The Eagles may find themselves trying to cover the talented Chicago Bear wide receivers without one of their best coverage backs, Brandon Boykin, who is going through the NFL-mandated post-concussion protocol. He won’t be allowed to return to action until he passes a series of test and examination by a league-okayed neurologist.
That means there’s a chance he won’t play in the game versus the Bears. That will hurt the Birds in the secondary. I think Boykin is the Eagles best pure coverage cornerback. I would have liked Billy Davis to match Boykin up on Greg Jennings on Sunday. Boykin is the only guy on the roster, who might have been able to cover him.
Boykin will also be missed as a return man, but they can replace him with Brad Smith now. Smith showed us on Sunday that he’s a capable return guy.
The place he may be missed the most is as one of the “hawks” on the punt team that goes down first and downs the ball inside the twenty and ten yard lines. I don’t know who’s going to do that, it could wind up being Smith replacing him there as well.
We won’t know until later in the week about whether he will be back.
That’s the bad news, but the good news is that there’s a good chance rookie safety Earl Wolff will be back on the field. From what I’ve seen of the Birds safeties this season, I think the best combination has been Wolff and Nate Allen at the safety position. They are the best two athletes the Birds have at the safety position and hopefully Wolff will be healthy enough to go on Sunday.
“When Earl was in there with Nate (Allen), obviously those guys got in a flow and they were able to play off each other and I think that’s part of it,” Eagles GM Howie Roseman said on 94WIP on Monday night. ‘There’s a concert between those two safeties in making sure that they’re in harmony and they’re really breeding off and communicating with each other. When it’s piecemeal, it’s harder to do that. So we have to get those guys in a rhythm. Hopefully, we have to get Earl back here at some point because Earl was really coming on when he got hurt.
“We’ll know better this week as he goes out to practice. (Wolff) did a little bit more last week. He’s urgent. He wants to play. We have to make sure that he’s ready to go, because obviously that’s a position where if you’re not ready, people are going to exploit it.”
Eagles backup safeties Kurt Coleman and Colt Anderson suffered injuries in the Minnesota game, so there’s a chance they won’t be able to play versus Chicago.
We have a Lesean and Desean we might also need a Hesean.
The worst safeties in the NFL in 2012 once again had Allen, Coleman and Anderson on the field mucking up 2013 like good ole times last Sunday.
crazy as it sounds lotta these guys got hurt by the goof chung leading and hitting own men with his frickin head! What a waste pats know when a guy is a bum cant wait till he goes for good.Watch next time he plays hits his own men misses wr unbelievable. Wish fat fool reid took eric berry when he was here
Eric Berry was a Top 5 PIck for the Chiefs and the Eagles had no chance of getting him.. I believe you may mean Seahawks Safety Early Thomas who was on the board when the Eagles moved up to Select Brandon Graham..
I’m still not over that move by Roseman. I thought for sure Earl Thomas was our pick. I was completely stunned when Brandon Graham’s name was called. One of the worst decisions Howie has made as a GM..
I remember almost throwing the remote thru my TV Screen I was so pissed and it wasn’t so much that I didn’t like Brandon Graham, it was because I wanted Safety Earl Thomas so bad and thought when they moved up, that it was the Deal of the Draft for he was perfect and exactly what he Team and Defense Needed and would show a sign of Genius and Strength by AR & Roseman.. Instead it became a bad WTF moment that led to the beginning of the end of the AR Era who was simply clueless when it came to the Defensive side of the ball..
boykin will be needed more against dallas. chicago doesnt throw to the slot receiver that often so him not playing sunday night wont be that big of a deal. wolfs return could be a huge boost
im interested in seeing fletcher and williams matched up on jeffries and marshall. although both these corners blow they are big and can be physical which means they could be better against these two studs then they are/were against some of the shorter burners…. we will see, hopefully its a matchup we can contain…
cutler blows. always has always will just hope he brings his normal game on sunday…
Not neccessairly True Henski
Bears run 3 WR’s with Marshall, Jeffrey and Eagle Killer Bennett as the Slot Receiver, If you recall, Bennett has had big games versus the Eagles the last few years as has QB Cutler..
well bennett is a TE and will have a lb on him so again boykin doesnt factor as much as a normal game… cant put boykin on bennett because then they will just run forte to that side.
eagles gonna have their hands full this week regardless
No Henski, not TE Martellus Bennett..
I am talking about WR and 3rd WR for Bears ,Earl Bennett (#80),
who was Teammate with Cutler back in their Vanderbilt days..
This Earl Bennett has killed the Eagles the last 3 times they have played… Just like Greg Jennnings has during his Career as well
No Boynkin, Eagles are in deeper trouble ..
oh well he has been irrelevant all year. he is a warm body so i guess there is some concern there
He doesn’t see the field as much anymore now that WR Jeffrey has solidified his position as the #2 WR on the Bears.. but this Earl Bennett is one of these smaller,quicker WR’s that Gives the Eagles Fits (like Eddie Royal of the Chargers & D Averay of the Chiefs did)
Eagles will need a much better D performance if they want to make the playoffs
Its gonna be a shootout…we are in trouble on the defense! The Offense is going to have to outscore Chicago who is also hurting on defense with the loss of Tillman and those rookie linebackers who are struggling! Foles is gonna have to go head up with Cutler and come out on top!
This is nothing new we all tried to fool ourselves. We all kept saying what a wonderful job Billy Davis was doing. It was a MIRAGE. We have been getting torched ALL year. We just were LUCKY. Timely penalties negated big plays. Timely turnovers helped us. But this pass defense got torched EVERY WEEK. GB 3rds string QB killed us. RGIII killed us(lol). Staffords blunders helped us. This defense hasn’t stopped a 3rd and long all year. The run defense has been ok but other than that our LUCK ran out against Minnesota..
haha…true indeed – Dag…I fell for the “fools gold” too. But I have seen some improvements from the defense, hoping that the short field positions and possibly just a “bad day” is the cause for the struggles we saw this past weekend.
giving up less than 21 points in like 8 straight games is a mirage–??? timely turnovers helped us…. last i checked turnovers is something that a good defense does? pass defense torched …. yup you are correct- part is the warts that we still have and part is the new nFFl– National Flag Football League.
our defense is no a grea one by a loooooong stretch but they certainly have stepped up and done enough to help us get to this position!
The front 7 bailed the defenses @$$ out, most of the year. The secondary is still a barren wasteland, & has been fo several years now.
No matter where you are the spectrum from they got lucky to they played really well, we can all agree that the secondary is the weakest link on the entire team and can stand to be upgraded.
Agreed! But, if they would have upgraded in the off-season, like we all wanted, instead of shopping in the dumpster with Ruin 2morrow Jr., we wouldn’t have this issue! Remember, we are still currently $20M under the cap. The only reason this DF, has played better than anticipated, is the surprising play of the young d-line, & the LB’s. Look at all of the off-season signings.
Sopoaga- useless.
Phillips twins- Hurt as predicted.
Fletcher- Mediocre at best.
Williams- Penalty machine, mediocre at best.
Chung- Waste, as predicted.
Barwin- Best signing of the off-season, solid.
Casey- Overhyped, invisible.
Benn & Momah- Useless, injured as predicted.
I can’t disagree with you at all. They pretty much whiffed on almost all of the FA signings this year.
Water under the bridge though. They have far exceeded my expectations. I didn’t think they had a chance to win 6 games. It’s all gravy for me. I want playoffs, & some. Screw the Cowgirls & Tony Romo.
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Yeah man. I thought that this would take 2 seasons to really get something going. Instead they are competing for the playoffs and along the way, some guys have emerged as good players. Helps that the rest of the East is dreadful. Long way to go to be competing with the Seahawks, Saints and 49ers, but I can see a potential path.
Everyone keeps talking about Earl Wolfe like he is the savior. He isn’t very good either. lol. What the hell did he do? We are reaching for straws.
To expect Wolff to play well and make a big difference is fooling themselves, He’s a Rookie who hasn’t seen live action in some 5 Weeks at Game Speed
The Bears Offense is similar to the Eagles in that it really starts with RB Forte
Who like McCoy,is a dual threat Running and Receiving
If he gets rolling early, then Their Play action is deadly
Just like when McCoy gets in a rhythm.. And the ball!!
dag- Patrick Chung is playing scared out there. He has a bad shoulder and is trying to tackle everyone on one side of his body. As a result he is glancing off tackles, readjusting his body to make a tackle on his good shoulder giving extra yardage, and getting roasted. Earl Wolfe was playing better than Chung has replacing Wolfe with that shoulder. Wolfe is small so the size of Marshall, Alshon and Bennett may be a problem for him but I know Chung will definitely be a problem if out there. Grasping for straws, Yes ! try a different option in Wolfe.
Dag Wolfe may not be Eric Berry, but he damn sure is the best safety on this team. Nate Allen has played better this year, but anything is better than the pop warner play he was giving before. Chung is hot garbage with two good shoulders. Kurt Coleman is all heart but no skill. After that; I suit up.
*********** EAGLES NEWS*****************
MY SOURCES SAY:
Eagles slot CB Brandon Boykin (concussion) has been cleared and is practicing Thursday.
It’s fantastic news for the Eagles as Boykin has been arguably their best defender all season long. Of course, he won’t be relied on too heavily this week as Brandon Marshall and Alshon Jeffery typically get most of their reps on the outside.
Source: Reuben Frank on Twitter
Dec 19 – 11:49 AM
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Mhenski….is your source my source? I heard it on WIP.
i dont know if my source is the same. my source is posted, does he also work for WIP?
I don’t have a name, I just heard it on the radio about 12:00 pm.
your source couldnt “handle candle” to mine.
haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
LOL, the radio is my main source while at work. I’m not connected like you I guess.
either that or you dont know jon hart
Lol, I got you.
CHIP KELLY IS GONNA TEACH LEWIS SKOLNICK A LESSON!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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