Who Will be taking snaps for the Eagles this year?

As the Eagles enter the part of the off-season after the draft, one thing is certain; nobody, probably even Chip Kelly, knows who the starting quarterback is going to be this year. Now I am just going to throw darts about what the Eagles are gonna do and then I’ll discuss what I think the best option should be:

What the Eagles Will Do

To understand what the Eagles are likely to do it is important to understand the contracts of four candidates for the starting job. Obviously, Matt Barkley has not signed a contract being a recent draftee but it is likely that he will make the team. Here are the others.

Will Dixon have what it takes
to stay with the Eagles?

Dennis Dixon His contract is for the minimum wage for players in the fourth, fifth, or sixth season for both years.  That means the first year is worth $715,000 and his second year is $730,000. If it turns out that he becomes the starter he will earn $1.05 million. His cap hits for 2013 and 2014 are $815,000 and $755,000 respectively.

Nick Foles carries his original contract into this season. The deal goes til 2015 and he is scheduled to make $500,000 this year then $615,000 and $660,000 in the last two years of the contracts. The cap hit the Eagles will take is about $135,000 extra per year because of the signing bonus.

Michael Vick As many of you already know Vick restructured his contract from a deal with three years left to one that ends in 2013. His base salary for this year is $3.5 million which is much less than the $15.5 million of the old contract. He will be able to bring in over $7 million if he fulfills a whole bunch of incentives. His cap hit will be $12,200,000.

Now that contracts are out the way, it’s a little easier to see how things are going to go. Obviously Barkley will make the roster as the Eagles traded up to snag him (but in a round lower than they drafted Foles last year) and Vick seems to have a good chance since he restructured his deal to make him more attractive for the Eagles. Now it comes to who they leave out of the roster; Dennis Dixon was on a practice squad last year so sending him there wouldn’t be too much change for him but I’m thinking the Eagles are gonna want to make a trade of this. This means that Nick Foles is likely on his way out as his trade value is incredibly higher than Dennis Dixon’s. So with this I expect Matt Barkley to start with Michael Vick taking the backup role (and likely stepping in at some point during the season). Dixon will take the reserve spot and hopefully never state on the field.

Alternative situation: Maybe the Eagles restructured Vick’s deal telling him that there was no chance

Contract and age are two of the
many negatives about Vick

that he will be the starter this year. They will then trade him because his contract is now more attractive to other teams. In this situation Dixon still remains the backup but Foles and Barkley battle it out for the starting spot.

Or maybe: Dixon steps in since he knows Kelly’s system perfectly and somehow becomes the starter shocking everyone in the world.

What I Would Do

This is rather simple: I would start back at the Draft and pick Geno Smith with the #4 pick but since that isn’t possible I will make do with what we have now. Looking at a comparison of Vick and Foles’ play last year you see that Vick ranked 26^th in ESPN’s QBR and Foles ranked 28^th. Both those spots are terrible but you have to remember how awful their offensive line was last year. Just for point of reference, Philip Rivers was ranked 31^st and Joe Flacco was 25^th. One thing that Nick Foles does edge Vick in is completion percentage. Foles completed 60.8% of his passes while Vick was a slightly worse 58.1%. This being said Vick is also older and a dog killer, so I am going to take Foles in this situation.

Pretty much a guarantee to be on the
squad

As we continue our way down this ladder tournament of Eagles quarterbacks Michael Vick will take on the Eagles’ newest draftee, Matt Barkley. People will say that Barkley had a terrible senior year and that if he would have came out after his junior year he would have been a first round pick. They are right about the first part and even though Barkley had a career high number interceptions in 2012 it does not mean that he wasn’t productive. USC greatly underachieved as a team and Barkley faced injury problems his senior year. He still threw 36 touchdowns and had a quarter back rating (regular) of 157.6. He also had his highest yards per attempt of his career. Vick struggled last year with injuries as well and Barkley might not be at the same level as Vick yet when it comes to attributes. However, I would choose Barkley over the best running quarterback of all time due to age and money. Vick is 32 and his career is likely on the downhill and he will have a huge cap hit.

Up Next: Mike Vick vs Dennis Dixon. Neither of them are really attractive but Vick is obviously is the greater talent. However, I do not plan on either of these playing much (in my world, in real life I think Vick will play) so I will choose Dixon. Dixon just seems like your typical third string quarterback; he doesn’t threaten the starters, kind of stays out of the way, and provides some versatility to show the offense when they play a team with a rushing quarterback. (I know Vick could do the same but his contract is just so heavy even with him taking less money). So at the end of the day, I would trade Vick to some team that could tolerate having a dog murderer on their team.

Who knows what could happen
to the Sunshine/Dirk hybrid?

Last Matchup: Dennis Dixon vs Free Agents. First I’ll give a list of professional free agents: Tim Tebow(no chance), Trent Edwards (already cut him in April so that would be redundant), Charlie Batch (plausible), Byron Leftwich(plausible), Matt Leinart(he’s a joke), Tyler Thigpen(Who?), JaMarcus Russell(Nope), Jordan Palmer(Carson’s not even good anymore), and Caleb Hanie(nope). Now let’s look at some undrafted free agents…wait… wait… all of the good ones are taken: Matt Scott (Jaguars) and Tyler Bray (Chiefs). Matt McGloin was the next highest rated quarterback and he will be attending Washington Football Club’s camps as an unsigned free agent (he would have been good story

and I also found out that he kicked ass in three sports during high school). So that’s it… it’s either Dixon, Batch or Leftwich and since Dixon is already on the roster I choose him… weird that they all played for the Steelers at one point.

Now it is between Barkley and Foles for the starting job and I think Foles wins it due to experience but I’d expect to see Barkley in at some point.  

Philadelphia Eagles Depth Chart - 2013
Quarterback
	STARTER	2ND	3RD	4TH
Mine	Nick Foles	Matt Barkley	Dennis Dixon
PHI 1	Matt Barkley	Michael Vick	Dennis Dixon
PHI 2	Foles/Barkley	Foles/Barkley	Dennis Dixon
RARE	Dennis Dixon

Side Note: All quarterbacks that I might have said aren't good are all ridiculously talented people who I have much respect for.

Fans vote on who should stay

Philly.com recently released a poll asking Philadelphia fans which flyers they think they should be back on the team next year and which ones should go. Let's take a loot at some of the Flyers and whether or not they should be coming back next year.

General Manager- Paul Holmgren Stay 56.4% I say no to this, I do not believe that he should be coming back next year after the Schenn-JVR trade. Some Flyers' fans believe that Schenn has been a great contribution to our d-line but honestly he is just a turnover machine. During the season though he did pick up Steve Mason which a good move. At the end of the day however, he should be gone.

Coach- Peter Laviolette Stay 77.5% Although I voted for him to leave that was probably just a little bit of angst over a terrible season in which they went 23-22. In honesty, things weren't all his fault as his defense was below standard allowing 2.9 goals per game. This was probably one of the harder decisions for me so I can live happily with him returning next year; which the Flyers have confirmed.

Goalie- Ilya Bryzgalov Go 75.2% This was a no brainer for me since the Flyers traded for Steve Mason. In 40 games for the Flyers this year Iggy ent 19-17 with a 2.79 GAA which was 32nd in the league. 

Mason

Goalie- Steve Mason Stay 97.2% Almost unanimous decision by the fans and with good reason. In 7 games with Philly this season he had a 1.90 GAA with a .944 SV%. For the season he had a 2.59 GAA and a .916 SV% which was good enough for 16th in the league. Look for him to step into the starter's role.

Forward- Claude Giroux Stay 96.7% For me and the fans this was a no-brainer. But looking at the advanced metrics things look a lot different. The captain finished the year with a Corsi rating of .99 which was fourth among forwards for the Flyers. But just going by good old stats we see that Giroux led the Flyers with 48 points and 35 assists. He was only -7 for the year (and let's face it, for the Flyers that was amazing). So even though the metrics aren't in his favor, I want him back.

Forward- Danny Briere Go 70.4% The Fans and I can definitely agree on this one. He has been a bad move ever since we acquired him from the Sabres a few years ago. He finished the year with only 16 points and a -13 rating. His corsi rating was -5.70 which even for a Flyer was awful. At 35 years old I think it is time to say bye-bye.

Forward- Brayden Schenn Stay 83.5% Unlike his brother I actually want him around next year. In a strong rookie season in which he appeared in 47 of the Flyers' 48 games he scored 8 goals and dished out 18 assists. He only won 45.5% of his faceoffs but I think that this young center has good future in Philly.

Forward- Simon Gagne Stay 73.3% I am absolutely befuddled by this. We got rid of him once and yet we bring him back and I have no idea why. To his defense he had the 7th best Corsi rating on the team at -3.18 (yes, a negative was this team's 7th best... and it was still be hind Luke Schenn). He only had 5 goals on the season and unless we plan on using him as a veteran type role model, I think he should go. I've since learned that he is willing to take less money to remain a Flyer so I think he should stick around in a leadership role.

Lot's of Penalty Mintues
but also tons of goals

Other Forwards I think we should keep are Wayne Simmonds (obviously, his corsi sucked but so did everyone elses and he had 15 goals which was second on the team. Rising Sophomores Matt Read, Tye McGinn, and Sean Couturier are must keeps as well as enforcer Zac Rinaldo. I think Scott Hartnell has another year or two left in him but will quickly be out of Philly.

Aaarg

Defense- Luke Schenn Stay 73.3% Oh how I've been waiting to get to him. He does have the 6th best corsi on the team at -1.07 but that doesn't mean he is good. He was supposedly the number one or two d-man on the Flyers but the things is, the Flyers let up the 22nd most goals in the NHL. I know, Iggy wasn't a great goalie but maybe if he wasn't facing the 12th most shots in the league he could have done a little better. Fans will talk about how he had the fourth most hits in the NHL with 187 and I say whoop de fucking doo. I care more about his 31 turnovers was 59th in the league. I know that doesn't seem to bad but guess what, he was near the tops for the most of the beginning of the year. What makes this worse is that he was traded for JVR who had 32 points this season.

Defense- Braydon Coburn Stay 56% I say he should be out of here. He was tied with Schenn in turnovers so it really didn't matter if the other team dumped the puck and our d got their first, cause the opponents were getting it back. Coburn had the 17th best corsi on the team with -7.32 and was 4th in blocked shots with 61 (one thing I'll give Schenn credit for is leading the Fly Guys in blocked shots). He was a horse though leading the Flyers in minutes so if I had to choose between Coburn and Schenn, I'd go with Coburn.

Defense-Kimmon Timonen  Stay 79.4% He's 38 and most likely near the end of his career and although he has only played 6 years with the Flyers I think he deserves to go out as a Flyer. Since Pronger has been almost forced out of the game Timonen is the only defensemen on the Flyers I have really liked. He is truly an all around player with 24 assists and 5 goals on offense while on defense blocking 79 shots. He was a little light on the hitting only knocking down 31 opponents but he wa a smart player and I hopt to see him retire in Philly one day.

That's it for the Flyers, I'd prefer if Grossman stays around and I think Meszaros is on the way out. Next time I'll be looking into the Eagles' quarterback situation and determine who I think should be the starter. Similar to what I wrote above, it really won't matter cause I sure as hell aren't the GM of either team.