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.

Catholic Seven confirmed; McCoy wants Vick; and ovetime galore in NHL

1. I typically do not like to comment on the slavery that his college sports but there has been recent developments in the Big East that I feel deserve attention.The Seven Catholic schools, DePaul, Georgetown, Marquette, Providence, St. John's, Seton Hall, and Villanova have settled an agreement that will allow them to keep the Big East name as they separate themselves from the football conference. Next year they plan on adding Butler and Xavier for sure with Creighton likely joining afterwards. Dayton and St. Louis will be candidates in following seasons. Notre Dame may be in this conference for the first year until it settles out what it's situation with the ACC is. This will dramatically hurt the rest of the conferences TV contract but not destroy the union. They will still be an AQ school in football but just not have a name.
2. The Yankees have reportedly offered All- Star Second baseman Robinson Cano a very lucrative deal in order to entice him into staying int he Bronx. Cano will be payed $15 million this year on a club option and is expected to test the free agent market this winter.
3. LeSean "Shady" McCoy has publicly stated that he wants Michael Vick to be the starting quarterback for the Eagles next year. He said "People forget- this is Michael Vick" (trust me, I remember the turnovers). While Vick may seem to be suited for Chip Kelly's running offense, Chip Kelly would probably prefer someone who can make smart decisions and not turn the ball over. That is why Michael Vick should be the Eagles' last option; they can either go with Nick Foles who has proven to be a work in progress yet able to be competent. Another option would be Dennis Dixon, who the Eagles have recently acquired and had ran Kelly's offense during his senior year of college. The last option before Vick should be Geno Smith of West Virginia that they could easily pick up at the number 4 spot of the draft. He is similar to Vick but younger and appeared to be a very efficient passer in the beginning of the year but dipped off at the end. The Eagles' need an efficient passer who can move the ball down field, not a flashy runner with a 56% career winning percentage.
NBA Recap

Noah

The Clippers took care of things in Indiana beating the Pacers 99-91. Chris Paul led the way for the Clippers with 29 points and 8 assists while Blake Griffin grabbed 14 rebounds.
Joakim Noah had an incredible 23 point 21 rebound performance in the Bulls 93-82 win over the Sixers. Jrue Holiday led the Sixers with 22 points while his teammate Spencer Hawes had 15 rebounds in the loss.
After just saying that he plans on playing in the 2016 Olympics Dwight Howard played a solid game scoring 11 points and grabbing 13 rebounds. Kobe Bryant scored a game-high 33 points while Ricky Rubio had 13 assists as the Timberwolves fell 116-94 to the Lakers.
All NBA
Not many games last night so this won't exactly be the all-decade team.

All NBA 2/28/13
Pos	Player	Note
G	Chris Paul- LAC	Second in the league with 29 points last night and also dished out 8 assists. Went 11-18 from the field.
G	Ricky Rubio- MIN	Had a league high 13 assists and and also scored 13 points (they lost so its still an unlucky number). He came two rebounds away from a triple-double.
G	Kobe Bryant- LAL	Shot 13-22 from the field and 4-8 from downtown to score a league high 33 points. Also had 5 assists and 5 rebounds.
F	Blake Griffin- LAC	Scored 18 points shooting 7-10 from floor and 4-5 on free throws. Grabbed 14 rebounds.
C	Joakim Noah- CHI *Player of the Night*	Grabbed an amazing 21 rebounds including 8 on the offensive end. Scored 23 points as well and completed the triple-double with 11 blocks.

 
NHL Recap
Only two goals were scored in regulation in the Bruins-Senators game as Nathan Horton scored for Boston and Jim O'Brien scored for the Sens both scored in the second period. Once in overtime Patrice Bergeron scored three and a half minutes into sudden death. Robin Lehner saved 44 of 46 shots in the 2-1 loss.

Phaneuf

The Maple Leafs and Islanders also went to OT but this game was much higher scoring. The teams split the period 1-1 but then the Maple Leafs scored three unanswered int the second after Lubomir Visnovsky opened up the second with a goal for the Islanders. One of the goals was James van Riemsdyk's 12th of the year and the Leafs entered the third up 4-2. Andrew MacDonald and Kyle Okposo both scored for the Islanders and the game was now headed into overtime. Only a minute into overtime did Dion Phaneuf score to end the game with a 5-4 Leafs win.
The Rangers opened up the game with goals by Carl Hagelin and Derek Stepan before Martin St. Louis answered for the Lightning with 4 minutes left in the first. Marc Staal then increased the Rangers lead to 2 when he scored on the powerplay in the second. Rick Nash then scored with only a minute thirty left to seal the 4-1 win.
The Penguins and Hurricanes split the first period 1-1 with goals by Chris Kunitz of PIT and Eric Staal of CAR. Staal's goal came with only 25 seconds in the period and the Hurricanes rode that momentum into the second with three goals including two by Jiri Tlusty. The Penguins were not able to answer in the third as the Canes walked away with a 4-1 win.
There was another close game last night in Florida where it took a shootout to sort things out between the Panthers and Sabres.The Sabres got off to a 3-2 start in the first which forced Scott Clemmensn out of the game and Jose Theodore in but Brian Campbell of Florida scored with minute and a half left in the third to send the game into overtime. Ovetime produced nothing so it was off to a shootout where Thomas Vanek and Jason Pominville scored on the Sabres' first two attempts and their goalie Ryan Miller blanked the Panthers for the 4-3 shootout win. Ryan Miller made 40 saves on 45 shots while Jose Theodore was perfect on the 15 shots he saw before the shootout.

Toews

Corey Crawford and Ray Emery combined for a shutout in the Blackhawks 3-0 win over the Blues. Crawford was pulled after saving 6 shots due to an upper body injury. Jonathan Toews scored twice in the game to improve his year total to 8.
 The Jets' Andrew Ladd scored his 11th goal of the year just 8 seconds into last nights Jets Devils game. Things were quiet for the next 22 some minutes before Andrel Loktionov scored for the Devils to make things even steven. Andrew Ladd scored again in the third to break the draw and then he assisted on an empty netter by Blake Wheeler to put the clamps on the Jets' 3-1 win.
Sometimes as a goalie, you just have a really bad day, and that is what happened to the Stars' Kari Lehtonen last night. He allowed 5 goals on 38 attempts (obviously his defense didn't help) in his teams' 5-1 loss to the Oilers. Ales Hemsky had three points in the win scoring 1 goal and assisting on 2 others.
The Avalanche were down 4-2 entering the third period but they owned the final frame. Gabriel Landeskog scored 23 seconds into the third to cut the deficit to one and then Paul Stastny followed up with a goal 6 minutes later. Halfway through the third, Matt Duchene claimed the lead for the Avalanche and Semyon Varlamov held the Flames off for a 5-4 win.
Dany Heatlley scored two of the Wild's three unanswered goals to begin the game. Their streak was broken by Rostislav Klesla who brought the score to 3-1. The Wild increased the lead to four again on a Jared Spurgeon powerplay goal. The Coyotes were able to put some pressure Nicklas Backstrom in the third scoring two goals. Unfortunately the second of those two came with a minute left and they simply did not have enough time to score again losing 4-3. The Coyotes dominance of the third period can be seen by their 12-4 win in the shot department.

Brunner: Shootout Hero

Both Detroit and San Jose waited til the third period to score last night with Logan Couture netting one for the Sharks and Patrick Eaves answering 2 minutes later. The Red Wings got three shots off in overtime (won game shot total 37-28) but failed to score and the game went to a shootout. Damien Brunner slid one past Antti Niemi in the only goal of the shootout and the Red Wings walked away with a 2-1 SO win.


All NHL

All NHL 2/28/2013
Pos	Player	Note
F	Paul Stastny- COL	Scored a goal and had an assist for the two point night. Finished game with at +3.
F	Marcel Goc- FLA	Finished the game with +2 and recording two hits. On offense, had a goal and an assist.
F	Patrice Bergeron- BOS	Netted the game winner for the Bruins and also had two hits in the game.
F	Sidney Crosby- PIT	Had an assist in the loss but dominated the faceoff circle. Finished the game at -2.
D	Jeff Petry- EDM	Scored a goal and assisted on another while recording 4 hits and 5 blocked shots.
D	Mark Fraser- TOR	Had two assists on the night in addition to his 5 hits.
D	Dion Phaneuf- TOR	Scored in ovetime to give the Leafs the win while finishing game at +2.
G	Devan Dubnyk- EDM	A usual on this list Dubnyk saved 33 of 34 shots in Dallas's blowout win.
G	Antti Niemi- SAN	Although he lost Niemi saved 33 of 34 shots while his offense only got 26 off.

Follow us at Twitter @HawksReport.

Eagles Sign Dennis Dixon

Chip Kelly has added another option to his quarterback list with the signing of Dennis Dixon. The former Pittsburgh Steeler will join Michael Vick and Nick Foles for the quarterback job. Dixon was the quarterback at Oregon from 2004 to 2007 and was the starter in 2006 in 2007. Hi senior year also happened to be Kelly's first year as offensive coordinator at Oregon. He threw for over 2,000 yards both his junior and senior year but his senior year was much better than his junior. During his junior campaign Dixon had a not so hot 12:14 TD/INT ratio but dramatically improved to 20:4 his senior year. Dixon was also a running threat for the Ducks rushing over 90 times his junior and senior years. He rushed for his 1208 yards in 4 years. He was named Pac-10 offensive player of the year in 2007 and was a finalist for the Davey O'Brien Award and Maxwell Award. Not only was 2007 a big year for Dixon the gridiron; he also played minor league baseball in the Atlanta Braves system. That really didn't work out too well as he hit .176 with a .322 OBP in 28 games at rookie level. DIxon's NFL career started in 2008 when he was drafted by the Steelers in the 5th round. He appeared in one game his rookie year completing one pass for three yards and compiling -3 rushing yards. He made one start in his sophomore season completing 12-26 passes for 145 throwing one TD and one interception. 2010 was his last year of competitive play starting in two games for the Steelers and winning both. He had a 68.8 % passing percentage in those two games but then finished the season on the IR. He did not appear in any games in 2011 for the Steelers and in 2012 he was signed briefly to the Ravens' practice squad but was cut early on in the season. Dixon had a lot of success under Kelly so it will be interesting to see if he is able to win the Starting job this year.

NBA Recap
Only two games last night but they were marquee matchups between the Heat and Thunder and Clippers and Lakers.
In Oklahoma City the Heat held onto their lead despite the Thunder winning the 4th 31-22 for a 110-100 Miami victory. The two stars of the night did not disappoint with Lebron James scoring 39 points and 12 rebounds while Kevin Durant went for 40 and 8.
In a very high scoring affair the Clippers beat the Lakers 125-101. Kobe Bryant led the Lakes with 20 points and 11 assists while Chris Paul did something similar for the Clippers coring 24 points and dishing out 13 assists.

All NBA
With only two games there has to be some repeat teams.

Guard- Chris Paul- LA Clippers As mentioned before he scored 254 points and had 13 assists. His 3 turnovers were a little high but not too bad. He shot a perfect 5-5 from the line and 3-5 from 3pt land.
Guard- Russell Westbrook- OK City He did commit a costly 6 turnovers but he made up for it in other parts of the game. He finished the game with 26 points and 10 assists. He was a below average 7-19 from the field but his 12-13 from the line almost makes up for it.
Forward- Lebron James- Miami *Player of the Night* Hard to argue with this one as he led his team to victory against the Thunder in a repeat of last years Finals as well as a matchup between two teams that don't have an S in their name. He shot 58.3% from the field including 4-8 from long range. HE also dished out 7 assists and grabbed 12 rebounds in addition to his 39 points.
Forward- Kevin Durant- OK City Should be mentioned that he played all but 28 second of the game and he put them to good use. He committed a high 5 turnovers but his 40 points made up for it. He was an incredible 15-15 on free throws.
Center- Chris Bosh- Miami I really don't care for him too much but Bosh played a good game last night. He was 10-14 from the field but he failed to make it to the free throw line (and that is troubling for a big man). He finished the night with 20 points (you could probably have figured that out from the last sentence) and 12 rebounds.

NHL Recap
Three of the six games last night went to overtime last night and we will start with a shootout in New York.
The Rangers defeated the Islanders 4-3 thanks to goals by Frank Nielsen and John Tavares in the shootout. Tavares also scored in the second period.
The Hurricanes picked up their third straight win with a 3-1 Jussi Jokinen's goal in the second put the Hurricanes up 2-1.
Eric Fehr scored two goals in the Capitals 4-3 defeat of the Lightning. This is the 6th straight loss for the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Rene Bourque scored two minutes into overtime to give the Canadiens a 1-0 win in Florida.
The Predators handed the Coyotes a 3-0 defeat. Pekka Rinne made 19 saves for his second straight shutout.
In Minnesota, the Wild and Avalanche decided things with a shootout.Milan Hejduk and Matt Duchene both converted for the Avs in the shootout on their way to a 4-3 victory.

All NHL
Forward- Zach Parise- Minnesota Minnesota's newest addition netted one goal on his 9 shot attempts. Finished the game with a +2 rating and 4 hits.
Forward- Eric Staal- Carolina Dished out an assist but made his mark defensively with 4 takeaways.
Forward- Matt Duchene- Colorado Similar to Staal in that neither of them are strangers to this list. He scored one goal last night in addition to 2 blocks, 2 hits, and one takeaway.
Forward- John Tavares- NY Islanders Scored one goal in regulation and one goal in the shootout to lead the Islanders to victory.
Defense- Dan Girardi- NY Rangers In 26 minutes of ice time Girardi scored a goal, had three takeaways, two hits, and 2 blocks.
Defense- Tyson Barrie- Colorado Got a powerplay assist in the second period for the Avs and also blocked 3 shots.
Defense- Joe Corvo- Carolina Recorded two points on a goal and an assist, both in the second period.  Finished the game with a +2 +/-.
Goalie- Carey Price- Montreal Made 26 of 26 saves in his team's 1-0 defeat of the Panthers.
Goalie- Jose Theodore- Florida The former Hab was against his former team and despite the loss he saved 31 of 32 shots. His .969 SV% was the highest last night of any non-shutout performance. (Pekka Rinne had a shutout but only faced 19 shots)