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.

Rule Number 5

Rule Number 5


The recent trade that sent Shane Victorino to the Los Angeles Dodgers made me think about his career.  The most significant effect he had on baseball didn't happen on the field, it made the Rule 5 draft relevant.  Shane Victorino shouldn't be remembered for his clutch hits or his diving plays.  He shouldn't be remembered for pointing at his head and then his midsection in game three of the 2008 NLCS.  Shane Victorino is, and always should be, the face of the Rule 5 draft.

The Rule 5 Draft states that a player is eligible for the Rule 5 draft if they are not on the teams 40 man roster AND:

– were signed at age 19 or older and have been in the organization for four years; OR:

– were signed at age 18 or younger and have been in the organization for five years.

Victorino with the Jacksonville Suns

Victorino was drafted in the 1999 Rule 4 Draft (that's the technical term for the actual amateur draft) by the Los Angeles Dodgers out of high school at the age of 19.  Therefore, he had to wait four years before he was eligible for the Rule 5 draft.  Four years later, in the winter of 2002, Victorino was selected by the San Diego Padres via Rule 5.  Once selected, the player must spend the entirety of the next season in the Major Leagues or they can be offered back to the team that they were taken from.  The Padres used him sparingly, and with little success, in the first month of the season and they offered him back to the Dodgers on May 28th.  He languished in the Dodgers minor league system, never getting higher than AA.  In 2004 the Phillies decided to take him in the Rule 5 draft once again.  Again he sputtered when given his shot in the bigs and he was promptly offered back to the Dodgers, who declined       to take him back.                     .                        

Game 3 of the 2008 NLCS

Finally Victorino started living up to the expectations.  He hit .310 at AAA for the Phillies and was not only selected to the International League All-Star team, but he was selected as the MVP of the IL as well.  He was named to the 2nd team all-minor league team by Baseball America and was awarded the Phillies minor league player of the year award.  He got called up to the Phillies in September of 2004 and never looked back.  He would take over right field for Bobby Abreu in 2006 and took over centerfield for Aaron Rowand in 2007.  Shane Victorino is not the only success story, Jose Bautista, Johan Santana, Josh Hamilton, and Jayson Werth were also Rule 5 studs.  

Rule 5 is a great way for players to get a chance that they never would have with another team.  Victorino may never have gotten called up to play for the Dodgers and baseball would have been poorer for it.  Certainly there is some risk with selecting a player in the Rule 5 draft, but with names like these coming from the draft there is also great reward.  

You Want Frustration?

Sports may be the most unpredictable thing in the entire world. You can look at the splits, check out charts, even give players rankings, but in the end it all depends on how a person responds. Thats why sports are so beautiful andat times so, so ugly. The unpredictability keeps

people watching. Everyone fully expects the better team to win, but everyone watches for the times that they don't. We watch for the Appalachain States, we watch because a team that doesn't win a single game in an entire season can start their season two years later 5-0. We watch because a team thats cursed and down 3-0 in a best of seven series can still come back to win. We watch because even though we expect the best we fear the worst.

Case 1: The 2011 Philadelphia Phillies were put together for one purpose; to run buckshot through the regular season and dominate the play-offs with superb pitching and utimately finish their season with a ring on their fingers. Through 162 games the plan looked good. All the pieces were falling into place and maybe, just maybe the predictions would be right. More people than ever hopped on the bandwagon and for good reason. The Phillies pitching staff had done exactly what it was built to do, the hitters had performed well enough to get wins and everyone in Philly was happy. They even swept the last series of the year to keep their division rival Atlanta Braves from reaching the play-offs. Fatal Mistake. This allowed the St. Louis Cardinals, the hottest team in baseball to sneak into the play-offs. The Cardinals had a stellar line-up and pitching that was good enough, the exact opposite of the Phillies. Still, everyone expected the Phillies to win a championship. In 5 games the St. Louis Cardinals sent the Phillies home for the winter and shocked most of the baseball world. This is why we watch sports.

Case 2: The 2010 New Orleans Saints had made the play-offs as a wild card team the season after winning the super bowl. They were pretty darn good and were only the wild card team because the Atlanta Falcons had out done them. They drew what appeared on paper as the best match-up in the first round of the play-offs, the Seattle Seahawks. Everyone fully expected the Seahawks to be bounced in the first round by whoever they played because they were awful during the regular season and only made it to the play-offs because they played in the worst division in recent memory. They didn't like the thought of losing and one man in particular, Marshawn Lynch (hold mah dick!) decided it was his birthright to kick the living shit out of everyone on the Saints. So he did, and so did the rest of his team as they kicked the defending champs out of the play-offs. This is why we watch sports.

There are so many different upsets in the history of sports and thats what makes sports worth watching. Because the best team doesn't always win and the team that deserves to win doesn't always win. The heartbreak is what brings us fans back, theres something about losing that just makes us want more. No team can be perfect, no game is without concern, anxiety or stress. This is what makes sports beautiful, this is what makes sports ugly, and above all this is why we watch.