(An attempted) Evaluation of the Offseason, one week in

Well, the first week of the 2009-2010 NFL season has officially passed us by and the Eagles have been active, but not perhaps so much as many of us would like. Overall, though, I remain optimistic—Let’s look at some of their recent moves, and non-moves.

Going into this season the Eagles had about $40 million in cap room. Official terms of Stacy Andrews’s contract have not been disclosed but it is believed that the first year cap number is somewhere around 7 million dollars, leaving the Eagles with 33 million. DO NOT ASSUME THEY WILL SPEND ALL OF THIS. They won’t. During this season, they will likely be trying to do several new contracts with young players who have shown promise. Stewart Bradley (contact goes through 2010), Quintin Mikell (2010), Broderick Bunkley (2011), and Desean Jackson (2011) are obvious players the eagles would probably like to extend. They also might be looking to do deals with Chris Gocong (2009), Victor Abiamiri (2010), and Akeem Jordan (2010). Also, even though Sheldon is under contract through 2012, I think that we need to think about redoing his contract—he’s making less than Hanson is now, and Sheldon is, in my opinion, one of the best in the game. I think all of this will have to wait until we have a little better idea about how CBA talks are progressing and whether we can expect 2010 to have a salary cap or be an uncapped year, but I expect the eagles want to have some money left to do some of these extensions.

In order of importance, let’s start with the Offensive tackle position.
I like the Stacy Andrews signing—as long as he’s healthy. He is huge and he can move, and he’s still learning the game (went to college on a discus scholarship then got cajoled into playing football), so his upside is huge, provided his knee is strong again. Doesn’t hurt that he can play next to his brother and be a support system for Shawn. Stacy gave up about 9 sacks last year though, so against good left DEs we may need to protect him with a TE or with a chipping running back. Another possibility is that he and his brother flip guard and tackle. I think what the eagles have been doing here is basically stockpiling guys they think can play line and not worrying a ton about position right now—which is fine for the four right positions on the line but not for left tackle.

So what about that LT 600 pound (or preferably 320-335 pound) elephant in the middle of the room. Here’s my hunch: Tra Thomas is still the Eagles starting LT next year. The fact that no one has met with him to talk contract yet is a big indicator that Thomas is asking, and asked the Eagles for, way too much. I would expect him and the Eagles to start talking again next week or the week after if no one else is expressing interest. I’ve heard some rumblings that Shawn Andrews could play LT—I’m willing to accept that that could be a possibility, but it’s not really what I’m looking for. I don’t have a ton of confidence in Stacy Andrews's Herremans’s ability to be a starting NFL LT, so I really do think we need to try to bring Thomas back while we groom his replacement.
I suspect Winston Justice is really on the outs here. I’ve seen nothing to show me he can play the left side and the Eagles didn’t seem to want him to be their primary backup there last year, and now that they’ve signed Stacy Andrews, it is hard to imagine they envision Justice having a future at RT (something I really did hope might work out). Look for King Dunlap to compete with a first or second round draft pick to be Thomas’s backup for a year or two and then replace him.

All quiet on the Defensive End front—as I’ve said before this could be Ok, depending on how good Abiamiri and Clemons really can be. Let’s see what happens with this one.

Defensive backs:
Great signing by the Eagles on Joselio Hanson. The guy can play.
I’m not going to belabor it, but of course we’ll all miss Dawkins. The contract he got was more than he’s worth, flat out. I’m not sure he was so overpaid that the Eagles couldn’t have considered overpaying a bit to keep him around, but I’m more than OK that they didn’t. They made a business decision and so did he—now it’s time to move on.
We’re set at corner as far as I’m concerned, with one of the better tandems in the league with Samuels and Brown and Joselio Hanson at the nickel (did I mention I like Joselio Hanson?), and Jack Ikeguono, a kid with all the promise in the world (now that he can afford his own x-box ... and quality legal representation).
At safety, I had been thinking we will see a lot of Demps this year, but interestingly, the Eagles just last night announced that they’re bringing in Browns SS Sean Jones and that he is scheduled to meet the media this afternoon (a telltale sign, usually, that the Eagles will be getting him under contract). I’m not sure what they have in mind for him. One possibility is to move Mikell over to FS, where he played as a backup earlier in his career. Another possibility is that Jones would be used like the Eagles used Dawkins the second half of last year, lining up as an FS but playing like SS/LB on nearly half the plays he’s on the field and having Demps lined up as a deep FS on obvious passing downs. It will be interesting to see, but I think Jim Johnson probably would be happy to be able to shuffle around three quality safeties, and the whole move Mikell over and just start Jones at SS plan remains a good possibility to have on the table in case Demps fails to meet expectations.

Offensive Skill positions:
Kudos to the Birds for getting anything for Greg Lewis (a 2009 5th in exchange for G-Lew and a 2010 7th). Fortunately for us Bill Belichik has a nice little man-crush on G-Lew. We’ll miss him a bit on special teams but someone else with speed can play that role (Jack I???). As a receiver he’s been a liability for a while. He just drops too many balls, so Bon voyage Greg Lewis. Incidentally, the comment boards on the Boston globe story about G-Lew are hilarious—fans are thinking that Lewis is the next Joe Jurevicius or Bobby Engram, like he’s going to be a great third receiver that’s going to reshape what their offense can do—one comment even suggested his deep speed would help open things up for Randy Moss (I kid you not).
As of now there really aren’t any WRs worth signing. Houshmanzadeh, I think, got way mre than he would have been worth to the Eagles, esp. when WR is not our primary need.
However, if Braylon Edwards and Anquan Boldin really are on the trade block, well, I’m salivating. Don’t be fooled by last season, Edwards is a beast—and his market value is about as low as it will ever be. Boldin obviously would be a great complement to Jackson and Curtis. I’d give a first and third for either in a heartbeat, although I think we could prob. get Edwards for a second, third, and fifth, or a first and fourth.
At TE there have been rumblings about trading for Tony Scheffler of the Broncos, who doesn’t fit with Daniel Graham into Josh McDaniels’s 3WR 1 TE system—I actually had a dream about the Birds acquiring Scheffler. Scheffler is a great pure receiving TE—he’s fast with good hands—think a more athletic, more promising version of Schoebel. I think he's faster than Celek and he’d give us another weapon, but probably we really need a second TE who can contribute more as a run-blocker. The most obvious person to fit that bill is rookie-to-be Brandon Pettigrew, a strong blocker and decent receiver who will certainly be available at 21 and may be available at 28.
As for a backup RB for Westbrook, expect the Eagles to draft a first day RB. There’s really no one out there on the open market who’s worth anything.

Fullback
Ahh, the fullback, my pet issue. If only Andy Reid pined for a fullback as deeply as I do. Somewhere in the recesses of his mind though, there is a kernel of respect for the fullback position, I have to believe there must be. Otherwise he couldn’t have signed John Ritchie way back when. The first movement on the FB market just happened last night with the Saints signing Heath Evans, so look for other FBs to start signing in the coming weeks now that a market has been set. I’m crossing my fingers for Leonard Weaver or Terrelle Smith.


Well, we’re one week in, so there’s still a lot more to come. As always, the Eagellectual can’t wait.