CSN Eagles Decision '06

[Vote for Kalas]

Pretty cheesy and worthless 30 minute special on the coming Eagles season, but they did make predictions and none of them picked the Eagles higher than 2nd in the division...

Ray "Old School" Didinger picked the Cowboys to win with the Eagles 3rd. Same with Vaughn "10 day NFL career" Hebron. The Gov. picked the Giants with the Eagles 2nd.

Their issues were 1) Do the Eagles have the RB to have a more balanced 55%/45% offense, 2) Can the Eagles WR get open well enough, 3) Are the OLB going to be good enough and will be depth be sufficient if one of them goes down, 4) Will McNabb run more if he has the chances and 5) Is the punt and kickoff return personnel good enough.

I think all these depend on health and confidence...if Westy, Mahe and Levens was good enough to reach the SB in 2004, why couldn't Westy, Moats, Bucky and Perry be enough to win in 2006? If Pinky, Mitchell and Lewis got open in 2004, I figure our crew can this year...McNabb will run when he HAS to or when it HELPS the team; otherwise Reid wants him to execute the offense and leaves it completely in McNabb's hands to do so...the return personnel is a valid question mark IMO even though Mahe led the league last season...for the OLB, Dhani did well in 2004 and poorly last year, Reid has said Dhani has looked great and worked extremely hard this TC and as McCoy gains confidence I think they will be better...the depth is a legit question mark.

[taz]

Its funny in most towns the media is always complementary of their teams. In this town the media is overly critical.

Aside from the outside linebacker position the rest is pure nitpicking. Its like the people who say the running game will not be their because Westbrook and Buckhalter are injury prone. They may be but you can't presume injury. Heck the Cowboys could lose Bledsoe and their season is over. So you can't presume injury.

As far as the wide outs go, this wide receiving corp is alot better than people think. The assumption is that they have two rookies and a 2nd year guy in Reggie Brown that they won't produce. That is pure bunk. They should be looking at the fact that Brown produced 43 catches in 8 starts last year and that was with Mike McMahon at QB, project that out of a full season and see that with Brown and Stallworth we have a pair of 70-80 catch recievers, then add in a 3rd guy in Lewis who had 48 catches last year.

Mcnabb needs to run for this team to be successfull on offense. Pure crap with that. McNabb needs to make good decisions with the football and if you look over his career and look at his TD to INT rate and you can see he does. Would it be nice if McNabb took off every once and awhile yes, but that will not be the difference between wining 11 or 12 games this year

Reno Mahe lead the league in Punt return yardage last year. So what is the problem with the punt return game? Perry sure looked good returning kicks last year didn't he?

The point is this every team in this division has their issues, but none of their media is this critical. As far as I am concern, Ray Didinger time has come and gone, I still have not figured out how he became a hall of famer, Vaugh Hebron is still bitter over the Eagles cutting him and Govener Rendell is still pissed at the Eagles for drafting McNabb over Ricky Williams, maybe Rendell should be back in his office trying to figure out why my school taxes are so high instead of figuring out why McNabb does not run

[BIGPHILLY]

My thoughts too. Disease in this town. Critics to the highest degree. They'd find a reason that Joe Montana was awful in 1989.

[YourPalChrisMal]

That was a really uninformative 30 minutes. I was looking forward to it, but it was quite a disappointment - and that honestly has nothing to do with their predictions. First of all, a show that dedicates a large segment to an Andy Reid interview, and clips of McNabb interviews is going to be behind the 8-ball to begin with in pizazz-value, but it didn't get much better in the other segments. I know there's not much more to say at this point, but still - they only had to fill about 20 minutes after you take out commercials, so it shouldn't have been that hard to add something thought-provoking.

[Zepster]

That was a really uninformative 30 minutes. I was looking forward to it, but it was quite a disappointment - and that honestly has nothing to do with their predictions. First of all, a show that dedicates a large segment to an Andy Reid interview, and clips of McNabb interviews is going to be behind the 8-ball to begin with in pizazz-value, but it didn't get much better in the other segments. I know there's not much more to say at this point, but still - they only had to fill about 20 minutes after you take out commercials, so it shouldn't have been that hard to add something thought-provoking.

I couldn't have said it any better myself, that show sucked!!

[Ty Webb]

A couple thoughts:

1) The show was pretty uninformative. I know people like him, but Rendell serves no purpose to me. He doesn't have the experience of Didinger and has no perspective as a player like Hebron. For a short 30 minute show, I expected more analysis. I like Reid, but any interview with him is usually a waste of time.

2) I think people overreact about the media in this town being overly critical towards the Eagles. Guess what? It's possible the Birds could finish third in the division. I don't know why people think it is such an outlandish prediction that has its roots in negativity rather than honest opinion? Guess what? We do have problems at OLB. We do have precarious depth at RB if Westy goes down. There are still questions about Stallworth and the WR corp until they get on the field.

3) In fairness to Didinger, who people seem to haev gotten on a lot recently beause he isn't blowing smoke up all our butts about how great the Eagles will be, he did say any of the four could win the division and that it will likely come down to who stays the healthiest.

[Ty Webb]

The point is this every team in this division has their issues, but none of their media is this critical.

I am going to disagree with that comment. The Giants and Dallas media, at least in what I have read this preseason, has been critical as well. I am not sure why we act like it is a unique that the Philly media picks on the Eagles and most other cities' media does not. That's just false. Shoot, the Dallas press was actually perpetuating the Romo should start for Bledsoe stuff.

[Vote for Kalas]

I agree with Ty...it was not cheesy and worthless IMO because they were critical/negative; it was because they offered very little support for their opinions and mostly relied on cliched and emotional hogwash IMO...I agree the content of the show was poor.

[YourPalChrisMal]

How much brainpower did it take to come up with a show where the key points were going to be...

"Are the receivers good enough?"

"Will they run more?"

and

"Uh-oh...the outside linebackers...maybe not so good."

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

[leifdawg]

How much brainpower did it take to come up with a show where the key points were going to be...

"Are the receivers good enough?"

"Will they run more?"

and

"Uh-oh...the outside linebackers...maybe not so good."

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

[Phutile]

The point is this every team in this division has their issues, but none of their media is this critical.

I am going to disagree with that comment. The Giants and Dallas media, at least in what I have read this preseason, has been critical as well. I am not sure why we act like it is a unique that the Philly media picks on the Eagles and most other cities' media does not. That's just false. Shoot, the Dallas press was actually perpetuating the Romo should start for Bledsoe stuff.

Almost without exception, the other media markets are generally far more positive. That's not to say there is not an occasional critique but for the most part it's all coming up roses -at least before the season starts or early in the season. Hell, in Pittsburgh they even play up the Pirates for christsakes.