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September 16, 2006

2006 Birds Season Preview

(Guess who I think is going to win the the you know what.)

The start of the 2006 NFL season felt very sudden. Sure, I'd been obsessing about it for months, consuming as much NFL- and Eagles-related content as I could get my hands on, plotting out scenarios and possibilities, flipping through catalogs of officially licensed products, and generally acting in a manner unbecoming of an ostensibly literate and gainfully employed adult male. Even so, at the end of the wait, it still felt very sudden.

I had meant to get my Official Eagles Season Preview posting out the door prior to the first week of games. Unfortunately, as it's one of the few things I write that I actually obsess over (for rationale, see above) and my free time's been a bit squeezed over the past couple weeks, it had to wait. You might accuse me, then, of letting the first week's results (a resounding Eagles victory over a lesser Houston Texans squad that restored my faith in the order and consistency of the observed universe) influence my overall outlook for the season. Of course, said accusation would only reveal that you had little to no familiarity with my feelings in re: the Eagles and their chances for the upcoming season as articulated in the previous two decades of Augusts. That is, like most years, I think the Eagles are going to the Super Bowl.

That's the easy part. The hard part is the details. Here's what I think is worth knowing about the Birds, and the National Football League, for the 2006 season:

My NFL-Related Media Consumption: not that anyone's actually interested, but I figure I would share some details on what I've been watching and reading leading into this season. At this point, the amount of content available to fans is just phenomenal. In addition to the daily coverage on Philly.com, I watch pretty much every video they post on the Eagles Web Site; at this point, I just prefer to listen to the press conferences myself as opposed to reading the highlights in the papers. I read the Dave Spadaro stuff, and the player blogs, but there isn't usually much there. Beyond that, I do Peter King on every Monday, most of what John Clayton and Len Pasquarelli post about the Birds on ESPN, and of course TMQ. Beyond that, I really have to recommend Football Outsiders (both the web site and the handy-dandy Pro Football Prospectus book) and, finally, Pro Football Talk (sort of the Drudge Report for the NFL -- it's great stuff, though I find it borderline unforgiveable that they don't have RSS feeds). Also, the NFL Network broadcasts a lot of preseason games. Those I find quite excellent.

The Quarterback: so obviously I'm pretty fired up about the Birds' chances this season. Vegas had the Eagles as the fourth-best team in the NFC East heading into the season. Hmmm. I mean, I understand that the other teams in the division allegedly improved. But so did the Birds (even before the Stallworth trade and Pinkston cleansing). And last time I checked, the Eagles have the best quarterback in their division. Whilst it offends me that McNabb has to suffer through accusations that he's not tough because of the T.O. thing (People! He played a game on a broken ankle!), I like the new version of McNabb that showed up this spring. He got rid of the dumb haircut (a lame attempt to seem cooler than he is; McNabb is obviously too nice a guy to be that cool), lost a bunch of weight (no more bulky Donovan), and lost his spot in the national Chunky Soup campaign (Thank you, Lord, thank you!). I'm just cheesed off I didn't grab him in any of my imaginary football leagues.

The Running Backs: speaking of imaginary football, I was roundly mocked for selecting Correll Buckhalter late in one of my drafts. Uh-huh. Buckhalter is coming off two years on IR, but he looked strong in his preseason appearances. I actually don't hate him as a backup to Westbrook. Buck looks like he can play. As for Westbrook, he's easily the Birds' most important player after Dunuhvin. Westbrook has not just won games for the Eagles, he's saved seasons (the punt return against the Giants in 2003?). And yet people give him grief for not being bigger. Whatever. He's perfect for this team. Let's just be sure we keep him in bubble wrap in between Sundays, mmmkay? He can be fragile.

The Defensive Line: The Birds stunk on the defensive line last year and made it an area of investment in the offseason. They signed Darren Howard, drafted Broderick Bunkley, and can only expect second-year players Mike Patterson and Trent Cole to improve on strong rookie seasons. And suddenly, the Birds are ten-deep on the D-line! It looks like they're going to rotate guys in and out four at a time -- like it's hockey or something! This isn't the 1991 Eagles on the line, but for those of us weaned on those Buddy Ryan teams, we certainly can't be upset when the Birds look strong on the defensive.

The Secondary: was the secondary as good as people thought in 2004? Probably not. Were they as bad as they looked in 2005? No. Are they going to be better in the back than both of those teams this year? I think they are. Lito Sheppard got the early attention (and Pro Bowl) at the corner, but Sheldon Brown is the better player (Sheldon Brown was also responsible for the best defensive play the Eagles made last year, stopping LT on the goal line in a game the Birds had no business winning). The biggest question in the secondary is who's going to get paid. Of the four starters, Michael Lewis is the only one who doesn't have an extension. Hmmm. It sure looked like the TD last week against the Texans was his fault. Hmmm. I applaud the fact that he's not whinging about it (even though Dawk got paid in the preseason) and trying to earn it on the field. You also have to wonder what they'll do about Rod Hood; if Sheppard is going to be this injury prone, you might have to pay for Hood -- who will command serious money as a free agent; people know he can play. I'll be very interested in how it all works out. Also, I can't believe they kept Considine and cut J.R. Reed. I guess the Eagles only have the appetite for one inspirational comeback story per season.

The Coach: as noted in this space, Andy Reid did a terrible job coaching the Eagles last year. I blame a lot of 6-10 on him. We should have known something was up when he went on the diet going into last season. Bad news! We know now that much of Andy Reid's Jedi football powers are stored in his ample mid-section and bosom(s). Luckily, Andy has figured this out as well, and showed up for training camp a solid 120-to-140 pounds overweight. Seriously, he's huge. Ginormous. Slimming black can only hide so much! While I fear for his health (and the safety of Tammy Reid!), I appreciate his willingness to sacrifice his body for the team. That's the kind of commitment that Philly can get behind (I don't want that to be a pun).

The Linebackers: the linebackers are the weakest part of this team. Trotter is great against the run, but he can't cover anyone (this is why the TEs in the division terrify me), and the other LBs are too small. I guess we can just hope that the line and the secondary make up for it. But I think we should expect a lot of big plays against this defense to come from tight ends and stuff underneath.

The Wide Receivers: so let me get this straight: the Nerdbirds traded a number-one pick (which might be in the middle of the first round) to the Pats for solid-yet-unspectacualr-and-occasionally-gimpy Deion Branch (and gave him $39 million) while the Eagles shipped a third- or fourth-round pick plus a backup LB to the Saints for Donte Stallworth? Right. Got it. Some observations: (1) there is no way that Deion Branch will put up bigger numbers than Stallworth over the the next two seasons; (2) this is why the Pats and the Eagles have won a lot of games since 2000, isn't it.

Trivial items that likely interest only me: I need an official ruling from Strunk and White on the accent mark that keeps showing up around the "e" in Donte Stallworth. Sometimes it's over the e, sometimes it's after. These sportswriters need help! They're not good at things like grammar and spelling! We just need to pick one and stick with it.

The rest of the NFC East: I'm already at the point where I'm keeping an eye on Tony Romo in my fantasy leagues (I mean, it's hard to look bad throwing to the WRs down there), but I don't think this is going to work out for the Cowboys. Parcells is too pissed off already. He'll be flirting with the idea of the Raiders job by early December. The Redskins should scare me (I'm bought into the Al Saunders thing), but Mark Brunell is a year older and that team manages to confuse itself pretty much every year. I don't think either of those teams will win the division. I'm scared of the Giants; the best we can hope for there is continued mediocrity from Eli. Otherwise they could be trouble.

Season Prediction: I think the Eagles can go 11-5 and win the division. Be nice to get a bye, but I'm not convinced there are great teams in the NFC this year. I think Seahawks aren't the same team as last year, Rex Grossman is still the QB of the Bears, and Steve Smith just might not show up for work often enough to matter. I'm semi-concerned by the Falcons, though it's unlikely that Vick survives the season. What I mean to say is that I think the Eagles are going to the Super Bowl.

And I think the Eagles win 26-24 tomorrow.

I mean, duh.

Posted by thatkid at September 16, 2006 8:10 PM under Philly

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Posted by: micah at September 20, 2006 10:56 PM

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