And on to game day three of Wild Card Weekend! Tonight, we get the Rams/Cardinals. I'm now officially a Cardinals fan as I'd like to see Zach Ertz go far.
The local media are in "Hurts can't play QB and Sirianni can't coach!" mode today. Most of these same "experts" had predicted the Eagles would be lucky to win five games this year and might only win two. Instead, we got to the playoffs and lost to the defending Super Bowl champions with the all-time best QB Tom Brady having a good game.
The Eagles are fine. They have a good coach and a good, young QB. Both got a lot of valuable experience this year and will improve. We've got money to spend in free agency, three first-round draft picks, with ten overall, and possibly more depending on compensatory picks. It's hard to find an NFC East team better positioned than the Eagles are right now.
We aren't likely to lose a lot of payers in free agency. The most notable names who will be free agents are center Jason Kelce (likely to retire or resign in Philly.) Safety Rodney McLeod (not likely to have many suitors being 32 years old this year.) Safety Anthony Harris (31 years old and not overly impressive in 2021.) Defensive end Derek Barnett causes more problems than he solves with endless dumb penalties. (See ya!) Corner Steven Nelson. He may resign in Philly as the Eagles redid his contract so he'd earn a playing time bonus he'd have earned by playing in week eighteen, but they had him sit. So, he got an extra $375,000 the Eagles didn't really have to pay him. If they weren't hoping/planning to resign him, they likely wouldn't have handed him $375,000.
If Kelce retires the Eagles have Landon Dickerson and Isaac Seumalo to fill in for him. The Eagles are eyeball deep in offensive linemen. Starters next year will likely be some combination of Mailata, Seumalo, Dickerson, Kelce, Brooks, Herbig, Opeta, and Johnson, with Toth, Anderson, Clark, Dillard, Awosika, Juriga, and Tucker as reserves. Suffice to say the o-line situation is pretty good in Philly.
We need a number two wide receiver. Lots of chatter about getting Calvin Ridley from the Falcons. He sat out most of the year for mental health reasons. He's a very talented kid who's very close to both Hurts and Devonta Smith, but those mental health issues need to be explored a bit. They could seriously affect his value. The Falcons reportedly want to move him which is never a good sign. We'll have to see what happens there. Dealing with the Philly market with a fragile mind is not easy.
Overall, I like where the Eagles are now. Especially compared to the rest of the NFC East. The Giants are a mess. Who on their roster do they build around? Anyone? Is there one player on their roster that would be a solid upgrade for any other team? Eh, probably not. They're essentially an expansion team at this point with a new coach and GM coming in.
The WFT have a much better roster than the Giants, but no QB and no great options to get one. They have other weaknesses also that need to be fixed. They aren't a bad team but until they fix the QB situation, they've got problems.
And the Cowboys. Arguably the most talented team with several good keystone pieces, but also lots of issues. (Bad coaching being a really big one.) Add in a meddling owner, overpaid diva QB, aging overpaid RB, and a yearly long list of free agents they have to resign to field a team, and they've got issues.
The Eagles are not in a bad place right now. A pretty solid roster at this moment with lots of opportunities to improve in free agency and the draft. A good young coach. Some playoff experience. Compared to where we were last year at this time, things are much better. And I mean much better.
Last year we had a head coach who was on the verge of being fired after quitting on the team. We had a "franchise" QB who wanted out. Our recent draft picks had been busts. Free agents weren't exactly lining up to play for us. We'd had massive injuries two seasons in a row. We'd slipped to a 4-11-1 record and the playoffs were a dim memory. Yeah, things are much, much better this year. And I mean much better.
So, one more playoff game tonight. (Go Cards!) then on to round two of the playoffs next weekend. We'll start out next week with the Bengals at the Titans and the Niners at the Packers. Then on Sunday, we'll see whoever wins tonight going to Tampa, and the Bills face the Chiefs in what could be the AFC championship game. (It's hard to see the Bengals or Titans beating the winner of the Chiefs/Bills game. You never know, but it would be a surprise.)
The season is winding down and soon the NFL 2021 season will be nothing but a memory. The 2022 season will start pretty quickly though with the new league year starting on March 17th. Lots of stuff will take place behind the scenes long before that though. The Texans are likely already deep into discussions with teams on trading Deshaun Watson. Expect a deal to be announced on that well before the new league year starts. It won't be official until the new league year, but it will likely be done before then. The Rams/Lions made their Stafford/Goff deal around 1/30/2021, so we could hear of a Watson deal at any time.
Fly!!! Eagles!!! Fly!!!
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