at starting a rebuilding project here - there are too many areas of weakness in this team, particularly on offence. With a top-quality veteran QB around for at least one more year, however, making a couple of quality additions in the right places will keep this team competitive, so I feel that I have to give it a shot this year... Before starting free agency, I put the franchise tag on Hutchins, and select LT Emmanuel Lester for a summer trip to Europe. Ticket prices are unchanged - I suspect that we're going to make plenty of money this year whatever happens after the completion of the stadium renovation... Last edited by MartinD : 06-03-2007 at 04:17 PM. |
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05-26-2007, 02:34 AM
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#149 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: East Lothian, Scotland
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2022 Free Agency
We start free agency with 45 players signed and $27.22m cap room free (after allowing for our five draft picks - the usual seven between 27 and 29 in the round less our second and fourth round picks). This figure allows for a franchise salary of $13.12m for Keith Hutchins - looking at his contract demands, we're looking at over $50m for the next two years to sign him long-term (which suggests that we go with the franchise tag this year, and tag him again next year if he comes back). A few restricted free agent signings: QB Tyrus Monpoto (4th year, 23/41) - $1.10m over 1 year LG Jumbo Welker (4th year, 42/48) - $3.84m over 3 years FS Raymond Lowe (4th year, 51/51) - $5.10m over 3 years Lowe is our starter at free safety (not a star, but a good solid player), while Monpoto is a decent young QB. Welker is the first guy off the bench at guard, and has played well when required. We also have a number of players in the last year of their current deals: QB Keith Hutchins (15th year, 83/83, franchised) - will cost too much to sign to a long-term deal, so will not receive an offer QB O.J. Hume (6th year, 38/44) - a guy we should be able to resign next offseason if required FL Antoine Samanta (12th year, 46/46) - has been a cornerstone of our receiving corps, but definitely on the downside of his career - no extension here C Willie Barber (6th year, 73/73) - looking for $12m up front and $7m per year, so we resign him for $37.6m over 4 years (a lot of money for a center, but this guy is a good one) LG Zack Martin (12th year, 69/69) - getting towards the end of his career, but willing to sign a deal that extends his contract through the end of next season for no real change in this year's cap hit - I can live with that, so offer the $11.13m over 2 years he's looking for. RT Leo Skupin (4th year, 58/58) - solid young player, and the contract demands aren't too onerous - he resigns for $32.6m over 5 years. LDE Juan Hansen (7th year, 50/50) - has been a good player, but maybe more suited to a pass-rush specialist role at this point in his career - the $40m over 4 years he's looking for is a bit rich, so I'll hang back here LDT Toby Clayton (6th year, 56/56) - solid starter on the defensive line, although isn't as strong against the run as I'd like - still worth the $22.44m over 4 years he resigns for, though. WLB Shannon Long (11th year, 56/56) - on the downside of his career, and may no longer be the automatic starter he's been since we drafted him, but is willing to take a pay cut to extend his deal for 1 more year - $11.13m over 2 years is a lot for a guy who's going to be a backup and special teamer, but I like to treat our long-term servants well and it's good to have quality depth at any position. RCB Grady Linville (6th year, 53/53) - has been starting for us, and doing a decent job - $19.00m over 5 years is a decent deal here. These signings and extensions leave us with 48 players signed and $8.47m cap room left - with 5 draft picks to come, there is a bit of room to go shopping in the free agent market... |
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06-03-2007, 04:18 PM
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#150 |
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High School Varsity
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: East Lothian, Scotland
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Looking down the roster, we do have a few needs to fill:
QB: While Hutchins is the starter, how long does he have left? A QB of the future would be good to bring in... RB: If we're going to shift towards the run on offence, we'll need a guy who can carry more of the load WR: Probably the biggest need right now - we really need a new starter and an injection of quality youth here DL: While we can get by with the guys we have, a DE and DT to develop into starters would be useful S: The starters are decent, but there isn't anything behind them An initial look at the draft suggests that this probably isn't the year to find a QB of the future - the receiver class has a few interesting prospects, though, and there are a few backs I see as being around in the third round who would be an improvement on the guys we have on the roster. On defence, this looks like a pretty strong class for elite defensive line prospects, although the guys further down the list aren't all that impressive, while there are some very good linebackers and defensive backs available. With only a late first-rounder to work with, at least I should get a choice of guys to try to meet one of the needs above... In the free agent market, there is an interesting developmental QB available - Dustin Briggs (5th year, 13/53) is a former first-round pick who simply hasn't had the chance to develop. While the receiver position isn't all that strong, SE Renaldo Mori (5th year, 46/46) looks like a possible target - not going to be a starter, but would be a solid third receiver and special teamer. I make a couple of offers in week 1: QB Dustin Briggs: $4.35m over 3 years (signed in week 2) SE Renaldo Mori: $5.40m over 3 years (signed in week 5) Derrick Burgess signs with Cleveland for over $2.5m for this year - a lot of money for a receiver who's on the slippery slope already. Looking over the younger guys available, there's a solid-looking defensive tackle available on the free agent market - LDT Don Starks (5th year, 46/46) isn't a significant improvement over Necaise and Clayton, but he's the sort of guy who would be very handy to have in the tackle rotation (particularly as he's solid against the run, which is Clayton's weak spot). I put in an offer of $5.70m over 3 years in week 3, and Starks signs in week 4. These signings take the roster to 51 signed players (and 5 rookies to come before I even start on the rookie free agent pool) and $3.32m cap room free, and see the end of our actions in free agency (pretty much the way I like to use free agency - pick up depth and role players, and get the top-quality starters out of the draft as far as possible). Last edited by MartinD : 06-03-2007 at 04:19 PM. |
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