The Eagles made 2 moves to improve their depth today – signing running back Mike Bell (the Saints can match, but I doubt they will), and trading Chris Clemons and a 4th round pick to Seattle for DE Darryl Tapp. Neither are impactful moves, but let’s take a look at them quickly.
Mike Bell –
The 26-year old back only has 348 career carries in his 4-year career (4.0 average per carry), so we don’t have to worry about him running out of steam. He is a big back (6′, 220lbs) so he could be useful near the goal line. However, Bell isn’t much more than an average running back. I don’t think he’ll provide much of an upgrade over someone like Eldra Buckley.
Darryl Tapp –
Tapp is a 25-year old DE who the Eagles feel is on the rise (much like they did about Chris Clemons, who they traded in this deal). Tapp had a promising first 3 years of his career (15.5 sacks, 8 forced fumbles) but wasn’t as productive last year with only 2.5 sacks and no forced fumbles. Andy Reid described him as “a very intense football player.” Adding ”He plays very hard every snap. He’s smart, he’s a good person and he’ll fit very well into our defensive scheme.” Frankly – I don’t see how he’s any better than the guy we traded away, Clemons, and we had to through in a 4th round pick. Obviously they see something here, but they don’t exactly have a good track record of acquiring DE’s.
So that’s it – nothing huge. Potential new starting DE in Tapp, but he’ll probably just be the first in on the rotation. Hopefully they finally guess right on a DE. As for Bell, I personally don’t see why you don’t spend a little extra for Thomas Jones (who signed for 2 years, $5 million after 1,400 yards last year) or LT (2 years, $5.1 million). Again, uncapped year. Spend a little more and get a much bigger upgrade.
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insignifigant moves…. what is likely to happen is that they wont use mike bell like they should (how the saints used him). they will give him a carry 3x a game sporadically, and he will be ineffective. i dont see why people get excited about them signing a running back. to me he is less of a player then corral buckhalter was, and then barley even used him. this move will not make an impact on our team next year.
as for tapp i havent really watched a whole lot of seahawks games, but if the eagles gave up a 4th round pick for him, they must really like him beause they treat draft picks like gold. essentially he will be a rotation guy though. Tapp will prolly have around 4-6 sacks. nothing outrageous, but average.
Im looking for the eagles to go Defense in the first round, hopefully one of the top DE falls to 15-18 range and we can move up (Derrick Morgan), but maybe a guy that clogs up space who is a playmaker like Mount Cody out of Alabama. alot of scouts arent high on him because they essentially think he is the JaMarcus Russell of DT, but the kids a playmaker and he takes up space. IMO just the type of player who would help us against the cowboys. another similar play is Brian Price out of UCLA, another solid DT who is a 1st round talent. look for the eagles to go Dline or possibly Oline in the Draft. with AR as our Head Coach its about a 75% chance.
dislike both the moves, don’t really do anything for the team worth getting excited about. i still need that drink pete.
I will be surprised if Mike Bell does much in an Eagles jersey. He was at Arizona while I was in college there and though he played all the time for 3 years he always seemed to come up small in big games or have a big fumble. His numbers don’t indicate his fumbling problems have carried over into the NFL, so that’s good. But like you said I doubt Mike Bell does much and I wish the Eagles had spent a little extra for someone with the potential to be more productive, a la Thomas Jones (unless we draft Gerhart then I’ll shut up).
I think Bell may have shot at making an impact. We’ll have a second year guy as the feature back (McCoy) and a versatile fullback that can catch and carry (Weaver) but now we have a guy that can spell either guy.
As for Tapp I have never heard of him but he has to better than a fouth round pick and a guy that was not going to make the team again. (I hope)
Darryl Tspp was a guy I really liked coming out of college. He was an extremely productive player at Virginia Tech and can excel on special teams if needed (Beamer Ball!). He was also a 2nd round draft pick. Clemons didn’t really make his mark on this team so I am not sad to see him go. He likely would have been cut this season anyway so we essentially got a productive NFL rotation guy entering his prime for a 4th round pick (we retained a higher 4th round pick as well in the process, I believe).
Bell is a serviceable rotation back. Thomas Jones or LT? Come on Pete, both of these guys would not be good fits if its time for McCoy to be the #1 guy. Bell is a huge upgrade to Buckley and was a key contributor to a Super Bowl winning team.
These moves continue the trend of the Eagles getting younger prior to the draft and filling in some role players that they won’t have to spend valuable picks on that may have been used to draft for immediate need.
Bell has also played the role of “fill-in” back when a main guy goes down on both Denver and New Orleans, so he provides excellent veteran protection if McCoy can’t handle the load and/or gets hurt.
Anybody that has played fantasy football over the past 3-4 years knows about Mike Bell: the team’s top back goes down (last year it was Pierre Thomas), and you hope you have the #1 waiver claim to get Bell because you know he’ll step in and give solid RB2 numbers. He was a very good short-yardage/goalline back for NO last year. It’s still a minor move so I’m not going to get super excited, but I’ll take him over Eldra Buckley any day of the week, and he’s good insurance for a Shady injury.
Big Baby Andrews was cut. Does big brother move outside?
thats interesting on Andrews. I don’t think he was due any money anytime soon so they must have really thought he had no chance. He’s a weird dude.
Really disappointing, he was my favorite player before he got all injured/crazy
That’s 2 good lineman I’ve seen them loose simply because they did not want to be FB players. The other had been a promising started at LT.