Roman Gabriel's 1973 Season

[Gary Najman]

When I saw the movie "Invincible" about Vince Papale in Vermeil's first year in Philadelphia, I immediatily went to check what veteran players (more than 30 years old) the Eagles had that season (I started following the NFL the next season at 7 years old). I was surprised to check that they had a young team, only Bergey, Gabriel, Muhlmann and cornerback Johnny Outlaw were over 30 y/o IIRC (by the way, Vermeil brought former 1,000 yard rusher Dave Hampton from Atlanta, but by the time he landed in Philly he was washed out). Other veteran who was brought by Vermeil was tackle Ed George from the Colts. George had one of the most interesting career in the 70s. A 4th round pick by Pittsburgh in 1970, he opted to go to the CFL with Montreal. After 5 years in Montreal, where he was a Canadian All-Star every year and won the Grey Cup, he went to Baltimore. After one year with the Colts, he went to Philadelphia for three seasons. He then returned to Canada, playing two seasons with Hamilton. Although he only played 7 seasons in Canada, he was inducted to the Canadian Football Hall of Fame.

Other offensive tackle who was with the Eagles (briefly) in the 70s and went on to a Canandian Football Hall of Fame career with Montreal was Dan Yochum. He was selected in the 2nd round in 1972 by the Eagles, but played his entire career in Canada.

[JKelly]

McCormack did try to follow the Allen model, having coached under Allen in DC. In addition to gabriel, Mike traded draft picks during his tenure in philly for bill bergey, norm bulaich, mike boryla, jerry patton, wes chesson, tom roussel, john tarver, randy jackson, john niland, james mcalister, horst muhlmann and stan walters. The result was that the eagles highest draft picks were 1974 third round, 1975 seventh round, 1976 fifth round, 1977 fifth round and 1978 third round.

Allen and Buddy Parker are the two guys who knew how to trade draft picks for veterans; mccormack just left a mess for Dick Vermeil.

I guess my answer didn't take into account the trading away of draft picks. When thinking about Allen I always seem to remember the veterans that he brought in being guys at or around the ten year mark Kilmer, Pardee, Mike Curtis, Ron Mcdole,etc.etc. However he did make some good trades for players that were not that old when he traded for or signed them like Ken Houston & John Riggins they just played with Washington for a long time afterwards. I tend to forget the other veteran players in the 3-8 year range that got cycled through the Allen era.

In comparison I would agree that McCormick missed the mark more than he hit it and the list from the previous post is a rather unexciting list of players other than Bergey and Walters.

[BD Sullivan]

McCormack did try to follow the Allen model, having coached under Allen in DC. In addition to gabriel, Mike traded draft picks during his tenure in philly for bill bergey, norm bulaich, mike boryla, jerry patton, wes chesson, tom roussel, john tarver, randy jackson, john niland, james mcalister, horst muhlmann and stan walters. The result was that the eagles highest draft picks were 1974 third round, 1975 seventh round, 1976 fifth round, 1977 fifth round and 1978 third round.

Allen and Buddy Parker are the two guys who knew how to trade draft picks for veterans; mccormack just left a mess for Dick Vermeil.

I guess my answer didn't take into account the trading away of draft picks. When thinking about Allen I always seem to remember the veterans that he brought in being guys at or around the ten year mark Kilmer, Pardee, Mike Curtis, Ron Mcdole,etc.etc. However he did make some good trades for players that were not that old when he traded for or signed them like Ken Houston & John Riggins they just played with Washington for a long time afterwards. I tend to forget the other veteran players in the 3-8 year range that got cycled through the Allen era.

In comparison I would agree that McCormick missed the mark more than he hit it and the list from the previous post is a rather unexciting list of players other than Bergey and Walters.

Allen was more than happy to take a talented head case off the hands of a team. Sometimes, it worked out (Riggins) and sometimes it didn't (Duane Thomas and John Matuszak).

Bergey was dealt by Cincy after Paul Brown traded him following a legal battle that involved Bergey signing with the WFL. Cincy got first rounders in 77 and 78 (Wilson Whitley and Ross Browner) and a second in 78 (Ray Griffin).

[Gary Najman]

It's interesting than in 1978 Vermeil acquired 34-year old cornerback Bob Howard from New England (they also had 33-year old Johnny Outlaw at corner) and 35-year old guard Woody Peoples from San Francisco. Then the next season they picked future Hall of Famer 35-year defensive end Claude Humphrey. It appeared at the time that Vermeil took a page from George Allen's book.

[BD Sullivan]

It's interesting than in 1978 Vermeil acquired 34-year old cornerback Bob Howard from New England (they also had 33-year old Johnny Outlaw at corner) and 35-year old guard Woody Peoples from San Francisco. Then the next season they picked future Hall of Famer 35-year defensive end Claude Humphrey. It appeared at the time that Vermeil took a page from George Allen's book.

He might have felt they were ready to make their move and wanted some veteran leaders to get them over the hump. It got them to postseason in 78 and 79, but '80 was their only big year. Then, the dropoff was quick.

[Bryan]

[quote="BD Sullivan]
He might have felt they were ready to make their move and wanted some veteran leaders to get them over the hump. It got them to postseason in 78 and 79, but '80 was their only big year. Then, the dropoff was quick.[/quote]

Its kind of weird that 1980 ended up being Philly's best year of that era. Wilbert Montgomery was a huge part of both the Eagles' running and passing game in 1978 & 1979, and he was hurt for part of 1980. WRs Charlie Smith and Scott Fitzkee were either out or playing with injury. Yet 1980 was by far Ron Jaworksi's best year. The Eagles started 1981 with a 9-2 record and looked like one of the elite teams in the NFL, then the offense went kaput, even with a healthy Wilbert Montgomery. The Eagles again led the league in defense in 1981, but lost 4 of their last 5 regular season games and then lost their wild card playoff game to a pretty terrible Giants team led by a pretty terrible Scott Brunner.