Monday, May 8, 2023

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!

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Friday, May 5, 2023

Rookie Mini-Camp Is Here!


A John Facienda highlight real produced by the Sabol family or a Howard Cosell Monday Night Football production where he's doing play by play and commentary at the same time is old school football at its finest.  I grew up on that and remember those days fondly when running backs and linebackers were the baddest men on the field.  Many others remember the good old days when the tough guys played and hated each other off the field.  Those days players literally came to training camp to get into shape to play football for sixty minutes. They were no planned offseason training programs, rookie mini camps, no organized training activities (OTAs), etc. There were just hard training camps and draconian training methods that put players in jeopardy.  Football was, believe it or not,  a distant second to Baseball as a past-time and although shown on TV it wasn't the production we see today. Enough of me reminiscing about the 70s and 80s, rookie Mini-Camp starts and Philadelphia Eagle fans are foaming at the mouth to see the rookie draft class! The rookie draft class that had Daniel Jerimiah and the NFL Network swooning on day1! The second phase after the draft also looks good with the Undrafted rookie signings too which adds more excitement to the roster building portion of the season. Here's a look at the rookie rookie draft class to include undrafted signings:


 
A quick look at the undrafted signings look like Stoutland University guys and the SEC corners stand out, only concern is the one linebacker signing but that leads me to believe Desai will go with a lot of Big Nickel looks but we will see! The only thing that many fanatics are waiting on now are the unveiling of the numbers for these guys! The only one that is confirmed is Sydney Brown who said he's wearing 43.
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Sunday, February 26, 2023

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! 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. 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.
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Tuesday, February 21, 2023

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.
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