NFL News

[ghandi]

"HA!!! Not like what we got for future HOF Matthew Stafford!!!"

Timing is everything!

[Fraquar]

"HA!!! Not like what we got for future HOF Matthew Stafford!!!"

Timing is everything!

This is Favre 2.0.
As Yogi so eloquently put it "It's de ja vu all over again...."
All we can hope for is that whoever succeeds Rodgers isn't yet another HOF QB for the next 20 years...

[Tom]

Had they traded Rodgers one year earlier, they probably could have surrounded their new QB with much better talent.

[jaadam4]

Had they traded Rodgers one year earlier, they probably could have surrounded their new QB with much better talent.

I’m glad they didn’t. Rdogers leaving a year earlier allowed us to spank them twice which built up our team. It also screwed GB out of a potential bidding war of picks for him. Prior to last year Erin was MVP caliber. Last year he looked like Ty Detmer.

Im fully joyed

[ghandi]

Had they traded Rodgers one year earlier, they probably could have surrounded their new QB with much better talent.

They should have traded him instead of giving him that huge extension...They had a QB in place and like you said that was the time to do it......Tom Brady may have actually hurt some of these teams because now they think every QB is going to play at a high level past 40 years old and Aaron got paid because of that.

[ghandi]

Calais Campbell signs with Atlanta...It sounded like many here were in the "hes too old" camp, but I really think they wanted him as a mentor more than anything (and he can still play pretty well for his age).

[froot loops]

I didn't think the fit was right, but he would have produced. My guess is he would have been that he took snaps away from Paschal rather than flat out playing DT a lot.

[whatever_gong82]

Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie on everything from Jalen Hurts’ future to return of Kelly Green

1st of 5 parts.

By Zach Berman and Bo Wulf

6h ago



PHOENIX — The Philadelphia Eagles closed the league meetings with owner Jeffrey Lurie addressing reporters, and it wasn’t lost on Lurie that he offered public comments only a few weeks ago in the same city.

The Eagles were here for the Super Bowl last month. Lurie reflected upon a season that was “nothing short of incredible,” albeit with a final game that he labeled as “heartbreaking.”


“They’re just hungry to bring back another Lombardi to Philly,” Lurie said of the players and coaches. “The fans deserve it. Our team deserves it. Our culture begs for it.”

Here are six takeaways from Lurie’s public comments:



Lurie expects Jalen Hurts on the Eagles ‘for a long time’


The Eagles spent the week (and the offseason, for that matter) emphasizing their plan to sign Hurts to a long-term contract extension. That commitment received its most important endorsement from Lurie, who would need to sign off on what will presumably be a record-breaking deal for the franchise.



“Once you can find (a franchise quarterback), that’s when you’re really excited,” Lurie said. “We’ll be working with Jalen I’m sure for a long time.”



Lurie has been in this position before, richly rewarding Donovan McNabb, Carson Wentz and Michael Vick. He emphasized that each quarterback and situation is different. Listening to Lurie and other Eagles officials speak about Hurts, there seems to be little reservation in making this type of investment in the MVP finalist.



“The thing with Jalen I am so optimistic about is he has this incredible — and I’m not telling you anything you don’t know here — but seeing him virtually every day he has an incredible passion for being phenomenal,” Lurie said. “And you see that in the great ones. We all know in other sports, and with certain quarterbacks in this league, you can define them by obsession with detail and work ethic. We always knew Jalen was talented, had a very live arm that we felt was discounted in college because he was such a great runner, and his character was always considered great. But maybe the advantage we had was we really respected his ability to throw the football, and that would improve based on tremendous work ethic. I think the future is so great for him.”




Lurie reminded that Hurts is only 24 years old — a fact that can sometimes be forgotten when listening to Hurts speak or watching the way he comports himself.



“Jalen is the most mature 24-year-old I’ve ever come across,” Lurie said.



It was interesting to compare Lurie’s comments to the league meetings last year, when the Eagles didn’t yet know if Hurts would become a franchise quarterback and Lurie made a point of mentioning how few quarterbacks actually earned that distinction. On Tuesday, Lurie put Hurts in the category of Patrick Mahomes, Josh Allen and Joe Burrow. Expect the Eagles quarterback to be paid accordingly. — Berman



Worth boasting about successful front-office restocking



Last offseason, the Eagles lost four members of their front office (Ian Cunningham, Brandon Brown, Catherine Raîche and Andy Weidl) to assistant general manager jobs elsewhere. Cunningham and Brown both left before the draft, which led in part to a rule change (co-sponsored by the Eagles) that allowed clubs to block front-office employees from interviewing for assistant general manager jobs until after the draft. Those departures left a vacuum in the front office that was eventually filled by a handful of external hires and internal promotions, like the elevation of Alec Halaby and Jon Ferrari to assistant general managers, a title that was not customarily given under Howie Roseman. Through that turnover, things obviously worked out fine on the way to the Eagles’ NFC Championship season.



continued..

[whatever_gong82]

“I just want to say, Howie, you can’t underestimate the job he’s done the last few years to elevate from Super Bowl team to having to deal with every issue you possibly can deal with in terms of trying to get back to the Super Bowl again,” Lurie said. “It’s a tough job and he’s got a great staff. They’re unknowns. Those assistant GMs became GMs because they are so well trained, and they’re not just trained on scouting, they’re not just trained on analytics, they’re not just trained on football ops in certain ways.




“He replaced those assistant GMs … with people who are extremely bright, have incredible futures and some of them are gonna be GMs in this league. And it won’t be that long. And he thinks outside the box, not only on personnel, trades, acquisitions. It’s a six-month, seven-month offseason. You don’t participate for a week or two. It’s every day for seven months. It’s a much more global view of roster building. Looking at weaknesses of teams and who might be willing to trade a (C.J.) Gardner-Johnson or entice a Linval Joseph to come back, or things like that. One of the things I love about Howie is he will bring in people, they’re not ‘yes’ people. They’re people he admires from afar or they’re just really bright.”



Lurie added that Roseman was actually asked to give a presentation during the league meetings to owners about the importance of cross-training a staff.



“They get access to everything,” Lurie said. “They’re not just, ‘Here’s the scout.’ That scout needs to understand at some point how to use resources, why we do certain things, why the salary-cap management takes place where it is, what’s the difference between analysis on film and analysis on data, and how that collaborates and works together. It’s a culture of curiosity and information and instinct and all that.”



In touting future general managers on the staff, Lurie even pointed to one of the team’s newest hires, Adam Berry, the twin brother of Cleveland Browns general manager (and former Eagles employee) Andrew Berry, as someone with that potential. Adam Berry, who is transitioning to working in football from his position as a managing director at Goldman Sachs, is not even officially a team employee yet.



“This is just a really, really bright guy from Goldman,” Lurie said. “And it’s very unusual to be able to entice somebody who has the same character and intelligence as Andrew in many ways. I’d be surprised if he doesn’t develop into a general manager in this league down the road. That’s what we do.” — Wulf


continued..

[whatever_gong82]

No victory lap over trio of minority coordinators



Lurie has been outspoken about his support of diverse hiring practices in the NFL over the years, even if actions did not always follow words. With Brian Johnson elevated to offensive coordinator, Sean Desai hired as defensive coordinator and Michael Clay retained as special teams coordinator, the Eagles are now notably the only team in the league with three minority coordinators. Lurie, though, said the team deserved no plaudits for that occurrence.



“I don’t want to take credit for the fact that we have three minority coordinators,” he said. “They were the best each time they were being interviewed. … It might not have worked out that way. Brian Johnson is someone we see as being very talented, Sean Desai the same, and Michael we have worked with before and he is a very young and developing coach. We’re open to it, we are colorblind, and we just want the best. It just worked out that way. I don’t want to have us take any credit for it.”




Lurie is especially excited about Johnson, whom he said Nick Sirianni identified as Shane Steichen’s successor early on.



“(Sirianni) had made it very clear during the season that we have an outstanding, outstanding quarterback coach in Brian Johnson,” Lurie said. “And so he was going to go through an interview process but he was very, very hopeful that we wouldn’t lose Brian. Because there were several times looking to sign Brian and we didn’t know if Shane was going to be a head coach. So we were plenty concerned, very concerned that we would not have Brian to both promote and sort of have the benefits of somebody who’s worked with Jalen, and works great with him, and has the respect of everybody in the building.” — Wulf



Trying to win now and later


There are lessons the Eagles can learn from the decline of their last Super Bowl team, but they are not dealing with absolutes. Take the 30-and-over group that the Eagles signed to new deals this offseason. Lurie said the Eagles vacillated about whether they should re-sign older players, but the team’s position was that veterans such as Jason Kelce, Brandon Graham and Fletcher Cox are still “playing at such a high level that it was a smart thing” to bring them back to Philadelphia.



“You need a mix of older players, younger players, draft choices, vets, up-and-coming players, players you’re developing from lesser-known players from the practice squad or bottom of the roster,” Lurie said.



continued..

[whatever_gong82]

Lurie pointed to the way the Kansas City Chiefs have transitioned their roster, even trading Tyreek Hill and replenishing their core with high draft picks. The Eagles have two first-round picks like the Chiefs did last year. And with the expectation that they’ll have a high-priced quarterback on the books in the coming years, the Eagles need to be smart about making decisions that prolong their window. Because as difficult as it is to build a winner, it might be even more challenging to sustain one.



“This is a tough league, it’s physical and lots of unavoidable accidents happen along the way, injury-wise,” Lurie said. “And you try to have the best team possible, but on any given day, you might not. I think it’s challenging to become NFC champs, or NFL champs. And it’s very challenging to sustain it, but it’s very possible to. I’m super excited about what we can do in 2023, 2024 going forward. I mean, I can’t think of any reason not to be super excited.” — Berman



What would have happened in the Super Bowl had the offense had a potential game-winning drive?
If you think the Super Bowl loss is lingering in your mind, Lurie can empathize.


“I think about a minute and 43 (seconds) left in the game, and one timeout, we got the ball at the 25-yard line, what would have happened?” Lurie said. “I would have liked that opportunity. Because we were built for it.”



The time refers to the final two minutes of the Super Bowl when the Eagles had the Chiefs backed up on a third down and James Bradberry was flagged for defensive holding with 1:54 remaining. Without a flag, the Eagles would have held the Chiefs to a field goal and Hurts could have led a potential game-winning or game-tying drive.


Seeing the Eagles unable to stop the Chiefs (and the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LII, for that matter) didn’t leave Lurie with the takeaway that the defense needed to be fixed as much as the reality that the offense must be elite.


“Offense is dominant in this league,” Lurie said. “We had an outstanding defense this year. … You come to games with great quarterbacks — (Tom) Brady, Mahomes, Jalen, Nick Foles when he played that day — offense has dominated in this league. That’s why we’ve always focused more resource allocation on making sure we have an outstanding offense, because it’s very hard to stop.”

continued..

[whatever_gong82]

He pointed to the rules in the NFL making it difficult to stop a dynamic offense and cited an organizational philosophy that dates back to Andy Reid’s tenure with the team. The Eagles want a good defense, but their last two Super Bowl appearances continue to reinforce Lurie’s belief that offenses are the reason for winning. And he wishes his offense could have been on the field for a meaningful drive at the end.



“I’ll go back: A minute and 43, one timeout, let’s roll,” Lurie said. — Berman




Kelly Green is arriving, as promised


At last year’s version of these meetings, Lurie delivered a long-awaited promise that the team would finally bring back the Kelly Green jerseys that pre-dated Lurie’s ownership as an alternate uniform, but not until 2023, by which time Nike would be able to correct its iteration of the color. A year later, Lurie confirmed the original timeline.



“The last thing I’ll say is this is the season we’ll reintroduce the classic Kelly Green, and I’m super excited,” he said during his opening statement. “I don’t know what date it’s going to be. But I think fans will love it. It’s why we’re bringing it back. We took the feedback seriously over the years. The first moment we could get the Kelly Green helmet approved, we’ll finally be able to see it on the field.” — Wulf

[SnowMeiser]

That’s an indication that the Packers know they don’t have the leverage in trade talks with the Jets, and that they want to get something for Rodgers before trade talks break down and blow up in the Packers’ faces.

This is exactly what I would love to see happen.

[Futureshock]

Fu(k da Packers.

[Futureshock]

The table may be set for Jeff Bezos to make his Commanders bid

Posted by Mike Florio on March 30, 2023, 9:43 AM EDT

Getty Images

On Tuesday, ESPN reported on the existence of a pair of $6 billion bids for the Commanders, without any further information, analysis, or context as to how current owner Daniel Snyder would pick a winner.

Other reporting from other outlets has provided some of the missing information, analysis, and/or context. And it points to a very real possibility of a long-expected bidder finally making a play for the team.

A.J. Perez of FrontOfficeSports.com recently explained that the group led by Josh Harris is the “only” serious contender, because his bid is backed by the money needed to survive the league’s vetting process.

This means, by implication, Canadian billionaire Steve Apostolopoulos isn’t a serious contender.

Meanwhile, Charles Gasparino of Fox Business Network (whose periodic tweets on the matter suggest that his source is someone close to Snyder or even Snyder himself) tweeted that neither of the $6 billion offers are “real,” and that the bids come with contingencies that put the actual value in the range of $5 billion.

Gasparino also reported that Jeff Bezos and Mark Cuban “are eyeing the team” — before reporting that Cuban is not interested.

Previously, Gasparino reported that Snyder is no longer opposed to a bid from Bezos, and that if Bezos makes a bid it likely will happen after the league meetings.

It could be that ESPN’s reports regarding of a pair of identical $6 billion bids were aimed at setting the bar that Bezos needs to beat in order to buy the team.

That’s the next move to watch. Bezos knows what it will take. Snyder reportedly isn’t refusing to sell to Bezos for spite. Will Bezos finally do it?