Eagles and the Free Agency game for 2011…

Just completed my third viewing of the Pack vs. Philly wild card game… more convinced than ever that the Eagles were in position to take that win, even after squandering 8 points on the field of play… if Vick throws a better pass and Cooper makes the play for a TD against the Pack’s best cover corner, or better yet, if #7 makes the checkdown pass to a wide-open DeSean Jackson, we probably win, and we’re not having these conversations about how deficient the D and the OL are. If I’m even more honest, I say that if Akers makes 41 and 34-yard FG’s, we win, too. And if Celek doesn’t step out of bounds on a 2-point conversion, we need a FG to tie at the end, instead of a TD to win. So we take the best team in the NFC down to the last play, and actually could have won the game, with THIS personnel?— all 5th and 7th round draft picks and FA’s… Guys like Fokou, Patterson, Dixon, Coleman, Clayton, Chaney…I mean, we were playing with these uncelebrated guys and STILL should’ve beat the best team in the NFC. So as bad as it feels now (I should be used to it), it’s actually nothing short of a miracle we made it THIS far with THIS team…

Yeah, it’s nice to have overachieving FA’s and late round picks playing well, but at SOME point, it would be nice to have some blue-chip players sprinkled in here and there. It’s awfully hard to go all the way with the extremely young and late-round-draft-pick roster we have. And we still should have won. The last interview I saw with Reid, he was saying how Vick always wants to attack, and there’s a time and place for that. Perhaps Vick should have spiked the ball and regrouped at the end, there was plenty of time to score from the 27-yard line. Instead, Vick had to utilize the”attack” mentality, and it cost us… and maybe the idea was good, but the execution of the play was difficult. I know Vick has great natural physical ability, but I just don’t know if he has the winner’s intuition yet to lead a team to a title. Physical ability is great, but you also have to excel from the ears up, and under pressure circumstances I just don’t know if Vick has what it takes to reach the big winner’s circle…

 I honestly think what defensive coordinator Sean McDermott did with THIS defense is amazing when you look at the players he had to work with. The Eagles haven’t put much investment value in the LB position lately, which can be fatal. Stewart Bradley is our highest-drafted LB, and he came out of the third round. Under Andy Reid, the philosophy of winning always favors ” the system”, not the individual players, and until that changes, we can keep expecting some degree of frustration as fans who are desperately waiting for “the system” to pay off…

But overall a tremendous feat of overachievement by a team that was gutted in the preseason by the release or trade of aging veterans… and filled in with a host of rookies, 2nd and 3rd-year guys, plus the resurgence of a reprobate and a sprinkling of free agent pick-ups.

Now the big challenge is to try to hold on to the Eagles who are worth keeping, as several key players will be eligible for free agency in 2011… and to project the rest of the best of the Eagles whose contracts will be up in 2012 and 2013 for potential re-signing.

Let’s take a look at the Eagles current personnel contract status, courtesy of WalterFootball.com:

Below is a depth chart and the year each NFL player will be a free agent. Keep in mind that the players listed are notable ones; players at the bottom of the depth chart will not be on this list.

Free agents to be following the 2010 NFL season are marked as “2011” because they become free agents on March 1, 2011. The same goes for future seasons. Age is as of Sept. 1, 2010.

Okay, so we need to make some decisions on the soon-to-be-official Free Agents, namely Vick at QB#1, Jerome Harrison and Eldra Buckley at RB, Nick Cole and Reggie Wells on the OL, the mostly-injured Vic Abiamiri at DE,  Ernie Sims and Akeem Jordan at OLB, Stewart Bradley and Omar Gaither at MLB (and we’ll give extra credit to Gaither for his excellent work on special teams blocking and coverage), Ellis Hobbs at CB, Quintin Mikell at S, and the Glimmer Twins of the kicking game, David Akers and punter/holder Sav Rocca… KEEP IN MIND the potential free agency availabilty to the Eagles of other teams’ high-priced talent, most notably the amazingly gifted cornerback of the Oakland Raiders, NNAMDI ASOMUGHA…and including WR  RANDY MOSS, RB CADILLAC WILLIAMS, K ADAM VINATIERI, LB MIKE PETERSON, DE MARCUS SPEARS, QB MATT HASSELBECK, RB/KR LEON WASHINGTON, DE MATHIAS KIWANUKA, S BRODNEY POOL,  RB PIERRE THOMAS, WR JAMES JONES, WR MALCOLM FLOYD, RB JOSEPH ADDAI, S ROMAN HARPER, CB IKE TAYLOR, LB BARRETT RUUD,  RB CEDRIC BENSON, FB MIKE TOLBERT, OT JERMON BUSHROD, WR TERRELL OWENS, CB CHAMP BAILEY, RB MICHAEL BUSH, S DAWAN LANDRY, CB BRENT GRIMES, DE CHARLES JOHNSON, RB RONNIE BROWN, WR VINCENT JACKSON, RB BEN-JARVUS GREEN-ELLIS, WR/KR  BRAD SMITH, RB AHMAD BRADSHAW,  OT MATT LIGHT, WR STEVE SMITH (NYG),  MLB STEVE TULLOCH, DE JASON BABIN, DE RAY EDWARDS, WR BRAYLON EDWARDS, DE CULLEN JENKINS, OT TYSON CLABO,  LB PAUL POSLUSZNY,  LB CHAD GREENWAY, CB ANTONIO CROMARTIE,  LB TAMBA HALI,  WR SANTONIO HOLMES,  LB LAMAR WOODLEY, WR SIDNEY RICE, RB DEANGELO WILLIAMS,  QB PEYTON MANNING…

Realistically, I’d be looking to take my chances with take-it-or-leave-it offers to current Eagles Ernie Sims, Jerome Harrison, Eldra Buckley, Reggie Wells, Nick Cole, Vic Abiamiri, Akeem Jordan, Stewart Bradley, Omar Gaither, Quintin Mikell, David Akers and Sav Rocca. I’m assuming Ellis Hobbs is going to retire due to recurrent neck injury, and if I can’t sign Michael Vick to a 3-year-deal, I’m going to “franchise” him for one more year under the existing CBA guidelines…which, of course, may expire in March unless a new deal gets done there.

Then, after the dust settles with the fall-out of the tenders to Eagles free agents, I’m going to go after NNAMDI ASOMUGHA at cornerback, ANTONIO CROMARTIE at cornerback, VINCENT JACKSON at wide receiver, CHARLES JOHNSON at defensive end, and JERMON BUSHROD at right tackle to become Vick’s new “blind side” protector…

I wish there were a dominant linebacker or two in the available list of premier Free Agents above who could be signed, but I’m sure all the LB’s listed will be re-signed by their current teams, or end up with another team besides the Eagles…

and I’ll have to trust my 2nd-year players, my 2011 draft picks and my resultant free-agent pick-ups to fill in the rest of the roster. I’m specifically looking to improve at cornerback, because we lost Hobbs to injury and Asante Samuel is steadily slowing and suffering from the beat-down toll of the NFL. Asomugha would be the prize acquisition of the bunch…but so many big-money teams are after him, I would not hate it if we ended up settling for Cromartie. Of course, all of this is wishful thinking…and so much depends on their availability after these star players have considered their existing team’s offers with their agents.  And I think most of the Eagles free agents will end up re-signing with the Eagles.

But it’s fun to consider “what if” someone of the talent and stature of an Asomugah or a Bushrod could be signed and bring a huge impact to the improvement of the 2011 Eagles…not only defensively, but also to the benefit of Vick’s protection and improved offensive line depth.