The Linc – Trouble brewing down in Dallas?

Philadelphia Eagles news and links for 7/19/23.

Let’s get to the Philadelphia Eagles links …

Breaking news: Cowboys Zack Martin is considering not reporting to camp over contract – Blogging The Boys
On the same day when Dallas Cowboys All-Pro offensive guard Zack Martin is celebrated for his 99 overall Madden rating, it turns out he’s a little disappointed with his current contract situation. Adam Schefter of ESPN tweeted on Wednesday that the Cowboys guard is considering not reporting to camp over being “woefully underpaid relative to the market.” It’s hard to argue with Martin’s feelings considering he just made his eighth Pro Bowl and earned his sixth first-team All-Pro nomination in 2022. Outside of 2020, Martin has been first- or second-team All-Pro every year of his career. Per Schefter’s tweet, Martin is slated to make $7 million less than the top of the market.

All-NFC East Offense Team – BGN
Jalen Hurts, Philadelphia Eagles: The NFC East has the two best quarterbacks in the conference and after 2022, the honor for top NFC signal caller belongs to Jalen Hurts. In his third season, Hurts won 14 out of 15 regular season games that he started and tied the franchise record for total touchdowns with 35. Only 24 years old, Hurts trajectory is still pointing upwards for the 2023 season.

NFC East Mixtape Vol.120: NFC East All-Stars (Defense) – BGN Radio
Brandon Lee Gowton and RJ Ochoa create their 2023 All NFC East team (Defense edition).

Not So Fast – Iggles Blitz
How could Hurts numbers be so similar to Taylor, a QB who was solid at his very best. As with all stats, you need to go inside the numbers. The person who put this together mixed in Hurts rookie year, when he started just 4 games. There’s also the fact that was his rookie season. Taylor’s 3-year period was years 5-7, the peak of his career. If you just focus on their best two seasons, Hurts blows Taylor out of the water. Give Ernie or whoever put this together some credit for finding a way to spin numbers creatively, but the truth isn’t as much fun for them. The exciting part about Hurts is that he’s just beginning his journey. He’s started 34 games in the NFL. With his drive, a creative offense and plenty of talent around him, the future is very bright. It will be interesting to see just how good Hurts is when he starts to peak in a few years.

11 Eagles veterans on roster bubble as 2023 training camp nears – NBCSP
DE Derek Barnett: It’s a little tough to remember that Barnett is still even on the team. The Eagles’ first-round pick from 2017 signed a two-year contract last year as a free agent but then tore his ACL in the season opener in 2022 and missed the rest of the season. This year, Barnett enters training camp at a position that is pretty full. The top four edge rushers are Haason Reddick, Josh Sweat, Brandon Graham and rookie first-round pick Nolan Smith. So that means that even if Barnett makes the roster, he’ll be the fifth player in the rotation. If Barnett does stick around, that likely wouldn’t be good news for third-year SAM linebacker Patrick Johnson.

Reasons to feel good about the roster with Training Camp on the horizon – PE.com
On Tyler Steen: “Tyler played both left and right tackle in the SEC. Fundamentally, he is a large man who is flexible with good feet, plays the game hard. You can see him as someone who develops into a starter-like player on the offensive line. We’ve seen him face really good edge rushers. We’ve seen him play guard in the Senior Bowl. He’s a versatile athlete who can play multiple places along the offensive line.”

Saquon Barkley, Bijan Robinson, and the NFL’s bottomed-out RB market show Howie Roseman’s brilliance – Inquirer
Here’s another fun game: Try to name every running back who has rushed for at least 500 yards in an Eagles uniform since 2016. There are 11 of them, which is more than any other team in the NFL. Go ahead and think. In the meantime, I’ll tell you why I wasted my time looking all of this up. Howie Roseman knows market value. It’s why the Eagles have won two NFC championships since he returned to the general manager’s chair in 2016. It’s also why the whole Bijan Robinson campaign was built on a bed of lies. The Eagles were never going to draft a running back in the first half of the first round. For years, the market has made it clear that it makes no sense to spend significant draft or salary-cap capital on the position. The Eagles are where they are because they were wise enough to recognize it.

Saquon Barkley says sitting out season ‘a play I could use’ – Big Blue View
In a podcast interview recorded six days before the July 17 franchise tag deadline, New York Giants running back Saquon Barkley sounded like he knew he might have to play on the franchise tag this season — and was prepared to do just that. Barkley told host Jake Mallers on the ‘Money Matters’ podcast, which was released on Monday, July 17 — the day of the tag deadline — that he would “do what I gotta do this year, which I plan on doing.” Barkley knows he holds the ‘I won’t play’ card and said he would “sit down and talk to my family, talk to my team [of advisers] and strategize.” “My leverage is I could say, ‘F–k you’ to the Giants, I could say, ‘F–k you to my teammates,’” Barkley said. “And be like, ‘You want me to show you my worth? You want me to show you how valuable I am to the team? I won’t show up. I won’t play a down.’ And that’s a play I could use.’

Film Session: What Does Rookie RB Chris Rodriguez Jr. Bring to the Commanders Table? – Hogs Haven
Rodriguez has an interesting blend of talent as a 5-11, 224-pound running back who seeks out contact and punishes defenders, yet can make a cutback and run untouched for 60 yards. He’s no track star, but he’s sneaky fast on the football field when he keeps it north-south. He also runs angry at times, which makes for an interesting blend. I’m sure folks in the SEC were glad to see him go after 40 games as a Wildcat and 6.2 yards a carry for his career.

Running Back Performance Over Time – Over The Cap
Overall there are limited options. Relative to other positions they are high performers as rookies and that continues for a few more years. It is that early performance that is probably a reason behind teams continuing to draft running backs in the 1st round since it is much less risky than other positions and can make an immediate impact. But the peak years are all in those rookie seasons. The usage and effectiveness is not there as time goes on and you run the risk of having to force the ball to an underperforming player simply because of the contract and that never leads to a good result.

What does the future of NFL RB contracts look like? – SB Nation
It’s probably a crude answer, but the reason why is simple: capitalism. In a cap-controlled league run by individual private businesses, everyone wants to win while staying clear of the constraints that come with paying good labor. Unfortunately, that comes at the cost of RBs, who see the most contact of any non-lineman position in the sport. Their peaks usually last during the years of their career when they’re controlled by one team on a rookie deal. When they hit the open market, it’s usually after having more tread on their bodies from the team that they played for. There are a few potential solutions to this problem at the negotiating table for running backs, but all of them are centered around the system of the NFL and changing that for good. The problem there is this: the new CBA runs through 2030, according to CBS Sports, and a new CBA might not have these solutions in them specifically for one position only.

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