Why there\u2019s reason to be optimistic about what we\u2019re seeing from how Nick Sirianni is handling Sean Mannion, an intriguing comparison between new Hall of Famer Roger Craig and LeSean McCoy, a look back at Freddie Mitchell\u2019s behavior before the Eagles-Patriots Super Bowl 21 years ago and an impossible Eagles playoff trivia question. Literally impossible. You will not get it right.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s Super Bowl Sunday and the Eagles aren’t playing, and that\u2019s no fun. When you reach three Super Bowls in eight years you definitely have a case of FOMO when you\u2019re not there.<\/p>\n
But the Super Bowl will go on without the Eagles, and Roob\u2019s 10 Random Offseason Observations goes on as well.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s this week\u2019s Super Bowl-centric batch of Obs.<\/p>\n
1. It\u2019s impossible to paint Jeff Stoutland\u2019s departure in a positive light. Nick Sirianni clearly handled the running game coordinator transition poorly during the season, and a legend like Jeff Stoutland is just about the last guy in the building you want to insult. The Eagles will miss Stoutland in so many different ways, from his hands-on coaching to his draft weekend scouting wisdom to his game-day contributions. That said, there is one positive thing going on here in a more general sense, and that\u2019s the fact that Sirianni is allowing Sean Mannion to build his own staff without interference. The fact that Mannion\u2019s first hire after being named offensive coordinator was Ryan Mehaffey, a guy he worked with in Green Bay, tells you that Sirianni is giving Mannion the freedom to choose his own assistants without Sirianni interfering. The Mehaffey hire as running game coordinator and tight ends coach means the departure of Jason Michael, who goes back to the Chargers with Sirianni and worked with him under Frank Reich with the Colts as well before coming here with Nick in 2021. So this is a guy who is very close to Sirianni, and Mannion was allowed to hire a guy to replace him. That\u2019s significant. The fact that Mannion is interviewing quarterbacks coaches means good-bye also to Scot Loeffler, who Sirianni brought to his staff this past year. We\u2019re really seeing Mannion\u2019s stamp on the staff instead of a bunch of Sirianni cronies or former colleagues. There was reason to be concerned that Sirianni might not let a 33-year-old offensive coordinator have the power in the NovaCare Complex to bring in his own staff and build his own offense. But these are strong early signs that Mannion will have the kind of autonomy he needs if he\u2019s going to turn this offense around. Change is hard and nobody wanted to see Stoutland go. But in a broader sense the fact that we\u2019re seeing substantive change on the offensive side of the ball is encouraging. And necessary. Out with the old guard and in with the new could be a very good thing. And I\u2019m sure anybody who watched all those three-and-outs, negative plays and scoreless second halves this past season would agree.\u00a0<\/p>\n
2. Long-time Raiders quarterback Jim Plunkett started 154 games in his career and only had one game where he threw for 250 yards with three or more touchdowns and no interceptions and completed 60 percent of his passes. That was Super Bowl XV in the Superdome against the Eagles.\u00a0<\/p>\n
3A. Corey Clement had 100 receiving yards in Super Bowl. He averaged 5.9 receiving yards in his other 78 NFL games.\u00a0<\/p>\n
3B. Clement remains the only undrafted rookie running back with 100 receiving yards in any playoff game in NFL history and the only undrafted rookie running back with 100 receiving yards in any NFL game \u2013 regular season or playoffs \u2013 in the last 18 years. The only other one in the last 50 years was Pierre Thomas of the Saints, who caught 12 passes for 121 yards from Drew Brees on the final day of the 2007 season, a 33-25 loss to the Bears at Soldier Field.\u00a0<\/p>\n
4.\u00a0Congrats\u00a0to Roger Craig for getting voted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame. It\u2019s quite an honor. Now let\u2019s play a little game and compare Craig\u2019s career to LeSean McCoy\u2019s: They played about the same number of games \u2013 170 for Shady, 165 for Craig \u2013 so it\u2019s a fair comparison.
Rushing yards:\u00a0Shady 11,102, Craig 8,189
Yards per carry:\u00a0Shady 4.5, Craig 4.1
Rushing TDs:\u00a0Shady 73, Craig 56
Total TDs:\u00a0Shady 89, Craig 73
Receptions:\u00a0Shady 518, Craig 566
Pro Bowls:\u00a0Shady 6, Craig 4
Scrimmage yards:\u00a0Shady 15,000, Craig 13,100
1,000-yard seasons:\u00a0Shady 6, Craig 3
Shady had the better career, and it\u2019s not even close. If Craig is a Hall of Famer, Shady has to be.<\/p>\n
5A. Looking back at Sonny Jurgensen\u2019s career this week, it struck me that in 1957 the Eagles drafted Hall of Famers in consecutive rounds with Tommy McDonald in the third round and Jurgensen in the fourth round. Turns out that\u2019s one of 17 instances in NFL history where a team selected at least two Hall of Famers in the same draft but one of only five in which they were drafted in consecutive rounds. The first time it happened was 1952, when the New York Yanks drafted Hall of Famers Les Richter and Gino Marchetti in the first and second rounds. In 1958, the Packers drafted Hall of Famers in each of the first three rounds \u2013 Jerry Kramer, Jim Taylor and Ray Nitschke. In 1964, Washington took Charley Taylor and Paul Krause in each of the first two rounds and check out the Steelers\u2019 1974 draft \u2013 they did it twice, taking Lynn Swann and Jack Lambert in the first and second rounds and two more Hall of Famers \u2013 John Stallworth and Mike Webster \u2013 in the fourth and fifth rounds. That\u2019s the last time a team drafted Hall of Famers in back-to-back rounds. The last team to take two Hall of Famers in the same draft was the Ravens with Jonathan Ogden and Ray Lewis in 1996.\u00a0<\/p>\n
5B. It\u2019s also amazing to me how ahead of his time Jurgensen was as a passer. His 32 touchdown passes in 1961 was 4th-most all-time remained the Eagles\u2019 record for 56 years, and his 3,723 passing yards remained the Eagles\u2019 record for 27 years and was an NFL record that didn\u2019t get broken until he broke it with Washington in 1967. It was 20 years until another QB had 3,700 yards and 30 TDs in a season \u2013 Dan Fouts did it in 1981 for the Chargers. Jurgensen is still the only Eagles QB ever with 3,700 passing yards and 30 TDs in a season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
5C. The crazy thing is that when Wentz broke Jurgensen\u2019s Eagles record for touchdown passes in a season he did it with a torn ACL. Wentz got hurt against the Rams at L.A. Coliseum when he scrambled and dove into the end zone for a touchdown. But that play was nullified by a holding call on Lane Johnson and Wentz hobbled back to the line of scrimmage and ran four more plays, the final one \u2013 his fourth TD pass of the game – a 2-yard TD to Alshon Jeffery that broke Jurgensen\u2019s record. It was Wentz\u2019s final play of the 2017 season.<\/p>\n
6A. Is Dallas Goedert the best NFL tight end ever to not make a Pro Bowl? He might be. Goedert has 409 catches for 4,676 yards and 35 TDs in the regular season, and his 43.3 career yards per game is highest among all NFL tight ends who\u2019ve played at least 50 games but haven\u2019t made a Pro Bowl. Former Jets 1st-round pick Dustin Keller is second at 39.9. Goedert\u2019s postseason production is elite, with 56 catches for 595 yards and five TDs. All are most ever by a tight end that never made a Pro Bowl. Since he entered the league in 2018, Goedert has the 5th-most receiving yards among tight ends, behind only Travis Kelce, George Kittle, Mark Andrews and former teammate Zach Ertz. Goedert needs only 35 catches and 10 TDs to become the 16th\u00a0tight end all-time with 500 catches, 5,000 yards and 50 touchdowns.\u00a0<\/p>\n
6B. Let\u2019s go, Howie. Bring him back. You got this.<\/p>\n
7. One aspect of Cooper DeJean\u2019s pick-6 off Patrick Mahomes in the Super Bowl last year that\u2019s easy to forget is that it came on a 3rd-and-16 after two Eagles sacks \u2013 one by Josh Sweat and another split between Sweat and Jalyx Hunt. Getting the Chiefs into 3rd-and-long made that a much tougher conversion and really forced Mahomes to make a risky, low-percentage throw. Sweat and Hunt deserve a share of the credit for one of the biggest plays in Eagles history. The other thing you can see on replays is that Hunt was very close to making an illegal block in the back on Chiefs left guard Mike Caliendo during DeJean\u2019s return. Can you imagine if they had called that?\u00a0<\/p>\n
8. During an ESPN appearance leading up to Super Bowl XXXIX in Jacksonville in 2004, Freddie Mitchell managed to piss off Patriots all-pro safety Rodney Harrison when he boasted that he didn\u2019t know the names of the Patriots cornerbacks and then said he \u201chas something\u201d for Harrison. All of which infuriated Andy Reid, who blasted Mitchell in a team meeting for trash talking an opponent in the days leading up to a Super Bowl. It also infuriated Harrison, who said this about Mitchell:\u00a0“You have so many young guys nowadays, so many young guys that don’t have respect for the game. Some people are just immature.\u201d How did it go for Freddie? The one-time 1st-round pick caught one 11-yard pass in the Eagles\u2019 24-21 loss. Harrison had two interceptions off Donovan McNabb in the game. Thirteen years later, when Harrison was working for NBC Sports leading up to the Super Bowl rematch in Minneapolis, Harrison was still lashing out at FredEx: \u201c\u201cThank you, Freddie Mitchell,\u201d Harrison said.\u00a0\u201cWithout you running your mouth, we wouldn\u2019t have won the Super Bowl.\u201d Mitchell, the 25th\u00a0player taken in the 2001 draft, never played another NFL game after the Super Bowl. His career was over at 26.<\/p>\n
9. With word that his relentless run of injuries might lead Landon Dickerson to retire this offseason at the age of 27 I started wondering whether that would make him the youngest Eagles Pro Bowler ever to retire. But then I remembered Ted Dean. Dean, who went to Radnor High School and then Wichita State, was the Eagles\u2019 4th-round pick in 1960 and although he didn\u2019t have a rushing touchdown during the regular season as a rookie, he scored the game-winning TD with 5 \u00bd minutes left in the Eagles\u2019 17-13 NFL Championship Game victory over Vince Lombardi and the Packers at Franklin Field. Dean made his only Pro Bowl in 1961 but because of injuries retired at 26 after the 1964 season and became a gym teacher and social studies teacher at the Vanguard School in Haverford. Dean is 87 and now living in Arizona.<\/p>\n
10A. Who\u2019s the only player in Eagles history with a sack and interception in the same game in the posteason? I\u2019ll give you 100 guesses on this one and you still won\u2019t get it. In the 2001 conference semifinal win over the Bears at Soldier Field \u2013 the Hugh Douglas-Jim Miller game \u2013 safety Rashard Cook sacked Miller in the first quarter and then intercepted Shane Matthews, who replaced Miller after Hugh knocked him out of the game, in the fourth quarter.\u00a0<\/p>\n
10B. Cook had another game with a sack and an INT \u2013 on the final day of the 1999 season, he sacked Rams QB Joe Germaine (and forced a fumble) and picked off Germaine on the Rams\u2019 next series. He\u2019s one of only eight Eagles with two such games. Seth Joyner had seven, Dawk had four and Rodney McLeod, DeMeco Ryans, William Thomas, Wes Hopkins and Reggie White had two.\u00a0<\/p>\n
10C. Other than those two games, Cook had only one career interception and two sacks in 49 games.\u00a0<\/p>\n
10D. The last Eagle with a sack and interception in a regular-season game is Josh Sweat in Dallas in 2022, with 1 \u00bd sacks and a pick-6 off Dak Prescott.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Why there\u2019s reason to be optimistic about what we\u2019re seeing from how Nick Sirianni is handling Sean Mannion,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":738099,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2068],"tags":[25,4904,7,6,242,109,2476],"class_list":{"0":"post-738098","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-philadelphia-eagles","8":"tag-eagles","9":"tag-eagles-blog","10":"tag-football","11":"tag-nfl","12":"tag-philadelphia","13":"tag-philadelphia-eagles","14":"tag-philadelphiaeagles"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116035348428998318","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=738098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/738098\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/738099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=738098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=738098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=738098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}