Cowboys

• Doug Free agreed to cut his pay in half. Because some of my readers (such as the great Derf Diggy and this guy on Twitter) love it when I reference back to past articles, here was my argument for Doug Free not to take a significant pay cut… one last time. Good job by the Cowboys here. They played a game of chicken with Free and his agent, and despite having a boatload of logical reasons why he shouldn’t take a huge cut, Free did indeed agree to significantly less money. The only leverage the Cowboys had was the threat of kicking Free to the street, which was a far less appealing option to them than a more modest pay cut. But the Cowboys played the leverage they had very well, and scared Free into a bad deal. Kudos. Step 1 for the Cowboys: Complete. Onto Step 2: Hoping Doug Free isn’t terrible again this year.

• The Cowboys added Anthony Hargrove. I saw Hargrove up close at Eagles training camp in 2011. I remember him looking really quick, and thought he’d be a nice fit in the Eagles’ “wide nine.” I can see him playing the under tackle position in Dallas and possibly DE in run-heavy packages. For whatever reason, he was cut. The Cowboys will be Hargrove’s 7th team. He was a nice role player during the Saints’ title run, but has bounced around because of “dependability” and drug issues.

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I am currently working on a ridiculously time-consuming project (to be published soon), so apologies for the slower content the last couple days. If anything very noteworthy happens today, I’ll be on it, but otherwise, my efforts will mostly be elsewhere.

For today, I just wanted to remind my Eagles readers that the best of the best in Eagles bloggers (and me) will be publishing our annual Eagles Almanac for the second year. I’m really proud of the way it turned out last year, and think it will be a lot better this time around. Last year, the Eagles Almanac 2012 was the first self-published all-Eagles preview emagazine ever. This year’s version will have over 100 pages of content and will be available as both an ebook and a paperback delivered directly to you. You can go here to pre-order.

A quick list of the contributing writers and bloggers:

For an idea of the article topics and to pre-order your copy, click here. Totally worth the minimum donation, I promise.

And thanks again to those of you who have already helped out.

The Eagles signed Felix Jones. As I noted when the Eagles were sniffing around him initially, he’s a 3rd RB only. LeSean McCoy and Bryce Brown are clearly the #1 and #2. Here are Felix’s strengths and weaknesses.

Tommy watched some tape of Brandon Graham and Vinny Curry. Good read. Tommy’s not as high on Graham as sites like PFF, who don’t note the context with which he’s defeating offensive linemen:

While Graham was productive as a pass rusher last year, no one did anything special for him. He was almost always single-blocked. There were plenty of plays where TEs were assigned to block him. Compare this to the treatment that Trent Cole and Jason Babin got. Offenses gameplanned for them, in terms of playcalling and blocking.

Graham’s 2 best games were against Cincinnati and the second Dallas meeting. He went against a struggling Doug Free and Andre Smith. While Smith is a dominant run blocker, he is a mediocre pass blocker, which is part of why he sat on the free agent market so long this year. In those 2 games, Graham had 12 tackles, 4 sacks, and a FF. Take those games away and we’re talking about a different season.

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• Eagles UDFA Brad Wing said his favorite player growing up watching Australian Rules Football was Sav Rocca:

“When I was growing up and he was playing Australian Rules Football for the Kangaroos, he was my favorite player,” Wing said. “I wore his jersey around, and so, once he left the AFL, I was sort of upset. I followed him closely once he was in the NFL. That’s what sort of drew me to the NFL a whole lot.”

Rocca is merely 4th on my list of heroes.

• My buddy Keith McMillan of the Washington Post took a look at the Redskins’ rookie RBs, Chris Thompson and Jawan Jamison. On a side note, I once played flag football against Keith. He QB’d one team, I QB’d the other. Ask him on Twitter who won.

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Weights and projected starters aggregated from Ourlads’ depth charts:

And here they are broken up by 4-3 teams and 3-4 teams:

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Cantor Gaming released odds for every game during the 2013 season, with the exception of Week 17. Last year the Eagles were favored in 13 of 15 games. They didn’t cover a single stinking game. Not one. Not even the ones they won.

If we’re to trust Cantor’s predictive powers seriously this year, then the Redskins will be your 2013 NFC East champions, and the Cowboys will finish in the basement:

A look at each team’s odds individually:

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• For the second straight year, the Eagles Almanac has received a ton of support. We’ve raised almost $5,500 in just a couple of weeks. Thank you to everyone who contributed. I can safely say that those of you who contributed are going to get our A+++ game.

• I’m not sure if I’ve pointed this site out yet, but if you’re an Eagles fan, a must read is EaglesRewind.com. Great stuff, and Brent writes pretty much every day.

• Chris Gocong is trying out with the Eagles this weekend. I was never a big fan. I can only think of one big play he ever made in Philly… a FF on Brandon Jacobs. Can anyone think of any others? It is notable, as Jason from BGN points out, that Eagles DC Billy Davis was Gocong’s LB coach in Cleveland.

• Some NFL scouts are saying that Eagles 1st round pick Lane Johnson is “not ready for prime time.”

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And not only that, he missed on each pick by an average of 19.1 draft spots. I like mock drafts, and I like Kiper. I just like them both a lot more after free agency and the Combine have taken place, and after legitimate journalists have gotten a sniff of what teams have interest in specific positions/players.

Kiper’s full mock from back in February:

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