February 21, 2015

NFL Combine notes: Eagles 'front-runners' to land Byron Maxwell

By Jimmy Kempski
PhillyVoice Staff

John Froschauer/AP

Seattle's Byron Maxwell smiles between plays against the St. Louis Rams in the first half last December in Seattle.

INDIANAPOLIS -- According to Tony Pauline of various media outlets, the Eagles are the front-runners to land Seattle CB Byron Maxwell in free agency:

Present word has the Philadelphia Eagles as front runners for cornerback Byron Maxwell.
— Tony Pauline (@TonyPauline) February 20, 2015

Pauline is hearing he won't be cheap:

Yesterday I mentioned how hot the free agent cornerback market will be. Early numbers i'm hearing are $10 mill/annually for Byron Maxwell
— Tony Pauline (@TonyPauline) February 20, 2015

The Eagles don't have much of a choice, really. They either overpay for a good-not-great CB like Maxwell, or their secondary will likely be awful again in 2015.

Miami ILB Denzel Perryman met with the Eagles

Via Zach Berman of the Inquirer:

Miami LB Denzel Perryman met with Eagles ILB coach Rick Minter last night, got a sense of Eagles' defense
— Zach Berman (@ZBerm) February 20, 2015

"Yeah I talked to the Eagles last night, briefly," Said Perryman. "Met with the linebackers coach and we just sat down and talked about 3-4 defense, they pretty much ran the same thing we ran at Miami. So it was pretty much second nature to me.”

We identified Perryman (5'11, 236) earlier this offseason as a potential draft target for the Eagles at ILB:

Perryman doesn't have good size, which is doubly concerning for a team like the Eagles who already appear to have a long-term starter in Mychal Kendricks, who is also short. However, Perryman plays big. He a physical tackler who explodes through ball carriers. He could be a long-term physical presence in the middle of the Eagles' defense if they aren't scared off by his height.

Perryman can thump:

This QB class likes the Eagles' scheme

Brett Hundley had previously noted that the Eagles' offensive scheme most resembles what he ran at UCLA. He's not the only QB who could see himself landing in Philly. Alabama QB Blake Sims thinks the Eagles would be a good fit for his skill set.

"I think (the Eagles' offense) is great, with the mobility that I have, and with the things that they do, I think I'd be very comfortable in that offense," said Sims. "They have great players on their team and I think that if they added me to the team I'd be a great guy to help the team get better."

Dan Klausner of Bleeding Green Nation wrote a detailed analysis of how Sims might fit in with Philly.

Long snapper marketing initiatives

There was only one long snapper officially invited to the Combine. That was Navy's Joe Cardona. But that didn't stop East Carolina's Charlie Coggins from crashing the party and leaving beer cozies at local Indianapolis bars for NFL personnel people to find:

Hottest name at the combine keeping the beers cold: @Charlie_Coggins. If nothing else, he's a marketing genius. pic.twitter.com/Un6hSJlRsH
— Mike Garafolo (@MikeGarafolo) February 21, 2015

That's actually pretty brilliant. I'll bet that if this dude has any legit long snapping skills at all, he'll get a camp invite.

Two things I learned interviewing players at the Combine:

Literally every player at the Combine is versatile and can do whatever their new NFL coaches ask of them.
A lot of prospects at the Combine plan on "working hard." NFL teams like hard workers, so in that respect, this is an incredibly deep draft.