By GORDON GLANTZ

Gordonglantz50@gmail.com

@Managing2Edit

GORDONVILLE – Sorry, Ed.

And I can call you that – as opposed to Mr. Snider – so don’t give me one of those icy stares.

I am not cast under your spell.

Your name is not on my paycheck.

I am not a beat writer, covering the team you own – with an admirable passion – the Philadelphia Flyers.

You are not a Roman Emperor.

You are not a mafia don.

You are just an owner of a team – with the burning desire to see the Stanley Cup hoisted once more before nature runs its course – who is ticked that his prize possession, team captain Claude Giroux, was left off the roster of Canadian Olympic team for the ongoing Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia.

You called it a farce.

Aside from the games being awarded to Sochi in the first place, there is no farce going on here.

Not with the case of Giroux.

It’s not a farce, Ed.

It’s a fact.

One as cold and hard as the ice surface the teams will be skating on the next few weeks.

Giroux probably belonged on the team, but he was a not a slam dunk.

There are enough NHL standouts and stars born in Canada to send over A and B teams that could be in medal contention.

If that were the case, Giroux would be there, too.

But it’s not the case.

Instead, Austria (with Michael Raffl ), Slovakia (with Andrej Meszaros) and Norway (with one NHL player on its roster) have teams over there with as much of a chance to medal as my street hockey team from Wilson Junior High.

It would be nice if the Flyers were a little more universal, and had more than two aging defenseman – Mark Streit (Switzerland) and Kimmo Timonen (Finland) – and no forwards playing for, say, Sweden or Russia in the Olympics (and just two Canadian forwards and one Russian defenseman in the World Junior games).

It was bad luck – a hand injury while golfing late in the offseason– more than anything else that made Giroux a non-Olympian.

He couldn’t participate in pre-Olympic gatherings, and then got off to a slow start when the puck was dropped on the NHL season.

He was a bubble choice, at best, and he missed being inside Steve Yzerman’s bubble. Yzerman, who is the general manager of both Team Canada and the Tampa Bay Lightning, chose his own player, Martin St. Louis, to replace injured Lightning star Steven Stamkos on the roster this past week.

Not a farce. A fact.

And it’s one that could work to the Flyers’ advantage.

Giroux will be rested and ready to go – with a hand further rehabbed – when the Olympics end.

It gives us reason to root for Canada to win the gold, as it raise the chip on Giroux’s shoulder the size of William Penn’s cap atop City Hall.

If you want to talk about farces, though, let’s do it.

Giroux’s golf partner that day was boyhood friend Jason Akeson, whose quick thinking may have saved Giroux’s season – or maybe his career.

Akeson was not some chum with whom Giroux was doing some offseason golfing.

He is also a hockey player within the Flyers’ “organ-I-zation.”

He skated one game with the Flyers, at the end of last season, and scored a goal.

Not really an anomaly, though, as Akeson seems to find his way onto the score sheet more than he does the penalty box. That he currently leads the Adirondack Phantoms in scoring with 42 points (16 goals, 26 assists) in 45 games is not a fluke. Akeson, who just recorded his 100^th career AHL assist while setting up Tye McGinn, is on his way to leading the Phantoms in scoring for the third straight season.

Why not a shot at the roster for this kid? Could it be that the Flyers are looking less at his 150 points in 183 AHL games and more at his “wimpy” 75 penalty minutes and 5-10 and 190-pound frame?

It has been said that Akeson is “allergic” to the defensive end of the ice, but is there not as much room on the roster for an offensive specialist as there is for defensive ones who kill penalties, let alone goons who drop the gloves once in a while and try to stay out of the way the rest of the time?

The Flyers once had a guy named Ron Flockhart who posted productive numbers (33 goals, 39 assists) as a rookie in 1981-82. He was primarily playing on the fourth line and on power plays, while taking shifts on a “scoring” line when the team needed a spark.

That is a fact.

The Flyers’ fourth-liners these days? We have Jay Rosehill, Adam Hall and Zac Rinaldo. Raffl has been dropped from the first to fourth line and, according to coach Craig Berube, is “making his linemates better.”

Could he make them much worse?

Prior to Saturday’s last game before the Olympic break, giving Snider’s sycophants in the town’s mainstream press more time to bemoan the grave injustice done to Giroux, the Rosehill-Hall-Rinaldo Bermuda Triangle has rung up a combined eight points (5 goals, 3 assists) in 133 games while posting  200 penalty minutes.

Those are facts.

And it’s a farce.

The response will be that it is not all about numbers. They’ll that it is about grit and being “good guys in the room” and not having any allergies to the defensive end of the ice.

Just keep in mind that they are a combined minus-18, and the “good guys in the room” stuff is often nothing more than a lame cover story.

Grit? I’ll take some offense from a fourth-liner on a regular basis in exchange for a trip to the sin bin for over-zealousness or the “great check of the game” that makes Steve Coates go apoplectic.

The sad thing here is that you would think the Flyers would have learned their lesson.

It’s sitting right there on the Canadian Olympic roster.

The real farce is not that Giroux is missing but the fact that Patrick Sharp, a vital cog for the mighty Chicago Blackhawks, is on the roster.

And he belongs there, without argument.

Even from King Ed.

Sharp was drafted by the Flyers back in the third round in 2001 and was showing promise, as fourth-liner when dealt to Chicago for Matt Ellison, who was billed as a quick skater with offensive skills.

Ellison, currently eking out a living playing overseas, skated in a grand total of seven games for the Flyers, managing an assist.

Even at the AHL level, when the Phantoms were playing in the old Spectrum, he was nowhere near as productive as Akeson, checking in with 64 points in 110 games.

The rationale for the perplexing trade at the time, as given by former general manager Bob Clarke (Snider’s adopted son), was that Sharp wasn’t getting enough ice time on the fourth line.

Wait, what?

So you would rather trade away a young talent and get nothing in return?

You want a farce, Ed?

There is your farce.

Spare us the righteous indignation.

This column originally appeared at http://www.phillyphanatics.com

 

By GORDON GLANTZ

Gordonglantz50@gmail.com

@Managing2Edit

GORDONVILLE — High on the list of people surprised by the success of Nick Foles this past season might be Nick Foles himself.

That’s not to say he has self-esteem issues. He wouldn’t be able to complete a pass, even for a 2-yard gain on a third-an-12, at the NFL level without some faith in his own abilities.

He just doesn’t seem to come across with enough “it factor” to win over enough of a fan base that should be able to read through the well-crafted “St. Nick” act.

Foles chooses his words carefully, which may make him a yawner in a compare-contrast with, say, Seattle motormouth Richard Sherman. That ability to think before talking about teammates and opponents, lest his words come back to haunt him, should be encouraging. And yet, it seems to have the opposite effect.

Kind of amazing, really.

Foles had to win his quarterback job – both in college and in the pros – by overcoming the “not athletic enough” tag, which one would think would play in blue-collar Philadelphia, where fans go apoplectic at the sights and sounds of a “Rocky” film clip on the stadium screen at Lincoln Financial Field.

Foles will be the first to tell you he is neither reading his press clippings nor resting on his laurels. He is surely working on nuances to make him better in 2014, his first full year as a starter in the same NFL system.

But one might be wise to suggest some other changes – if not to Foles, then to his agent.

Perhaps he could try consulting the “Sons of Anarchy” people for a makeover. He could definitely rock the Jax Teller look, right down to the tattoos and the rings that could be visible at press conferences. Maybe he could hang with actor Charlie Hunnam to learn some swagger.

Do this – and maybe a minor scrape or two with the law that could be handled with a fine (we don’t need him missing film time in jail) – and we might be onto something.

This is a joke – in more ways than one.

It shouldn’t come down to something so superficial.

Not when one considers his on-field achievements.

As a second-year quarterback in the first year of a new system, he took losing out on the opening-day-starter job in stride, staying quietly confident that taking care of his own world would yield results.

It doesn’t take much deductive reasoning to draw a conclusion that while Michael Vick was tabbed by Chip Kelly to start the season, if only to avoid an insurrection in a locker room that holds Vick in high regard, Kelly knew he would need Foles sooner or later.

It stood to reason that at least one of the three “I’s” – injury, interceptions or ineffectiveness – by the aging Vick would put Foles back in the saddle to finish up another season and, at the very least, audition for his new coach.

Foles never came out and said as much, but you knew it was in the back of his mind that he had to stay ready so that he could seize the inevitable moment.

It wasn’t a matter of if, but when.

After helping the Eagles save face – throwing a garbage-time touchdown pass to that superstar, Jeff Maehl – in an otherwise dismal loss in Denver to the eventual AFC champion Broncos, Foles had his number called the following week when Vick was hurt against the rival Giants in the Meadowlands, and he delivered a comeback win that ended a three-game losing skid.

Next was a highly efficient victory in Tampa Bay, to be followed by an off-kilter performance at home against Dallas with a chance to move the Eagles to 4-3 and put them in front in the weak NFC East.

At the time, the Eagles had extended their home losing streak to more than a calendar year, and the punch-drunk lowest common denominator among Eagles Nation had immediately written Foles off as nothing more than another Bobby Hoying or Kevin Kolb who should be custom fitted for a baseball cap and clipboard.

And nothing – not the seven touchdown passes at Oakland, the league-best quarterback rating (buoyed by a 27:2 touchdown-to-interception ratio) or the numerous statistical achievements that put him in franchise and NFL record books – could sway many of the unwashed masses.

Even as Foles prepares to appear in Sunday’s Pro Bowl, after being named to the squad as first alternate, they remain tepid in their enthusiasm, calling talk radio about players they once saw singe an inferior opponent in a collegiate mismatch.

It is as if they can’t forgive Foles for that one misstep in Game 7. It’s as if they still see him as the concussed Grinch who stole a perfect fall day, even though the offensive line had its worst game – failing to create holes for LeSean McCoy and establish a comfortable fortress in the pocket – and several passes that could have gotten the offense into its required rhythm were flat-out dropped.

He missed the next game with the aforementioned concussion. Vick started, but the hamstring gave out. The Eagles were adrift, at 3-5, at the midway point.

Foles started the rest of the games, and the Birds won seven of eight to finish 10-6. Even quarterbacks who take two seasons to throw 27 touchdown passes and one game to throw two picks get one-season passes from the fans for that.

But not here; not when you don’t have “it” going for you.

Foles came back and beat Dallas, in Dallas, to give the Eagles the division title in what – for all intents and purposes – was the season’s Super Bowl, but his game was only seen as “OK.”

In his first career playoff start, he rallied the Eagles against the New Orleans, only to watch helplessly – like everyone else – as the special teams and defense let it end on a field goal to lift the Saints to victory as time expired.

Critics point to two major lapses in judgment – holding the ball too long and taking a sack back to the edge of field goal range and an ill-conceived intentional grounding penalty – against the Saints as automatic deductions on his final grade, which is fair.

Talk still stirs of a mystical “franchise quarterback” – an error-free superhuman athlete that really only exists on NFL Films cut-ups – when one has already materialized in front of them.

One only needed to watch the playoffs after the Eagles were eliminated to see quarterbacks deemed to be of a more exotic species of signal caller who made a multitude of mistakes – some mental, some forced by defenses who happen to have a say in the matter sometimes – but weren’t judged as harshly.

There are some in the media, even though they should know better, who lob the same slow-pitch softballs at Kelly about Foles’ long-range future over center. Exasperated with the same laborious line of questioning, Kelly gives underwhelming responses that only fuel more speculation.

Maybe Kelly needs to learn the rules of NFL coachspeak and realize that the quarterback is different from, say, the long snapper. Instead, probably as he did at Oregon, he makes it known that all jobs are open and does not expect to have answer the same question a zillion times.

And then there are the sexy names coming out of the college ranks this year. Three quarterbacks – Louisville’s Teddy Bridgewater, Texas A&M’s Johnny Manziel and Central Florida’s Blake Bortles – are likely to go well before the Eagles pick at No. 22 in the first round. Two other big-name guys – Fresno State’s Derek Carr and Clemson’s Tajh Boyd – have seen their stock drop and could easily be there.

Would they pounce if a top guy slid? Would they mortgage other picks and trade up? Would they take Carr or Boyd at No. 22?

It’s kind of like asking if they would take a running back, even though they have McCoy.

Anything is possible.

But it’s highly unlikely, given the Eagles’ other needs heading into a season when a tougher schedule means a replication of 2013 is anything but assured.

If you subscribe to the belief that it was a lot of smoke and mirrors in 2013, then luxuries at skill positions where they are set are something they cannot afford.

After two years of getting no bounces or breaks – at all – the Eagles seemed to get their fair share this past season. There were some injuries, but nothing reaching the obnoxious level of the previous two years that made one wonder if the team was placed under a curse the day vagabond quarterback Vince Young called them the “Dream Team” prior to the 2011 season.

The most significant injury was to Vick. It was a pulled hamstring that he could have played with – at half-speed – if there were no other alternatives.

But there was an alternative.

It was Nick Foles.

Sorry if he is St. Nick and not Jax Teller.

Just a reality.

Here are some others.

Foles is playing this year at $750,880, which equates to fast-food pay for someone we can conservatively call an up-and-coming quarterback (Note: Even if the Eagles’ brass wanted to take his contract and tear it up so they can negotiate a long-term deal, they are prohibited from doing so.).

This is where common sense meets dollars and sense. Even if Foles isn’t the quarterback Kelly ultimately wants for his system, the NFL is a business. He can’t just go recruit three more quarterbacks and let them all battle it out in spring practice.

Even if Foles weren’t coming off a near-perfect season, it would be bad business to add another high-end quarterback prospect when there are holes that need to be filled – in free agency, but mostly the draft – for the Eagles to rise to next year’s set of very real challenges.

If there is a step back in Year 2 of the Kelly Era – even cosmetically, because of the tougher schedule and/or some bad breaks and torn ACLs – it likely won’t be because of Foles.

He makes too many right decisions and not enough wrong ones, on and off the field.

And in the unlikely event that a decline is his fault, go ahead and clamor for that bumper crop of quarterbacks – UCLA’s Brett Hundley, Florida State’s Jameis Winston and Oregon’s (and Kelly’s) Marcus Mariotta, as well as others who don’t yet have the national profile – awaiting in the 2015 draft.

Who knows? Maybe one of those guys has “it.”

The column originally appeared at http://www.phillyphanatics. com

By GORDON GLANTZ

Gordonglantz50@gmail.com

@Managing2Edit

GORDONVILLE — Heading into the 2013 NFL season, there wasn’t much talk about it lasting until 2014.

Not for the Philadelphia Eagles.

That was only for the few, the proud and those fortunate enough to catch breaks and avoid broken bones.

After a two-year downhill slide into the abyss of the league’s landfill, there should have been modest expectations under first-year coach Chip Kelly.

For starters, Kelly was coming out of the college ranks with new approaches voted by pundits as most likely to be boom-or-bust; revolutionary or revolting.

And it was with a roster of players held over from a team that finished 4-12, a mark even worse than face value when one considers the team started off 3-1.

The Eagles played it close to the vest in free agency, opting for some players salvaged from the league’s recycling bin.

Some in Eagleville not only predicted another 4-12 year, they wanted one. The somewhat misguided thought being the team could use another high draft pick. But the empires that are NFL powerhouses – unlike in the NBA and NHL – aren’t built that way.

It takes a village to win a Super Bowl, and one player doesn’t make a village.

Most predictions ranged in the 6-10 to 8-8 range. It was believed that, if the NFC East didn’t have a dominant team, it was there for the taking with a mark above .500.

But the reality was that this season was about changing the culture. The wins, likely in the second year of Kelly’s tenure, would follow.

Lo and behold, they came a lot sooner. The Eagles were 1-3 after four games and 3-5 after eight before finishing on a 7-1 tear that concluded with that NFC East-clinching victory, down in Dallas, over a Cowboys’ team that entered the year with much higher expectations.

After Brandon Boykin’s interception sealed the deal, and splattered egg whites on Jerry Jones’ face, the Eagles said all the right things about not being done.

The reality, though, was that game was this year’s pinnacle. It was their Super Bowl. They won. An unlikely banner will join the others at Lincoln Financial Field, where the rabid fans would trade all the division and conference flags for a championship one.

The Eagles took on the New Orleans Saints, just a few years removed from a Super Bowl title, in round one of the playoffs. The game was at the Linc and the Saints had never won a road playoff game – except the Super Bowl, of course – in their history.

Didn’t matter. The Eagles fought back from a 20-7 deficit to take 24-23 lead, but lost on last-second field goal.

Many were left agonizing over the loss – tossing and turning, crying out “if they had done this instead of that, that instead of this, they could and should and would have won.”

But then the realization of all that was accomplished takes hold.

The magical mystery tour lasting a bit longer would have been cool, but the reality is that this is not a Super Bowl team.

But it was a playoff team, one that became relevant again. They were the talk of the league, stumbling upon a franchise quarterback (Nick Foles) who led the circuit in QB rating and a running back (LeSean McCoy) who led it in rushing.

After the indignity of having no players make the Pro Bowl a year earlier, they had two (tackle Jason Peters and McCoy) make it this year. Three players (Peters, McCoy and guard Evan Mathis) were selected first-team All-Pro.

Those were the types of things that used to ring hollow when Andy Reid’s Eagles repeatedly came up short of Super Bowl expectations, but they are indicators that we have been officially greeted by a new dawn.

While presumptions that the Eagles have been cleared for takeoff to future Super Bowls might be premature, as the NFL graveyard is laden with cautionary tales of first-year coaches who never matched their rookie-year successes, there is a sense that this was more than happenstance.

If the Eagles had gone 4-12, it would have raised more questions than answers.

Instead, the players – from veterans to young bucks – bought what the coach was selling.

The culture was changed.

Shortly after the loss to New Orleans, probably the best team the Eagles faced since getting pounded by Peyton Manning at the Denver Broncos in what seemed like a lifetime ago, owner Jeffrey Lurie put his hurt aside and placed the loss in the proper perspective.

“When you make a coaching change, you have to transform to a new culture,” Lurie said. “These players and the coaching staff just formed an incredible bond, ability to prepare and an ability to win. That can take years, and they did it in six months. That is what is so great here.

“We are all crushed to be eliminated. We are in this because we love it so much. But I have no doubt that we will be back and that we are more confident than ever, now that we know what we can accomplish.”

Some of that is spin, but most is truth.

They say the truth hurts.

This team – to borrow from John Mellencamp – made it hurt so good.

This column originally appeared at http://www.phillyphanatics.com

By GORDON GLANTZ

Gordonglantz50@gmail.com

@Managing2Edit

GORDONVILLE — Want a conspiracy theory? The NFL tried to sabotage to 2013 Philadelphia Eagles.

How and why the league would do this to one of its larger-market franchises makes far less sense than the plausible case for shots coming from the grassy knoll, but the evidence is there for those wishing to don tin-foil headgear.

The Eagles began the season with three games in 11 days, after which they found themselves at 1-2 and with more questions than answers about new coach Chip Kelly making the transition from his college fiefdom at Oregon to putting the Eagles back on the path to relevance.

The league wasn’t done with the Eagles, not giving them a breather in the schedule until Week No. 11. Such is life for a team that fell off the map after going 4-12.

But here they are, none the worse for wear.

If there was a force trying to keep them from being a storyline on ESPN or the NFL Network, it didn’t achieve its objective.

There were times, like a midseason skid in which the Eagles failed to score an offensive touchdown in two divisional home losses and fell to 3-5 at the midway point, when Kelly’s crew was left for dead.

But whatever didn’t kill them has made them stronger.

Here they sit at their long-awaited break with an opportunity to recharge their engines, dip in the healing waters of the whirlpool and enter the final five games of the season –  including three at home – controlling their own destiny in the NFC East with a 6-5 record and riding a three-game winning streak.

Now, at a rest stop on this journey, it’s the perfect time to take a breath and survey the landscape with an analysis of the team.

FRONT OFFICE

People like to mock general manager Howie Roseman, mainly because he isn’t a battle-scarred ex-player. Roseman is often the fall guy for assembling the nightmare “dream team” of 2011 that was the beginning of the end for former head coach Andy Reid. He has been blamed for horrid errors on draft day. With a clean slate to work with Kelly, Roseman has seemingly made the right moves. There has been impact from the rookie crop, and most of the no-frills free agent additions have contributed. It should also be noted that the draft class of 2012, which owner Jeffrey Lurie says was the first with Roseman’s true fingerprint, has come up huge this season. Grade: B+

COACHING

Chip Kelly has made some curious decisions in the heat of battle and seems red-flag challenged. The game plans in home losses to Kansas City, Dallas and the New York Giants seemed lacking in vision. Overall, though, we can’t argue. It’s hard to get a clean read on offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur because Kelly calls the plays that the quarterback has the freedom to alter, so Shurmer is twice removed from the process on game day. However, as a planner in the pre-game strategy and an eye-in-the-sky, it would seem this NFL lifer has been a positive force. He is allegedly in charge of notifying Kelly of when to challenge a call. If true, or partially true, we hope he has visited an eye doctor during the bye week.

Defensive coordinator Billy Davis was in line to be tied to the whipping post after his unit looked like a sieve early on, falling to the bottom of the league stats in almost every category. But they have either grown into his scheme or he has shaped it around the players’ strengths and weaknesses. Whatever the reason, it seems to be working well enough that they hold their own enough to complement the high-powered attack. When it all shakes out after 16 games, we could be looking at  a middle-of-the-pack unit that is ascending. The special teams, under Dave Fipp, have endured some ups and downs – namely in the blowout loss against Denver – but has generally been consistent in all phases. Grade: B+

OFFENSE

Quarterback: Kelly named Michael Vick the starter over Nick Foles heading into the season, possibly to keep the peace in a locker room of veterans loyal to Vick. Foles maintained a positive attitude and answered the bell when Vick went down with the inevitable injury. He has not only established himself as the short-term starter, but also the quarterback of, at least, the immediate future. He proved an atrocious outing against Dallas was the exception, not the norm, as he has been named the conference’s offensive player of the week twice and tied an NFL record with seven touchdown passes in a game against Oakland. He entered the bye with the best passer rating in the league (128.0), boasting 16 touchdown passes and zero interceptions. He is 4-1 as a starter and also helped secure victory in relief of Vick on the road in the Meadowlands. In the midst of the quarterback shuffle and injuries to both Vick (hamstring) and Foles (concussion), rookie Matt Barkley saw some time that could prove helpful to his evolution as a career backup. He looked ill-prepared to play meaningful snaps. Having Vick suiting up again after the bye will be a welcome sight.

Individual grades: Foles (A), Vick (B), Barkley (D). Overall grade: B-plus 

Running Back: Not much to say about LeSean McCoy (left), other than that he has taken the ball and run with it. Having more consistent chances under Kelly than Reid, who would often go whole quarters of game without calling McCoy’s number, McCoy has already eclipsed the 1,000-yard rushing mark. Add in yardage on 34 catches, and McCoy has more than 1,400 yards from scrimmage. A disappointment has been backup Bryce Brown, who has failed to pick up where he left off as a force carrying the ball. He has had some nice catches and runs on swing passes and has yet to fumble, but lacks the consistent carries a bigger back needs to find his groove. He would need another McCoy injury, like last year, to prove that he can get stronger as a game wears on. But nobody wants to see that. Third back Chris Polk has scored a touchdown and been solid, when healthy, on special teams. Matthew Tucker, an undrafted rookie out of TCU, was added to the roster from the practice squad but has yet to be on the field for any offensive plays.

Individual grades: McCoy (A), Brown (C), Polk (C), Tucker (I). Overall grade: B+

Wide Receiver: Give Kelly a gold star for making DeSean Jackson matter again. While Reid seemingly just told No. 10 to go deep and be a decoy, Kelly has made an effort to get the ball in the explosive receiver’s hands on short, medium and long passes. The result is that he is on a Pro Bowl track. Jackson entered the break with a team-high 58 catches and was 15 yards from 1,000.

When Jeremy Maclin went down early in training camp with a serious knee injury, Riley Cooper moved into the starting lineup. Perhaps because his head was not completely in the game because of his regrettable off-field controversy or because he just didn’t click with Vick, Cooper was a non-factor and ranked as the least productive starting receiver in the league. A free agent after this season, he was considered a sure bet not to be retained. And then, as fast as you can say Nick Foles, Cooper turned on the jets and took off. He is tied with Jackson for the team lead with seven touchdown catches and is averaging a team-high 19.1 yards on 31 catches. It is at the point now that if Foles is christened as the starter, Cooper has to be kept, meaning Maclin and/or Jason Avant, may not be back. Avant, still a reliable safety valve, has not been as much of a factor since Cooper and Foles developed their chemistry. Going further down the depth chart, Jeff Maehl has made some catches. Damaris Johnson, mainly a return man, has been a non-factor. Versatile veteran Brad Smith was signed recently and it will be interesting to watch how he is integrated after the bye week.

Individual grades: Jackson (A), Cooper (B+), Avant (C+), Maehl (C), Johnson (I), Smith (I). Overall grade: B

Tight End: The presumption was that since New England coach Bill Bellichick previously elicited Kelly as a consultant, the same heavy usage of tight ends there was going to be deployed here. That theory gained more validity when Zach Ertz was drafted in the second round and put in a stable with the tenured veteran Brent Celek (left) and free agent James Casey. While Celek and Ertz have made some key catches, there have also been some bad drops when the chains were crying out to be moved. The trio has combined for a modest 43 catches on 71 targets. Give Celek props for solid blocking, which has become a strength after it being a flaw in his game early in his career.

Individual grades: Celek (B-), Ertz (B-), Casey (D). Overall: C+

Offensive Line: With left tackle Jason Peters and center Jason Kelce returning from serious injuries, this unit was hyped as being one of the best in the business. It hasn’t been that seamless, as players don’t just regain form by fans wishing upon a star. Peters is still good, but not quite as dominant. Kelce is smart, but has been overwhelmed by 3-4 teams with powerful nose tackles. Left guard Evan Mathis has been solid. Right guard Todd Herremans, shuffled back inside after playing tackle and left guard in the past, seems to be improving after some early struggles. Right tackle Lane Johnson, drafted fourth overall, has played as expected. He has shown he has a high ceiling, but has made some mistakes. Johnson seemed to hit a midseason wall, but fought through it. The only sub to have played much is journeyman Allen Barbre, who has held his own when Peters has been dinged. If the Eagles have to go any deeper on their bench, beyond Barbre, it could spell doom. In the final analysis, when a team has the league’s leading rusher and top-rated passer, the line deserves credit.

Individual grades: Peters (B), Mathis (B+), Kelce (B), Herremans (B-), Johnson (B), Barbre (C+). Overall grade: B

DEFENSE

Defensive Line: After dealing away Isaac Sopoaga, one of the few free agents who pulled a Houdini, the unit was left with six young-but-hungry battlers. Defensive tackles Fletcher Cox (three sacks) and Cedric Thornton (team-leading four tackles for losses) come from opposite ends of the pedigree spectrum, as Cox was last year’s first-round pick and Thornton is a self-made undrafted guy. However, they are combining to be a formidable tandem. Rookie Bennie Logan moved into Sopoaga’s nose tackle spot and plays with a lot of hustle. Give him an offseason to add 10 more pounds and he could be a keeper. It is no coincidence that the line got a lift once second-year man Vinny Curry wasn’t inactive on game day. Curry, a pass-rushing specialist originally pigeon-holed as a bad fit for the new 3-4 alignment, shares the team lead with four sacks. Damion Square, an undrafted rookie out of Alabama, has worked his way into the rotation. Why Clifton Geathers is on the team remains a mystery. Aside from Geathers, who is simply as placeholder on the roster for now, all the others in this group are in their first or second seasons in the league.

Individual grades:  Thornton (B+), Cox (B), Curry (B), Logan (B-), Square (C), Geathers (D+). Overall grade: B-

Linebacker: If not for San Francisco’s Patrick Willis and Carolina’s Luke Kuechly, DeMeco Ryans would be looking at a Pro Bowl nod. While emerging as a team leader in the locker room, Ryans has silenced doubters who said he was strictly a traditional 4-3 middle linebacker. His stats across the board – 96 tackles (76 solo), three tackles for losses, two sacks, two interceptions – speak for themselves. Not far behind is the other inside linebacker Mychal Kendricks. While he is not quite as disciplined as Ryans, Kendricks has been productive – 68 tackles (54 solo), three tackles for losses and three fumble recoveries – while also often drawing the short straw and having to “spy” on the more mobile opposing quarterbacks.

At outside linebacker, Connor Barwin may not have the name cache for Pro Bowl consideration, but he has been a model of consistency. He has four sacks, tying him with Curry, to go along with 10 passes defended and three tackles for losses. At the other outside spot, we have Trent Cole. The longest-tenured Eagle, switching from defensive end to linebacker, picked up two sacks against the Redskins to raise his total to three this season. It appears that Davis is starting to meet Cole halfway, asking him to do what he does well, which is go downhill. Cole, though, is a free agent at the end of the season and the addition of real dynamic force opposite Barwin would make this linebacking corps dangerous. A  name to watch, considering where the Eagles will likely be picking in the first round, is Kyle Van Noy out of BYU. Backups – Brandon Graham, Najee Goode, Casey Matthews and Emmanuel Acho – have held their own when called upon.

Individual grades: Ryans (A-), Kendricks (B+), Barwin (A-), Cole (B-), Graham (C+), Goode (C+), Matthews (C), Acho (C). Overall grade: B+

Cornerback: The Eagles are 31^st in the league against the pass, so it’s difficult to hand out plaudits for those charged with covering receivers. However, we can respond to this bad report card with a note from home. There has been drastic improvement since being singed by the likes of Payton Manning and Philip Rivers earlier in the season. Cary Williams and Bradley Fletcher, each with two interceptions, are effort guys who play with attitude and hustle and take it personally when giving up a big play (a welcomed change from the past two seasons). Nickel corner Brandon Boykin, in his second year, leads the team with four interceptions and is a player on the rise. Roc Carmichael, who was signed off waivers from Houston, and started when Fletcher was out the last two weeks. For the most part, he held his own. Curtis Marsh has returned to the nest but has yet to play on defense.

Individual grades: Boykin (B+), Williams (C-), Fletcher (C+), Carmichael (C), Marsh (I). Overall grade: B-

Safety: A true impact player – via draft or free agency – remains a priority, but the improvement of this group has mirrored that of the defense. That is mostly true of Nate Allen (left). who has 46 solo tackles, good for third on the team behind Ryan and Kendricks. He has gone from target of the boo-birds to at least blending in with the scenery by following his assignments. Patrick Chung’s shoulder injuries allowed rookie Earl Wolff to emerge as a starter, at least until Wolff injured his knee. Kurt Coleman has almost played strictly on special teams. Last game, when Chung exited and Wolff was not in uniform, fans had to have scary flashbacks to last season when Coleman and Allen were oft-burned as the starting safeties. However, the Redskins were kept in check until Chung was hurried back. Colt Anderson, an ace on special teams, has barely played on defense. Only Wolff – out of the entire group – has an interception, and that came on a Hail Mary pass.

Individual grades: Wolff (B-), Allen (C+), Chung (C), Coleman (C-), Anderson (I). Overall grade: C+

SPECIAL TEAMS

Kicking: One disappointment has been Alex Henery, who is a pedestrian17-for-22 with a long of 48 yards. While not abysmal, he is not inspiring the confidence that a kicker that was drafted in the fourth round a few years back should. Grade: C-

Punting: The signing of veteran Donnie Jones is proving to be a stroke of genius. He is averaging 45.4 yards per punt with a net of 40.9. On top of that, he has put 22 punts instead the 20, as compared to a mere five touchbacks. Grade: A

Coverage: There have been a few breakdowns, but coverage has largely been a non-issue. Grade: B+

Return Game: Damaris Johnson has seemingly been relieved of his duties after being pedestrian, at best, as the primary kickoff and punt returner. He has a decent average on kickoffs – 25.9 per return – but has used poor judgment by brining many out from deep in the end zone. While Brandon Boykin almost broke a kick while filling in when Johnson was hurt, Brad Smith could be the long-term answer. He has four kickoff returns for touchdowns in his career, although only one since 2010. DeSean Jackson, who established himself as a lethal punt returner in a previous life, has been handling the job lately with mixed results. His average of 9.0 per punt return (pretty much what Johnson had) is largely due to 32-yard gainer in Oakland (he was flagged 15 yards for grabbing the tackler’s facemask). Grade: C-

CRYSTAL BALL

Let’s say the Eagles win three of the next five, making them 9-7, which should be good enough for first place in the NFC “Least.” That would mean a home playoff game, and a likely loss to a team like, say, the Carolina Panthers. No one should or could complain, even if the score is 49-10, but they will anyway. It goes along with the territory.

While Pro Bowl bids – along with All-Pro nods and being named to post-season teams by other publications – come with grains of salt, the Eagles will be well-represented. Earlier in the season, it looked like McCoy, maybe Jackson, would be it. Now, we also have Mathis and maybe Peters (on reputation). Foles would at least be in line for being a Pro Bowl alternate, which would be quite an achievement for a guy who didn’t even begin his second season as the starter. Defensively, Ryans and Barwin will be in the conversation. Ditto for Jones as the punter. Johnson, Ertz, Logan and Wolff could be in All-Rookie consideration.  Kelly? Coach of the Year? Probably second to Reid, proving that fact is stranger than fiction.

This column is also available at http://www.phillyphanatics.com

By GORDON GLANTZ

Gordonglantz50@gmail.com

@Managing2Edit

GORDONVILLE – In the fall of 1971, a plane was hijacked in the Pacific Northwest. The suspect, who purchased the ticket under the alias Dan Cooper – misreported by news wire services as D.B. Cooper – received ransom money and parachuted from the plane into the cold and dark night.

Although some of the money was recovered in 1980, Cooper was neither seen nor heard from again.

His disappearance remains one of those head-scratching unsolved mysteries for amateur sleuths and conspiracy theorists (most experts believe he didn’t survive the jump).

Here in the Delaware Valley, in the fall of 2013, fans of the Philadelphia Eagles have dealt with not only the disappearance, but also the mercurial reappearance of another Cooper.

That would be wide receiver Riley Cooper.

The same guy a lot of people wanted to run out of town after a video surfaced of him, in a possible drunken stupor, using a racial slur at a Kenny Chesney concert at the Eagles’ home, Lincoln Financial Field.

But with starting wideout Jeremy Maclin down for the season with a knee injury, rookie coach Chip Kelly had a different reaction. It was to let Cooper work through the controversy, mend fences with his teammates and pick up where he left off during the final third of the 2012 season, when he clicked with then-rookie Nick Foles.

Cooper began the season opposite DeSean Jackson in Kelly’s lineup and was, at one point, the far-and-away least productive starting receiver in the entire league.

Cooper was doing some stellar downfield blocking, but his primary job is to catch passes. Keeping him on the field, getting starter’s snaps, was akin to playing a .200 hitter every day because he bunts well or starting a guy who averages 3.2 points per game because he sets nice picks.

In the first five weeks of the season, with Michael Vick at quarterback, Cooper had eight catches for 93 yards and one touchdown.

Cooper’s disappearance led for open questions about why a guy who had offended so many people – at least until Richie Incognito came along to make him look like a boy scout – was still here. In house, though, Kelly was confident that the guy who was Tim Tebow’s roommate and favorite target at Florida would step up.

Cooper has not only stepped up, he has soared.

The cause-and-effect behind the change is obvious, which is quarterback Nick Foles seizing the opportunity to start – after Vick was injured – and becoming one of the league’s top stories.

Two games ago, when Foles tied a league record with seven touchdowns in one game, three of those tosses in the 49-20 romp over the Raiders were to Cooper. Last week, in a 27-13 seminal win at Green Bay, a game most marked down as an automatic “L” when the schedule was released, Foles threw three more touchdowns. Two were to Cooper.

All told, Cooper has had three 100-yard games since working with Foles. With the Foles delivering the ball, Cooper has caught 20 passes for 462 yards and six touchdowns. While projections are a tricky business, that equates to 64 catches for 1,478 yards and 19 touchdowns.

It’s doubtful Cooper would post numbers that gaudy over the highs and lows of a 16-game season, but anywhere in the same zip code would be a major payoff for a fifth-round pick in 2010 who had made his bones as a special teams guy.

Cooper is a free agent after this season. Presuming Foles is retained and christened the quarterback of the immediate future, retaining Cooper – as his “blanky” – would now look like a no-brainer when the opposite seemed true a few weeks ago.

Cooper’s situation also sheds an interesting twist on what happens with Maclin, who is also a free agent coming off a knee injury. There is also the question of reliable slot receiver Jason Avant, who seems to have become less integral to the offense since Foles took over.

Depending on how much dough the Eagles want to dump into receiving corps, which could also include recent signee Brad Smith, we could be looking at a veteran group of players who could combine to put tremendous pressure on defenses in three- and four-receiver sets.

It would also take the onus away from drafting a receiver, let alone a quarterback, in the early rounds of next April’s draft. This would allow more focus on other needs, hence a win-win for the organization.

But these are questions for the future. In the here and now, we are faced with mystery about Cooper’s about-face.

While it is clear that Foles is the primary reason, despite Kelly’s coachspeak that “he knew it was coming” anyway, we need to explore the wherefores and whys.

First, let’s remove the lowest common denominator and dispense with the elephant in the room. Vick wasn’t throwing the ball to Cooper, but it has nothing to do with Cooper’s off-field controversy.

When it happened, Vick was one of the first African-American players on the team to speak out on his behalf. He is the primary reason, or one of them, that Cooper was able to come back to the team after a brief time of searching his soul and get back to work.

And the NFL – past, present and future – is littered with teammates who were oil and vinegar off the field and sugar and spice on it. No quarterback on the planet is going to look elsewhere when he has an open receiver, best buddy or not, open in the end zone.

It has also been theorized that it goes back to last season, when Foles and Cooper worked together on the team’s second unit, building chemistry between them. There is evidence to support this claim, as the two not only clicked down the stretch of an otherwise nightmarish 4-12 season (Cooper had 16 of his 23 catches and two of his three touchdowns during Foles’ six-game stint as a starter), but also when Foles shined in the 2012 preseason to the extent that some in  Eagles Nation were quick to proclaim they had seen a glimpse of the future.

The only hitch in this theory is that Cooper, after Maclin’s injury early in camp, was working with the first unit this preseason. Yes, Foles and Vick were splitting first-team snaps for a few weeks, but it was all Vick once the season began.

It is not necessarily automatic that any chemistry between Foles and Cooper would magically reappear once Foles returned to the lineup in a vastly different offense from the prior season. Nonetheless, we have to say that this is part of it, if only from a confidence standpoint. Foles believes in Cooper enough to look for him, and it explodes – instead of implodes – from there.

There are some other factors to consider. One is height. Foles is 6-6 and Cooper is 6-3 (Vick is 6-0). A tall quarterback able to see a tall receiver breaking open 40 yards downfield sounds simplistic, but should not be discounted off-handed.

Also, there is the Jackson factor. The team’s No. 1 receiver is on pace for a career season, and it’s because he was established – early in the campaign, and early in games – by design. The inability to do so the last few years, and leave one of his greatest weapons marginalized, was one of former coach Andy Reid’s greatest transgressions. With defenses focusing on Jackson, Cooper has been able to exploit single coverage.

But why not sooner?

We have to face facts, folks. Vick may be more mobile, but he is not the right quarterback for Kelly’s system because he is a square peg in a round hole when it comes to the other prerequisites.

Foles is decisive, accurate, goes through his progressions and delivers the ball to the right receiver. He has a quick release, which keeps pressure on defenses already gasping for air trying to defend a high-octane attack (i.e. the Oakland game). And even though he is not Steve Young, he is not quite the statue in the pocket that his detractors make him out to be. A big-time basketball recruit out of high school, he is able to avoid pressure and make the throws.

And his current interception total – zero, against 16 touchdowns – shows his ability to take care of the ball. When it needs to be thrown away, he throws it away. While it may be more perception than reality, it seems that his only incompletions have been the results of deliberate throwaways or drops.

While Vick can be credited with getting Jackson going early in the season, a fact which has helped Cooper – albeit once Foles came into the picture – he was often guilty of eyeballing one receiver.

That receiver was usually Jackson. If not, it was typically Avant or tight end Brent Celek.

While the Foles-to-Cooper connection is making headlines, Foles has continued keeping Jackson on a Pro Bowl path and gotten other receivers – LeSean McCoy on screens, rookie tight end Zach Ertz and others – in the mix. It comes from those innate traits that all the scrambling ability on the planet can’t make up for.

Another difference between Vick and Foles is the way the ball comes to a receiver. Vick threw fastballs, usually at the receiver’s numbers while facing him. Foles arcs the ball, often misinterpreted as lacking arm strength by casual observers, trying to place it over the receiver’s shoulders and into their arms while in stride.

The main benefactor has been Cooper, who seems to prefer catching the ball that way.

So, taken in their entirety, the mystery of his sudden emergence isn’t really that much of a head-scratcher.

At least not is comparison to that of Dan “D.B.” Cooper.

This column also appeared at http://www.phillyphanatics.com

By GORDON GLANTZ

Gordonglantz50@gmail.com

@Managing2Edit

GORDONVILLE – Nick Foles has won three games as a starting quarterback, all of which have been on the road. In those games, he has completed 76 of 110 passes for 1,083 yards. He has thrown 12 touchdowns in those games with zero – yes, zero – interceptions.

The above was listed in the Daily News as an “Obscure Fact.”

I call it “telling.”

And it tells me that Nick Foles, coming off a game for the ages against the Oakland Raiders, is not some one-hit wonder.

If no one wants to go out on a limb, I will.

I have seen the future quarterback of the Eagles, and his name is Nick Foles.

If you don’t want to go there – at least not yet – saying you need to “see more consistency,” that’s your right.

You have a right to be wrong.

Just don’t join me on my Smart Car-sized bandwagon when this starts to bear itself out in the long-term. Don’t be like one of those people who say you saw Bruce Springsteen at the Main Point in Bryn Mawr, before he hit it big, when it was physically possible.

I am getting out in front of it now.

And I seem to be a lone wolf, which is fine.

In two of his last three starts, Foles has not only played well, but well enough to win NFC Offensive Player of the Week.

Let that sink in: Two out of three starts. Sounds pretty consistent to me. At least more than Michael Vick since his comeback dream season of 2010.

This season, Foles has also come off the bench after a Vick injury to procure a victory – on the road – against the New York Giants (those stats are not included the Daily News’ “obscure” fact, as they came in relief).

One has to think that a lot of the Foles antagonism – or outright bashing – stems from what has really been his only dismal outing. It came against Dallas in Week 7, in front of charged-up crowd at the Linc anxious for an overdue home win and a taste of “first place” in the NFC Least.

He had the ball, and he fumbled it, no doubt. That failure to rise up to the challenge was really a team effort – from top to bottom. That’s the way I felt walking out of the stadium.

The level of venom I heard toward Foles after was shocking, and showed a lack of football knowledge. While Foles missed open receivers, he found at least a good half-dozen others who dropped the ball. A few of those catches may have gotten the offense, and Foles, into the much-needed groove that high-speed offense needs to start rolling.

The whole game plan from coach Chip Kelly seemed out-of-sync. A week after running the ball effectively against a stout Tampa Bay defense, there was almost zero commitment to the run – even with the league’s leading rusher, LeSean McCoy, lining up behind Foles.

While the defense held Dallas and its high-powered offense to 17 points, keep in mind that the Cowboys were missing some players – including running back DeMarco Murray – and that the Eagles still couldn’t get off the field on some critical third downs.

Most importantly, and most forgotten or forgiven, was the horrid play of the offensive line that day. It was the unit’s worst outing of the year. Foles took some early hits, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he suffered a mild to moderate concussion early, and that set him for the more severe one he absorbed later.

For all these reasons, my conclusion in that the Dallas game was the exception and not the norm for Foles.

He was just not himself.

Foles, for all his perceived limitations, in terms of not running like Vick or throwing the deep ball with the velocity of Joe Namath, was always accurate and decisive.

That’s what I have seen from watching him in college, in two preseasons, the end of last season while playing in conditions that Johnny Unitas couldn’t have made work and in appearances leading up to Dallas.

And keep in mind, for all intents and purposes, it would be fair to call him a rookie. Until he starts his 17^th game as a pro, that is what he is. Yes, he has two preseasons under his belt, but it was with two coaches with two diverse systems, neither of which he ran in college at Arizona.

I know you are antsy out there, people. I get it. I am, too. But let’s see the forest through the trees here.

What I see is a guy – if not run out of town for every rare errant throw or sack he takes because he is not an Olympic sprinter – who can be a starter in the mold of, say, Joe Flacco.

And you saw what Flacco and the Baltimore Ravens did last season.

I’m not all Folesed-up because I’m still riding the high of his seven-touchdown performance last Sunday in Oakland, an outing – complete with a perfect quarterback rating of 158.3 – that made him one of seven quarterbacks to throw that many touchdowns in a game.

I am still on a bit of a buzz from it, but what long-suffering fan wouldn’t be?

Truth is, I have always been in his corner.

I am just amazed that I have had to become like a publicist during the week after he turned in the kind of game he did in Oakland.

Immediately, detractors – most with hidden agendas, either from being Vick supporters on the run or in lust with the current bumper crop of college quarterbacks playing in systems designed to make them look like prodigies – sought to degrade the performance.

We need to address some of these skewed views of perceived reality before they drive me into a padded cell.

For one, Oakland is not “bad” team. The Raiders were 3-4, and were playing at home. They had a defense ranked in the top half of the league in most categories, and most of us expected a low-scoring game.

As for the fact that some Oakland defenders slipped on some of Foles’ touchdown throws, you just reveal your own ignorance. Defenders slip all the time. And quarterbacks, including many who have played here over the years (and had their numbers retired), still don’t take advantage. Moreover, when an offense is clicking the way the Eagles’ were last Sunday, situations like defenders getting twisted and turned around – and losing his footing – start to happen. It is part and parcel of having your opponent staggered and delivering a knockout out blow.

The question posed to me before the Oakland game was if we were going to see the Nick Foles from the Tampa game or the Nick Foles from the Dallas game.

My response was that it we were going to see the Nick Foles closer to the one we saw against Tampa – and in relief against the Giants – because that’s who he is.

After a game for the ages, the absurd question has pervaded talk-radio and newspaper columnists, above whether we are going to see the Nick Foles we saw against Oakland or the one against Dallas.

Given the totality of his performances this season, it’s a question so silly that it doesn’t even deserve an answer.

The more realistic question: is there any reason, any at all, to see Michael Vick on the field again?

No, none.

Foles should at least start until the bye week, two games away. In the unlikely event that he struggles badly and both games are lost, leaving the Eagles at 4-7 with five to go, maybe we think about Matt Barkley getting an audition like the one Foles got at the end of last season.

But I can’t see that happening.

The Eagles may not win their next two games, the ones leading up to the bye, but it’s highly unlikely it will be because of poor play from Foles.

It will be because of other shortcomings on a roster in need of a facelift next offseason. Drafting a quarterback in the first round? It would mean going through a learning curve with that quarterback while the rest of the offense gets one more year longer in the tooth while mediocre players line up on defense. It would be like digging for fool’s gold.

The fact that there is a bumper crop of college quarterbacks is still a good thing for the Eagles. It will leave other players – like a legitimate do-it-all outside linebacker, a head-hunting safety, impact nose tackle or interior offensive linemen – on the shelf at a better value.

They already have their quarterback.

He is tall, at 6-6. He may not be Fran Tarkenton, but he is more athletic than he is given credit for and can buy time in the pocket. He sees the whole field, makes good reads, has a quick release, is accurate and doesn’t throw a lot of interceptions.

His name is Nick Foles.

Sunday in Green Bay is only his 10^th start, so there will be ups and downs, but I am confident it will be worth the ride.

I know it’s not easy, but try to put away your cynicism and enjoy it.

This column also appeared at http://www.phillyphanatics.com