Eagles Blog

PE.com has a video up of Chris Polk being interviewed. Very good stuff. You learn a lot about Polk.

He only played RB for one year in high school. He mostly played WR.

He would have gone to Oregon if he didn’t go to Washington.

He lost 15 pounds, but says this was his own idea. He watched himself play last year and didn’t like what he saw. He was able to play at 225-230 in college and be fast enough, but that wasn’t cutting it in the NFL.

And getting no touches killed him. Doesn’t want that to happen again.

How are things going for some former Eagles?

DRC suffered an ankle sprain at practice this week. Those can be troublesome injuries, but right now they are thinking it will hold him out a few weeks.

Nnamdi is a backup CB on the Niners initial depth chart.

And Jaiquawn Jarrett?

Keep an eye on Jaiquawn Jarrett, who's impressed Jets coaches in camp. Jarrett, who's competing with Antonio Allen, took 1st-team reps 2day

— Manish Mehta (@MMehtaNYDN) August 2, 2013

As some fan joked in response, the Jets really are selling out to get the #1 overall pick and Jadeveon Clowney.

GCobb wrote his thoughts on the Eagles defense, looking at players and scheme.

There isn’t a ton of new info here, but G does offer some interesting thoughts on LB play and how they read formations and alignments looking for tips on what the offense is going to do.

Part 1

Part 2

(h/t to John Stanley)

Jordan Rannan of NJ.com posted some interesting notes on Nick Foles after Thursday’s practice.

On the third play of the live period on Thursday afternoon, Foles hit Riley Cooper (yes, that Riley Cooper) in stride for a 50-yard touchdown. It was a sign of things to come.

Foles completed his first nine throws in live action. He finished an impressive 15-of-18 with two long touchdown passes on his best day of training camp.

…The second bomb came when Foles was working with the second team later in practice. He laid the ball out perfectly deep down the middle to Damaris Johnson for a 50-plus-yard score. The throw dropped over linebacker Emmanuel Acho and safety Kurt Coleman and traveled approximately 60 yards in the air. It’s a positive sign for a quarterback who struggled last year throwing the deep ball. Foles has admitted a tendency to overthrow passes downfield.

Raanan noted that Vick had his best day on Wednesday and was impressed that Foles responded with such a sharp performance. Maybe the competition will bring out the best in each guy, as they push each other.

Brent at Eagles Rewind offered his two cents on the Maclin injury. He focused on numbers and the numbers say that Jeremy Maclin is a good, not a great receiver. That, combined with some offensive changes, make Maclin replaceable.

The biggest point here is that the Eagles, prior to the injury, were likely to be running a lot of 2 WR sets anyway (presumably the result of multi-TE sets).  That means the team does not need to be quite as deep as has been necessary in the past.  Desean Jackson is a key player, because the team needs his speed to help stretch defenses and open up the underneath game (or hit home runs if defenses commit low).

Outside of that, the Eagles WR needs mainly consist of guys who can produce at a league average level.  They don’t need game breakers, just a couple of players who can catch the ball and take advantage of limited defensive attention.  Between Avant, Cooper, maybe Damaris, and the rest of the potentials, I think the team’s covered.

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Matty at BritishEagles.co.uk feels differently. He focuses on the fact that Maclin was the Eagles top Red Zone target.

While that is true, I think Matty overstates things a bit. Mac had 7 TD catches last year. His career high is 10. Those are solid numbers, but referring to him as a “TD magnet” is a bit much.

The point here is that just because Maclin led the Eagles in receiving TDs doesn’t mean he’s special in that regard. Mac had 7 TDs on 69 catches. Riley Cooper had 3 TDs on 23 catches. That gave him a higher TD percentage for 2012.

Mac was the Eagles top Red Zone target, but he wasn’t so good that the numbers can’t be equaled by others. Also, I think Chip Kelly will try to use DeSean Jackson more in the Red Zone. And TEs will be a big part of this as well. Zach Ertz can be used as a big WR. James Casey was a RZ target in Houston. He had 4 TD catches in the RZ.

One player won’t replace Mac, but the Eagles have several guys who can help make up for his loss. Big opportunity for them to show what they can do.

Reuben Frank has a great piece up on the 1999 Draft. He talked to Jeffrey Lurie and found out that if the Eagles hadn’t drafted Donovan McNabb, they would have gone for RB Edgerrin James. Why not the other QBs?

“We, ironically, going back, didn’t have a lot of confidence in most of the quarterbacks in that draft. And the only quarterback that we all — with Andy leading the way — felt very confident in was Donovan. And it wasn’t just his athletic ability, it was his years at Syracuse, his being able to learn a complicated offense, the way he was as a person, stable family background compared to some other quarterbacks in that draft and elsewhere, so it all came together that he was really the quarterback that was really far above all the others for us.”

So what about James?

“The answer was Edgerrin. We thought this was a potential Hall of Fame running back.”

Really interesting info. I bet Duce Staley is the happiest man in America that the Eagles took McNabb.

PE.com posted some good practice notes. Here’s what they had to say about Monday.

Wide receiver Greg Salas continues to have a really good Training Camp. He’s crisp as a route runner and smooth in and out of his breaks to create separation. Salas had one particular play where he ran a perfect corner route, jumped, snagged the ball using perfect catch technique and then tapped both feet inbounds. The cornerback got turned around and was nowhere close to him.

Salas has gotten a lot of good press here recently. He is a natural slot receiver. If he continues to practice well, you wonder if that would make the Eagles consider dealing Jason Avant. Salas will turn 25 in August. Avant is already 30. Obviously Salas has to play well in the preseason games before this type of discussion can be more than just a “what if” type of deal.

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Brandon Lee Gowton posted his notes at BGN. Let’s hear about the running QBs.

• QB UPDATE: Nick Foles is now a running QB, apparently. OK I’m exaggerating, but he fooled the entire defense on one rep with a keeper on the read-option. 10 easy wide open yards right there for the future track star. Later in the practice, there was a rep where Foles took a long time to throw that ball and it almost got picked off by Boykin. Bad decision. Vick had a play where he made a “horrible TD pass”. Jimmy has more info on that in his notes.

• Option play! Vick was lined up in the shotgun with Damaris in motion running behind him, Vick snaps the ball, runs left and pitches the ball to a trailing Damaris. The play wasn’t very successful (gained a yard or two at most).

I really can’t wait to see this team in a game.

Bart Hubbuch is the NFL writer for the NY Post. He is an interesting guy, but not exactly and X’s and O’s guru. He was at Eagles camp on Monday and shared this nugget of wisdom.

https://twitter.com/ECStoner/status/361923187715477506/photo/1

The read-option is a play, not a formation. And we wonder why some fans don’t know the game. How can they if guys like Hubbuch are passing this off as information?

Hubbuch was confronted by fans on Twitter all day long. This led to some long, awkward arguments. Hubbuch did not come off well, for his original tweet and then for taking on most of the football universe in a Twitter war.

Chip Kelly wants to go up-tempo, but NFL officials will have an impact on how quickly the Eagles can go on offense. Officials will not hurry with getting the ball ready to snap just because the Eagles want that. They’ll go at standard pace, until the 2-minute warning.

Don’t make too much of this. The Pats moved quickly last year and that worked very well for them.

Brandon Lee Growton posted his practice notes. Sounds like Brandon Graham is making some progress with his coverage skills.

• I watched a drill where the OLBs practiced dropping into coverage. Brandon Grahamlooked smooth doing this, but he couldn’t catch the ball when it was thrown at him. Graham needs to work on his hands if he hopes to pick off some passes.

PE.com also posted some practice notes. There was some real good stuff here.

Safety Kenny Phillips looked good in coverage. He had a diving pass deflection on a quick out near the sidelines. Phillips immediately diagnosed the play at the snap and made a bee-line for the receiver. Without the extra split second gained thanks to that reaction, there’s no way he gets there to make the play in time.

Running back Chris Polk had an excellent day of practice, both running and receiving. He was quick to and through the hole, making decisive cuts and exploding to the second level. We know he has the power to run over defenders, but it appears the athleticism is catching up, too. Polk’s hands are underrated, as is his general ability as a receiver. He smoothly plucks the ball away from his body, and his most impressive catch came on a route over the middle where he deftly twisted his body and reached behind to make a catch all in one motion without even breaking stride.

Check out both pieces for lots of good nuggets.