Eagles News: Cowboys closing gap on Philadelphia?

Let’s get to Philadelphia Eagles left…

Demarcus Lawrence on gap between Cowboys and Eagles: ‘I don’t feel like it’s a big gap at all’ – NFL.com
Two games in the standings separated the 2022 versions Dallas Cowboys and the NFC East champions, the Philadelphia Eagles. After Philly’s ascension to NFC Championship status, the Eagles are the favorites in the eyes of many to repeat as division champions before embarking on another Super Bowl search. Cowboys three times Pro BowlHowever, Demarcus Lawrence doesn’t believe there are any foregone conclusions in the NFC East. “I don’t feel like it’s a big gap at all,” Lawrence told The Associated Press’ Rob Maadi recently on the AP Pro Football Podcast when asked about the difference between his Cowboys and Eagles.

NFC East 2023: Who could win the division and other early questions – ESPN
How big is the distance between Philadelphia and the rest of the division? Eagles: Not as wide as last season. The Eagles still have the best chance to make a splash. According to ESPN’s Football Power Index, they have a 25.5% chance of reaching the Super Bowl compared to 13% for the Cowboys, 4.2% for the Giants and 2% for the Commanders. But they lost five defensive starters as well as their offensive and defensive coordinators this offseason, and they have one of the toughest schedules in the league (their opponents’ .566 winning percentage is tops in the NFL). Their division rivals could all take a step forward, whereas it wouldn’t be a total shock if the Eagles took half a step back, especially if their luck on the health front takes a turn for the worse.

9 Eagles Land in Top 100 NFL Players in 2023 – BGN
No. 18: Lane Johnson. For years, Johnson was underrated, but that’s no longer the case. The offensive tackle is the highest-rated Eagles player on this list, and the second-highest-rated offensive lineman — behind only Trent Williams. After the last few seasons, there is no question that Johnson is the best right tackle in the league, and is such a critical part of the Eagles’ dominant offensive line. He played through a torn adductor during the team’s Super Bowl run, but underwent OT surgery right after the season and was cleared to return in mid-May.

EPA Podcast #26: All NFC East Draft Squads – BGN Radio
Shane Haff and Victor Williams break down each of the NFC East rosters and rebuild their own rosters using their favorite players in the division. Who has the better overall list?

Eagles Player Review: RB Rashaad Penny Edition – PhillyVoice
We recently published an early training camp look at the Eagles’ locks, closers, bubble players and long shots. Some were surprised that we called Penny a “close lock,” as opposed to a lock. Each of Penny’s injuries listed above are leg injuries. They add up. I think we’ll have to see that Penny still has his explosiveness and that he doesn’t get hurt before we call him anything close to a 100 percent lock to make the team. And yet, if he can be the player he was over his last 10 games, Penny could be an absolute beast in the Eagles’ offense playing (a) behind the best offensive line in the NFL, (b) alongside a quarterback who commands respect as a runner and can overwhelm a defender on RPOs, and (c) in an offense with AJ Brown, DeVonta Smith and Dallas Goedert, all of whom can make defenses pay if they choose to pack the box . There is a wide range of outcomes for Penny in Philadelphia and he will be a fun player to monitor both in camp and throughout the season. My best bet is that the Eagles will try to split playing time equally between Penny, D’Andre Swift and Kenny Gainwell, keeping their respective mileage low throughout the season and fresh for the playoffs, assuming the Eagles make it there.

The Jonathan Gannon tampering case could, in theory, spawn an interesting lawsuit – PFT
It would be a unique and aggressive legal theory, primarily because the industry of widespread legalized gambling is so new. What are the rules, standards, obligations? It would be decided, as the law often is, one case at a time. And since the starting point in this specific case was an admitted violation of the Cardinals’ tampering rules that created an obvious distraction for Gannon, that could be enough for a gambler who bet on the Eagles to win or cover to hire an attorney who would file a nationwide class action against the Cardinals (for violating the tampering rule) and the NFL (for creating an environment of lax enforcement resulting in widespread tampering violations). Regardless of how such a case would play out — and the NFL would surely fight it tooth and nail — it could be the only way to get to the bottom of what happened between the Cardinals, Eagles and Gannon. They have brushed it all under the rug for a reason. That reason could be that if the truth was known, the case would already have been filed.

Why Eagles LB Nakobe Dean is an ‘NFL unicorn’ determined to finish his college degree – The Athletic
He is a trained mechanical engineer who aspires to open a prosthetics company. First comes his NFL career, but he has 26 credit hours left to earn his degree after completing six hours this spring in fluid mechanics and heat transfer. If anyone in the Eagles locker room wants to know how the diameter of pipes changes with fluid, or how heat is transferred between windows and walls, find No. 17. He can tell you. (Among the remaining courses is one on circuit. It’s going to be a lot harder, he warns.) “I wasn’t just an athlete going to school — I was a student-athlete,” Dean told The Athletic last week. “I was a student who had the opportunity to play a sport that I love. I knew my ‘why’ – to go to school and get an education.” Dean would have been an impressive student in his own right — he had a 3.55 GPA before leaving school — but he also happened to be the best linebacker in college football as a junior in 2021. He left Georgia early and was selected by Eagles in the third round of 2022 NFL Draft. Dean was mostly a special teams contributor as a rookie. But he’s projected to be the Eagles’ top linebacker in 2023, and the team (and Dean) plan accordingly.

3 Dallas Cowboys on ‘hot seat’ list heading into training camp – Blogging The Boys
There is really no other way to describe Kelvin Joseph’s situation than to say that ‘time is running out’. The second-round pick has had a bumpy ride with the organization that has included turmoil on and off the field and must show significant improvement in camp to keep the star on the helmet. Since Joseph’s arrival in Dallas, we’ve seen other young players step up and make the most of their opportunities with far less baggage. That fact, combined with some on-field work that has been underwhelming, has led the team to explore Joseph’s options at another position in the secondary. All reports from minicamp indicate he has been seen taking reps at both nickel cornerback and safety at times. Joseph has focused exclusively at outside cornerback to this point in his career, and with an influx of veteran talent and young promising prospects, it appears the Cowboys are grasping at straws to see how they might be able to keep him around. Training camp 2023 really looks like it could be an all or nothing situation for Kelvin Joseph, and no one on the roster has a hotter seat than his at this point.

How much worse was the Giants’ Evan Neal than other top-10 tackles? – Great blue view
The average improvement from a player’s rookie season over his next five years was 10.1% over his original grade. If Neal improves by that amount, his average grade over the next five years will be just 48.6, which almost certainly means he probably won’t be a starter in the league. Therefore, he needs to match or surpass the biggest jumps on this list, Jake Matthews (+31.2%) and Trent Williams (+30.9%). Even that superlative level of improvement would give him a grade between 57.7 and 57.9, which would still rank in the bottom 10 among tackles in 2022. That said, seeing Williams on this list gives hope. That doesn’t mean Neal will be Williams or anywhere close to him, but the best tackle in the NFL today was nowhere near that level as a rookie. Thomas isn’t the only elite tackle who took a significant Year 2 jump after underwhelming as a rookie. The odds are stacked against Neal at this point. The fact that the Giants are so heavily reliant on a big second-year improvement from him is troubling. Let’s not give up on 2022’s seventh overall pick just yet, though.

The 5 O’Clock Club: Rating 3 Free Agents That Would Immediately Improve Commanders Roster – Hogs Haven
34 year old Melvin Ingram is a 6’2″, 247 pound DE/OLB – essentially an edge rusher – who was a rotational edge rusher in Miami last year. He has played for 4 teams (Chargers, Steelers, Chiefs, Dolophins) in the past 3 seasons. Riggo’s Rag seems to suggest he could play as both a pass rusher and 4-3 outside linebacker for the Commanders. Ingram was a 3-time Pro Bowler from 2017-2019, but he hasn’t been a regular starter for a team since the 2020 season. Ingram played well in 2022; he had 10 QB hits, including 6 sacks, and he had 10 tackles for loss, a forced fumble and a pass defensed.

Elon Musk Wants to Cage Fight Mark Zuckerberg and Andrew Tate Want to Help – SB Nation
Just when you thought celebrity fights couldn’t get any dumber, we’re approaching the dumbest fight in human history: Elon Musk vs. Mark Zuckerberg in a cage. Over the weekend, Musk was engaged in his favorite hobby, randomly tweeting when he shot down the idea of fighting Zuckerberg in a cage.

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