Inside The Birds: Ready For Opener Vs. Falcons?

The Birds are finally back as the team is finally set to take on the Falcons in the its regular season opener Sunday at 1 p.m. in Atlanta.

On the latest Inside The Birds, Geoff Mosher and Adam Caplan discuss the latest roster moves, new practice squad rules, and expectations for the Eagles-Falcons matchup.

Travis Fulgham

Geoff Mosher: “Let’s keep an eye on this situation. [The Eagles] brought back Travis Fulgham, even though they had some real issues getting through to him and real issues with how he handled the competitive aspect of this job throughout training camp. So I can’t imagine they just brought him back and said ‘All right, you’re on a fresh slate now.’ He’s still the Travis Fulgham that was on the team a week ago that was cut, so let’s see if there’s any roster tango or movement there. I think Travis Fulgham still has a lot to prove to the coaches and when you see them bringing in a third outside wide receiver [KeeSean Johnon] to the practice squad, I think that sends a message, both to Fulgham and John Hightower, so let’s see what happens.”

Adam Caplan: “Right now they’ve got five receivers on the active roster – [Greg] Ward, [Jalen] Reagor, DeVonta Smith, [JJ Arcega-Whiteside] and [Quez] Watkins. So it’s not like they need to add a sixth to the active, roster but you are right, three is a lot [on the practice squad].”

Jordan Howard

Caplan: “In Jordan Howard’s case, [the Eagles] did the roster tango where they clearly did not want to guarantee his salary because had he been on the Week 1 salary on the 53-man, he’s not on the 53, he’s on the practice squad. That would fully guarantee his small base salary which was $990,000. Not a lot of money, but what it is is because he was so bad last year and I know he had a great training camp but fact of the matter is because he’s been a guy that’s clearly at the crossroads of his career, why guarantee your salary when you don’t have to? So you could use the rules as they are, there’s nothing illegal about it. You could cut him, put him on your practice squad, and use one of your two elevations and that avoids signing him off the practice squad and guaranteeing his base salary.”

Javon Hargrave

Caplan: “[Javon] Hargrave had a phenomenal training camp, if you graded the Eagles training camp players from one to five, I wouldn’t argue with you if you said he was the best player in training camp, he was phenomenal. This is an advantage they have, the Falcons have a bottom-10 offensive line, not good when you’re going against this Eagles D-Line.”

Mosher: “I totally give the Eagles the advantage on the offensive line and they have the advantage on the defensive line as well.”

Falcons Pass Rush

Mosher: “You look at the Falcons and say they just don’t have pass rushers. I love Grady Jarrett, he’s a good defensive tackle, I mean every team has at least one good pass rusher – but after that what are we talking about? Dante Fowler?”

– Justin Morganstein (@jmotweets_) is a staff contributor to InsideTheBirds.com.

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