Who's the most underrated Eagle?
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Who's the most underrated Eagle?
Sheil Kapadia, Philly.com
Even in a regular offseason, June is a month for lists around the NFL.
There were a couple that came out while I was on vacation that I haven't been able to comment on yet. They focus on the most overrated and underrated players in the league.
Let's start with John Clayton's list on ESPN.com. The Eagles are the only club to notch three players on his All-Underrated Team: LeSean McCoy, Brent Celek and Nate Allen.
Can't say I really agree. The best case of the three is probably for McCoy. He broke out in his first year as a full-time starter, averaging 5.2 yards per carry, fourth in the NFL among backs that had at least 100 carries.
McCoy totaled 1,672 rushing and receiving yards and led all running backs with 78 catches, but didn't make the Pro Bowl. He's only done it for one year, but it's fair to say that McCoy didn't get the league-wide accolades of some of his peers in 2010.
The Celek selection is puzzling. His numbers fell from 76 catches, 971 yards and 8 touchdowns in 2009 to 42 catches, 511 yards and 4 touchdowns last season. Granted, part of the dropoff had to do with Celek being used more as a blocker. Pro Football Focus took a look at this recently and found that Celek was kept in to pass block 127 times last season, fifth-most among tight ends.
Celek was targeted 78 times in 2010, compared to 112 in 2009 so he clearly had fewer opportunities to catch the ball. He was also tied for the seventh-most drops in the league with eight, according to STATS.com. In other words, I think he was probably rated properly by most in 2010.
As for Allen, he started off great, but then had some ups and downs. Don't get me wrong. I think he showed a lot of potential, but it's tough for me to put him on an underrated list after just 13 games in the league.
So who is the most underrated Eagle? My vote goes to defensive tackle Antonio Dixon. He was probably their third-best defensive player in 2010 behind Asante Samuel and Trent Cole, yet Dixon hasn't received a lot of recognition. If he builds on last season in 2011, I think that will change.
Meanwhile, Pete Prisco of CBSSports.com named an overrated and underrated player from each team, and the overrated selection might surprise you. He had Samuel:
I say it every year here: Good player, not great. Big-time gambler. He makes plays, but he also gives up a bunch.
The numbers say otherwise. Back in March, Football Outsiders noted that Samuel ranked first among cornerbacks with a 3.2 yards per pass average on 36 targets. Tough to call that overrated.
Choosing an overrated Eagle is difficult though, especially since the defense is filled with late-round picks and undrafted free agents. If I had to pick one, it might be Stewart Bradley - not only because of the injury issues, but because he didn't play at a consistently high level even when he was healthy.
This is a good one for you all to chime in. Who's the most underrated and overrated Eagle?
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Avant....nothing flashy but 51 catches for 573 yards as a fifth wheel behind 2 wr's, a rb and TE! Other than the drop in the end zone vs Wash can't really rememeber him dropping anything. Blocks better than any other wr on team and has only 1 fumble in his career.— glove69- I think he dropped a wide open td in either the first giants or bears game. Only 1 td last year, could've had 3, but can definitely block. — beerflow
- Underrated: Jason Avant. Overrated: Kevin Kolb— jmk1512
- Underrated: Jeremy Maclin on offense [assumes Jamal Jackson can't play yet], Mike Patterson on defense.— fillyfan
- Most over-rated coach...Andy Reid.....12 years of failing to win the only thing they are playing for...EVERYTHING else is second place.....Most over-rated owner....Jeffery Laurie.....does not care about winning it all...is satisfied with being slightly above average and has permitted Andy to be comfortable with failing to wint h4 only thing that counts.....Most Over-rated fans.....Eagle fans for allowing Jeffery and Andy to be UNACCOUNTABLE FOR their 12 years of failure....— nuggett
- Vick has to be the most overrated. Look in the beginning of the year when he followed the system, for what it's worth, then near the end of the season, he reverted back to the run first mentality.
Under rated was Maclin... dude is sick and no one realizes it in the league. Maybe that's a good thing for the Eagles?— rjriley1 - The Eaglette with the long brown hair......— STEPHEN1988
- Stephen, don't you just hate the sponsor who's logo is covering the cheerleaders coming back from commercial break? Long brown hair Eaglette, under-rated, but up on top here. Any and all blondes anywhere, over-rated compared to you. — mccloudmj
- overrated: Trent Cole underrated: Jeremy Maclin— dragoon6
- Overrated- Brent Celek..and don't give me the argument that they kept him in to block more. It just proved that he is not a good receiver OR blocker. Birds need to strike and get a veteran TE in FA next month.
- Actually it is a good argument. You're crazy, you obviously didn't watch the games last year. So he let the Man Beast Clay Matthews stop Vick on 4th and 1 in the 1st game, it was a terrible play call. He was never asked to block at Cinci and has bulked up every year. Eagles rarely ran mostly out of singleback sets with Celek blocking, Shady had over 1000 yds, Celek might have had a little help with that. Did you see his TD catches last year, all spectacular plays. Go back and watch the Wash, SF, CHI, and NY games. He got blasted on the first 3 and then against NY he sparked the Miracle at the Meadowlands 2, you might have heard of it. — beerflow
Comment removed.- Comment removed.
- overrated= ernie sims
underrated= owen schmitt— its gotta happen soon - Antonio Dixon is a good vote for underrated. LeSean McCoy was underrated this year, but right now it'd be nice if he disappeared and stopped psyching up defensive linemen. Owen Schmitt is underrated, as are Juqua Parker and Mike Patterson. Jason Avant didn't have a real good year, but he's still underrated. Overrated and overpaid is Asante Samuel, especially if we're talking about covering receivers, as opposed to finding the ball.— armchairGM
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