What They’re Saying About the Eagles

Let’s take a look at what the media are saying about the Eagles this week:

Pro Football Focus recently ranked the top 101 performers from the 2014 season, and put Jason Peters at No. 14.

14. Jason Peters, LT, Philadelphia Eagles

This was always on the cards the way Peters finished the 2013 season. A fantastic pass blocker (just one game graded negatively in this regard all year) who allowed one or fewer pressures in eight games, it’s his run blocking that sets him apart from other tackles. He’s more active and more dominant than his peers with a rare capability to get an in-game highlight reel with his excellence.

Best Performance: Week 9, PHI @ HST, +6.0

Key Stat: Had the highest run blocking grade of all left tackles.

Fletcher Cox (46), Evan Mathis (59) and Brandon Graham (74) also made the list. DeMarco Murray ranked 31st.

Football Outsiders  identifies the biggest weakness of each team in the NFC East. For the Eagles, they pointed to the safety position.

Malcolm Jenkins will return to start at one safety position, but Nate Allen signed with Oakland in free agency. To replace him, the Eagles did… uh… nothing. They did not add a safety in free agency. They did not make a trade. They did not take one in the draft. They didn’t even add a pure safety as an undrafted free agent. At the time of this writing, here is a full list of pure safeties on Philadelphia’s roster, besides Jenkins:

• Earl Wolff. A fifth-round pick in 2013, he started six games as a rookie and one last year, but at times was a healthy scratch in 2014, and ended the season on injured reserve with a knee injury.
• Chris Prosinski. Jacksonville drafted him in the fourth round in 2011. He started nine games in his first three seasons, then was waived last September and picked up by the Eagles, playing eight games for Philadelphia.
• Chris Maragos. Veteran special-teamer for San Francisco, Seattle, and Philadelphia, he has never started a game in five NFL seasons.
• Jerome Couplin III. An undrafted rookie last season, when he played one game for Buffalo, eight for Detroit, and one for Philadelphia.
• Ed Reynolds. A fifth-round pick out of Stanford last year, he never made the active roster.

Seriously, that’s it.

Rob Rang of CBS Sports is a believer in Nelson Agholor.

Like [DeSean] Jackson, Agholor possesses remarkable agility and acceleration, making him a threat to score every time he touches the ball. It is a big play potential that frankly, no one else on Philadelphia’s receiving corps possesses – including second-year pro Jordan Matthews who finished second to Maclin in receptions (67), receiving yards (872) and touchdowns (eight) a year ago. Agholor’s potential as a vertical threat could be especially deadly given how opposing defenses will be forced to pay extra attention to three-headed monster of Demarco Murray, Darren Sproles and Ryan Matthews now at running back in Philadelphia.

It isn’t just Agholor’s athleticism that makes him such an intriguing fit for the Eagles, however. Unlike Jackson, Agholor is a polished and reliable route-runner known for his work ethic and versatility. In fact, his ability to beat press coverage with technique and speed, alike, helped Agholor star both on the perimeter and out of the slot in Steve Sarkisian’s pro-style offense at Southern Cal.

Mike Kaye of BGN tracks the moves of several former Eagles.

• As previously reported on BGN, former Eagles quarterback Jeff Garcia has been hired as an offensive assistant by the St. Louis Rams. The one-time playoff hero of Philadelphia may be of use to fellow former Eagles passer Nick Foles.
• According to ESPN’s Mike Rodak, former Eagles running back Bryce Brown is missing voluntary workouts due to a family commitment. He’s easily behind LeSean McCoy and Fred Jackson on the depth chart and the new regime drafted FSU running back Karlos Williams. Brown needs to kill it this offseason.
• Former Eagles wide receiver Ifeanyi Momah has gained 25 pounds to make the switch to tight end for the Cardinals. As I reported back in March, Momah looked very good at the NFL Veteran Combine and was determined to improve as a receiver and special teamer. He has a shot at making the Arizona squad.

Eric Decker believes Tim Tebow, his former teammate, can find a niche on the Eagles. From Manish Mehta of the New York Daily News. 

“Chip’s been doing a lot of stuff this year, so I think anything’s possible,” Jets wide receiver Eric Decker told the Daily News. “Really, (Tebow) can create his own role. I know he wants to be head quarterback, but he can create a role for himself that can help a team in many ways (whether it’s) the two-point conversion if it’s moved up or a goal-line package. He has the athletic ability to be a personal punt protector… and can play other positions. They’ll figure out a way to utilize him if it’s going to help them be a better football team.”

“His game is unique. It’s special,” Decker said. “He can do a lot of different things. I don’t know what their role for him is going to be…. What I learned when I was in Denver is that we built our offense around what he did well. We put in read-options. We put in some things that made him successful… ran him out of the pocket. If you want him to be ‘The Guy,’ you build your offense around him.”