Quick Hit: Demeco Ryans! (Cap)

The Eagles did what everyone said they needed to do - the Eagles landed the veteran linebacker that they needed to stabilize a defense that (frankly) needed help.

They have traded the Houston Texans  a 4th-round pick in this year's draft and swapped 3rd-round picks for Pro Bowl Lineback Demeco Ryans.

God Bless America... and Demeco Ryans

For many reasons, the twins are jacked about this move, and we'll tell you why.

The man has all the tangibles, stats, and accolades that you'd want in your starting linebacker.

      - Six-year veteran from the University of Alabama (Second round pick)

      - 2006 Defensive Rookie of the Year

      - Two-time Pro-Bowl linebacker

      - All-time leading tackler in Houston Texans' history (636 tackles, 479 solo)

      - Durability (missed a total 10 games in his six-year career from one achilles' injury in 2010)

      - 6'1" 247 pounds!

Now, take all of that and throw it out the window. Let's talk about what really matters - his intangibles.

We can sit here all night and rattle off stats to make a man sound impressive on the football field, but what this defense really needed (and what it got) was a leader. This man is widely known in the locker room as 'Cap' to show the respect that he deserves as a leader on and off the field for the Houston Texans. He was a defensive captain and was very influential for the Texans. He helped lead a team to its first Division Championship in 2011, and a defense to a second overall ranking (4th in scoring defense).

You can say what you want about last year's defense, but it was not short on talent. What it was really short on was leadership and a guy to pull them all together.

This defense has been looking for a guy to take the reigns like the incomparable Brian Dawkins ever since his departure. Now, we're not suggesting he's the second-coming of B-Dawk, but for all of our sakes, let's hope that he is (or at least a guy that will do the trick).

Andy and the boys made a great move today. Well done.

Last Laugh for Personal Friend-of-the-Blog Andy Reid? Let's hope so... 

Demeco, welcome. Get ready for a Super Bowl run. 

P.S. For those of you twitter people - Here's the newest person you should be following... @DRyans59

TebowMania?

The rumors have spread; all the idiots have given their own opinion, and now its time for these idiots to give an opinion as well.

Just thought of a positive: Looks AMAZING with his shirt off.

As some of you may have heard this guy… Peyton Namming… or something like that, signed with the Denver Broncos today. While normally that would be the most important news in the world of sports, it has already been forgotten, put aside, and made way for Tim Tebow. Since that time, rumors have been flying and teams have been named as Tebow’s next destination.

The one name that keeps coming up as a “makes perfect sense, but will never happen” scenario is the Philadelphia Eagles. Andy Reid and Marty Mornhinweg are obsessed with quarterbacks, and they have proven themselves to be somewhat of gurus when it comes to developing quarterbacks. Obviously, just with this first point being made, the debate starts. The real question is: Yay or Nay?

Why we should trade for Tim Tebow.

The reasons we should trade for Tebow actually make a ton of sense. The first thing is that getting him is not going to cost very much. Elway cannot keep him in house, because if Peyton struggles even one week, the high altitude is going to cloud some fans into believing that in some universe Tim Tebow should start over Peyton Manning. With this in mind, most people are not really sure about him anyway and that may mean a 4^th round pick could get him. The second reason we would want him is that he would definitely be an upgrade at backup quarterback. Right now our second and third options are Trent Green (Old and washed up) and Mike Kafka (Great looking, but not necessarily a winner). Tebow can be a winner as a backup and won’t turn the ball over which is pivotal at that positon. This is one of the most important positions on the football field when your Starting Arm is injury prone and has a hard time finishing seasons. Finally, the last one is a bit far fetched but still a possibility. If Tebow can learn for an entire year under Big Red, he could potentially take the reins in a year or two from Vick. He would have to improve in a big way, but people had just as many doubts as Michael Vick coming out of prison and look where he is now. If he sits behind Vick for a year or two, learns all he can from the quarterback gurus, and works hard (like we all know he will), he could go from freak sideshow to solid NFL quarterback.

Now to the Negatives

All right, there are a ton of positives to having Tebow on the Eagles, but there are always two sides to every coin. The other side of this is very simple: Tebow Mania is painful to deal with. All that the Philadelphia area had to hear was Tim Tebow would be a good fit and Philly blew up. Tebow mania has sparked on television, local sports talk radio, and even blogs like this one. Can you imagine if he actually came here? One interception by Vick and the brainless, idiotic fans that don’t know the sports of football would force Howie Roseman into the same stranglehold that John Elway was forced into. That was John Elway too, who is a superstar, role model in Denver, which is far from what Howie Roseman is here. Another problem that exists here is exactly opposite of what was stated in our “pros” section. This is still putting a lot of faith in the quarterback that Tebow COULD become. What if we give up this fourth round pick, bring him in, and he does nothing besides sit on the bench for two years? It would be the waste of a pick and a waste of time for the Eagles. There are still so many questions about his accuracy and QB IQ that it would really be a lot of work, even for our two gurus.

Final Verdict: Even though he may have divine intervention (and that may very well be the only thing that ever brings Philadelphia a Super Bowl), he is just too much of a headache to deal with. Tebowmania sweeps a team and becomes an infectious disease. It would infect a locker room that already has leadership and ego issues. He may turn out to be a great quarterback one day, but for now, let Tebow go somewhere with an awful fan base that needs jersey sales. Philadelphia will be better off without him.

Would you do it?

Turkeys and Things to be Thankful for this NFL Season as an Eagles’ Fan

Turkeys:

After this year, these guys should be cooked. (Funny)

           Juan Castillo

Yeah, we've been scratching our heads, too.

This should come as no surprise to most of you because everyone (as always) is in an uproar about the Eagles. This time it just happens to be about the defense. Normally, the blogging twins are very patient about our coaches and personnel, but this time we are a little tired of this coach. Now, don’t get us wrong, we don’t blame Juan for everything…

Should Andy have named him defensive coordinator? Probably not.

Are the players on the defensive side of the ball playing to the best of their capabilities? No way.

We understand the guy’s passion and enthusiasm for coaching, and that is all fantastic, but he could have done that with the offensive line. It is just clear that the guy is in over his head, and maybe he shouldn’t be the one tweaking the defensive schemes of a good number of over-priced, big-headed defensive players that are struggling to find their way.

You have to know that there is a problem with where a team is headed defensively if a head coach (who just put a whole heap of faith in making you his defensive coordinator) is talking about hiring a ‘defensive consultant’ a few weeks into a season for help. Andy basically created a new position to fill a gaping void.

Yes, the defense has definitely played better over the past few weeks, but can we really say that this is scheming or is it finally just top quality defensive players playing up to their paychecks?

A big test will be this Sunday against a Patriots’ offense that will require more than just talent to stop. It’s going to require a good game plan, and we’re going to see if we’re going to get it.

            Kurt Coleman

Weird, it looks like he knew how to tackle in college... Wonder what happened?

Is anyone seeing a trend here on the defensive side of the ball for the Eagles?

Listing Kurt Coleman here should get one of two reactions.

1.     Kurt Coleman, why? He is in no way important enough to get a turkey distinction.

2.     Now that I think about it, he has been pretty awful.

Our thought process is following number two in the above reactions.

Go back through the Eagles’ games this year… How many times do you remember yelling at the TV (maybe the yelling part is just in our house) about how Kurt Coleman took a bad angle to a ball carrier, or couldn’t wrap up a tackle, or blew pass coverage and had you ripping your hair out? Our bet is that even if you didn’t realize it before –you are realizing it now.

This was even more apparent earlier in the year when backs like Michael Turner, Stephen Jackson, and Frank Gore were running free in the secondary with no one around to wrap anyone up.

For a guy that went to THE Ohio State University, shouldn’t we expect a little bit more?

Michael Vick/ Darryl Tapp

We really have nothing to complain about with these two guys. Michael Vick has not played as amazing as he did last year, but its not exactly easy to play an MVP caliber season every year. He was bound to ‘disappoint’ some people this year because it is hard to duplicate the year that he had in 2010.

Darryl Tapp has also been highly productive for Jim Washburn’s defensive line this year. He has 2.5 sacks in a reserve role and has a total of 17 tackles (11 solo). Since coming over in a trade from Seattle, he has proven to be a valuable asset for depth at the defensive end position.

So you may be asking yourself… why are they turkeys? HOKIES BABY! In case you are unfamiliar, these two played their college ball at our Alma Mater “Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University” which is more often called Virginia Tech. They have to be turkeys… that is what they were in college. Go Hokies! (#5 BCS)

Things to be Thankful for:

Brian Rolle

Such a handsome young man.

We bet you didn’t see this coming… A defensive player on the ‘Thankful for’ list?

This is one Ohio Stater that has lived up to his school’s billing.

Brian Rolle came into the outside linebacker role a bit later than he probably should have this year, but he has been a big part of turning around a defense that was hurting big time. He has been a factor in the running game which has solidified itself after the early going, and he has definitely been an impressive option for shutting down a pesky TE or two in the passing game that has plagued the Eagles in the past. We really haven’t had too many games this year where Brian Rolle was in charge in which the TEs went crazy against the Eagles.

Brian has had 33 tackles this year, 8 assts, 3 passes defended, and 25 solo tackles. While these numbers aren’t staggering in themselves, there are no stats for the amount of times he has been in the right spot to stop a runner or occupy a blocker – allowing someone else to be freed up for a tackle. He has been a pleasant surprise for a team that came into the year assuming that Casey Matthews was going to be its starting linebacker.

Not to mention that Brian is still very young. He is 23 years old and still has time to develop to become even better. Even if you’re sitting there saying that this season is over (which we don’t buy yet), there is still something to look forward to with this defense – we still have young players to build on.

Thank you, Brian. The city of Philadelphia should gather around their Thanksgiving day tables and say thanks for you.

Andy Reid

You Beautifully Jovial Man

Stop right there. We are sure that there are a bunch of smart comments coming out of everyone’s mouths about how crazy we are and how Reid needs to go.

If you’ve read this blog before, you know we completely disagree.

Andy has been a great thing for the city of Philadelphia and its beloved Eagles.

Don’t use the argument that we haven’t won a Superbowl under his tenure as our head coach because we can play that game too. There are plenty teams in the NFL that haven’t won a Superbowl under their current head coach’s tenure.

You know what else we can do?

We can name a bunch of teams that have turned over coaches year after year and have not been nearly as competitive or as well run as the Eagles. The Birds have been perennial favorites to win the division for years and have had Chris Berman pick them to win the Superbowl almost every year for the past 6 or 7 years.

The reason is the stability that Andy has brought into Philadelphia.

We’ve made this argument before, but the players love Big Red. Even when he has to hand out orders (for example, benching Desean Jackson), he has kept a great rapport with the players and they want to perform for him.

Can things be said about his inability to manage a clock? Sure.

Can things be said about his penchant for throwing the ball too much? Yup.

Is it possible that we need a change at the head coach position? Sure.

But right now, he IS the head coach of this team, and his contribution to our team over his tenure is immeasurable. So, sit back and give thanks for Big Red and just enjoy.

The Washington Redskins

We admit, on the surface, this looks like an odd addition to the ‘Thankful for’ list.

But think about it.

No matter how disappointing our year has been – our little buddies to the south always outdo us with disappointment. They started with such a bang this year and then slowly but surely declined to their old forms in the NFC East (actually, it was a pretty sharp decline right as they played the Eagles and we embarrassed Sexy Rexy).

It’s nice to have the stability and familiarity of those Redskins being awful.

Not to mention, we are almost assuredly going to be heavy favorites against the Redskins on Sunday, January 1^st at 1 PM on Fox (even if we are still lower than them in the basement of the NFC East).

Thank you, Washington. Your consistency in stormy weather has been a lifeboat for this football town. 

The Only Two Certainties are Death and Taxes... And Eagles Winning after Bye Weeks

Uncle Sam is ready to shoot if you say one more bad word about Andy Reid... or America.

This is now the 13^th season in Andy Reid’s career and he has received a lot of criticism over that time, some of it was warranted, but a lot of it has been uninformed fans who do not look at the bigger picture. However, through all of this, one thing has remained certain: Andy Reid will always win after a bye week. Like “Death” and “Taxes”, this has become an absolute certainty that you could very well stake on the life of your first unborn child. We’re not sure exactly what it is, but Andy has the antidote for what ails his players and no matter rain or shine, they come out after a bye week playing their best football of the season. This year was no exception as our boys came out and lit up the Cowgirls 34-7 and those 7 points came at a time when the outcome had already been decided. Let’s look at the certainties from this Eagles’ team that can now go along with “Death and Taxes”.

1.     Andy Reid’s Team will win after a bye week.

Still dominating all these years later.

 Okay, we already stated it once, but we just thought that we would emphasize this for you. Reid’s Eagles are now an unbelievable 13-0 after a bye week in the regular season. If you add his postseason resume onto that, he is a sterling 16-0 after a bye week. He takes the opportunity and gives his players one of the most important things that are needed during a grueling 17 week season and that is rest. Rest from the wear and tear of hitting every day, rest from all the media questions, and most importantly just rest from football is exactly what the players need. Even though the players love playing football on a daily basis, just the chance to not think about it for a short period of time is welcomed and appreciated. They have a week to have a life outside of football and recharge their batteries both mentally and physically. No matter how much criticism Big Red gets, he is a players’ coach and after the week long break, the players love him even more.

2.     Lesean McCoy is one of the best RBs in the NFL

'Nuff Said.

You can argue with us all you want, but this is another unquestionable truth. Lesean has gone from a borderline second round draft pick in 2009 to a superstar in this league in a matter of 2 short years. He is leading the league in yds/attempt at 5.6 (And yes, this does not included hacks like Demarco Murray who have less than half of the attempts Shady has had this season), second in the NFL in TDs and Rushing yards to only Adrian Peterson who by the way has not had his bye week yet. Shady only trails AP in TDs by 1 (Shady: 8 AP: 9) and in yards rushing by 44 (Shady: 754 AP: 798). So as long as McCoy doesn’t quit football this week for some odd reason, he’ll be your leader in both categories after our game Monday night vs. the Bears. He may not be the best receiving RB in the game (Matt Forte with 419 yards WOW), but he still holds his own with 138 yards (Note: Why would we need to throw it to him when we have amazing receivers, an underrated/underused tight end and he is so effective running the ball. The Bears have no receivers or tight ends so it is more warranted). Finally, the biggest thing here is that even though he handles the ball like a fake Kardashian/Humphries marriage (No care at all, haha topical humor), he has no fumbles on the year. As much as he does for the team, he doesn’t hurt them, and as the Eagles have learned this year (Jeremy Maclin, Jason Avant) that can sometimes be more important. Shady McCoy has cemented himself in as the most important part of this team and not only one of the biggest weapons at runningback, but in the ENTIRE NFL at ANY position. 

3.     The Philadelphia Eagles really can be THIS good.

You’re right, this is not a great certainty, but it is a true statement so accept it anyway. After weeks of playing opossum, the Philadelphia Eagles are starting to mold into the form that we hoped they would be at all year long. The missed OTAs and training camps did set them behind a great deal with new schemes to implement, new FAs that were added, a couple key rookies being put into the mix, and three new coaches one of which was taking on a defensive coordinator role for the first time. Now with all this extra time to absorb the material, the team showed up and played one of its most complete football games since the thrashing of the Redskins last year, and even then our defense didn’t play that well. Anytime you beat a team 34-7 and outgain them in yards 495 to 267 AND beat them in time of possession 42:09 to 17:5, you can call that a good ole fashion beatin’. Throw on top of this that the Eagles’ were not projected to be that much better AND that this was the in-divisional rival Cowboys and you can see how impressive this win is. If this team can continue this from week to week, we can’t wait to see what they do to the turnover friendly Chicago Bears on Monday Night Football. This game could be over in the first quarter! All that being said, it was nice to hear things after the game from veterans like Nnamdi Asomugha that the defense is finally “feeling comfortable” giving the sense that we can expect performances like that for many weeks to come not that everything has been situated. As we have seen in the past, many times it is not how you start a season, but how you finish it, and this team has a lot of those characteristics. A team with a lot of hype that cracks at the beginning of the season, but after breaking down the colts, they can get built back up into strong powerful clydesdales (sorry for the awful analogy but you get the picture). The bad beginning may actually help them to stay more focused, stay hungry, and have the long, sustaining playoff run that we all hope they can have.

This may not be a certainty, but we just want to throw in there how good the linebacking corps has looked after a couple slight alterations to the lineup and the defensive alignment. There have been some things that have helped, but Jamar Chaney is really starting to look good and comfortable at that middle linebacker position. He went out against Dallas on Sunday night and recorded 7 tackles and one pass defended, this is good for a lot of players, but especially good when we are talking about the Eagles’ linebackers. Every game that goes by he gets more comfortable and looks as though he can become a solid playmaker out there for the defense. They are not perfect yet, but they keep getting better.

We kind of feel bad for beating them after seeing this... We didn't realize... you know

The Eagles look like they are hitting their stride as we reach the midway point of the season. Make no mistake about it, the Eagles’ schedule is still tough and there is no guarantee that this team is making the playoffs, but we now have hope. We have hope that if this team can continue to play like this for the rest of the season, we may actually be able to win most of those games, make the playoffs and maybe go a little bit farther, which is a lot more than we have been able to say over the past 7 weeks. So enjoy what we have right now because at the end of this season, like so many others, hope may be the only thing we have left. 

Kafka to the rescue! ... Maybe

"Have no fear, Kafka is here!" ::Sound of speed::

There have been a lot of reports going back and forth about whether or not Vick will start this weekend versus the once mighty Giants, now reduced to nothing more than ShEli Manning. After his full participation in practice today, it looks as if he has passed all the tests and barring any setbacks, should start on Sunday. Which, don’t get us wrong, is amazing because we have our star quarterback on the field, but would have it been so bad to see young Northwestern grad Mike “The Stunna” Kafka on the field versus a depleted Giants defense? In just about one full quarter of play, Kafka was 7/9 for 72 yards and looked pretty composed considering the high pressure situation. He led the team on a long drive at the end of the game that could have potentially won the game if “that which we will not speak of” hadn’t happened to Jeremy Maclin. On top of that, he looked like a solid starting quarterback that could read a defense and make an accurate throw. Lets just think about how that could benefit us in the long run…

Possible Positives

Mike Kafka starts, has an amazing game, and we beat the Giants on Sunday. His line looks something like 300 yards on 25/35 passing with 2 TDs and an INT.

What could possibly come from this?

1.     Mike Vick gets an extra week to rest his head so that we are sure there are no lingering effects and he can continue to have an MVP type season.

2.     The second positive that could come from this is our piece of mind knowing that we have a solid backup quarterback for Vick going forward and in the event that he does get hurt in future games, we know that we have a cheap backup that can perform well enough to lead a team to victory.

3.     This would be the best possibility that could come from the game. If Kafka has an amazing game, and in some way is needed to play again in the future due to an injury, and has another amazing game, what could this do? Well, to be perfectly honest, with the respect that coaches have for Andy Reid and Marty Mornhinweg’s ability to develop a QB, what do you think could happen? Also, consider the fact that a solid starting QB in the league is really hard to come by and evaluate. Answer: Kafka could essentially turn into huge trade bait. We could potentially get great value for him in a bad QB draft year. With the intelligent guys that we have running the GM’s office, don’t think they haven’t thought about this already as a possibility to help the Eagles add more pieces in upcoming years. This could be yet another score for Eagles fan based on an Andy Reid underrated draft pick.

Notable Negatives

Remember when this guy was supposed to be good? We all saw what happened to him.

Mike Kafka comes out and has a pretty bad performance overall. He shows how nervous he can truly be and has an extremely forgettable game with maybe 200 yards passing on 20/45 passing with 1 TD and 2 INTs. Obviously with a performance like this, it would mean a loss to the Giants.

What could possibly come from this?

1.     Obviously this would put us in a bit of a hole in the NFC. We would start off 1-2 on the season and 0-1 in the NFC East. Although we would be able to rebound with the kind of talent we have on this team, it wouldn’t be easy. Our strength of schedule is pretty high this year and the end of the year is the worst part of the schedule. We have to face the Patriots and New York Jets, as well as the Cowboys, Giants, and Redskins all in the last 7 weeks of the season. Most of those are at home, but they are still tough games no matter where you play them.

2.     Kafka’s confidence is hurt and potentially does not rebound. He goes on to continue performing poorly and is out of the league in the next couple years, not being able to catch on with any team… NOT EVEN THE SEAHAWKS! This would not only suck for Kafka, but also the fans of talented, good looking, quarterbacks everywhere.

As you can see, there are a lot of different positives and negatives that could come from starting Kafka this weekend. It seems at this point like this is just going to be all a bunch of ‘what ifs’ because Vick looks like he is going to play. However, if  “The Stunna” comes out and has an amazing game, this could lead to amazing things for the Eagles. No matter what happens though, lets just hope we destroy ShEli and his team of misfit toys.

Brandon Jacobs is the dumb polka dotted elephant incase you were wondering.