Philadelphia Eagles news and links for 6/25/18

Let’s get to the Philadelphia Eagles links ...

Everybody Wants to Talk to Lincoln Riley - The MMQB
We mentioned in the lead of the column that what we’re seeing with offensive football is evolution, not revolution. And I made the call on that word after I ran it by Chip Kelly over the weekend. “I don’t think it’s revolutionary,” Kelly said. “I think things trickle-up and trickle-down. And I think when you have good coaches, they don’t try to put a box of what they do. They say, ‘How do we adapt to what we have?’ And I thought what Doug (Pederson) did last year at Philly was as phenomenal a coaching job as I’ve seen in that way. He adapted from Carson (Wentz) to Nick (Foles). What a great coach does is he puts guys in position to make plays, and that’s what he did with those guys.” Kelly’s point is well-made too here, in that the NFL going to some of these concepts is adaptation to what their feeder system is giving them. We’ll have more from Chip next week.

Sneak peek: Watch former Eagles player run through American Ninja Warrior course - BGN
Former Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver Jason Avant is set to appear on American Ninja Warrior this week as he runs through a qualification course.

10 reasons the Cowboys will be a dumpster fire this season - PhillyVoice
There was once a time when former star wide receiver Dez Bryant was thought of as one of the five best players at his position in the NFL. Now? Not so much. By releasing Bryant, the Cowboys saved $8.5 million against the cap in 2018, which in my view was a no-brainer decision. And yet, they still managed to screw up that decision, as the timing of his release made no sense whatsoever for Dallas. There was no way in hell any team was trading for a declining player making that much money, who, oh by the way, also happens to be a colossal pain in the ass. So why wait? The Cowboys could have used that money, before, you know, free agency came and went, instead of in April. The other downside of Bryant’s release is that he’ll count for $8 million in dead money in 2018, and the Cowboys are now left with the following at wide receiver:

Lawlor: The Unsung Heroes Of The Super Bowl Run - PE.com
One group that is somewhat overlooked for the Eagles is the assistant coaches. It is hard to quantify exactly how important assistant coaches are because the work they do is behind the scenes and so much of it is minute details. If a coordinator changes his scheme or makes a great call, everyone can see that. People aren’t going to notice how an assistant coach improved a player’s hand placement. Football is a game of details, and assistant coaches are the masters of those details. I think one way we can appreciate how good a job the Eagles’ assistants did last year is to look at the results.

Don’t count Nate Gerry out for Eagles starting LB role - Morning Call
“Training camp will really be the litmus test for us — when we put the pads on through training camp and through the preseason, when we actually play tackle football. We’ll get a better idea of who’s going to emerge as a starter at the Will position for us in the base defense, and we’ll go from there.” Gerry needed time to reshape his body as well as his mind. He came in at 212 pounds as a rookie. He’s up to 230 now as he looks and feels the part more each day. “I think in training camp last year it took me a while to get going,” Gerry said. “But once the season kept flowing, I had a lot more practices and was able to do a lot more linebacker stuff and I think the transition kind of went pretty smoothly for me then. And now it feels like night and day from where I was last year at this time.”

Ranking all 9 Philadelphia Eagles cornerbacks after minicamp - PennLive
Nos. 4 and 5 on the list are pretty interchangeable, but Douglas slots in at No. 5. The 6-foot-2, 209-pound Douglas was forced into action early last season and held his own before things settled out. He’s a long athlete who is developing, and it will be worth watching how his role changes in his second season.

The NFL’s prototypical wide receiver for each alignment - PFF
Possession receivers are known for their ability to turn a heavy target share into consistently moving the chains. No one exemplifies that target volume better than Hopkins. The Texans wide out has had a revolving door of dreadful quarterback play each of the past three seasons yet has still hauled in 302 catches over that span. Back in 2016, he exemplified the possession mold when only three of his 89 catches came on throws targeted at least 20 yards downfield. While that’s an outlier for his career and he’s a more than capable deep threat, it’s indicative of his ability in the intermediate range that he was still able to go over 1,000 yards that year. Alshon Jeffery saw very similar production this past season for the Eagles. He was a revelation for their offense, averaging 1.44 yards per route and collecting nine touchdowns. Of his 23 deep targets in the regular season though, Jeffery would only haul in three.

2017 Defensive Personnel Analysis - Football Outsiders
The Eagles used base on 27% of their snaps (25th most), nickel on 60% of their snaps (13th most), and dime on 10% of their snaps (15th most).

Eli Manning has backing of Giants’ brass — will he justify that faith? - Big Blue View
Probably not.

Dak Prescott doing his “absolute best” to win Cowboys a Super Bowl - PFT
You sure bout dat?

Which sports mascot do you trust the least? - SB Nation
This week gave us just a glimpse of the wide-ranging personalities mascots can bring to sports. During the World Cup, Japan’s ennui-filled frog mascot chronicled his sightseeing adventures around Russia. It was incredibly engrossing, even if we felt sorry for poor Ippei-kun. Then on the other spectrum, the Phillie Phanatic injured a fan by hitting her in the face with a hot dog. Luckily, the woman was not seriously injured — and she said it was totally fine to laugh about the incident. But if you ever had suspicions about Mr. Phanatic, he only confirmed your worst fears.

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