All-Time NBA Fantasy Draft

With all the LeBron vs MJ vs Kobe debate that has been completely overhyped since Michael turned 50, we decided to keep the pointless debate going...with an even more pointless NBA All-Time Fantasy Draft. We went with six teams, six players each, snake draft to determine who is actually the most talented players in the history of the NBA. We'll keep the teams annoymous to save both some bias opinions and probably some hating. Here goes nothin...

Round 1
Team 1: LeBron James
Team 2: Michael Jordan
Team 3: Magic Johnson
Team 4: Kobe Bryant
Team 5: Bill Russell
Team 6: Shaquille O'Neil

Round 2
Team 6: Tim Duncan
Team 5: Larry Bird
Team 4: Wilt Chamberlain
Team 3: Julius Erving
Team 2: Kevin Durant
Team 1: Oscar Robertson

Round 3
Team 1: Kareem Abdul Jabbar
Team 2: Hakeem Olajuwon
Team 3: Karl Malone
Team 4: Elgin Baylor
Team 5: Jerry West
Team 6: Steve Nash

Round 4
Team 6: Allen Iverson
Team 5: Kevin Garnett
Team 4: Isiah Thomas
Team 3: David Robinson
Team 2: Moses Malone
Team 1: Dirk Nowitzki

Round 5
Team 1: George Gervin
Team 2: Clyde Drexler
Team 3: Dwayne Wade
Team 4: Charles Barkley
Team 5: Reggie Miller
Team 6: Scottie Pippen

Round 6
Team 6: Ray Allen
Team 5: Jason Kidd
Team 4: Carmelo Anthony
Team 3: Dominique Wilkins
Team 2: Robert Parrish
Team 1: Pete Marovich

Here's the breakdown
Team 1: Big O, Iceman, LeBron, Dirk, Kareem, Pistol
Team 2: Jordan, Clyde, Durant, Moses, Hakeem, Parrish
Team 3: Magic, Wade, Doc, Mailman, Admiral, Nique
Team 4: Isiah, Kobe, Elgin, Barkley, Wilt, Melo
Team 5: West, Miller, Bird, Garnett, Russell, Kidd
Team 6: Nash, AI, Pippen, Duncan, Shaq, Jesus

Potential Cuts and Cap Saving Moves

EaglesCap.com estimates the Eagles to have a little over $25 million in cap space going into the 2013 season. With teams beginning to make salary cap cuts, we expect the Eagles to join in and add a little bit more. For those that don't know, the NFL does not guarantee their contracts. In fact, most good front offices will set themselves up be able to cut a number of players during a rebuilding year. The New York Jets made a number of roster moves today that could save them close to $30 million. Believe it or not, Howie Roseman and the Eagles front office planned this rebuilding year, just in case their big moves didn't work out (which obviously they didn't). The Eagles put themselves in a position to be able to cut certain aging players if they were no longer contenders (which obviously they aren't). Here's a look at some of the players the Eagles can and cannot cut.

Players They Could Cut
Mike Patterson is owed a little over $4 million, but they can cut him with no cost. Patterson is a good veteran player, and an even better teammate. He could certainly fit in the Eagles new defense playing the 1 technique (between the guard and center), but he'll be turning 30 in September and is due at least $4 million for the next 4 years.
Cullen Jenkins will be making $5.5 million next year, and can only cost the Eagles $1.5 million to cut him. He'll be making half of what he currently makes if kept for next year, and won't cost them any money to cut after 2013. Like Patterson, I could see Jenkins playing in new Defensive Coordinator Bill Davis' 4-3 under defense, primarily as a 5 technique Defensive End, which he played somewhat in Green Bay.
DeMeco Ryans is due over $6.5 million if he's kept for 2013, unfortunately for him he has no dead money due. DeMeco has another two years due over $6 million, and just like this year, has no dead money in the future. It makes perfect sense to cut DeMeco financially and also systematically. He wasn't particularly good in Houston's 3-4 defense, but it could be different in this 4-3 under defense where he would be playing Davis' "Thumper".
Everyone's favorite player Nnamdi Asomugha is due a whopping $15 million, which is his highest yearly salary in his 5 year $60 million contract he signed in 2011. Cutting him this year would cost them a $4 million I imagine they would happily pay to get him out of town. After this year he doesn't have any dead money due, let's hope the Eagles Front Office forgets that and just cuts him now.
Players They Could Keep
Nate Allen is only due a little over $1 million, and they can cut that in half by cutting him now. He has played terrible in his years here and I expect the safety position to be addressed this offseason. Unfortunately, he may just be kept around for a body and let walk after 2013.
Danny Watkins has also played terrible in his 2 years here, but I think Chip Kellys' zone blocking scheme could be a better fit for him. Danny is owed over $2 million, but it is basically all dead money so it wouldn't make sense to cut him. In 2014 he would be making close to $2.5 million, and his dead money cost would be around $1 million, so it's possible Watkins has one more year to work out.
Trent Cole either showed some age or simply just looked just as bad as everyone else. With that being said, he'll likely be an Eagle in 2013...and probably after that. If cut, Cole would be owed more than he would make playing here. He still has 5 years and and around $50 million owed in the contract extension he signed. Each year, the dead money goes down, which ultimately could increase his likelihood of being cut if he's not fitting into the "Predator" position in Davis' system.
Jason Peters is on this list because it would make perfect sense cutting him financially...if he's not the Jason Peters we all know. When healthy, he's a top Left Tackle in football, if not he's a 31 year old tackle owed $20 million over the next 2 years. We better hope he's healthy, he'll likely be cut if not, due to the fact he has zero dead money.

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Examining the Mike Vick Situation and Other Eagles Tid-bits.

As everyone surely knows by now, Mike Vick has restructured his deal with the Eagles and will return to Philadelphia in 2013.  The deal is basically a 1 year 7 million dollar contract with an additional 3 million in incentives that include playing 90% of offensive snaps and winning the Super Bowl.

Why bring back Mike Vick?  One of the main reasons is because of the current landscape of available QBs via trade, free agency, and/or the draft.  There are not a lot of prime options available out there.   Alex Smith could be had in a trade, but is he worth the money and pick(s) that would be required to get him.  While he does offer certain traits Chip Kelly is looking for, he is not a franchise QB.  There are no sure fire QBs in the draft to take with the 4^th overall pick.  Mike Vick was the best option out there.  

If you look at Chip Kelly’s entire coaching career, he has always preferred to have a QB with some mobility.  Contrary to popular belief, he does not run his QB early and often but he does like the added dimension of a mobile QB and does have designed QB runs in his offense.  It allows him to have an expanded playbook and give the offense an added dimension that defenses must account for.    Mike Vick offers him this flexibility. 

What about Nick Foles?  In Chip Kelly’s press conference on Monday he stated that there would be an open competition between Vick and Foles.  However, when pressed on the issue, he failed to commit to both definitely being on the roster come training camp.  I believe the Eagles will look to trade Nick Foles as he does not fit the mold of QB that Chip has preferred in his career. 

Chip’s offense should take pressure off of Mike Vick and allow him to be a serviceable stop-gap until Chip Kelly finds his guy for the future.  Andy Reid’s offense was based primarily on the passing game.  They were a vertical offense and wanted to grab chunks of yards at a time.  The offense relied on 5 and 7 step drops and time-consuming pass patterns.  It put pressure on Vick to drop back and make multiple progressions, often times into defenses that were expecting the pass.  This led to many mistakes.  In a Chip Kelly offense, the prime emphasis is on the run game.  This alone will take pressure off Vick.  In the new offense there will be many passing plays off of play-action where Vick will have only one or two progressions.  I think an offense like this could be more suited to Mike Vick than the one run by the previous regime.  

The other important aspect of keeping the mobile Vick is that it allows Kelly to implement the full offense that he envisions.  This will allow all other offense players to get a grasp of the offense from the get go.  If he were to go with Foles, he would surely have to run a different offense than he one he will install once he inevitably finds his mobile QB.  By keeping Vick for this season it would allow a potentially seamless transition to their next QB for the offense. 

The two biggest concerns with Vick are his durability and turnovers.  He will definitely be susceptible to big hits in this offense when running.  However, many of Vick’s injuries the past few years have been from inside the pocket.  I think the lessoning of the long developing plays and the emphasis on the run game, coupled with an improved offensive line, could help prevent some of the injuries by reducing the sheer amount of hits Vick takes.  I will not debate that Mike Vick holds onto the ball too long but I think the offense Andy ran helped enable that.  I also believe an offense based on the running game and a more streamlined pass game could reduce the amount of turnovers.  The fumbles are an issue and play calling will not fix that but running the ball more and not having Vick drop back 40-50 times a game should reduce interceptions. 

No one is expecting Mike Vick to suddenly recapture the magic he had in 2010.  However, he should become a serviceable QB for the next season for Chip Kelly.   Under Andy, Vick was the centerpiece of an offense that put an immense amount of pressure on a QB and Mike was simply not able to consistently function at a high level.  I think Chip will be able to take some of the pressure off Mike and allow himself to implement his offense from the get-go.  All the while, using a QB in Vick that has a similar physical skill set to the guy Chip will start looking for to run his offense for hopefully the next decade.  

After the restructuring of Mike Vick, the Eagles have about 25 million in cap room.  This does not include any other potential cuts such as Nnamdi Asomugha.  Cap flexibility will not be an issue for the Eagles.  www.eaglescap.com is an excellent website for Eagles cap information.

There is much talk about the type of defense the Eagles will run.  New defensive coordinator Bill Davis has experience with both the 3-4 and 4-3 schemes.  In his last stop as coordinator with the Arizona Cardinals, he ran a “4-3 under”.  This is a hybrid defense that looks similar to a 3-4.  In this particular scheme, the strong side linebacker plays the TE and is similar to the 3-4 outside linebacker.  Under Davis, this position rushed the passer about 70% and dropped into coverage the other 30%.  On the weak side, the player is more of a traditional defensive end.  Davis calls this guy the “Predator” and he is tasked with getting to the quarterback most plays.  What’s good about this particular defense is it allows current Eagles players Trent Cole, Brandon Graham, and Vinny Curry to play that role in base defenses instead of playing a true 3-4 outside linebacker.  This better suits their skillset. 

The Eagles do not have an ideal strong side linebacker for this scheme on the roster.  He will be an integral part in making this defense work. This player needs to have good height and length, pass rushing ability, and athleticism to drop into coverage.  This leads me to the draft.  There are two players the Eagles could target with the 4^th pick that would be excellent strong side backers in this defense.  LSU’s Barkevious Mingo and Oregon’s Dion Jordan.  They are not widely considered top 5 picks at the moment, but I think after the combine and as we get closer to the draft they will climb on peoples boards.  Both have excellent height and length and freakish athletic ability but are fairly raw.  Jordan played a very similar defensive role with Oregon last year.  Mingo does not have the pass coverage experience that Jordan has but has the athleticism to do it.  

Pre-Combine Mock Draft 1.0 (17-32)

Our 1-16 can be found here

17. Pittsburgh Steelers (8-8)

Jarvis Jones, OLB Pittsburgh

18. Dallas Cowboys (8-8)

Sheldon Richardson, DT Missouri

19. New York Giants (9-7)

Alec Ogletree, LB Georgia

20. Chicago Bears (10-6)

Tyler Eifert, TE Notre Dame
21. Cincinnati Bengals (10-6)

Eric Reid, S LSU
22. St. Louis Rams (from Redskins 10-6)

Lane Johnson, OT Oklahoma
23. Minnesota Vikings (10-6)

DeAndre Hopkins, WR Clemson
24. Indianapolis Colts (11-5)

Jessie Williams, DT Alabama
25. Seattle Seahawks (11-5)

Ezekiel Ansah, DE BYU
26. Green Bay Packers (11-5)

Jonathan Cooper, G North Carolina
27. Houston Texans (12-4)

Dion Jordan, DE/OLB Oregon
28. Denver Broncos (13-3)

Xavier Rhodes, CB Florida St
29. New England Patriots (12-4)

Tavon Austin, WR West Virginia
30. Atlanta Falcons (13-3)

Zach Ertz, TE Stanford
31. San Francisco 49ers (11-4-1)

Desmond Trufant, CB washington
32. Baltimore Ravens (10-6)

Margus Hunt, DE SMU

Pre-Combine Mock Draft 1.0 (1-16)

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With the NFL Combine coming up (Feb 20-26) we decided to give our first mock draft of the year. Still more than two and a half months away from one of the most important days on the NFL calender, here is what we think team should be looking at. 

1. Kansas City Chiefs (2-14) 
Geno Smith, QB, West Virginia
2. Jacksonville Jaguars (2-14)
Bjoern Werner, DE Florida State
3. Oakland Raiders (4-12)
Dee Milliner, CB Alabama
4. Philadelphia Eagles (4-12)
Barkevious Mingo, DE/OLB LSU
5. Detroit Lions (4-12)
Luke Joeckel, OT Texas A&M
6. Cleveland Browns (5-11)
Damontre Moore, DE/OLB Texas A&M
7. Arizona Cardinals (5-11)
Mike Glennon, QB NC State
8. Buffalo Bills (6-10)
Manti Te'o, LB Notre Dame
9. New York Jets (6-10)
Cordarrelle Patterson, WR Tennessee
10. Tennessee Titans (6-10)
Chance Warmack, G Alabama
11. San Diego Chargers (7-9)
Eric Fisher, OT Central Michigan
12. Miami Dolphins (7-9)
Keenan Allen, WR California
13. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (7-9)
Johnathan Banks, CB Mississippi State
14. Carolina Panthers (7-9)
Star Lotulelei, DT Utah
15. New Orleans Saints (7-9)
Shariff Floyd, DT Florida
16. St. Louis Rams (7-8-1)
Kenny Vaccaro, S Texas

Part 2