Rating the Eagles' talent
Where do the Eagles rank among the NFL's 32 teams in terms of talent? And is Andy Reid a top-five coach? Plus some other links to pass along.
Rating the Eagles' talent
Sheil Kapadia, Philly.com
On Friday, I linked to a piece that looked at the number of "blue-chip" and "red-chip" players currently on the Eagles' roster.
It's a project by NFL.com's Michael Lombardi, and yesterday, he took a closer look at the list and ranked every team based on those players. Lombardi's got the Eagles at No. 19:
Another surprisingly low total, but losing a blue quarterback and not replacing him with one will hurt the initial total. However, the Eagles could be one of those teams that can significantly increase this total if Kevin Kolb plays well and some of their defensive players (Brandon Graham, Stewart Bradley and Ernie Sims) take the next step.
On offense, Lombardi gives the Eagles only one blue-chipper: DeSean Jackson. Leonard Weaver, Brent Celek, Winston Justice and Jason Peters are all red-chip players.
Defensively, Trent Cole is the Eagles' only blue-chip player. Asante Samuel is a red-chipper.
What's surprising about the list is that the Eagles rank third in the division. Lombardi has the Cowboys ranked sixth, and interestingly enough, the Redskins 13th. Donovan McNabb makes the list of blue chippers - meaning Lombardi has him ranked among the top 10 quarterbacks in the league.
There was also one non-talent based factor: coaching. Lombardi picked his top five coaches and gave those teams extra points. Mike Shanahan gave the Redskins a bump there. Andy Reid was not among Lombardi's top-five. His other elite coaches were: Bill Belichick, Jeff Fisher, John Fox and Mike Tomlin. Belichick, Shanahan and Tomlin have all won Super Bowls. Fisher and Fox have not.
Based on numbers, Reid has a more impressive resume than both Fisher and Fox. In terms of regular season winning percentage, Reid is at .617; Fox .555; and Fisher .553. Reid has made the playoffs in eight of 11 seasons; Fox three of eight; and Fisher six of 16. Reid's playoff record is 10-8; Fox is 5-3; and Fisher is 5-6.
LINKS AND NOTES
* According to Adam Caplan of FoxSports.com, the Eagles were one of the teams to show interest in defensive tackle Montavious Stanley, who ended up signing with the Dolphins. Stanley spent last season with the Jaguars and was originally drafted by the Cowboys in the sixth round of the '06 draft.
* Kevin Kolb in his first season as a starter is one of Peter King's main NFL story lines, as outlined in his MMQB column on SI.com:
Kevin Kolb's going to be a compelling story. I like his moxie, and I like the moxie of Andy Reid trading Donovan McNabb with three or four relatively prime years left to give Kolb his long-term shot. Why not? With McNabb, it was been there, done that. With Kolb, there's a freshness to training camp, an excitement that hadn't been there. Unless Kolb chokes and fails miserably, I won't rip the Eagles for making the move because they'd already seen everything they need to see from McNabb.
* A little nugget making the rounds in Dallas. Apparently first-round pick Dez Bryant refused to follow in rookie tradition and carry the shoulder pads of fellow wide receiver Roy Williams.
"I just feel like I'm here to play football," Bryant told The Dallas Morning News. "I'm here to try to help win a championship, not carry someone's pads. I'm saying that out of no disrespect."
* The Honda Civic is almost packed up, and I'll be headed up to Lehigh later this afternoon. I must say, while I miss the old, beat-up Jeep, it will be nice to have a car with air condition this year during the drive. Anyway, check back later today for updates from Andy Reid's press conference at 5 p.m., and of course, the Tweeting and practice observations will be in full effect once practice starts tomorrow.
* If you just can't wait, join me for a live chat at 1 p.m. today.
* And finally, yesterday, I posted seven thoughts on Eagles camp, in case you missed it.
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Offensively, even with Kolb an unknwon, they are still top ten in talent. Defensively they are way down there, 20 or lower. Nate Allen and Graham could bump them up 5 or 6 slots if they play well.— jimmyj- I don't know about John Fox being a top five head coach...I don't think Andy Reid is either, but certainly not John Fox...— Bleue
The Eagles are the most talented team in the NFL and that is the truth, nothing but the truth and the whole truth. Who has more talent than the eagles. No One.— briandawkins20- This defense is gonna get shredded, they may give up a record number of points. Suspect LBs (everyone's banking on Bradley, I'm not sold), no safeties, and only one (non-hitting) cornerback. They'll average giving up 35 points per game, you can book it.— Tacklebury
- Reid is sticking with Mornhinweg despite having some of the poorest redzone statistics. McNabb was a big play specialist ( big strike TD), Kolb may be more steady and even--so redzone performance must improve. Sean McDermott plainly struggled as DC in 2009. He has bigger shoes to fill than Kolb. Jauron and April should be positives. Thats not enough to make up for Mornhinweg and McDermott: Eagles were out-cached by Cowboys and also out-played. Fixing roster isn't enough to make squad competitive.— Smashmouth
- great briandawkins20, too bad talent does win you jack in the NFL, or any other sport. Who has more Super Bowls than the Eagles?! Alot of teams...so until we start winning a Super Bowl I could care less how much "talent" this team has.— EaglesBleedMoney
- EaglesBleedMoney....Kind of a dumb comment. How do you start winning Super bowls without talent and if you don't care about the talent then you must not care about winning Super Bowls. Coaching certainly is a huge factor, but even the best coach won't win it without talent. ...briandawkins20 is just living in fantasy land.— bonnerlou
- bonnerlou - why is it a dumb comment? Every single year we have LOADS of young talent, but how many Super Bowls? I am sick of having the most talented team, with no Super Bowls. Maybe you enjoy the title of having the "best young talent" each year, but I'd prefer a champhionship...— EaglesBleedMoney
- Fantasy land - the place where the Eagles win superbowls every year!!!! Reality land - the opposite of Fantasy land.— jakster
- True Bleue. The best Head Coach in the NFL is Sean Payton. Fox? Really?— mccloudmj
- JimmyJ - You don't honesty think that the Eagles are top ten in talent on offense do you? That's fine if you are a fan of the team and all but realistically you can't think that.— jbruder02
- Doesn't matter what Lombardi or Sheil think. Briandawkins20 says we're the most talented team, so the debate is over.— tacklinjoe
- Tacklebury, I don't know if you were being facetious with your post, but if not, you are crazy. Arguably, the worst defense in NFL history was the 81 colts, and they only let up an average of 33 points per game. Last year they averaged around 21 ppg. They'll probably end up as an average defense, maybe a bit better than average, just like last year. Losing Sheldon will hurt somewhat, but its not going to cause a 14 point per game swing.— pete317
- I like the direction the Eagles are going building a good young team, but this team most assuredly does not have the most talent in the NFL briandawkins20. For instance, the following teams undoubtably have more talent off the top of my head: Colts, Saints, Cowboys, Vikings, Packers, Jets, Ravens, and Chargers. Also, you could make a strong argument for Atlanta, SF, Miami, NE, and Houston as well. Note, that's almost half the league. I think we need to be realistic about this, the Eagles will be on the fringe and compete for a wildcard, and gain some stripes as a young squad. Any SB discussions is foolhardy this year, barring a completely unpredicted breakout.— SLP2009
- their grade is a MF...miserable failure...1960 and counting...— tralala
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