As we trudge along through the quietest period of the offseason (at least there's NBA free agency), there isn't much in the way of news about the Philadelphia Eagles, which, for them, is a good thing. Let's take a look around and see what we can scrounge up.
Madden released its rookie rankings
- MORE ON THE EAGLES
- Should the Eagles have interest in any players in the 2019 NFL Supplemental Draft?
- Eagles roster 2019: Locks, not-quite-locks, bubble players, and long shots
- Connor Barwin wants to play in Philly again: Should the Eagles have interest?
I guess people care about this? Anyway, the Eagles' rookie rankings were as follows:
- LT Andre Dillard: 70 overall
- RB Miles Sanders: 72 overall
- WR J.J. Arcega-Whiteside: 73 overall
- DE Shareef Miller: 66 overall
- QB Clayton Thorson: 56 overall
Up the turnpike in New Jersey, Madden did Daniel Jones super dirty, giving him an overall rating of 63. Oof. In fact, he's the eighth-highest rated rookie on his own team. Like, he was behind guys they took in the fifth and sixths rounds.
The Madden folks had Jones behind five other rookie quarterbacks, including a guy who didn't get drafted at all:
- Kyler Murray (1st overall pick): 73
- Dwayne Haskins (15th overall pick): 72
- Drew Lock (42nd overall pick): 67
- Will Grier (100th overall pick): 66
- Tyree Jackson (Undrafted): 64
As you know, Jones was the sixth overall pick in the 2019 NFL Draft, again, not that Madden's ratings mean a thing.
Ezekiel Elliott met with Roger Goodell yesterday
In case you haven't seen why Elliott is in trouble again, you can catch up at our Cowboys dumpster fire piece from a week ago. We won't rehash all of it again here.
Anyway, Elliott was summoned to the principal's office on Tuesday. After his meeting was over, almost assuredly someone other Elliott wrote the following message for him, which Elliott then tweeted out:
The feeling among most national media guys/gals is that he's not going to be suspended for this latest misstep.
The Las Vegas police are also apparently somehow trying to turn Elliott into some kind of victim here. Is that how I should read the following tweet by Jane Slater of NFL Network?
Lol. They removed Zeke to protect him from what? Continuing to be an aggressive drunken clown? As stated previously, the guess here is that Goodell won't want to engage in a long, costly pissing contest with Jerry Jones over the next year, and Elliott, a repeat offender many times over, won't get any sort of punishment that hurts the Cowboys.
New CBA talks ramp up
The current NFL collective bargaining agreement runs through the 2020, but according to Dan Graziano of ESPN, the NFL and the NFLPA have begun working toward a new agreement that they hope to have in place before the start of the 2019 regular season.
As Graziano notes in his story, this is a more positive start to a new deal than it was last time around.
The situation is far different than it was at the tail end of the previous CBA. In May 2008, owners voted to opt out of that agreement following the 2010 season -- a move that signaled their intention to lock out the players in order to secure more favorable terms in the next agreement. Lock them out they did, in 2011, though the two sides were able to reach an agreement in time to hold abbreviated training camps and a full 2011 season.
That 2011 offseason was the worst. I remember that as a writer, you could be posting something like the Eagles' biggest camp battles, and you had preface every article with something along the lines of "Assuming there actually is a season."
As it turned out, the draft occurred before free agency that year. The Eagles drafted for need, and then once a CBA was reached and a boatload of players instantly became free agents, the Eagles signed every big name with a heartbeat, hoping it would all come together quickly with no spring practices whatsoever and a shortened training camp.
(Narrator: "It didn't.")
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