Visits Did Matter
Posted: May 26th, 2013 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 22 Comments »After each draft we go back and see how much interest the Eagles showed in the players they took before the draft. This year, visits and workouts did mean something.
1st Round OT Lane Johnson – The Eagles saw him up close at the Senior Bowl. They brought him to Philly and worked him out in Oklahoma.
2nd Round TE Zach Ertz – The Eagles went to Stanford and gave Zach Ertz a private workout.
3rd Round DL Bennie Logan – The Eagles interviewed Logan at the Combine and said he had a great interview. Howie Roseman and Chip Kelly both went to LSU’s Pro Day.
4th Round QB Matt Barkley – The Eagles interviewed Barkley at the Combine and said he and Logan were the two most impressive players they spoke with. QB coach Bill Lazor went to USC and worked out Barkley. Roseman has personally attended USC practices throughout Barkley’s career.
5th Round SS Earl Wolff – The Eagles sent a coach to NC State to work him out.
7th Round DE Joe Kruger – The Eagles brought him to Philly for a visit.
7th Round CB Jordan Poyer – Chip Kelly had first hand knowledge of Poyer from having coached against him for 4 years and having evaluated him out of high school. Kelly also did the interview with Poyer at the Pac-12 media event. They weren’t friends, but Poyer wasn’t a stranger to Kelly.
7th Round DE David King – no links to him.
UDFAs
ILB Jake Knott – The Eagles had a LB coach at his Pro Day.
P Brad Wing – Roseman and Kelly were at his Pro Day.
WR Russell Shepard – Roseman and Kelly were at his Pro Day.
WR Will Murphy – Kelly coached him.
DE Isaac Remington – Kelly coached him.
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We could focus on how many of the players Kelly faced in college, but that might be taking things a bit far.
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Here’s an interesting post on DE Damion Square.
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Square is a great training camp body, he’ll work hard but the combination of lack of size and mediocre athleticism makes him a very long shot. People might point at Landri, but Landri, while undersized, was much quicker than Square.
some insiders would disagree:
1)AFC college scout called a “phenomenal, phenomenal” signing for the Birds…“I’ll tell you what, when I looked at the Eagles’ rookie free-agent acquisitions, the first guy I saw was Damion Square,” the scout said, “and I said that’s a great priority free-agent signing.”
“Only question you’re going to have is, at the end of the day, is he big enough for a two-gap [system]?” the scout said. “Is he long enough, athletic enough? Does he have the prototypical height to play in the trenches? No. Does he have the prototype build you want? No. But when you put him on tape, the kid plays his ass off. He has a phenomenal motor. He’s a guy that has really mastered all the technical aspects of the game.
“He does exactly what the coach asks him to do, and he does it to the best of his abilities. If we could have gotten our hands on him as a PFA (priority free agent), I would have done it all day, every day until Sunday.”
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2)Azzinaro: “is a quality young guy” who practices “with a lot of effort.”
“Alabama didn’t win all those games because they had bad players,” “He’s a good player. He understands what it takes to be good.”
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3)Stoutland called Square a “really, really” good player who gave his trenchmen headaches at practice.
“We saw him every day in practice and he would give our offensive line everything they could handle,” Stoutland said. “We got better, our offensive linemen got better, because of our defensive linemen at Alabama. It would be harder for us in practice than it would be when we got to the game.”
Stoutland spoke to Square over the phone minutes after the Eagles had signed him. Then he told Kelly, “This is a great guy. To get him like this, this is a great pickup.”
“He’s a great leader. He’s a hard worker,” Stoutland added. “He knows his stuff inside and out. He’s really smart. I think he’s a heck of a pickup for us.”
-Geoff Mosher CSN Philly
Which of those comments disagree? He is hard-working, technically-sound, and quality-character. He is also an UDFA, making him a long-shot. That leaves physical tools as his challenge.
I have hear people think that he has a good shot of making the roster is all….size can be fixed, the question will be if he is so technically sound/hard working that he can overcome his athletic defficiencies..HashTag, RootingFORtheKID lol
It’s not merely that he’s a long shot, it’s that he lacks NFL measureables, a lot of UDFAs have NFL talent, but due to character, injury, small college background, playing out of position, etc., fall out of the draft.
With Square, it’s the opposite, high character, started for a big time program, lots of good film, yet no team wanted to draft him. That suggests that he’s maxed out his talent and won’t translate well to the next level.
Those character traits are what makes him a great practice player, he’ll work hard, won’t take snaps off and force the opposing OL to work on every practice snap. But that won’t make him bigger, make his arms longer or his feet quicker.
Fair enough, and you certainly could be right…Nice to see that some insiders do atleast have hope for the kid, and thats all you can really ask for in the undrafted pool
So 7 out of the 8 picks we checked out closely. It would be interesting to know how many guys we checked out but didn’t pick. It would also be interesting to know how many we decided were not targets after checking them out, but I don’t think that is possible.
Easy..look up the number of Total Visits teams were allowed..Subtract 8 from that numer, and thats how many guys we checked out that we didnt pick……Players we decided werent our targets after checking them out would be absolutely facsinating to know, but thats something we will never find out…One or two names might get leaker(after visiting with such and such we determined he wasnt fo us sort of thing), but we will never know how many players were scratched off our lists completely due to workouts…would be great intel to find out tho
In a demonstration of his deviousness, howie roseman never brought trash can in for a pre-draft visit and now he’s a standout OTC player.
Ugh… I’m so tired of hearing about trash can. Don’t you people realize he is this years Nate Ilaoa?!?!
Well they got close to the same figure.
But we can still hope for him to emerge and become a truly dominant force in the mold of Marlon “Superman” Favorite.
You can start making that comparison when trash can flies through the air with this gracefulness
http://imgur.com/nNblV
I was heading off to work as the trashman was pulling up the other day. I saw my can get higher and farther in the air than Marlon can dream. And can does it on a weekly basis.
Sure, he can be seen dragging by the end of the week, but who isn’t? With some upgrades to his physique he could really have some wheels.
I think you guys are undervaluing his ability to retain whatever the coaches have thrown at him just because he seems gutless sometimes. I sure hope it isn’t because he’s black…
Yeah but trashman never seems to catch the ball with his hands away from his body and every time he splits a seam he makes a mess out of it.
Well, true. I’m not saying that comes off smelling of roses. All I’m saying is despite his flaws and regardless of the prostitutions rumors – hanging out on the street with his buddies, low-quality junk in his system, waiting for some guy to pick him up – those days are behind him. He is out there on the field every day, wherever the coaches put him, taking it all in. You can kick him when he’s down, but he always seems to bounce back.
Those shiny new toys, galvanized with matching lids, get lots of attention. Brute’s scars, though, from his days on the streets, tell of a childhood that would have left that shiny toy a battered mess, ready to be recycled by the next team looking for bargain in our trash.
I just don’t think he has a chance to beat out Tackling Dummy.
I don’t know. Blocking dummy will be an interesting litmus test. Chip clearly values both blocking and intelligence. Will a strength in one area be enough to make up for shortcomings in the other?
I heard Blocking Dummy was pulling a Juqua and changing his last name to Sled.
“The Eagles interviewed Barkley at the Combine and said he and Logan were the two most impressive players they spoke with.”
I wonder what made the Eagles determine these two players to be the most “impressive” players they spoke with. No doubt that these guys are highly charismatic and will work their butts off, but I want to know more about the Eagles’ evaluations. Was that why the Eagles had these guys rated higher on their draft board because their interviews were impressive?
I interpret it as them being impressed with their knowledge at “the board”..the chalk board tests were they test them on the xs and O’s..or expose them to schemes, and then an hour later ask them to recite it back..
Seriously, I could sit and listen to ILB Coach Minter talk for hours. Very excited about him..What Im even more excited about is him constantly reffering to Mychal Kendricks as a Superstar, or future superstar. He also seems to really like Demeco:
“Demeco,The Classy, professional, veteran leader of the group…He is a true pro, high charecter, academic, very smart, studies the game..Leadership with a real presence about him, from his own physical presence, to his demeanor, charecter, work ethic to his style arou7nd younger guys..not a vocal rah rah rah guy, but leads by example, and our guys really follow him”…
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“Kendricks arguably is the best athlete in my group, I mean pure unadulturated explosiveness, speed, power, all the things you look from in the measurables, Mychal is at the top of the list, he has them all. His upside is unbelievable, still has to deal with the learning curve like everyone else (3rd defense in 3 years), but his ceiling is incredibly high”…”a rising star like Mychal who can run like the wind, very explosive, has a very very bright future”..
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im expecting a big year from our ILB’s. Demeco was always a smart, QB of the defense, but after months of practicing against the chaotic Chip Kelly Eagles offense with all the pre-snap motion and fast tempo, he is going to be even sharper mentally, by the time the season comes around. Having to QB the defense since May day in and day out against the Chipster is going to be incredibily value to Demeco. He had a great year last year, and Im expecting significantly better 2013…Kendricks is going to soar…whether its this year, 2014, 2015…he is a star in the making!!.. Bookend those two with Barwin and Graham who is “ready to errupt”…Im EXCITED!