Many questions and issues arose to yesterday’s post. I answered some in the comments section, but others are worth talking about as part of a full post.

RT — A couple of people aren’t sure why I don’t see more of a need at RT. I’ve written about this a time or two this spring, but not everyone has been reading the whole time so it’s worth covering again.

Winston Justice played well in 2009. He wasn’t dominant or anything like that, but played well. He looked like someone you wanted at RT for the next 5 years. 2010 was a far different story. Justice was up and down. He wasn’t awful, as some seem to want to believe. There were games when he played very well. There were other times when Justice really struggled. Clay Matthews killed him. To be fair, Clay killed just about everybody.

One thing that hurt Justice was the instability at RG. For much of Training Camp and the preseason the starting RG was Stacy Andrews. He didn’t play well. Nick Cole was the RG for the first couple of weeks of the regular season and was awful. Reggie Wells played most of the JAX game and wasn’t much better. Max Jean-Gilles took over for a while and probably gave us our best RG play of the season. Cole got the job back in November for a few weeks. Then Max got it back. Then Cole started the final couple of games. Injuries affected Cole and Max all season long. That revolving door of mediocrity absolutely had an effect on Justice. The RG and RT have to work in unison on stunts and blitzes. They must be on the same page. Also, when the guys next to you seem like a turnstile, it is going to distract you from your job.

A lot of people get down on Justice for his poor play in the Wildcard loss. He was bad. He was also injured. He had offseason surgery to repair the issue. You can argue that he should have sat the whole game and let King Dunlap play. We were much better with King at RT. The only problem with that is we hold the players to a double standard. We demand they play through pain and do whatever it takes to be on the field. Guys try to do that, but aren’t able to play to their normal level and then we scream at them for how poorly they played. If anything, the coaches are at fault for not pulling Justice sooner and getting Dunlap out there.

Justice has one good year under his belt, 2009. He has one inconsistent year, 2010. I don’t blame the organization at all for giving him another chance. Justice does have the ability to be a very good RT if he can play up to his full potential. He will be pushed by King Dunlap this summer.

C / OL — Part of this point ties in to Justice at RT as well. The Eagles hired Howard Mudd to come here as the O-line coach. They accepted the fact he likes different kinds of players. They accepted the fact he would change the blocking system. Mudd wasn’t told who he’d have to play. The organization asked him to study the current players and decide what he wanted to do. We know he felt RG was the one position that absolutely had to be addressed. He didn’t see the answer anywhere on the roster. That led to the selection of Danny Watkins in the 1st round. If the Eagles go sign a RT in free agency, that will tell you that Mudd didn’t like Justice or Dunlap. Everything I’m hearing is that Mudd is in fact fine with the RTs on the roster. He thinks he can “coach ’em up”. Justice doesn’t lack potential. Dunlap either. Those guys just need to be more consistent.

I listed A.Q. Shipley atop the depth chart at Center. Just a guess. I don’t see Jamaal Jackson (31 years old, big guy, coming off injuries) being a guy that Mudd is going to ideally want in the middle. We drafted Jason Kelce, the smallest O-lineman in the whole draft. That should tell you that Mudd is at the other end of the spectrum from Juan Castillo and his biggies. Shipley fits the description of a Mudd player so I made him the C. Just a guess.

I have no idea if Mudd liked Shipley when he was coming out of Penn State. If so, then maybe this is a player Mudd does want on the field. Or maybe Mudd will have a veteran targeted in free agency. There are some players in the 290 range that could play in Mudd’s system. Maybe we go that route.

Mudd hasn’t had a chance to meet or coach his new players yet, but he has studied every snap. He watched preseason tape. He watched game tapes. Heck, he might have checked out practices. Some of the guys he knew from doing draft preparation when they were coming out. He’s got informed opinions of the players. I’m willing to trust him when he says he likes a player and slots him accordingly.

Eagles / Free Agency — Remember that the Eagles are very selective shoppers. They treat FA different from a lot of teams. The Eagles make a very specific list. If they don’t land those players, the Eagles generally stick with the players on the roster.

We fans make up a list of the top five running backs or pass rushers we want. If the first one goes elsewhere, we just move down the list. The Eagles don’t do that, except at positions of absolute desperation (RCB). The Eagles find a few guys they like and go after them. If that doesn’t work out, they stick with the incumbent players or go with the young guys on the roster. You might think this is a dumb way to do business. We can have a long philosophical debate on that. Bottom line, that is how the Eagles operate.

2-deep questions — I limited my depth chart to just 2-deep. This left off guys like Curtis Marsh, Teo, Ricky Sapp, Trevor Laws, and future Hall of Famer Brian Rolle. I was just trying to keep things simple. I’m in no way down on any of the players who were left off. Quite the opposite. I’m excited to see what some of these guys can do.

Trades / Cuts — Speaking of Laws and the DTs…that is a position where we could see change. I like the 4 guys we have in place now. If the Eagles are able to land Big Al, someone has to go. Mike Patterson makes the most sense because he has good trade value. Plenty of teams around the NFL would love to have Mike as a starting DT. The Eagles got trade offers for him last year. These were unsolicited offers. Teams just called up to find out about Patt. If Big Al is banished to the AFC, we’ll likely stick with our current group. One oddball note, I still am curious to see if Victor Abiamiri is shifted to DT in the new scheme. I think he’d be a natural in there.

DE is a position where we will see something happen. We have 37 (give or take) guys ready to contribute. Take a look at the list right now.

Trent Cole

Juqua Parker

Darryl Tapp

Daniel Te’o-Nesheim

Ricky Sapp

Phillip Hunt

Brandon Graham (hurt)

Bobby McCray (long shot)

If we go sign a veteran, someone has to go. Graham will be on the PUP list to start the year. McCray is probably just a camp body. That still leaves 6 guys and the free agent. I think Juqua Parker could be the odd man out. I’ve written him off before, only to have him come in and play well. He is 33 years old. At some point, age will get the best of him.

Remember that Washburn believes in a heavy rotation. He will give 4 DEs regular snaps. This won’t be like in the past where the starters saw 90% of the reps. The Eagles are high on Teo. They expect him to play well this year. Sapp and Hunt are guys the team can’t wait to see in action. They have the potential to do well in the new system. Maybe they will, maybe they won’t. We have to see them play before knowing anything.

All About the Red Zone — Some fan was shocked that I didn’t have Darren Sproles as my #1 target at RB. Darren is one of the best weapons in the league. He’s explosive and dynamic. What’s not to like? Sproles would be great, but he would help us move the ball up and down the field. That wasn’t much of an issue last year. We were 2nd in the NFL in yards gained. We finished 3rd in scoring. That sounds great, but we were only middle of the pack in the Red Zone and I think that stat is skewed by Vick’s ability as a runner. We didn’t execute the base offense in the Red Zone with any kind of consistency and that hurt us at times.

I think the players we target need to be guys that can help us in the Red Zone. Sproles has 6 rushing TDs in his career. He doesn’t get a lot of touches in the Red Zone, but that’s for a reason. He’s not as effective down there. I’m certainly not going to be mad if the Eagles sign him, but I hope we do find some players to help out the situation.

Speaking of which, Ray Didinger says he’s heard from some NFL sources that Burress coming to Philly is all but a done deal. Interesting if true. Plax is very good in the Red Zone and he would make he happy in that sense.