What they're saying: Eagles roster analysis

The Eagles got down to 53 players on Saturday, made a few additional roster moves, and now, we analyze. Here's what they're saying...

» READ MORE: 10 takeaways from Howie Roseman - Sheil Kapadia, Birds 24/7

5. The Eagles have nine players on the roster left from the 2010 and 2011 drafts: Curtis Marsh,Casey Matthews, Alex Henery, Julian Vandervelde, Jason Kelce, Brandon Graham, Nate Allen, Riley Cooper and Kurt Coleman.

The projected starters from that group are Kelce, possibly Allen and Cooper, who is only filling in because Jeremy Maclin went down.

Asked if those two drafts set the franchise back, Roseman said: "I think that's probably a fair question. When you have drafts that don't work out, you've gotta find those players somewhere else. Like I said when we started this, the big part taking from that is that we are forced to look and figure out the ways to do things and the way we have done things over a long period of time, and then where our team was and evolve from that. And I think that's the positive to be taken out of it."

Jimmy note: They're now down to 8 players from the 2010 and 2011 drafts after cutting Marsh, which should be a nice segue into this next link...

» READ MORE: Eagles are paying for mistakes in 2010 and '11 drafts - Zach Berman, Inquirer

The Eagles are still cleaning up the debris from the 2011 draft, the latest move coming Sunday when they waived third-round pick Curtis Marsh. The top three picks from that class are now off the roster after only two seasons, a dreadful and revealing indication of just how the bad that draft was for the Eagles.

The 2010 draft was no prize, either. Those two drafts set the Eagles back, depleting the depth chart of young starters and forcing the team to make patchwork changes at positions that should have foundation players by this point.

In a league with a stringent salary cap, the best teams win by drafting and developing. The recent Super Bowl champions all adhered to this philosophy. The Baltimore Ravens started 13 homegrown players in last season's Super Bowl. The New York Giants started 16 in the previous Super Bowl and the Packers started 19 in the one before that.

» READ MORE: Work in progress - Tommy Lawlor, IgglesBlitz

Quick note on Emil Igwenagu. Last year he played some FB. That meant he was working with RBs c0ach Ted Williams. Now Williams has moved over to being the TEs coach. Iggy also moved to TE and made slow, steady progress. You wonder if Williams liked Iggy a lot and was influential in getting him on the roster.

I'm not saying Iggy didn't earn his way on the roster, but you can't help but think that if he and Williams had a good relationship, that helped.

» READ MORE: Roseman: Watkins succumbed to pressure - Phil Sheridan, ESPN

Danny Watkins never showed the mean streak that caught the eye of the Philadelphia Eagles. Why? General manager Howie Roseman said he thought Watkins succumbed to the pressure of being a first-round draft choice in a demanding sports city. 

Watkins"When you watched Danny play, the toughness and the hockey-playing aspect of him never translated to Philadelphia," Roseman said Saturday, a few hours after releasing Watkins. "When you watched him at Baylor and when you watched him at the Senior Bowl, there was an innate toughness about him. You felt like you were getting an enforcer." 

It's ironic, because those precise qualities are prized by Philadelphia fans. Instead of winning hearts and minds, Watkins had fans, coaches and Roseman scratching their heads. He was a 26-year-old rookie, a former firefighter from British Columbia, and he seemed lost from the beginning.

» READ MORE: Eagles 53 man roster breakdown: Offense edition

The Eagles have the 10th youngest roster in the NFL.

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