Eagles Notebook
Posted: July 30th, 2012 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 9 Comments »For SB Nation Philly, I wrote a review of the first week of Training Camp. The Eagles have only been hitting at Lehigh for 2 days, but plenty has happened so far. Interesting start to camp.
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Thanks for the feedback on the podcast. Jimmy and I will tweak things as we try to find the best way for things to work. You can listen to shows at Helmet2HelmetShow.com.
We’re new to this format and as the old saying goes…you don’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs.
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The Eagles worked out a WR, Travis Cobb from Arizona. He would be a camp body to eat up some reps now that Riley Cooper is out for 6 weeks.
In 2011, Cobb was 26-290-1 as a receiver and 34-887-1 as a KOR. That is 26 yards per KOR, pretty impressive. He was a UDFA signing by the Bears last summer. Lists at 5-11, 175. Has good speed.
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I haven’t talked much about Chad Hall so far. He did impress on Sunday. At the same time, I worry that Chad is one of those guys who is made to look good in practice, but just lacks the speed for actual games. Effort is never a question. Chad busts his butt. Unfortunately, I have yet to see Chad look like more than a marginal NFL player in a regular season game. If that is his ceiling, there’s no reason to keep him around.
I’ll keep an open mind with him and certainly hope the best for him. I think Chad needs to look great at Lehigh in order to really push for a roster spot. Damaris Johnson is serious competition for him. Johnnie Lee Higgins was supposed to be last year, but didn’t pan out as hoped.
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Domo has a good article up on Joselio Hanson and his bid to keep the Nickel Corner job. I think Domo nails the key point, that the team would love Brandon Boykin to beat him out, but that Hanson isn’t going down without a serious fight. Hanson came into the league as a UDFA and has had to battle his whole career. He’s not going to back down from a challenge like this.
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Les Bowen has a really interesting article on Marvin McNutt. I didn’t realize that McNutt’s WRs coach at Iowa had previously coached Jason Avant at Michigan. Back in the 2006 draft, I rated Avant as the most polished WR in the class. He gets a lot of credit for that, but so does his coach (Erik Campbell).
McNutt certainly isn’t as polished as Avant, but having the same college coach is a good thing. That makes it more likely that McNutt is coachable and has a good understanding of the fundamentals of playing receiver. Don’t laugh. Some guys come into the NFL very raw, having gotten by in college solely on athletic ability.
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In case anyone missed it, here are my observations on Sunday’s practice.
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Can Chris Polk play full back?
No way. Lacks size. Also, shoulder injury would not hold up to that position.
I don’t know about his shoulder and didn’t see the senior bowl practices but I don’t know what back in camp can block better. Havili is a very promising receiver who can give teams fits on the dumpoff (which is apparently why Andy likes him) but I would like to see them get a college blocking star in camp.
On the podcast JB could take a recording level about 80% higher than TLaw.
One way to deal with people’s concerns about the podcast length is to split it into topical segments so that people can listen to sections about players their interested in, with one overall analysis of how the practice went. Not sure that’s ideal for what you’re doing but that’s one idea.
Avant was only born 6 months earlier than Brandon Weeden (that felt good I’m going to make that comparison more often). Despite being so polished he didn’t play much as a rookie and only got to 40 catches in his 4th year.
According to Sam, Chad Hall can be on the PS. That would seem to be the way to go, until the year he can’t be PSed any more. If someone picks him up than Hall gets a shot elsewhere. They’ve been apparently training him and not Avant as a holder, which is a way for Hall to take up a 46 man active roster spot (ie it makes no sense).
Doesn’t it look more and more like 6 WR? If they are going to keep Cooper and McNutt, they still need the little quick guy – Demaris Johnson or Chad Hall. I don’t see them cutting Jason Avant. So where do they go short, especially if they are going to go with 3 TE?
Re: Podcast
I don’t use iTunes, but would still like to download the podcast. There’s a plugin for wordpress called podpress, which you could take a look at for this.
Can you guys fix the volume…don’t think i’m the only person that it’s driving crazy. Have to turn it up for Bama, and then my speaker explodes when you chime in…
Jimmy had a mic problem that he didn’t realize until reviewing the show. Should be fixed on the next one. Sorry for the inconvenience.
Podcast sounds good. There are tons of creative commons music that you can use for the intro.
In case you’ve missed it, Jerry Jones is very excited for the upcoming season: “I’ve been here 23 years. I’ve been here when it was glory hole days and when it wasn’t. I want me some glory hole!”