Philadelphia Eagles news and links for 6/1/23.

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Best NFL team fits for remaining free agents, trade candidates - ESPN+
Budda Baker, S, Arizona Cardinals. Best team fit in a trade: Philadelphia Eagles. The Eagles signed safety Terrell Edmunds in free agency and drafted rookie Sydney Brown in Round 3, but would general manager Howie Roseman take a swing to land a veteran? Baker, who requested a trade in April, is one of the league’s most urgent safeties. He has incredible play speed and would fit as a top-down defender in split-field coverages under new coordinator Sean Desai. Baker had at least 98 tackles over the past five seasons, and he creates plays on the ball in coverage, too.

SB Nation Reacts: Arizona Cardinals fans want the Cardinals to work things out with Budda Baker - Revenge Of The Birds
The Arizona Cardinals fans have spoken. They are ready for the Cardinals to fix things with their best defensive player in Budda Baker, as only 43% of fans think the Arizona Cardinals should trade Budda Baker. Meaning, a majority prefer that the Cardinals work things out with Baker.

Eagles All-22 Film Review: Quez Watkins and Olamide Zaccheaus battling for WR3 - BGN
I don’t know if this is a surprise to anyone or not, but I think Zaccheaus and Quez Watkins are completely different profiles. I think Watkins is much more of a field stretcher, a vertical receiver who can stretch the field with go routes and deep over routes, and Zaccheaus is a lot better in the short game. I actually think they could both have a role next year if they play well throughout the offseason and could both feature in different weeks depending on the game plan. I don’t really understand what happened to Quez Watkins down the stretch last year. I know he suffered a shoulder injury towards the end of the season, and I wonder if that affected him quite a bit. Personally, I think Quez has a slightly higher ceiling than Zaccheaus because he has more vertical juice in his game. However, I can’t forget some of the drops that he had down the stretch, and his play in the short game was awful and it really cost the Eagles. He became almost unplayable towards the end of last season.

Five things to watch at Eagles OTAs - PhillyVoice
3) Is anyone recovering from a surgery that we didn’t know about? When the season ends each year, sometimes there are players who have surgeries to fix injuries that they played with throughout the season. Lane Johnson, for example, had surgery to repair the torn adductor that he heroically played through during the playoffs last year. But sometimes there are guys who had surgeries that don’t become public, and they’re usually flushed out this time of year after we do head counts to see who is missing — or not participating — at practice.

Why Sweat is so impressed by rookies Carter and Smith - NBCSP
Just a few weeks into being teammates with Jalen Carter and Nolan Smith, Eagles edge rusher Josh Sweat has noticed something about them. Something really encouraging. “They’re great,” Sweat said last week. “The work ethic is pretty crazy for both of them. They’re already working. Shoot, they’re professionals, man. It’s actually surprising coming out of college. But I mean, they’re working, they’re just here to learn and they’re making improvement quickly.” The Eagles used two first-round picks (Nos. 9 and 30) on Carter and Smith out of Georgia, adding two more Bulldogs to their roster and then added a third by taking cornerback Kelee Ringo in the fourth round. At Georgia, the trio of players won back-to-back national championships and won their first title with a couple of current Eagles teammates Jordan Davis and Nakobe Dean.

Eagles unveil rainbow Eagle wings mural for Pride Month - PE.com
Bold. Energetic. Colorful. Uplifting. Vibrant. The Eagles commissioned contemporary artist Tiff Urquhart to create a large-scale mural incorporating all of those elements to celebrate Pride Month. She cleverly weaved in aspects of the game of football – her work was featured during the Eagles’ run to the Super Bowl as part of the Gameday Poster Playlist Series presented by Pepsi this past season. But she didn’t realize how her concept utilizing a symphony of plants shaded in all colors of the rainbow perfectly illustrated one of Head Coach Nick Sirianni’s key messages to the team in his rookie season in 2021. “There is so much that is left unseen when it comes to plants,” Urquhart said. “People just like to look at the pretty flower when it’s blooming, but you have to go through a whole process and all of the seasons. It’s everchanging. The root system is so complex, and it’s connected to all of the other roots of the plants around it. They’re all talking to each other, and I know that sounds crazy, but it is happening, and we can’t see it.” Plants also served as the inspiration for Urquhart’s Eagles-themed Pride Month mural because they symbolize the obstacles that the LGBTQ+ community faces.

Titans legend Brett Kern announces retirement - Music City Miracles
Kern was released from his contract by the Titans last offseason in favor of Ryan Stonehouse. Stonehouse appears to be a worthy successor to Kern’s greatness. Kern later punted briefly for the Philadelphia Eagles.

Six Teams Set to Gain Salary Cap Space on June 2 - Over The Cap
Cowboys- $10.9M from the release of Ezekiel Elliott. One of the least surprising outcomes of the offseason, this one had the makings of a June 1 release on the day the contract was signed in 2019. Elliott was able to play his hand by threating a contract holdout after his 3rd season in the NFL which paved the way for Dallas to offer a contract extension with about $38 million in new guarantees. Elliott had one last Pro Bowl kind of season left in him before the Cowboys wound up with three years of underwhelming play at a bloated cost. Dallas probably used the contract too often for cap relief, featuring a $7.5 million signing bonus, $13 million option bonus, and $8.6 million restructure bonus. Elliott’s cap number will drop from $16.72 million to $5.82 million. He will also count for $6.04 million on the Cowboys 2024 salary cap. Elliott is currently a free agent.

NFC East roundup: Reasons to be bullish on each team entering 2023 season - Blogging The Boys
The fourth point feels really important. The Eagles were so good last season that even if they are hit by what is likely inevitable regression, they are still going to be better than most. When you pair that with the reality that they are incredibly aggressive, not just in play style, but in things like roster construction, it suggests they aren’t really going anywhere.

Giants’ offensive line has a large gap between its floor and ceiling - Big Blue View
Getting the ball out quickly always benefits the offensive line. Jones will never be one of the most efficient quarterbacks in average time to throw due to his scrambling ability (as running quarterbacks always hold the ball longer while they’re behind the line of scrimmage), but this is still an area in which he can significantly improve. Overall, the Giants’ offensive line should be better than last season’s. How much will depend on many factors, though the ceiling of the line is surprisingly high. Things could get ugly if the wheels totally fall off, especially regarding injuries and Neal’s play. Although such projections are hardly scientific, they represent a measured way of assessing where the Giants’ line will fall in 2023.

The 5 O’Clock Club: Captain Sam Howell - Hogs Haven
Let’s say that everything goes the way that most people seem to expect it to go this offseason, and Sam Howell is the starting quarterback for Week 1. As the starting quarterback, is it automatic that the 2nd year player who has thrown 19 regular season passes as a professional will be the captain? Can a starting NFL QB command respect if he isn’t an offensive captain?

Jim Schwartz on Browns’ defensive line: Keep them fresh throwing 100 mph fastballs - PFT
“We’ll roll through eight, maybe even nine guys at times trying to keep guys fresh and keep ’em throwing a 100-miles-per-hour fastballs,” Schwartz said, via the Akron Beacon-Journal. “You guys will get tired of my baseball analogies, but a lot of the D-line is a lot throwing relief in the major leagues now. These guys coming in from the ‘pen throwing a 100, 101. . . . The tempo that we want those guys to play, we’re going to need to rotate fresh troops in.”

LSU football reveals new air-conditioned helmets drawing rave reviews from players - SB Nation
Ask any football player and they’ll tell you the toughest part of the season is training camp. Putting on the pads multiple times a day in the August heat simply wears you down. It was tough enough in New England, so I can only imagine what that’s like down in the heat and humidity of Baton Rouge. That might be slightly easier for the LSU Tigers this season. The team unveiled new air-conditioned helmets for the 2023 season, and shared a video on social media of various players giving the helmets a try. The company behind the helmets is Tigeraire, a Louisiana-based company that “delivers revolutionary airflow acceleration technology for hard hats and football helmets.”

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