Alliance... » The Philadelphia Eagles traded for Golden Tate on Tuesday.

Here are some thoughts on what this trade means for the reigning Super Bowl champions.1 - The Eagles aren’t ready to give up on the 2018 seasonNor should they be.At 4-4 Youth Josh Sweat Jerseys , the Eagles are still very much alive in the NFC playoff picture. Only the 5-2 Washington Redskins rank ahead of the Eagles in the NFC East. Philadelphia still gets to play them twice this season.Qualifying for the post-season certainly isn’t a guarantee for this Eagles team. Football Outsiders’ metrics only give Philly a 21.0% chance to make the playoffs. There are obviously very real concerns with this year’s team that were on display during the disappointing start to this season.Despite the reasons for pessimism, the Eagles decided spending a 2019 third-round pick could go towards savings the season. Aggressive behavior played a big part in the Eagles winning the Super Bowl earlier this year. That doesn’t guarantee that it’ll work again but at the very least the Eagles are an improved team entering the second half of the season. We’ll see how that manifests. The feeling here is that the Eagles are allowed to believe they still have a chance given the way Carson Wentz has played this season. With a potential MVP candidate like Wentz under center, it’s entirely possible this team could get hot at the right time and go on a run.2 - The Eagles just upgraded in the YAC departmentI’ve already shared these stats multiple times now but I feel the need to emphasize them once more. From Pro Football Focus: One of the big issues with the 2018 Eagles is their failure to create big plays. Tate will certainly help in this regard. He may not be the traditional deep threat the Eagles could really use on this team but he’s still going to generate big plays with his incredible ability to get yards after the catch. Given that the Eagles only rank tied for 19th in offensive points per game this season, it’s clear the team needed another weapon for Doug Pederson to work with. Adding Tate helps fix that problem.3 - It’ll be interesting to see how this move impacts Nelson AgholorBGN’s Benjamin Solak did a great job of breaking down how the Eagles can use their new toy. He specifically touched on how the Eagles can have Tate and Agholor co-exist despite both of them being primarily perceived as slot receivers.For now, all we can do is speculate. It’ll be interesting to see the actual snap counts showing who’s lining up where and how often they’re doing it. Prior to adding Tate, Agholor and Alshon Jeffery were clearly the Eagles’ top receivers in terms of playing time. Jordan Matthews has trailed behind them as their third option. Tate’s addition figures to push JMatt further down the depth chart despite his good game against the Jaguars in London. Tate’s presence doesn’t just impact Agholor in the short-term. There are long-term implications that also must be considered. Agholor is currently under contract at a $9.4 million cap figure in 2019. That fifth-year option is only guaranteed for injury, however, meaning the Eagles could ultimately cut him after this season and save all that money. The Eagles could move on from Agholor, who’s been off to a slow start in 2018, and potentially re-sign Tate to take his place. That doesn’t seem likely, though, with the 30-year-old Tate commanding a big new contract after this season. Tate might very well cost more than the Eagles can reasonably afford. Signing the 25-year-old Agholor to an extension, meanwhile, could lower his 2019 cap figure and make keeping him more reasonable. Obviously, these are decisions to be made after the season. In the meantime, the Eagles just need to worry about how the players fit together on the field.4 - The cost was not ideal but it can be mitigated Giving up a 2019 third-round pick to acquire eight games of Tate is a significant cost. It’s not ideal because the Eagles are going to be tight on cap space moving forward and draft picks are the best devices for acquiring young, inexpensive talent. With that said, it’s not like giving up a third is a total disaster. The Eagles still project to have 10 picks in the 2018 NFL Draft. And hey, it’s not like the team gave up a first-round pick for an underachieving player like another team in the NFC East did.If Tate leaves the Eagles in free agency after this season, Philadelphia’s cost to acquire him will be mitigated by the 2020 compensatory pick that’s potentially coming back in return. Depending on what kind of contract Tate signs, that picks could realistically be a fourth-rounder (give or take a round). If that’s the case, the Eagles will have essentially traded a 2019-third round pick for Tate and a 2020 fourth-round pick. That’s not bad.For more perspective on the value of the asset the Eagles gave up, here’s a look back at the Philadelphia’s last 11 third-round picks: Rasul Douglas, Isaac Seumalo Youth Sidney Jones Jerseys , Jordan Hicks, Josh Huff, Bennie Logan, Nick Foles, Curtis Marsh, Daniel Te’o-Nesheim, Bryan Smith, Stewart Bradley, and Tony Hunt. Factoring the anomalous Foles in here is complicated since he was traded away and came back but on the whole this is a group that features some significant contributors as well as a bunch of misses. Picking in the third-round hardly guarantees getting a great player. 5 - Tate’s addition could help with offensive line issuesTate won’t be suiting up to play right tackle but his presence could make life easier on the offensive line. With Lane Johnson reportedly expected to miss a month due to an MCL injury, and with Jason Peters already banged up, the Eagles’ offensive line isn’t in tip top shape. The Eagles might need to get the ball out quicker at times. If that’s the case, having Tate can help in that regard. His ability to gets yards after the catch means the Eagles don’t just have to have Wentz stand back in the pocket to buy time for players to get open. 6 - Tate gives the Cowboys troubleIn a game against the Cowboys earlier this year, Tate caught all eight of his targets for 132 yards and two extremely respectful (in a good way) touchdowns. In four career games against Dallas, Tate has 18 receptions for 236 yards (13.11 average) and two scores. In other words, he typically gives the Cowboys trouble.That’s good news for an Eagles team that’s going to play the Cowboy twice in their final eight games. The first of those two matchups obviously comes in Tate’s Week 10 debut with the Eagles. 7 - Eagles fans are going to enjoy TateWhether you agree with the trade or not, and there are fair arguments for both sides, what’s done is done and Tate is an Eagle. And that’s something to be excited about because he’s a very fun player to watch.Tate just seems like one of those players who really appeals to this fan base. Eagles fans should love his toughness and desire to fight for every yard after contract. They should also love the swagger he brings to this team. How can you not appreciate those clips of him taunting the Cowboys as he’s running into the end zone? I’m sure he’s going to have some fun moments like that here even if his Eagles career only last eight games. Last night, the Dallas Cowboys scored on this play:It’s a well-designed play for Dallas. Typically on these red zone/short yardage plays, you have the H-back come across the formation as the pass-catcher, and you fake the handoff to the RB: it looks like split zone. On this play, Dallas gets the same action effect — pulling the defense with hard run action one way; leaking a backfield player out in the other direction — but with jet motion and a RB release. Clever design to get to a familiar idea.As the play runs, however, you see that Jordan Hicks (MLB) does a great job diagnosing the play action and begins bubbling out to gain width on Elliott and Prescott’s action to the field.Given the action of SAF Malcolm Jenkins and Hicks, it seems to me that they are funneling the release of Ezekiel Elliott — that is to say Sidney Jones Jerseys Stitched , if Elliott releases to Jenkins’ side of the field, Jenkins will cover him man-to-man; if Elliott releases to Hicks’ side of the field, then Elliott is Hicks’ responsibility. Once Elliott comes across the formation, he becomes Jordan Hicks’ responsibility. But Hicks elects to pass Elliott off to Corey Graham, who had TE Geoff Swaim in coverage responsibility. Graham does have a better initial angle on Elliott’s route, because he’s wider outside of Hicks, and someone needs to pressure Prescott to prevent him from scrambling for the first down. As we well know, however, Graham was late recognizing the play and getting on his horse to cover Elliott, which lead to the easy touchdown.What’s interesting here is the pass-off attempt by Jordan Hicks, however. While obviously Philadelphia couldn’t have prepared for this exact look, they have been struggling mightily with RB flat and wheel routes in the early season. It was completely unsurprising to see Dallas go for one on such a key 3rd down and short, and despite the fact that Hicks seemed to have an adjustment in mind, Philadelphia failed to execute.On a 4th and 2 on the ultimate drive for the Titans, Tennessee went for the flat route to Dion Lewis.Here, they built up a ton of traffic confusion with a tight bunch set between Jordan Hicks and the releasing RB. Hicks is late to the route, which gives QB Marcus Mariota and Lewis plenty of room for an easy pitch and catch, as well as some healthy YAC.After the Titans ran it — and Philadelphia struggled with it — Carolina was the next team to come back to the well on a key play. This is a 3rd and 2, late in the fourth, with Carolina down by 4.This is a more traditional pick play, with one receiver responsible for holding off Jordan Hicks instead of the general chaos of the bunch set. You’ll notice that Carolina here uses the late motion of RB Christan McCaffrey to get a better angle for his route against Hicks; same result as the Cowboys’ usage of the split zone motion to generate a good angle on Hicks to the opposite flat.And finally, the Jaguars went for a very similar idea as the Panthers only one week later: this on 3rd and 4, with less than 9 minutes remaining in a two-score game for the Jaguars.Instead of just attack with a flat rout, Jacksonville uses reduced splits to the boundary to pull the Eagles’ defense into the center of the field Youth Nelson Agholor Jerseys , which leaves space outside the numbers deep for RB T.J. Yeldon to release into on the wheel route. Again, Jordan Hicks is unable to get connected to the route given the pick ran by the playside receiver.That’s three games in a row now (Panthers, Jaguars, Cowboys) that a key 3rd down was converted with a RB route released into the backfield. Given the success of the Panthers and Jags — as well as the Titans — we have to wonder if Hicks was passing off the Elliott route to Graham in part because the defense and DC Jim Schwartz have had discussions on how to handle those flat releases by running backs, especially when they’re in man coverage.And that’s another big takeaway here: You don’t want to get predictable as a defensive coordinator, and teams seemed to have keyed on this 3rd/4th and short tendency of Jim Schwartz to play man coverage.Against the Cowboys, it was a pure Cover 0 look — no deep safety screams man coverage. Same goes for the Titans, while the Panthers look was a more traditional Cover 1 (single deep safety). Against the Jaguars, it was a pattern-match look to the bunch set — something Philadelphia does often. But when they do it, they typically have to go man coverage on the non-bunch side, which still fits the mold.So we go back to the pass-off attempt from Hicks. Was this scripted; something designed to alleviate the issues with the RB releases? I don’t think so, really — I think it was more Hicks recognizing that, once Corey Graham stayed his momentum, he had no shot at tagging Elliott in space, so he went to pressure Prescott and force the issue.If it was a scripted idea, we might see Philadelphia attempting to key RB flat releases and pass off the coverage, leaving LBs to handle those tight ends and slot receivers causing traffic to let slot corners and safeties close down on the RBs in space.Regardless, Philadelphia has a bevy of issues on the defensive side, and this is one of them: they can’t handle RB releases into the flats. It will be interesting to continue tracking these routes and the coverage deployed against them, to see if Philadelphia indeed has a chalkboard solution, or if they’ll keep flying by the seat of their pants.