College Players The Eagles Are Interested In

[rjs246]

more importantly, what's up with Darwin Walker?

Well done. Well done indeed.

[Rome]

I see Phreak had the Starbucks jitters again this morning...

[DH]

I'd much rather sign Witherspoon instead of drafting Greenway, or any other LB in the first. Unfortunately, I think he played himself out of our budget in the past few weeks.

[ice grillin you]

I'd much rather sign Witherspoon instead of drafting Greenway

i love you

[DH]

I'd much rather sign Witherspoon instead of drafting Greenway

i love you

but i don't even have an ass like megan

[rjs246]

Oh dudes, don't me wrong. I would rather have Witherspoon by a farging country mile. There are a few positions where I would always prefer a proven player over an unproven one and linebacker is one of them, but in the absense of getting a real live playmaker in free agency, something needs to be done in the draft and if Greenway is there he should be a consideration.

[Mad-Lad]

Oh dudes, don't me wrong. I would rather have Witherspoon by a farging country mile. There are a few positions where I would always prefer a proven player over an unproven one and linebacker is one of them, but in the absense of getting a real live playmaker in free agency, something needs to be done in the draft and if Greenway is there he should be a consideration.

yeah, what he said.

[PhillyPhreak54]

I see Phreak had the Starbucks jitters again this morning...

I don't drink coffee. But I was drinking a beer and I can't wait for the FA/draft periods to start. I'm a football junkie...I need my fix.

I would also prefer to sign Witherspoon versus drafting Greenway.

[Rome]

I see Phreak had the Starbucks jitters again this morning...

I don't drink coffee. But I was drinking a beer and I can't wait for the FA/draft periods to start. I'm a football junkie...I need my fix.

I would also prefer to sign Witherspoon versus drafting Greenway.

Ditto on Witherspoon and the AFL starts this weekend which is sorta football, so at least you've got that going for you.

[PhillyPhreak54]

From Dillen37:

Maurice Stovall was popular and met with Philadelphia and Denver

[bobbyinlondon]

Hard to get past this guy

By LES BOWEN
bowenl@phillynews.com

MOBILE, Ala. - Marcus McNeill has an excellent memory of the last sack he allowed, midway through the 2002 season.

"We were playing Mississippi State," McNeill, Auburn's 6-7 ¾, 344-pound tackle, was saying after yesterday's Senior Bowl practice. "They moved me to guard for a few series because we had somebody hurt. It was probably the easiest protection we have, and I gave up a sack. I was pretty upset with myself."

McNeill decided he didn't want that to happen again. Watching him dance through drills this week with power and grace, it's easy to see why he was able to avoid such problems - though he is appropriately modest about it.

"Can't nobody say they didn't ever get beat," McNeill said. "I was just lucky enough that they didn't get to the quarterback before he threw the ball."

Scouts say McNeill, a big part of the success enjoyed by running backs Ronnie Brown and Cadillac Williams in 2004, could play either tackle spot in the NFL. Some mock drafts project him going right around where the Eagles are drafting in the first round, which is 14th. McNeill said he was scheduled to meet with the Birds last night.

McNeill said he doesn't care which side he plays, but he has heard that left tackles - who protect the quarterback's blind side - generally make more money. McNeill said he is in favor of "whatever puts more money in my pocket for my family."

McNeill, a giant even among elite linemen this week (Auburn listed him at 6-9; he notes that his official measurement in Mobile came "without shoes on," that he is 6-9 in cleats) had some back and neck issues early in his college career. He said one reason he chose to return to Auburn in 2005 for his senior season was to put more distance between himself and those issues, to show the NFL he was completely healthy.

"I haven't missed any games or practices since my sophomore year," McNeill said. "To come back and have two healthy seasons, I think that helps my credibility. A lot of tall linemen have back problems; I really try to keep my core straight, strengthen my core as much as I can."

In fact, one of the reasons the Eagles might be in the market for a first-round offensive tackle is that 6-7 left tackle Tra Thomas is coming off back surgery.

Like many players in Mobile this week, McNeill finds it odd to have his every move in drills scrutinized by dozens of NFL observers. But he has grasped something Eagles coach Andy Reid mentioned yesterday, when Reid was asked why he wanted to watch the drills. "You get to see how the players respond to coaching," Reid said.

McNeill is on the South team, getting a crash course in San Francisco coach Mike Nolan's offense.

"Everybody comes from different systems," McNeill said. "That's part of the mental aspect of it, seeing if we can adapt to whatever system we're put in."

The Eagles would be a fine destination, McNeill said, but he doesn't plan to obsess over where he might be chosen in 3 months.

"Actually, on draft day, I'll probably be out fishing," he said. "I'm not going to take my cell phone or anything like that. I'm going to sit on a boat, fishing with my granddaddy, probably my father, come back and see where they took me, then get ready to go out and play football."

If they cannot land one of the top 2 DE's then this is th eguy who I am most interested in. I love Bunkley but I think 14 might be a tad high for him. And if they want DT help they can get it with their 2nd rounder.

Let's say the top 2 DEs are gone and McNeil is gone. Would you be in favor of the Eagles trading DOWN to pick up an extra pick and perhaps get Bunkley?

[Rome]

"Can't nobody say they didn't ever get beat,"

Wonderlic = -2?

[PhillyPhreak54]

If Chad's still hanging at 14, could be a Bird

By LES BOWEN
bowenl@phillynews.com

MOBILE, Ala. - There are lots of things the Eagles could use this offseason, things teams in the playoffs seemed to have that the 6-10 Birds lack.

Right up there on that list is a big, fast, dominating outside linebacker.

Like Iowa's Chad Greenway, for instance.

Greenway, measured and weighed at the Senior Bowl at 6-2 ½, 243, is projected as the Eagles' pick at 14th overall in the first round in several mock NFL drafts. Mock drafts, particularly 3 months before the real draft, are a shot in the dark, but Greenway indicated the Eagles are among the teams that have shown the most interest in him.

Of course, the Eagles haven't taken a linebacker in the first round since Jerry Robinson in 1979. They have often drafted linebackers in the second round, with a stunning lack of success. In the last decade, the Eagles have taken linebackers James Darling (1997), Barry Gardner (1999), Quinton Caver (2001) and Matt McCoy (2005), all in the second round. It's unfair to call McCoy a bust already, especially since he came out of college a year early, but his rookie year was not encouraging. It's not too early to call the others busts. In fact, Caver, cut early in the 2002 season because he couldn't figure out kick coverage, let alone the defense, might be enshrined in the Draft Bust Hall of Fame. With a bust in his likeness, of course.

Maybe the Eagles need to change their linebacking draft karma by breaking out of the second-round rut. One hazard is that defensive coordinator Jim Johnson's scheme is quite complex, especially for an outside linebacker. That seemed to be a big part of McCoy's problem this past season.

Greenway seems like an especially quick study. The coaches at Iowa certainly thought so; they recruited him even though he'd never played 11-man football, while growing up raising hogs in tiny Mount Vernon, S.D. (Greenway was a quarterback and safety on a nine-man team.) Then he not only learned to play the 11-man game, he moved to linebacker, and quickly became a star.

"It really wasn't that big an adjustment," Greenway said this week. "Eight-man [played in some small, isolated areas] would be more of an adjustment, because the formation isn't square."

In the NFL, he said, "I'm up for pretty much any adjustment I have to make, whether that be living the city life, or a different defense."

A nine-man offense lines up like an 11-man offense, Greenway said, except the two tackles are missing.

"We played with two tight ends and one flanker," he said. "You had to have five on the line of scrimmage."

Abdul Hodge, Iowa's standout inside 'backer, also Greenway's teammate this week for the North at the Senior Bowl, said he couldn't believe it when they began talking about their high school careers, shortly after arriving at Iowa as freshmen.

"To me, it seemed like a flag-football type of thing," said Hodge, who grew up in Fort Lauderdale, Fla., far from such quaint notions.

In the pros, Greenway sees himself playing the weakside, though he thinks he could play the strongside in a pinch.

"I like playing WIL, being an athlete, being able to walk out into space and go against receivers, jam receivers, just being a bigger guy who can play in space and compete against the faster, quicker receivers," he said.

Anyone who saw teams throw underneath on the Eagles over and over again last season had to like that answer.

Hodge said the team that drafts Greenway will be getting an athlete and a leader.

"He's a good person," Hodge said. "On the field and off the field, he does things right. He's down-to-earth. He doesn't get ahead of himself; he just keeps working."

Greenway feels he has a pretty good feel for the Eagles already. Sean Considine, the former Iowa safety the Eagles drafted in the fourth round last spring, is a good friend. They talked often through Considine's difficult, injury-marred rookie season, which culminated in shoulder surgery. Greenway predicts Considine will have a strong impact next season, especially on special teams. And he said he wouldn't mind lining up with him.

McDougle healing?

One of the questions the Eagles need to answer as they head into the draft and free agency is whether they are likely to get any help from 2003 first-round pick Jerome McDougle. McDougle missed the 2005 season after being shot in an apparent robbery attempt in the Miami area the night before he was scheduled to travel to training camp. McDougle rehabbed through the first half of the season, but the day before he was to rejoin practice, he had to undergo emergency surgery for a hernia caused by scar tissue from the wound.

This week at Senior Bowl practice, both agent Drew Rosenhaus and Eagles coach Andy Reid were optimistic about McDougle's progress, though Reid agreed that it would be difficult now for the Birds to project McDougle as a starter at defensive end, as they did last spring.

Rosenhaus said McDougle has regained the weight he lost as he was recovering.

"Jerome's about 260 and feeling great," Rosenhaus said. "He has the green light" to participate in the first minicamp of the offseason, in April, Rosenhaus said

[PhillyPhreak54]

Let's say the top 2 DEs are gone and McNeil is gone. Would you be in favor of the Eagles trading DOWN to pick up an extra pick and perhaps get Bunkley?

I would love that, Bobby. I am quickly becoming a Bunkley fan. The thought of him and Patterson as the future at DT is nice.

But my first priority is to secure a top flight DE. If that cannot be done then I go for McNeill.

[PhillyPhreak54]

Tony Pauline on Eagles Live (from the EMB):

Tony Pauline from TFY Draft was on "Eagles Live" today & said the Eagles have shown alot of interest in both WR Maurice Stovall & PSU DE Tamba HaLi. Even said that Big Red was all over Stovall.