Tweet
Like all of you guys I was surprised by the Barnett pick. I honestly thought they were going to take Foster at the time. And even though I don't like his off the field issues, I focused on what he brought to the field and wanted them to grab him. But the more I think about it, the more I like the Barnett pick. He doesn't come in with injury issues or off the field concerns. He has solid skills at a position of need. I haven't heard anyone say he is a bad pick, only questions about who was available as a "better value" at 14. Taking him was a safe choice but also a good one.
We all knew there were too many holes to fill in a single off season, but I think the Eagles have done an excellent job of attacking the two biggest weaknesses we saw last year. They got the very best WR free agent available and added a second receiver who has had a lot of success in a similar system. Those two moves effectively push Mathews down from the #1 receiver to the #3, which isn't intended as a slight to him, but rather an effort to take pressure off of him to make him more effective.
The draft has been focused on improving the defense. Barnett shows a lot of promise in getting pressure on the QB and with the two CBs they grabbed, they should slow down the passing game and give Graham, Barnett and (hopefully a more motivated) Curry time to get to the QB. Now we need a strong MLB to take away the middle of the field and the defense should be a lot better than the last few years.
Sure there are still holes to fill... as noted a LB, RB, long term WRs options, another TE to replace the aging Celek etc. but there is time. Are we a better team now than we were in December? No question about it! Are we better than we were last Wednesday? Definitely in the long run, but only moderately in the short term. One thing I'm very happy about is that the Eagles said they were going into the draft looking towards the long term future and not the quick fix needs and they certainly appear to be doing that. If we resign Jefferies and see enough improvement from Matthews in the middle to bring him back, we are going to have a very good core going into 2018. We can add long term players to fill fewer holes next year and continue to build a sustainable team.
I just want to see improvement in 2017; 10-6 is my goal for them and staying competitive in all the games. If we do that I'll be really excited about the long term future of this team and we can point to this draft as the first real building block for it.
We all knew there were too many holes to fill in a single off season, but I think the Eagles have done an excellent job of attacking the two biggest weaknesses we saw last year. They got the very best WR free agent available and added a second receiver who has had a lot of success in a similar system. Those two moves effectively push Mathews down from the #1 receiver to the #3, which isn't intended as a slight to him, but rather an effort to take pressure off of him to make him more effective.
The draft has been focused on improving the defense. Barnett shows a lot of promise in getting pressure on the QB and with the two CBs they grabbed, they should slow down the passing game and give Graham, Barnett and (hopefully a more motivated) Curry time to get to the QB. Now we need a strong MLB to take away the middle of the field and the defense should be a lot better than the last few years.
Sure there are still holes to fill... as noted a LB, RB, long term WRs options, another TE to replace the aging Celek etc. but there is time. Are we a better team now than we were in December? No question about it! Are we better than we were last Wednesday? Definitely in the long run, but only moderately in the short term. One thing I'm very happy about is that the Eagles said they were going into the draft looking towards the long term future and not the quick fix needs and they certainly appear to be doing that. If we resign Jefferies and see enough improvement from Matthews in the middle to bring him back, we are going to have a very good core going into 2018. We can add long term players to fill fewer holes next year and continue to build a sustainable team.
I just want to see improvement in 2017; 10-6 is my goal for them and staying competitive in all the games. If we do that I'll be really excited about the long term future of this team and we can point to this draft as the first real building block for it.
Comment