Nolan Smith - Destined Since IMG Academy?!

Nolan Smith looks like he's been in the spotlight since high school and is very comfortable with that position. The Georgia native from Savannah moved to Bradenton, Fla to attend the IMG Academy to get his name out there in recruiting circles and as shown in the clip he made full use of the opportunity!

The IMG Academy, a nationally known and recognized powerhouse in football is an interesting case study in how profitable football is in the southern regions of the United States. Their website really promotes their status and visitors come away with this is where you come if you want to be put on the college recruitment wheel.  Check out the Campus tour for the Academy:

Smith, under IMG's vast resources and hands on training (see the facilities), propelled into the number 1 player at IMG and onward to Georgia where he continued his rise as a leader and Edge Rusher on the most dominant defense in college football.

The Philadelphia Eagles drafted Smith #30 overall in the 2023 NFL Draft and he looks like a future leader and presence for a rabid fan base.

It sure feels good to be a Philly fan these days!

Rookie Mini-Camp Is Here!

Coordinators And Winning

Philadelphia won a Super Bowl in 2017 and experienced an exodus of coaches from the team and the 2022 team is experencing the same thing as an organization. The difference between that team and this team going forward is the organization remembers what happened as the splintering began starting with the Quarterback. Carson Wentz never recovered from "not" winning the Super Bowl and that was compounded by the loss of Frank Reich as an Offensive Coordinator and John Defillipo as a Quarterback coach. Fast forward to today and after a Super Bowl runner up finish in 2022 fans will be introduced to new coordinators in the 2023 season and we will see if the organization has learned from the 2017 splintering. Fans should be encouraged by Jalen Hurts, who from all appearances appears to be a disciple of the Micheal Jordan/Kobe Bryant mindset. That mindset led him to make outstanding improvements to his game and from all accounts made the biggest one year leap ever seen by a Quarterback in the modern NFL era. The leap was recognized by the 101 group who named Jalen it's Offensive Player of the year!

Congrats to @JalenHurts on winning NFC Offensive Player of the Year at the 101 Awards 👏 #FlyEaglesFly pic.twitter.com/5O9eR0aJAs

— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) February 26, 2023

The team will need Jalen's Breed of One mindset which is similiar to Kobe's Mamba mindset as they replace both coordinators and free-agent players. I have confidence in that Breed of One mentality and saw that the head coach is even influenced by him. Here's a clip of how I hope Jalen's mindset is after this Super Bowl runner up finish.

Kobe’s mindset after being eliminated was to get right back in the gym to WORK

“I’ll push myself to exhaustion.”

Mamba Mentality 🎯pic.twitter.com/r2mRXnU8H0

— Jaycob Ammerman (@Jammer2233) October 20, 2020

I'm confident in the organization to get the right coordinators and coaches to keep winning and have steeled myself not to get impatient with the time it is taking to name the new coordinators.

Draft Season Is Upon Us

Ok no Lombardi, no parade and while it's hard we gotta move on to next year and the first task is player acquisition. Free Agency is up first in March and my top priorities would be CGJ and Javon Hargrave.  Both are key players if this organization is going to make another run at the Lombardi. I trust Howie to make competitive offers to keep these players in the Novacare Center.  They'll add in veterans as their pro personnel staff is competent and have unearthed some gems e.g. Boston Scott and Marcus Epps.

The Annual Draft is where the excitement really is and count me in as a goofy mock drafter who does too many mocks and here's my mock with 2 trade backs.  Howie always goes with blue chip trench players and I didnt stray from his formula with talented lineman.  I didnt forget about skill position players though and that's why I traded back to get more day 2 players.

Eagles Win Against A Depleted Saints Team

The Philadelphia Eagles for the first time in 5 games this season looked like they constructed and then executed a fundamental gameplan against a NFL team. Chip Kelly made some changes to his kinetic tempo offense and put together a plan of attack that looked like he spent a week studying tendencies, weaknesses, and players of the team he was facing that week. This is called improvement my NFL friends and humbling oneself rather than saying EXECUTION was the issue which to all who heard these words sounded like a code word for it's not my gameplans, it's the players.  Ok I got that off my chest and now let's talk about the game.  Sam Bradford still is rusty and it showed in the game as he missed two redzone throws that would have put the Eagles up 14-0 in the first quarter but instead they were interceptions that sucked the air out of the stadium. The good news was before those throws he was leading the team and moving the ball down the field which speaks to having a game plan as mentioned before. 

The Saints had problems though because of a strong defensive effort led by Fletcher Cox didn't present much offense beyond their early 7-0 lead in the first quarter.  The defense allowed Bradford and the offense to finally start cashing in on the movement and they led 10-7 going into halftime with Bradford throwing a 41 yard touchdown to Josh Huff and a field goal by Caleb Sturgis.  The third quarter showed the grit of Bradford as he began, through a balanced attack featuring DeMarco Murray, to pull the team ahead while Drew Brees had to deal with constant pressure from the Eagles defensive front and was sacked 5 times with one resulting in a fumble. Bradford and the defense buoyed the team and they exploded with touchdowns from Ryan Mathews, Brent Celek, and DeMarco Murray ending up with a 39-17 win.

It was a strong second half and that's been the usual case for the Eagles as they seem to still be getting used to playing with each other.  The star of the game was Fletcher Cox who finished with six tackles, 3 sacks, 2 forced fumbles, and 1 fumble recovery which is the stat line which he said after the game is the first of his career.  Next up for the Eagles are the New York Giants on Monday Night Football next week.

Eagles Beat The Jets And Secure Their First Win

The Philadelphia Eagles used stellar special teams and defense to beat the New York Jets 24-17 in week 3 action. Darren Sproles scored on a punt return to get the Eagles started and pushed the lead to 10-0 and the Eagles used that energy with Ryan Mathews hard running jumped out to a 24-7 lead at halftime.

 

The Eagles defense mobbed Ryan Fitzpatrick and caused 4 turnovers with an outstanding performance from Linebacker Jonathan Hicks who recovered a fumble and caught an interception. The rookie who filled in for a depleted linebacker corp really showed up and showed out in his first start totalling 10 tackles, 1 pass defense, and the aforementioned interception and fumble recovery. The Eagles needed every bit of their defense's contribution as the offense was stymied in the second half.

 

Sam Bradford continued to look uncomfortable in Chip Kelly's offense and failed to get the ball to receiver not named Jordan Matthews. The win nevertheless was the most important outcome and winning while not performing the best gives hope. The hope of course is that the offense can match the defense and string together a strong performance and start winning multiple games.

MetLife Stadium could be the start of something good but only time will tell.

Eagles Lose And It Looks Like A Lost Season

The Dallas Cowboys rolled into Lincoln Financial field and for the fourth time in a row defeated the Philadelphia Eagles on their home turf 20-10. The 20-10 score is not indicative of the kind of football played by both teams as Troy Aikman best said it, "This is bad football by two teams expected to contend for the NFC East title". The first half, which was marred by inept offense and penalties, concluded with the Cowboys leading 6-0 on two field goals.

 

The developing story of the season, though for Philadelphia, is how terrible the Eagles offensive line is as DeMarco Murray at one point had 8 carries for -15 yards. Sam Bradford when he had time watched his receivers drop passes which could have helped them develop a rhythm but that never happened. Jason Kelce, an emerging player, looked very average as the Dallas defensive line just physically whopped up on the line and caused confusion, mayhem, and chaos. Chip Kelly in the post game presser said rather clearly, "We couldn't block anybody and you're not going to win any games if you cant run the ball".

 

The defense played 40 minutes because of the offense's inability to run an offense and while they played heroically they wore down in the end as Terrance Williams late game touchdown sealed Dallas' victory. Byron Maxwell surrendered that touchdown but he and his teammates caused turnovers and generally kept the Eagles in the game. The Eagles now are 0-2 and a victory looks far away for this team. Their immediate concern should be sticking together and working harder because it quite frankly looked like they didn't practice on offense. The noise in the press and on talk radio will be loud and angry next week so the message has to be "Stick Together".

The season is fragile now and Chip Kelly is on the hot seat while everyone waits and watches for a response to these two bad games.