The Eagles made another roster move on Monday, claiming linebacker Najee Goode and releasing Emmanuel Acho.
Goode is 6’0 and weighs 244 pounds; he was fifth-round pick of Tampa Bay last season appeared in three games.
Acho initially made the final roster after a strong preseason, and seemed primed to be the team’s primary backup inside linebacker. He was acquired in an off-season trade with the Cleveland Browns.
However, former Oregon Duck Casey Matthews (who also beat out Chris McCoy and Everette Brown for a roster spot) appears to be better suited for the role in the eyes of the coaching staff.
Casey Matthews is not an NFL talent, he belongs in the Arena League.
Politics have kept him on this team. He sucks, and I know there are more that agree with me on that. Thats what got us in trouble in the past Coaches being partial, and forsaking the better talent, to the detriment of the team.
Hard to figure out why Matthews stays and Acho goes. To hear Howie tell it, Matthews is a Swiss Army knife.
Acho made more plays in the preseason than Mathews has in the past three seasons altogether.
Goode is 6-0″ & 244 and not 6-4″ Fyi
Out of West Virginia a couple years back and played ILB in there 3-3-5 Scheme that they ran.. He played alongside OLB Oass Rusher Bruce Irvin and is used to pkaying in space and is very quick, athketic and physical, the question remains is he strong enough at the point of attack and able to she’d blockers quick enough that is necessary at the NFL level
I like the pick-up and envision him replacing DeMeco Ryans by the end of the Season or by 2014 for sure..
Eagles would have had a much more athletic LB Corps by keeping McCoy, Acho & Goode in place of Matthews & Knott..
The Eagles also added a safety Keelan Johnson 6″0 209 lbs from Arizona State U. 4.56 40. He was an undrafted rookie on Miami’ team. Supposed to be a hard hitter and pretty good in coverage. developmental player.
he’s on the practice squad.
I agree Cliff but we all knew when Coach Kelly was hired, that Matthews was
A lock on the Roster for 2013, so no real surprise here..
He shouldn’t be a lock when he has 3 obvious better talents outperform him Paul, regardless of his partiality. That’s not in the best interest of the team, because it doesn’t benefit the team.
Are the Birds trying to win? Acho and MCcoy have outplayed every linebacker they’ve suited up, with an exception to Barwin. You got to be kidding me!
Kendricks has not been outplayed by anybody in the LB Corp….
The entire defense sucked in the preseason. We all saw that the defense would give up at least 30-40 points per game. They showed some flashes, but what you had was OK players out performing mediocre players. I like the flurry of activity on the defensive side of the ball, picking up athletic Versatile players. No movement on the offensive side except cuts. Ding Dong Danny Watkins is GONE!!!!! The entire “D” needs revamping.
Shout out to “Jim Johnson” We Miss You!!!
I don’t think that the team would keep someone based on college allegiance. Emphasis is on special teams play with these guys. If Vick doesn’t turn the ball over it won’t matter who the fourth inside LB is and if he does, still won’t matter.
They just did………
goode is slow as fck.. 4.8 40 …. This was a big mistake Acho’s is superior to goode .. goode is slow and fat
It comes down to “Versatility”
These last 6-8 Roster Spots need to be Pkayers who can play multiple Positions and Play Special Teams which is
Why WR Maehal, TE Igwenagu, and Players like Prater & Goode and Robinson were Picked Up
Coach Kelly has said all along that back-ups must be Versatile and Pkay Special Teams since you only can suit up
46 Players a week..
We only took Acho on the recommendation of Billy Davis, Davis was his LB coach in Cleveland, I can’t see Kelly overruling him to keep Matthews if Davis really thought Acho was the better fit seeing that Kelly has left the whole D in his hands. I think this whole Kelly, Matthews same school theory isn’t accurate.
People, including myself are only reacting to what we saw in games. It’s like watching a boxing match and one guy clearly wins the fight but the judges give it to the other guy. Mathews…I just don’t get it! Acho could play special teams too I’m sure. As far as Najee Goode, he is that middle linebacker thumper. Heis physical, but Acho should not have been released to make way for him IMO.
The Eagles appear to be idiots for keeping Matthews. He is as worthless as tits on a boar. Kelly is headed to the Steve Spurrier Hall of Fame.
Something is amiss in eagle land, like there always has been with this peculiar, queer owner, you can never trust decisions being made on present talent and projection, chip Kelly is in line with this group, he’s already made curious if not downright stupid decisions, the foremost restructuring Vick, if it ever was his decision, which I doubt much it was not Reid’s decision to go with Vick over kolb
Acho was a beast in college.. over 100 tackles 2 years in a row.. for Texas.. Acho can play.. MLBs can last forever ie ray lewis london fletcher.. Demeco Ryans had the most tackels for lost last year supposedly.
One thing for sure if the Eagles had to release all of their linebackers but one, Casey Matthews would have nothing to worry about. I am becoming more and more concerned about the obvious man love that Chippy clearly has for Ms Matthews. Nothing to see here. Just waiting to hear what linebacker is replaced tomorrow with a waiver wire player, I assure you it won’t be Chippy’s girl friend, Ms Maahews.
Good Day, Good Sports
What really pisses me off about losing young promising players like McCoy & Acho is that halfway thru this Season when it’s becomes apparent that both converted OLB’s Trent Cole & Brandon Graham and even Ryan show to be not good fits for this new 3-4 Scheme, and that both McCoy & Acho could have been groomed as replacements, is that they now will again have to go thru Search again next year finding and coaching suitable LB’s that fit in the 3-4 Scheme.. Where is the Planning for the Future by Kelly & Company.. I believe as many else do that this will be Trent COle’s final Season as an Eagle and quite possibly Brandon Graham as well as his ROokie Deal will be up.. Who is on the Roster right now to learn, groom and to replace them in 2014 ?? This Franchise has become dysfunctionalbe without any true gameplan and blueprint for not only 2013, but beyond.. You cannot build a quality Roster and create Quality Depth that can compete and learn to play together when your turning over the Roster every year and bringing in 20-25 new Players hoping that it works…
I will give Kelly some Time, but damn, this first 53Man Roster of his has me puzzled.. I touhght he has said over and over again about having the best 53 Football Players on this Roster… I have to disagree with some of his moves and am concerned with losing good quality young Players that can grow into Productive Players instead of giving more and more chances to players that have shown just not to have it … (Matthews,Allen,Graham,Marsh,Coleman,Anderson,etc,etc)
Shut out ability.. Right Chip?
You all act as though the Eagles had half a chance of anything this season.
The Birds have been cooked for this year from the Jump. This team is not equipped to win anything!!! 2-6 wins depending on Running game and health.
We need at least one if not 2 more drafts to even begin to have a core team set up!
TAMPA didnt even keep a back up MLB which could be a good thing.. but even in college there a tape of acho vs demarcus murry on youtube and he makes tackle after tackle..
I blame the 2 evils. Lurie and Roseman
For choosing player A over player B? Lurie has nothing to do with that and I believe Roseman defers to Kelly on final decisions.
Your blame is incorrectly placed.
Here is our annual who is our 5th WR and 8th LB debate Eagles fans have every year. It doesn’t matter.
Exactly
A very disturbing article from Geoff Moesher of CSNPhilly.com.
So basically a Jerry Rice or Emmitt Smith wouldn’t be drafted by Eagles.
A slender, bony frame and long, spindly fingers suggest that Alec Halaby once played on fields similar to the ones that now serve as the background to his office in the NovaCare Complex.
“Yeah, I was a high school quarterback,” Halaby said earlier this summer. “And a very average one.”
Halaby, a Harvard grad with the squeaky clean face of a high school valedictorian, represents the analytics voice of the Eagles’ front office, among his many tasks as special assistant to general manager Howie Roseman. He first interned with the Eagles in 2007 and came back in 2009.
Analytics is a trendy phenomenon that has become the primary source of player evaluation in Major League Baseball and more pervasive in other college and professional sports. It is quickly growing into the new method for sizing up NBA players.
A big part of Halaby’s specialty is using statistics and data to compare and contrast with what the scouting department sees on tape to come up with a separate scouting evaluation.
If, for example, Roseman has a high grade on a specific college prospect, Halaby will crunch the player’s size, 40-yard dash time, vertical and other tangible measurements to see how they compare against NFL players at the same position.
Several times, Halaby’s analysis has contradicted what the tape revealed and Roseman has reluctantly altered that player’s draft stock or free-agent value.
“No matter how much you like that guy, you’ve probably got to let him go,” Roseman said. “We’ve been very disciplined in the past couple of years about doing that and making sure that we’re not taking a running back who runs a 4.9 [in the 40-yard dash] just because he runs really tough between the tackles and we like the physicality he shows on tape, because we know the chances he becomes a really good player in this league — where talent really is the most important thing at this level — are really low.”
It’s a simple game of percentages that becomes very complex, because just like tape, numbers don’t always tell the full story.
“It’s hard for me,” Roseman admitted. “Alec can probably tell you. There are times that I’ll say, ‘I really like this guy and we’re thinking about signing him or drafting him and can you do some research?’
“And he’ll come back with the research and I’ll be disappointed. I’ll say, ‘I really like this guy’ and I’ll try to convince him. He’ll say, ‘You can do whatever you want, obviously, but the chances are that we’re playing very highly against the odds.’
“I’ll take 24 hours and I’ll realize it’s the right decision and that’s what we’ve got to do. We’ve been very fortunate in that the players we’ve brought in over the last two years that things are matching up better than they had.”
Halaby, 26, is part of Roseman’s front office reshuffle, which started after personnel chief Ryan Grigson and former president Joe Banner each left the organization within a five-month span in 2011; Grigson taking the Colts’ general manager job and Banner leaving to eventually become CEO of the Cleveland Browns.
The front office is now streamlined, Roseman has said several times, with fewer people making final decisions but more voices representing different factions being heard throughout the course of player evaluations.
Analytics first became appealing to Halaby as a teenager growing up in Madison, Wisc. Knowing that his future as a quarterback wouldn’t go beyond high school, Halaby’s interest grew in the mathematics behind sport.
He made the transformation from athlete to stat geek, as his curiosities intensified about the role data and statistical analysis could play in evaluations. At the same time, Halaby is quick to point out that analytics can only go so far in player evaluation.
It’s still an inexact science and tape is still the foremost resource for gauging potential success or failure.
“In terms of the end point — which is getting an accurate evaluation on a player — every evaluation I do, part of that is going to be watching the tape and seeing what the player looks like, coming up with an evaluation that way,” Halaby said. “And part of it is going to be studying the data to see what I can extract from that. Usually, those two things are speaking to one another.”
Roseman sees some of himself in Halaby, who said he sent resumes and cover letters to every NFL team several times before the Eagles finally opened their doors to him.
Before he worked his way into the scouting sector, which cleared the way for his ascent to general manager, Roseman first started low on the front office totem pole under Banner. Halaby started off his Eagles career as a personnel analyst.
“When you get a resume from Harvard, obviously it’s impressive,” Roseman said. “The way I got in and almost the pledging I had to go to get a foot in the door, and the persistence and determination, I judge people for how they’re doing it.
“I would never hire someone at the ground level who sends one email to me or one sends one letter. It doesn’t take long to talk to him and find out how smart he is, and so does he really want to do it? Because it’s going to take him a while to get where he wants to go.
“I remember telling him, ‘Even if you’re the quickest rise in the history of GMs, it’s going to take you a decade to go through that process.’ So how much does he really want to do it? How much is he willing to sacrifice? It didn’t take long to see his passion for this.”
Just my opinion analytics shouldn’t have anything to do with scouting football players because you can’t measure heart and as we just saw with Danny Watkins it won’t measure your love of the game.
This is nuts.Diiddinger constantly talks about play on the field. Mamula was a wonder for these guys. This is an organization in deep trouble.
I don’t trust “metrics” for Football.. I think many of us can tell a “Real Football Player” who has the Instincts,Fundamentals,Football IQ, the Heart & Desire as opposed to a “Great Athlete who plays Football”
Size,Speed,Leaping Ability, Hand-size, etc,etc is one thing, but how does a PLayer perform when initial contact is made, how do you measure how a defender shed blockers, makes tackles, makes plays on the ball just like on Offense, how does metrics help you finsg out if a Receiver can run routes and understand coverages, or OL having their core set or proeperly use their leverage and arms to handle pass-rushers or RB’s shedding blockers and who fight for more yards.. All these things can only been learned and seen by watching Tape of Players, and not by a Drill or a Stop Watch ??
In fairness to Mike Mamula, he was not that bad of the Player, it was not his fault the Eagles selected him so high, as he had a few productive seasons in the NFL and was not a bust.. Chosen too high, absolutely,
a Bust, I don’t think so..
OL Danny Watkins, a bust,
DL Jon Harris , a bust
I agree…In my opinion, instincts is the key ingredient in a great football player…pretty much at any position…Instincts can’t be measured on no metric chart…Instincts put you in positions to make plays. I can understand using some analysis other than “vision” or “what you see” to help evaluate a player…But seeing is believing…There is no way that C McCoy should have been cut from this squad, no way!
Acho I liked also…placing emphasis on special teams is a good deal Frank…but getting a player that can play the LB position well is key in my opinion…..Acho could have learned how to become better on special teams…After Kendricks and Ryans, Acho was the best LB on this squad from the preseason performances…Actually I’d even put him ahead of Ryans…McCoy and Acho are decisions I most definitely don’t support….especially if analytic data was utilized as the determining factor..
I think it’s a mixture of both scouting and analytics. It would be completely foolish of the orginazition to completely use analytics.. The front office is made up of guys from Harvard and Wharton, they cant be that dumb.
Yes, but you can’t have a Front Office full of Pencil Pushers who may be intelligent, but lack “Football Knowledge” about Player and Talent Evaluators.. Some Metrics/Analytics are good information to have and to referenece, but I still believe you have to pass teh “Eye-Test” and more importantly, find and develop PLayers whose SKills Set fir your “System” ot Tailer Your “System” to your Talent Pool, which I beleive was Coach AR biggest fault and problem.. It was his system hell or high-water and he rarely adjusted his scheme’s to fit his personnel abilitiies.
How many times did we hear AR simply state, next man-up, sink of swim.. (we heard it about Demetress Bell, King Dunlap,Mike McGlynn,Dallas Reynolds,Qinton Demps, Will Witherspoon, Riley Cooper,Ronnie Brown,Kevin Kolb, Mike Vick,Vince Young,Evan Moore, Steve Smith,David Sims,Dmitri Paterson,Colt Anderson and on and on..
Agree about the pencil pushers, you need guys with a real eye for football talent. I believe that’s what Gamble is doing here, having a balance between analytics and talent eval.
Also, it has been mentioned that Acho is gone due to bad special teams play. I like the emphasis that is being placed on special teams.
I agree 100 Frank
I mentioned in an earlier Post on Kelly’s demand that the final 6-7 Roster Spots would be Players who can not only play Special Teams but excell at it and to develope a core unit
FB/TE Igewangu is more Physical and Better at Special Teams than the soft Harbor
WR Jeff Maehl is more physcial and better at Special Teams than WR Salas,Shepard or Momah
LB D Goode is more physcial and better at Special Teams that Acho
LB Matthews plays all LB positons and is better at Special Teams than McCoy
Safety Trenton Robinson (Currently added on Practice Squad) is more physcial and better at Special Teams than Curtis Marsh..
Versatility and a more Physcial Style of Play is what Kelly has stated that he would have at the bottom end of his Roster and so far, these moves show just that..
Paulman i agree this isnt the Reid Era this is the Chip “Kelly Green” Era and we havent had great special teams in only God knows how long and could be a staple to aiding our Offense keep them rested and fresh and cause there defenses to beat us out since by my estimation we should be in the lead or close to it in most games.
Random Perdictions for week 1 of the NFL.
QB Jeff Tuel will dominate the Pats Defense and though the score will be close i pick buffalo to stun the Patriots on Sunday. (QB Controversy ohhhh Yes).
Eagles will win a close one and i predict eagles will go neck and neck with Redskins. I though do believe it could go either way but even if eagles lose in a close one they will be viewed as a threat this season. Eagles on top 35-28
if anyone wants to share there week 1 predictions go on right ahead i think we should keep them going for the remainder of the season.
i think emil will also be used as a contributor blocker for goal line TDs or gadet plays or end-arounds. Great blocker i dont think Chip likes to use his TE’s as blockers but secretly we have more then 3 TEs. Jason Peters, Lane Johnson, Emil and on occasion the TODD father who can come in on some catches you dont ever know who may score in the Endzone it will be fun to watch.
I know not this year but i want to see what Issace Remington has to offer as And OT/OG he was a Dline player but seems to have picked it up pretty well so is stashed in Practice Squad until next yr. Plus what some people fail to understand some players stay on the PS not because they can contribute elsewhere in fact it has to do with the contract they signed an most teams dont want to top that so they leave them alone.