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.

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Eagles lose; again

As an Eagle's fan it has to be hard to believe that we have lost two games by last second field goals but we have actually hit that low point. The sad thing is that we somehow outplayed the other team in both games. The Steelers did not deserve to win that game but as usual the Eagles found a way to give it way through Vick's fumbles and Andy Reid's ability to make smart playcalls. Well the same thing happened again but Vick had a little better game.

Unstoppable 

The Eagles' first quarter was a rough one as they had two turnovers and 3 3 and outs. Vick had another fumble but that was that was not all his fault as his center snapped him the ball when he wasn't looking not once but twice (Eagle's were lucky to have drawn an offsides call on the first one). The Eagles were however to score a touchdown in the second quarter on a surprisingly well called screen play that ended up with Lesean McCoy in the end zone. The Lions were the dominate team in the first quarter as hero of the game Jason Hanson kicked two field goals from 46 and 36 yards to give them a 6-0 lead early in the game. Calvin Johnson was the center of of the Lions' offense with 6 receptions for 135 yards including a remarkable toe dragging grab late in the 4th quarter to put the Lions in field goal range. After Johnson's catch Jason Hanson came up big with a chipshot 19 yard field goal to put the game into overtime.

Fire Him Already

Johnson and Hanson weren't the only contributors to the Lions as Matthew Stafford threw for 311 yards with 1 TD and 1 INT. On the other side of the ball Michael Vick had an above average performance (well at least compared to how he usually plays) throwing for 311 yards as well. He didn't have the easiest time in the world as he was sacked 3 times and was constantly getting beat up by the Lions' stellar d-line led by Suh (whose first name I will not try to spell) and Nick Fairley. Jeremy Maclin did a nice job of catching the ball today reeling in 6 catches for 130 yards and a TD. On the other side of the receiving spectrum was Brent Celek who had at least two drops and committed a costly yet controversial  offensive interference on what should have been an Eagles' touchdown. 

The real problem for the Eagles today however was Andy Reid's inability to call a football game. He refused to rush the ball today as starting running back Lesean McCoy had more receiving yards than rushing yards. At the same time, Michael Vick was the team's leading rusher with 59 of the team's 71 total yards. Considering most of those yards came from Vick scrambling not on designed plays, it is safe to say the Eagles' need to rework their game plan. It would help if they had a running back who could run downhill instead of side to side, they could possibly draft a bigger running back this off-season and convert McCoy to a third down running back/slot receiver role where he is likely to be more successful. The Eagles also failed to capitalize on the Lions' lack of discipline as they committed 16 penalties for 132 yards.

Overall the Eagles should be embarrassed with how they played today, in overtime they were unable to get a single yards which forced them to punt from their own endzone therefore giving the Lions great field position. They also failed to shut down Calvin Johnson (even thought that is no small task a team with two of the top corners in the league should be able to do that). It is quite sad that what could be Vick's only decent performance of the year could be wasted on a loss. 

Eagles vs. Redskins Running Diary 2nd half

20 minutes of halftime and I got no homework done.


2:43- One minute and thirty seconds into second half and the Redskins are already into the redzone. Not a good start.

2:45- Although we have a 14 point lead, I am an Eagles fan and I know that this is starting to look like a choke job.

2:52- Vick Interception. I knew this was going to happen, they are falling apart just like Andy Reid has coached them to.

3:07- Why the hell is Vince Young in the game. I don't remember Vick getting hurt and Young turns his opportunity into a turnover.

3:17- 3rd and 17 so we go to a run play that gives us 8 yards. We were at about the 30 so they have the ball at there 33 instead of the 41, I'd give up those 8 yards to give us a chance to get the first down.

3:22- John Beck just ran for a first down against our defense us. Not saying he is a bad quarterback, but he is Rex Grossman's back up.

3:37- Did you know that John Beck is a third cousin Glen Beck, he is now my favorite football player.JK
It's right about now when we need to keep the ball away from Maclin and Avant.

3:40-Attention Rookie Punter:You are not suppose to kick the ball into the endzone, I think we have this game in the bag though.(crosses fingers)

Our Punter and Kicker have phonetically the same last name; weird!
p.s. couldn't find a picture of him with the Eagles, it's Chas Henry

3:44- Dodged a bullet right there, if only if Stallworth would of dodged that guy a couple years ago.

3:45- What the hell, a flag on that. Now the Redskins have life again.

3:48- Had a chance to put the nail in the coffin there, but of course we let them convert.

3:49- NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, what did we do to deserve this? We the fans did not call them the dream team, it was the idiots that threw an interception(back up quarterback btw) and the defensive linemen who just let John Beck run in for a touchdown.
Maybe Washington will pull a Navy and miss the XP...No

You just had to say "Dream Team", plus you get in for one play and throw a pick. I blame this on you.

3:56- Even worse than me dropping McCoy, he is on my opponent's fantasy team.

4:01- We get this first done we win the game...................................At first glance I think we get it, off to the chain gang...

4:02 By half the football... Goodbye

Eagles vs. Redskins Running Diary 1st half

Let's see how this goes.

1:05- Get home from getting blown out in baseball. Glad to see they aren't losing yet.

1:08- Wow. Our defense has an interception, not something I'm use to seeing.

1:12- Close call by the refs, thought for sure that would call intentional grounding. Good to see we get a call for once but I have a feeling we aren't going to take advantage of it.

1:15- Brian Billick is a terrible color guy, I don't think he knows he is talking to a bunch of average guys. He is probably great at explaining film and situations to players, not my dad.

1:17- OMG, Avant didn't fumble.

1:18- Good old Andy Reid coaching. Wasting timeouts early in the game.

1:22- EAGLES touchdown. Andy Reid finally realized that the time for a 5 yard dump pass to Celek isn't on 3 and 15, it's when your in the redzone. On a side note this is a very visually appealing game, I love the Redskins Garnet-Garnet-Yellow look, by far my favorite of theirs. The Eagles always look good away but I give the edge to the green pants over the white ones.

1:36- The booth should give him this touchdown, I mean it will be his first touchdown in the NFL. If we don't get it, we need to quickly put Eckel back on the roster. These situations were made for him.

1:43- I'm glad to see that we scored that touchdown, good blocking by our line. Let's go back to the play on the 2nd down, we have the most athletic quarterback in the whole league who is only 6' and about 190 lbs and we try a QB sneak. Shouldn't we just let Michael Vick run a bootleg where he might find someone in the endzone, or outrun the defense for a touchdown.

1:48: I'm pretty sure Rex Grossman's wild throw down field was intentional grounding, there was nobody there. That was a bull call by the refs, he started the hit before they guy dropped the ball.

1:57- Celek is the key to the Eagles team. Jackson and Vick might be the stars but Celek comes up big all the time getting first dones and making catches like the one he just made.

1:58- 3rd and goal, so we pass a 5 yard curl route to Maclin who would of gotten tackled right away. #Fire Andy Reid.

2:07- Good to see Michael Vick showing everybody that he is best athlete the quarterback position has ever seen. We need to do this more often, capitalize on turnovers and then bury the opposition into the ground.

2:11- We need to take advantage of opportunities more often. Bad play calling is what leads to field goals inside the redzone.

2:18- This game is very frustrating for numerous reasons.

1. Andy Reid sucks at playcalling inside the 20, we have two field goals from within the 15 yard line. Those need to be touchdowns not only so that we get more points, but because Vick, Jackson, and Maclin are on my fantasy team.

2. I released Celek two weeks ago and he is having a huge day.

2:20-Brian Billick just referred to Juan Castillo as a young guy, he is 52 years old.

2:27- Halftime, which means I now have to do homework.