Sports

[gardenman]

The Eagles have resigned Darren Sproles to a one year deal. His torn ACL is healed. He recently posted a video showing him jumping a foot down from a treadmill, onto his previously injured leg, still on just that leg, he then jumped thirty some inches up and landed on just that leg again. Pretty impressive.

[Spurt]

I wasn't too happy with the Redskins choice at safety....Troy Apke, S Penn State...........

He wowed folks at the combine with his athleticism and his numbers, but he's more of an athlete than a football player.  Only 2 interceptions in college.  ......

[Spurt]

@gardenman @yellowBeetle

This is what Jay Gruden and Derrius had to say.....

"My trip to the Eagles was great," Guice said. "There wasn’t an altercation when I went. It was great." Gruden backed up his new rookie."We don't know anything about that, quite honestly. These reports that come out after the pick, unfortunately, we don't get access to every report on the player so we'll wait and see and talk to Derrius, but he's assured us there was no altercation there at all."

At just 20 years old, Guice might seem immature, though he's still a very young man. But he's a young man with extraordinary skill running the football, and that's why the Redskins decided the risk was worth the reward.

[yellowBeetle]

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@Spurt wrote:

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@yellowBeetle wrote:

I really like all of the picks by the Eagles. It was such fun to see them out maneuver Dallas by getting Dallas!

Howie Roseman is categorically denying those stories about some kind of altercation with Derrius Guice. He and Doug Pederson and all associated within the Eagle organization say absolutely nothing happened...either physically or verbally.

Guice may be a bit immature playing lots of video games, etc.....but reports say he has never had any criminal record, and that he neither drinks nor smokes. When he was a guest several weeks ago on GMF he was extremely engaging, funny, and likeable. The four hosts all loved him, gushing and raving about him long after his visit. And he was one of only 22 invited by the NFL to walk on the Red Carpet Thursday night. Unless something concrete against him is revealed, it sounds like some sort of unfair smear campaign was leveled against him. Peter Shraeger has mentioned how when Guice was just 6 years old, his father was murdered...and what an inspiring story it is to see how far Guice has come. 

Watching the draft coverage on the NFL Network, I marvel at the encyclopedic knowledge of Mike Mayock in particular...and really all of the analysts! They really know their stuff!

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@yellowBeetle

I don't know YELLOWBEETLE....something in the cosmos isn't right when the Eagles draft someone named after the Dallas Cowboys---there has to be some kind of karma

I thought that was odd that Derrius would have a blowup with Eagles's Executives and yet no problems in the meeting with the Redskins and nothing major the Redskin's found in their investigations other than a bit of immaturity/irresponsibility....Now he did make those accusations regarding the questions he was supposedly asked which the NFL investigation said never happened....Reggie Bush really liked him too and shared his story..  And Derrius was engaging in his official Redskin Press Conference....And hey my NBA Spur and NBA Hall Of Famer, Tim Duncan  liked (and still likes) to play video games---LOL).......Cris Cooley said if the Redskins just drafted Payne and Guice it would be a successful draft......Cris liked both players..........

It could be the media blowing things all out of proportion about Derrius like we are experiencing with the Kawhi Leonard situation---no one knows the real story---the players say something totally different than what ESPN's Adrian Wojnarowski who was recently hired and given a huge salary which he may be trying to justify with a big story/controversy.............

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@Spurt

Bravo...very well said!!

[nrm]

@Spurt Thanks for the post. As an LSU fan I must say that there are a lot of unqualified rumors being spread around about Darrius Guice that most likely came from TMZ and from the agent that Darrius fired. For someone who’s always had a clean reputation Darrius has been a target for some reason. One commentator on ESPN during the draft couldn’t seem to talk about much else. He didn’t mention the trouble that Mayfield had with the police, or that one of the draft picks in round six had a rap sheet as long as his arm. 

I hope that they all do their new teams proud. 

[gardenman]

The undrafted free agents are now signing all over the place. A couple the Eagles have signed seem like solid shots to make the roster. Josh Adams, the Notre Dame running back has a good shot. He's a faster version of LeGarrette Blount. He's a bit slow to the hole, but once through it, he outruns everyone.

Jeremy Reaves, the safety from South Alabama is another kid who has a good shot at making the roster. The Eagles picked up two quarterbacks in Jeremiah Briscoe and Brandon Silvers. Barring a major injury to one of the top three guys now on the roster (Wentz, Foles, Sudfeld) they'll just be camp arms. If they show enough one could make the practice squad.

Interesting camp battles will play out on both lines. The defensive line is especially well stacked right now. Brandon Graham, Derek Barnett, Michael Bennett, Chris Long, Steven Means, Josh Sweat and Joe Ostman are all defensive ends now on the roster. At defensive tackle you've got Fletcher Cox, Craig Winston, Haloti Ngata, Tim Jernigan, Elijah Qualls, Aziz ******tu, Bruce Hector, and Destiny Vaeao. That's a ton of depth at both positions.

The starting offensive line looks like it'll be, Jason Peters, Stefen Wisniewski, Jason Kelce, Brandon Brooks, and Lane Johnson. Backups are Jon Toth, Darrell Greene, Isaac Seumalo, Chance Warmack, Taylor Hart, Halapoulivaati Vaitai, Jordan Mailata, Matt Pryor, Ian Park, Toby Weathersby, and Aaron Evans  

A lot of teams will be watching the Eagles' cuts of linemen for a guy they can pick up. We're two and three deep with starter quality players at nearly every position on the lines. With some teams not even having one starter quality player at every position, the Eagles will be watched closely.

Depth across the board looks good for Philly with now. We're three deep or more at every position on the roster. You're apt to see a veteran or two miss the final cut this year as their roster spot goes to a lower priced kid. If I had to pick one spot where we're a bit weak, it might be safety. We've only got kids behind the two starters and even though they're highly thought of kids, they haven't proven anything just yet. I would expect the kids to get a lot of playing time in the preseason games to give them a chance to show what they can do.

Philly fans were concerned about depth at running back, but with Jay Ajayi, Corey Clement, Darren Sproles, Donnell Pumphrey, Wendell Smallwood, and Josh Adams, there's some decent depth there. We may need a few more backs in training camp as those guys tend to get banged up, but that's a fairly healthy looking group. I would expect Ajayi and Sproles to get much of camp off to preserve them for the regular season which will put more strain on the rest, but it also gives the rest more of an opportunity to shine.

As far as off season rosster building goes, things look good for Philly right now. You can make a reasonable argument the roster is better this year than last year. Whether they play better and play together is another story, but we'll start finding that out in a few more months.

In the NFC East, I think the Giants caught a huge break in getting Kyle Lauletta where they did. He could very well press Eli Manning for the starting job unless Eli gets off to a good start. With a whole new offense being installed for the Giants, none of the existing quarterbacks has an edge. They'll all be learning it as they go. Lauletta might have an edge as he's had four offensive coordinators while at Richmond. He's very experienced at learning a new offense every year.

The Cowboys didn't really get a top of the line wide receiver or tight end. They then traded away Ryan Switzer, who had promise and traded for Tavon Austin. If Witten retires to pursue broadcasting and with Dez Bryant gone, they'll be down two huge offensive weapons. Witten helped open holes for Ezekiel Elliott, and both he and Dez would often draw double coverage making life easier for the other receivers. They now largely have a group of small, no name receivers who lack a large catch radius. That means Dak Prescott will have to be even more accurate, and accuracy has never been his strong suit. Misthrown balls that Witten or Dez could pull in, won't be pulled in.

The Redskins' fate largely depends on Alex Smith. They need him to be good to great, and not another burned out Andy Reid reject. Generally speaking when Andy unloads a quarterback, it's not good for the team that gets him. They had the worst run defense in the league last year and are trying to fix that. It should be a bit better. The lack of quality depth at offensive line really hurt them as the season went on and injuries mounted. Receiver could still be an issue for them.

You can make a pretty good argument that all four NFC East teams are better than they were. Quarterback is the huge unknown for three of the teams. Will Dak rebound? Is Eli still viable? Is Alex Smith still good, or another Andy Reid castoff?

By the way, last year's Cowboy team is featured in the new "All Or Nothing" series on Amazon and I came away unimpressed by their coaching staff. You really didn't see them doing anything in the way of serious coaching. The most you saw coming from anyone was Sean Lee trying to coach up his fellow defenders. He seemed more the coach than the coaches. In the two previous seasons you had the Cards and Rams and you saw much more coaching going on in those series. Maybe it was an editorial decision to cut back on the coaching, or maybe the Cowboys coaches are more cheerleaders than coaches, but the lack of intensity shown by the coaches was striking in comparision to what we've seen previously.

[Spurt]

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@nrm wrote:

@Spurt Thanks for the post. As an LSU fan I must say that there are a lot of unqualified rumors being spread around about Darrius Guice that most likely came from TMZ and from the agent that Darrius fired. For someone who’s always had a clean reputation Darrius has been a target for some reason. One commentator on ESPN during the draft couldn’t seem to talk about much else. He didn’t mention the trouble that Mayfield had with the police, or that one of the draft picks in round six had a rap sheet as long as his arm. 

I hope that they all do their new teams proud. 

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@nrm

And thank you. I am very leery these days of the media which seems to have a TMZ, "National Enquirer" mentality.  Jay Gruden said they even spoke to Derrius's EX-Agent regarding his character as well as other sources, and there was nothing glaring, Jay said it was more of being a young man and needing to mature a bit....Another reason Derrius will continue to be targeted is the media doesn't like Dan Snyder and the Redskins ...............

But your 100% right, how the media skimmed over Mayfield's past on draft day!...Perhaps because it would make the network's boss, THE NFL, look bad with Mayfield being their league's #1 choice......And yes WR Callaway should certainly give one cause to pause with his rap sheet and hanging around with known drug dealers.facts which the media just slightly skimmed and didnt give important details over the air waves, but it was in written draft reports....So much for "protecting the shield" and how these players actions wouldn't be accepted under the NFL's players conduct policies.....Id think Id prefer a player that's late for interviews and plays video games over others with serious criminal incidents............

[Spurt]

@gardenman

To add to what you said.......

the local Redskin guys I followed said the Redskins should pick Kyle Lauletta, Richmond in one the late rounds...It appears they saw what the Giant's front office did since the local guys saw him playing in their own "backyards", so the Giants might have gotten a steal.............. .....

As for the Cowboys---they didnt get a safety that they desperately needed.....Stephen Jones said they would look at other options (whatever that means)......WOW-the Cowboys have 23 mill in dead money for 2018....

I know in the past my Redskins went with "smurf" WRs....but the game has changed since the 80's and that has been the Redskin's problems in recent years no height on WRs...........

And speaking of my Redskins, yes we had the worst run defense, BUT I think all the injuries played a large part in that....we were down to 3rd string guys at some positions....Jonathon Allen in particular was really missed on the D side.....as was Jordan Reed on the O side....We picked up areas of need in the draft including O line, WR, secondary (CB/Safety) and most important DL and RB...The team did have some O line depth last year, but players who were better suited to play guard, played center or at the tackle position...again injuries hurt us. If our draft picks pan out and key players can stay healthy, the team should be in pretty good shape, at least better than last year.....although I still predict middle of the pack for 2018.........

I saw a commercial for the "All Or Nothing" Cowboy series....but GARDENMAN that is exactly what Cowboy coaches are---cheerleaders and puppets......don't you know their REAL COACH is JERRY JONES And yes Sean Lee is their entire defense....when he goes out due to injury which is frequent, the entire D suffers...so no wonder he's also the head cheerleader and their main veteran that tries to pump up the defense .....  I wonder if he does the team laundry too..........

As for the Eagles you better enjoy your team and all the depth while you can....According to Overthecap, the Eagles will be 20 mill over the cap in 2019 (last in the NFL), and will need to make some tough choices on who to keep, cut, or trade............

[gardenman]

@Spurt

Yeah, the cap situation is not great going forward, but the Eagles can save $18.8 million by letting Foles go. Cutting Jason Peters would save another $8 million. Cutting Mychal Kendricks would save another $7 million. (He might not survive this year.) Michael Bennett is another $7 million in savings. All total the Eagles will need to free up about $50 million as Carson Wentz can be extended next year and he'll likely cost about $30 million. If the kids turn into the players you hope they will, the Eagles should be okay. Derek Barnett and Josh Sweat could be low cost replacements for Michael Bennett and Chris Long. Vaitai, or one of the other kids could replace Jason Peters. 

The Eagles have ten picks in next year's draft including three in the first 64. That gives them an opportunity to fill any gaping holes. There are young players in the system to take over. A good draft next year would help a lot also. That new contract for Foles makes things look worse than they are.

[teganslaw]

The Colts added some UDFA s : LB Skai Moore from SC; WR Steve Ismael,  Syracuse; QB JT Barrett, Ohio State. 

The wide receiver position will be very competitive. Hilton is #! with Chester Rogers probably being 2. The others will have to try out for jobs to make the roster. 

They added another QB just to be safe. Suppose Luck isn't quite ready or there are some injuries. Don't like to think that, but I guess it pays to consider everything. 

Gardenman, Yellowbeetle: the Eagles roster looks good, but your team still has a Dallas who was named after the Cowboys. Bad karma? Or could prove to be some good luck. Only time will tell.