All things offseason discussion part II

[KI Skins Fan]

Originally Posted by SirLK26

Losing Jackson was huge for them. There was an article posted on here that showed the percentage of scoring drives for the Eagles where Jackson had a catch versus those scoring drives where he didn't, and the difference proved that he was a huge part of their offense.

But he and Vick were the two biggest offseason losses, and they replaced those two with plenty of talent through both draft and FA. First of all for the receiving corps, they resigned Cooper, who's a solid receiver; then they drafted Jordan Matthews, who isn't as good or fast as Jackson but will put up solid numbers early, IMO; signed Sproles as you mentioned; and then they have Maclin returning from the ACL injury. Plus, they have the development of Zach Ertz to look forward to. So they don't have the explosiveness anymore that DJax offered, but make no mistake, they'll still put up points. On Vick: yeah, there's a chance Foles gets injured, but a backup QB isn't that big of a loss.

That's just on offense. On defense, they signed Malcolm Jenkins, who is now their best safety. Plus, they drafted Ed Reynolds and and still have Brandon Boykins in the slot, so their secondary will be improved. And most importantly, they drafted Marcus Smith, who was second in the nation in sacks, behind only our man Murphy.

In short, they lost one of their best players, but added some talent on both sides of the ball that pretty much made up for that huge loss.

You're putting way too much value on draftees and pedestrian FA acquisitions. There is no way to know what they can contribute.

I agree with you that Jackson was a huge loss for them. Getting Maclin back and the development of Ertz won't be nearly enough to make up for that. With the loss of Jackson, they no longer have any WR who compels the defense to game-plan for him.

Sproles has been one of my favorite players for years. Nevertheless, I don't see what he gives them that they didn't already have and I think that he has been in decline for the last two seasons.

To me, the loss of Vick is a big deal if Foles misses much time due to injury this season because his current backups can't play at all.

So I don't think think they're any better than they were last season but they are solid in the trenches, they have a good QB, an above average receiving corps, and a great RB. Overall, they're a good, competitive team and I think they deserve to be the favorite to win the NFC East at this time.