While We're Talking About Jason Peters...

...check out some of the stuff about the Eagles motivations for this deal and what Andy Reid has to say about his offensive line in the articles about the trade:

"I have always believed that success in the NFL is derived from the strong play of the offensive and defensive lines. This offseason we have added two young, top-flight offensive linemen in Jason and Stacy Andrews."

Agreed, Andy Reid, couldn't have said it better ourselves...oh wait, we already did in the Manifesto.

Also, the articles note that the Eagles acquired two tackles even though they only needed one to replace departed free agent Tra Thomas.  Why did they spend megabucks and draft picks on two tackles then?  Because aging star Jon Runyan will need to be replaced and they wanted to plan ahead.

Correction:  Runyan is a free agent, however, it's less that he is a free agent than he has some injury issues that may affect him going forward that prevents the Eagles from resigning him.  Regardless, they needed a plan to replace him.

Wouldn't it have been nice to have had a plan for life after Rich Braham?  This might also be a good time to point out that without Levi, we still need a right tackle and viable backups for every position on our offensive line.  Yikes.

Aside for anyone who cares - I admire the Eagles for focusing on adding to their offensive line even when it already is a source of strength.  But I've always felt they've been one star receiver away...for like...6 years+ now and have done something about it only once.  With TO.  And they almost won a super bowl that year.  So why didn't they make a strong play for TJ or Chad?  Seems like both of those guys could have been very valuable to them...

Comments

[BILL]

No they needed two. Runyan is a free agent. They did plan, they drafted guichaic, but he blew. I know everyone is impressed with what philly did. Lets see how good Stacey does up there. The guy had a torn ACL and sucked for the Bengals. I have no idea what they were thinking paying him top dollar. I will miss him like I miss chlamydia.

[Mockenrue]

I don't have the numbers or exact information, but I do seem to remember seeing that the Eagles were fighting for Chad too. The Redskins offer was the highest and most notable, but I think Philly had an offer in there as well. Not that it would have mattered.

As for TJ, he and Owens are different kinds of receivers. I think Philly was also sending offers to Arizona for Boldin but the Cardinals didn't hear one they liked. So I think they've been attempting to address this need, but just haven't been successful. I like the Maclin pick though. Now they have a very talented rookie and a second year wideout, the latter of which has already proven he can be productive at the professional level, and Kevin Curtis isn't a slouch. Add that to a powerful offensive line and Donovan McNabb's arm, spelled by Brian Westbrook? Yikes. This team is doing all the right things offensively.

[peter breath]

uh, everyone on this site dumped on stacey andrews for the last few years. the only thing the bengals should have done was trade or move on from him earlier. even if he works out in philly, he wasn´t working out here. and if levi goes, what the hell do you think collins will be doing. he didn´t exactly suck last year, and if you go with the unproven riff, then you can say that for andre, stacey, and anyone else that we would get. the line without levi looks like - smith, whit, lugeis, williams, collins. backups - kooistra (t), livings (g), cook (c), big roland (t)...they´re not really notable, but with the holes that most teams have, you can't go around and pay for top flight backups, unless you foolishly did with stacey andrews, and then were forced to cut a player like willie so he´s not a backup anymore.

bottom line, trade levi if you can get anything for him and move on. trade to bills with our new center and a possible pick for wood. call it a day.

[BILL]

Hey you guys need to do a write up on how the Colts are currently F*cking the city of Indy. You guys make the Colts out to be some model franchise. Also Chick just wrote about how the team donated 200K to some school.
http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090427/SPORTS03/904270347

[Sleeping With Bieniemy]

peter breath - at no point in my post did i make a judgment on whether or not Andrews will be good for the Eagles. I merely point out that they aggressively went out and filled their needs. I certainly wouldn't have franchised him or paid him what Philly did, especially after injury.

i'm not so quick to say collins will take care of our problems at right tackle. perhaps. but he still isn't proven in my mind. either way, a 2009 line consisting of smith, whit, lugeis, williams, collins is a far cry from what we should be looking at if we hadn't made many silly decision the past two or three years.

as i recall our backups are pretty sorry...particularly at center. the point is our line is unproven and appears to have little depth. this is a sad state of affairs compared to just a couple years ago and worries me greatly.

[Sleeping With Bieniemy]

BILL - you have to look at the leases in depth and take the situation into context before you jump to conclusions on the Colts lease.

First, they built that thing right when a massive recession hit. That's not on the Colts but is rather a combination of poor planning on bad luck.

Second, I'm sure they pitched in significantly more private dollars than the bengals (who put up virtually nothing) and didn't get all the little sweetheart things the Bengals did.

You'd need to do a lot more research before blaming the Colts here. Stadium deals recently are significantly more fair than when the Bengals got theirs.

[CurseofBoJackson]

You all think the Ghiaciuc clone from Arkansas is going to start this fall? Not buying, I just hope Santucci or Cook are ready, I'm not at all excited about another undersized center starting for this team, regardless of how smart everyone thinks he is, Ghiaciuc was supposed to be pretty smart too.

[BILL]

Sleeping-
I hear you. The Bengals got the "original sweetheart deal." Why is it called that anyway? But from the little bit that I know almost all new stadiums these days are paid for by the city in which they are located.

[K. Phelps]

The Eagles got Jeremy Maclin who looks like he is going to be a really good receiver, so I don't think they need to worry about getting a star receiver at this point.

[Sleeping With Bieniemy]

BILL - check out the book "Private Stadiums, Public Dollars". It is enlightening. I spoke with the author and he said the Bengals got the best deal of any stadium built with majority public dollars.

There were many reasons for this, but mostly it was Mikey exploiting some key opportunities that fell into his lap (the Reds dragging their feet, Cleveland bolting for Baltimore, a waaaay to close relationship between the Bengals and the negotiator for local gov't).

People became wise to the scam in most cities eventually and new stadiums just don't get done on the public's dime in the same way they used to.

HOWEVER, I did some googling and it sure looks like the Colts stadium is funded entirely by taxes. The Colts are not allowed to move for 30 years though, which is something I've never heard of and certainly something Mikey would never agree to.

It all comes down to who pays for maintenance and facilities upgrades, revenue sharing from non-football events, and other things...those things all fell in the Bengals favor and it is why our lease is so brutal.