The Pads Go On
Posted: August 5th, 2015 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 337 Comments »Tuesday’s practice was the first in pads and with hitting. While this isn’t the same thing as game action, it is a heck of a lot closer than running around in shorts and not being able to touch other players. Real football is getting closer and closer.
Jimmy Bama had praise for Zach Ertz.
Zach Ertz had a really good day. On one play near the end of practice, he out-jumped Mychal Kendricks for a pass down the seam, and landed hard on the ground. Ertz was shaken up and was helped off the field. However, a couple plays later he was right back in there, got open, and made another catch. Ertz was very active as a receiver all day.
That led to this tweet by Jimmy .
Not sure how there's even a competition at tight end at Eagles camp. Zach Ertz isn't as good a blocker, but he brings far more as a weapon.
— Jimmy Kempski (@JimmyKempski) August 5, 2015
The Eagles are a running team. The TE must be a consistently effective blocker. Ertz has been inconsistent in his first 2 years, nowhere close to Brent Celek. Ertz did MMA training this spring so he is in great shape and should be more physical. He doesn’t have to be as good as Celek as a blocker, but Ertz must be better than he was the past 2 years.
Rookie undrafted free agent Denzel Rice had a big day. On one series, Tim Tebow took off running, and Rice punched the ball out for a fumble, then recovered it. On the next play he broke up a pass by Tebow. He also later had another pass breakup, which the Eagles’ staff loves. Rice had 22 pass breakups the last two years at Coastal Carolina. If he were drafted, that would have tied him for 4th in PBUs among cornerbacks that were drafted this offseason.
Rice has gotten praise from a few people so far. I did not think all that highly of him coming out of the draft, but Rice is getting enough buzz that I’m going to have to take him a bit more seriously as a roster or practice squad candidate.
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Sheil Kapadia offered some thoughts on Byron Maxwell.
Up first is Byron Maxwell against Josh Huff. Maxwell blankets him on an out towards the sideline. Huff dives and takes out an innocent bystander. And I mean takes out. Huff laid out and collided with the guy’s knees pretty violently. Luckily, Gary (he’s wearing a name tag) is able to get up and walk it off. That’s a tough dude right there. McManus would’ve been out for a month.
More from Maxwell. He sets up across from Nelson Agholor in press coverage. Agholor runs a go route down the right sideline. Sam Bradford delivers a good ball, but Maxwell gets his hand in between Agholor’s and breaks it up. He waves to the crowd afterwards, and the fans go nuts. Cory Undlin runs 20 yards to Maxwell to give him some love.
I asked Maxwell to describe the play after practice.
“I quick jammed him at the beginning, and probably like 15, 20 yards down the field I eased up, and I was like, ‘Alright he’s probably gonna run a comeback,’ ” he said. “He kept going, and he got position on me, so I was just trying to fight, stop him from catching the ball. I probably should have just been on top, but that’s how it works out sometimes. Don’t let him catch the ball though. No touchdowns.”
Maxwell never turned back to find the football, yet he got his hands in between Agholor’s and broke it up.
“Those guys’ eyes get big, their hands come up,” he said. “Body language just tells you everything so you just gotta go ahead, ‘OK, the ball is coming.’ “
I know some think the Eagles overpaid for Maxwell. I like everything about the guy and think he’s going to be a really good player on this defense for years to come.
I agree that Maxwell is going to be a good player. The Eagles did overpay for him, but they had to because they had no corners and the market was thin. That doesn’t mean Maxwell won’t be a good player. And the Eagles didn’t overpay in such a way as to hurt the team. They didn’t give him so much money that it limited other moves in a major way. They didn’t hand Maxwell so much money that it would make other star players jealous.
The Eagles had to go get Maxwell. They did. And so far he’s looking like the player they expected.
Make sure to go read all of Jimmy and Sheil’s practice notes. They provide tons of good nuggets.
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Chip Kelly had another PC. There weren’t any huge revelations, but he did have some good info.
* Kiko Alonso won’t be playing any OLB for now. With Travis Long out, Brad Jones and Brandon Hepburn are the players expected to help eat up reps on the outside.
* DeMarco Murray missed Monday due to hydration levels. The Eagles felt he was off, which would make him more susceptible to injury. They rested him. We learn something new about Sports Science all the time.
* Jason Peters is in the best shaped of his life. That’s encouraging to hear. Peters used to come in overweight and have to work on his conditioning. He’s really bought into Kelly’s ideas.
* He explained that there isn’t a lot of time for him to socialize with players. There are time limits on what players can do and they spend that on the practice field or with their specific position group. That doesn’t leave much time for the head coach to hang out with them. Chip said one of the things he misses about being a position coach is having closer relationships with players.
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There are reports that the Eagles are working on a short-term extension with Sam Bradford. Kelly would not address that topic. He won’t talk contracts.
I’m sure the Eagles would like to get something done with Bradford, but I’m not sure how likely that is. Bradford has plenty of money in the bank so he can roll the dice on himself and wait until February/March. If he goes for an extension now, that’s a sign he likes this situation and wants to stay.
He would still be a free agent in 2 or 3 years, and could land a mega-deal at that point.
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As to the RG watch…Matt Tobin was back with the 1’s on Tuesday. Right now it looks like he and Andrew Gardner are battling for the job, with John Moffitt trying to get into the competition.
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There is no practice today. Hopefully I’ll have a chance to catch up on some of the other things that have happened in the past few days.
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Ertz better get in there more. He is Pro Bowl material, just needs the snaps.
Here’s a toast to areak-out year for Ertz.
I like what chip is doing. Force him to become a quality blocler if he wants to play.. When ERTZ becomes a good blocker, his career will really take off. But we need him to grow into a quality blocker who can smash defenders in the run game.
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Once he becomes a credible blockimg threat, defenses have to put an extra LB in the game… If the defense puts the extra LB in the game. We send ERTZ in motion and split him out wide or in the slot, giving him a mismatch against a LB. If the defense doesn’t respect his blocking and go with Nickel or dime, putting another DB in the game, we audible Into a run, and play smash mouth football
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Once ERTZ becomes a player who’s blocking defenses have to respect, it will work wonders for him as a pass catcher, creating all types of mismatches against LBs that he can exploit… Improving on his blocking will make him a more dangerous pass catcher because of the matchups his improved run blocking would provide…
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When we are playing fast and have ERTZ and Sproles in the game, defenses will scramble to get lined up and make sure Sproles and ERTZ are covered. With the attention those two mismatch weapons command, it should give guys like Pope, Nelson and Huff 1 on 1 matchups to exploit
I understand all that, but it’s possible he may never be that much of a credible blocker. Look around the league at the majority of good blocking TE’s, they have a completely different body type. Ertz’s blocking will also be hurt by one of the things that makes him great.
Improving on your blocking ismt very hard. it’s like a basketball player improving on his defense.. Mostly Effort!… Technically it sounds like ERTZ technique has grown a lot.. Once you get the technique down, it’s all just effort… big, strong kid, with Long arms… No reason he can’t becone as good of a blocker as he wants… Keep polishing technique, and get stronger in the weight room… It’s a very correctable skill…
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if the Seahawks are forcing Jimmy to grow into a blocker, anyone can do it,.. That kid is so soft unless he is catching passes
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It’s not like ERTZ is an undersized TE… Practice blocking BARWIN and BG after practice every day, and he will be a good blocker in no time..
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while we could have used ERTZ more, forcing him to become a good blocker will pay off for us down the road.
I’m positive that all the hard work he put in this offseason will pay off this year.
I’m a firm believer in Talent in the hands of good coaching, plus Hard work will pay off no matter what we are talking about,,
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You don’t go train with a legendary blocking coach and not improve
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you don’t go work hard in the MMA training and not improve as an athlete.
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ERTZ has done everything in his search for Greatness.. he went to San Diego as one of our 12 players who created “Nest West” and trained together for a week
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kid even cold called Tony Gonzales and got him to meet with him
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No way, that a talented kid like him, puts in this type of work and Doesn’t Improve. I don’t even think that’s possible…Hard work, under the tutaledge of quality coaching will PAY OFF!
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even jimmy g says he’s blocking 75% of the time this season.
Yeah I saw that, but he is a pussy so I think that will prove to be a very exaggerated figure… Graham is a tough guy when he is up against DBs, but he is a pussy who is afraid to chip a nail when it comes to battling in the trenches against OLB.
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I will NEVER forget Barwin making Graham his Bitch in a playoff game… What an impressive job of defense Barwin did that day eliminating such a great weapon in Jimmy Graham…
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Graham probably won’t help Seattle run the ball, but the Seahawks now have the most dangerous pass catching weapon in that franchises History… nice to know that we have Barwin and now Kiko who can match up with him if we run into the Seahawks in the playoffs
Ertz looked like the teams star tight end in that practice, but Celek held his own as well.
I saw them both catching passes, but Ertz gets open regularly and he looked fantastic IMO.
I think this is Ertz’s year and we will see him explode this coming season.
Hopefully SB won’t be missing him running wide open half the time. If we can just consistently hit open guys we’ll be doing pretty well.
The ball is in Ertz’s court as they say. If he shows he can block nearly as well and continues to catch everything/stretch the field, I’m sure Chip will give him more time, but it is not up to Chip. It is up to Ertz. Celek is still a good TE and thus we are in a good position here.
Chip’s comments about not having enough time to get to know players is a cop-out IMO. Make time. It is very important and plenty of other good coaches take the time to build relationships with their players and not just the star or favorite players. Many of them build relationships that last their lifetimes which is as vital a part of the team “culture” as anything else.
A lot of players will respect a coach more if they reach out and connect and show they care. A coach can still retain the professional distance necessary to do his job effectively while making these efforts.
I’m not saying Chip does none of this, but I think a core of several of the ex-players comments have reflected that Chip is perceived as hard to connect with and may not be reaching out as much as he could.
I’m encouraged by Maxwell so far. the memory of Nnamdi is burned on my brain and I hope Maxwell makes me forget all about that scar with his play on the field.
If connecting with players isn’t a part of Chip’s social repertoire, he can’t just force it. You can detect when someone is just going through the motions because something is expected of them.
I think being true to himself is a far better option for Chip than forcing himself into uncomfortable social situations that make him come off as disingenuous. If need be, the players’ precious little feelings can be coddled by the assistant coaches…
Your sarcasm comes through clearly. I get it, you do not think this is important.
That’s fine, but as someone who has played and coached at many different levels, I’ve seen first hand that coaches who did not at least try to connect, interact and reach out to their players had shorter shelf lives as coaches at each stop, did not get as much respect overall by players and were not able to handle tough situations as well since the players did not fully trust them.
Coaches that try and fall short are still more respected than the ones who stay aloof and/or avoid those interactions and connections. Team work and chemistry, important parts of a team’s culture, are not build over night and can be as fragile as the next loss if not built on something solid.
If Chip truly believes in culture, I doubt he does not recognize the importance of this and hopefully is doing whatever he can to be available to his players and present working with them. It is not the “players’ precious feelings” that are at stake, it is the ultimate success of this team.
Fair enough, but Chip did just fine at Oregon. Do you think he was any more chummy with the players there than at the NFL level?
Again, it is not about “being chummy”. The coach does not need to be friends with them or orchestrate interactions like you said that players will know is fake. I assume you’ve played on teams of some sort before – think about what relationship the coach had with his players. It is more knowing the coach trusts you, will support you if you struggle, will challenge you when he thinks you’re not giving enough effort, who is available if you need to talk in his office, who asks about your life/family and treats people with respect. Those are the types you’ll run through a wall for or at least I would.
Chip does not avoid interaction with his players as has been stated by several different people inside and outside the organization. He may not have the same approach as Reid, who by the end was acting more like a father figure by all accounts. But that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, different people react differently to management techniques. Some people prefer more autonomy, some people like a more personal relationship, some like a degree of micromanagement.
my advisor, for example, was very distant because of how busy he was. I preferred it because I like struggling with problems, however, one of my friends despised how hands off he was. I flourished, my friend took short cuts. I had a great experience and great things to say about my advisor, he constantly complained. Perception of experience is never the same for everyone.
I think the discussion of how chip relates to players has to be taken with a grain of salt. When someone is disgrubtles with their role, their perception of those in charge is colored by their frustration. Boykin never got a fair shot on the outside, that had to get under his skin, and I am sure that effected the way he interacted with Chip. This article has a lot of good quotes about this topic from Barner and Ike Reece http://mobile.philly.com/sports/eagles/?wss=/philly/sports/eagles&id=320709891
Thanks for sharing that article, I’m encouraged more about Chip after reading that and hope this is all about nothing. I agree that some people talk out after they are traded or released etc. out of frustration i.e. make things up or exaggerate to make themselves look better. It was more the consistency of what was said and also Boykin not being any type of malcontent that got my attention. We’ll have to see how it goes, but yes I hope it is all about nothing.
To be clear, Boykin could truly feel as though chip never related. Have you ever left a job and complained about how poor management is? I have several times. And while checking on jobs on Glassdoor he most common complaint I saw was “poor management” or “management didn’t relate”. It isn’t that people make up the disconnect, but that friction created an inability to relate, feelings of being passed over or never being heard properly. I truly believe Boykin felt he didn’t relate because he felt he never got the opportunity he deserved. And I think he is justified in feeling that way. But that doesn’t mean chip does not relate to other people on the team or in the organization.
All good points, thanks
Doesn’t the new labor agreement prescribe definitive limitations on contact that coaches can have with players, especially during the off-season? When a player is in he Nova Complex for a workout in February, I don’t believe coaches are able to smoosch with them over a cup of coffee any longer.
[February]
*Boykin walks into Chip’s office*
BOYKIN: hey coach
CHIP: but…the CBA!
*Chip jumps out window*
I wish I could do animation, because this would be an awesome cartoon.
Earl Wolff? I haven’t heard much about him, or notived anything positive he did, but He claims he was 100% participant on Sunday. But I haven’t heard anything about him these last two practices. Anyone see any Wolff reports?
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Please share any Earl Wolff tidbits you come across…
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On a more positive note, not just JaCorey and Rice, Jerome Couplin is also making some noise.. Be great if he turns out to be a keeper at Safety,, we need a young safety that can make plays
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I’d like to see Jaylen Watkins step up and start making noise.. They are rotating the depth chart, so watkins sill soon take over for JaCorey with the ones… I’d like to see Jaylen Watkins start to stand out…
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randall Evans better step up or he will be on the Practice Squad with Denzel Rice taking his roster spot
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Ed Reynolds picture needs to be placed on a Milk Carton… Kid is invisible… Prosinski made some nice plays tho
Rice is a special player. I’d hope he beats out Evans who has held too much, I’ve heard, and who could be a penalty machine in the making.
Yeah The Evans pick does nothing for me… We are going to want to keep Rice, I’m just not sure in which capacity? Roster or Practice Squad.. Personally I’m almost at the point where I’m ready to sacrifice Evans to put Rice on the roaster to not risk him being poached by another team.. Still annoyed that the Browns stole Poyer after we tried to get him on our Practice squad, and since then he has emerged as a nice young player for them. He even saw playing time ahead of Justin Gilbert but now they moved him to safety…. it would suck to see a team poach Rice
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Nolan Carroll has won the majority of the offseason competitions. Coach Undlin was smart to turn all the offseason work into a spirited competition. Every day Undlin created a new competition for the DBs and Nolan won most of them,,,, Nolan set the record for fastest in terms of Miles per Hour, forget if he measured in at 22miles per hour or 29, but the record he set was the fastest and it remained the top score for a while until Rice beat it, and now Rice holds to fastest, Miles per hour measurement
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I have heard multiple observes say that our DBs look significantly more active in practice then the DBs did in past summers… I’m so excited about the Secondary upgraded, it will allow our front 7 to reach that next level and solidify themselves as the top front 7 in the NFC, Bills are the best front 7 in AFC
If Bradford’s health woes are behind him (which I think they will be) I could see us not only dominating the division this year but also for years to come. Giants will need a new HC and QB soon, Cowboys are in cap hell and Romo isn’t getting any young. With the Redskins, I’m not sure what to say. They intrigue me.
I def agree with that… if Bradford puts the injuries behind him, we should be a division powerhouse for years to come…
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Giants won’t ever really matter again until they rebuild(at least a new coach with a new voice)…
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Cowboys have an Old QB with back problems, average at best defense,,and they have a roster filled with Human scum. All that scum may be able to stay under control for 1 years. But with all that Lack of Charecter, the Hard times could get really ugly, and with all this lack of Charecter, I think the Cowboys window is very small, and that they aren’t good enough to take advantage of the windown they have left… What’s most insane is that Jerry Jones hasnt even started to think about looking for a young QB to start developing for life after Romo.
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The Skins, I admit upgraded their roster,, but the dysfunctional love triangle between RG3, Gruden and Dan Snyder probably isn’t going to work.. And it’s not like they have a strong locker room culture that can overcome it.. I will say that the skins have improved in a few areas. that Front 7 should be much better having added Potroast and Jumior Gallette. But their secondary is still going to be very poor
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if Bradford and Sanchez remain healthy, in philly….. injuries are the only thing that can stop us from dominating the division the next few years
Spot on with describing the Redskins. I just have a feeling that this whole thing is going to work out and in a few years we’ll win a super bowl (plus Sam Bradford’s initials are SB as are the initals for Super Bowl).
I easily think we are the most talented team we have seen since 2004… A lot has to go right (stay healthy) for our Talemt to matter…
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But with the Nasty Philly Defense we will see this year, plus a dominant run game(Hopefully), we should be very tough to beat, because while QB play is always important. We have a supporting cast that will help Bradford and not always ask him to do too much!
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If you don’t have a QB, the Blueprint to contending without a Qb is TOP DEFENSE and Dominant Run game… I have no doubt this defense will be top notch by the end of the year, and assuming the OL Gels we should have a dominant run game….. Basically what I’m trying to say Is I feel like we followed the blueprint for contending without a QB/passing attack, yet we actually also happen to have a very talented QB with Tons of pass catching weapons.. Which should allow us to not ask Bradford to carry us. chip and this Talemted Roster should make playing the QB position much easier then it was in St. Louis…. Even if Bradford is rusty, we have the supporting cast to win with Bradford as a game manager, yet Bradford is oozing with all types of talemt you don’t see in Game managers…
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chip kelly has led an offense that put up plenty of points for us, but Now he has a special QB talent .. I’m giddy at the thought of what an offensive Guru like Chip can do with a QB with so much talent… A QB talent like SAM, in chips offense, atockpiled with weapons could be a scary year…. But past this season, if SAM can go on and be our QB for the next 4-5 years and stay healthy, I wouldn’t bet against chip getting to the SUPERBOWL, with a QB talent like SAM…especially since,we are going to have a top Defense the next few years…
very good points. all bradford has to do is be a point guard
Kevin Kolb writes about his concussions:
http://mmqb.si.com/2014/10/23/kevin-kolb-concussions-mexico-hurricane
It’s little Jesus-y for my taste (if god had such a great plan for you, why did he bash your brain in and make you an ineffective quarterback?), but it’s got some interesting/horrifying takes on his condition.
haha, maybe that WAS the plan
Kevin seems like a good guy and I hope he recovers more fully. I sure wish the Grand Plan for his life never involved being drafted by the Eagles, I hated that pick from day 1.
no practice today? WTF. Didn’t they just have all winter off?
Practice?
I believe you mean “training”
ha! true.
Not to keep posting links, but this is cool story about the Eagles press corps.
http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/bethlehem/index.ssf/2015/08/eagles_training_camp_still_boo.html
If you’ve been to camp and to that shop, you’ll know that the owner is a fantastic guy and losing T.C. in Lehigh was a big hit to the business.
Stephan donkey smith, and that Clown skip Bayless continue their race baiting crap, ripping chip kelly… I fuckin despise two players: Riley redneck Cooper and I will always hate shady McCoy for bring this garbage to our summer.. Piece of shit needed to throw that grenade on the way out, I will NEVER forgive shady for leaving Eagles nation to deal with this crap… And Tre Thomas is on my shit list too.. He is a mature adult, no excuse for him to act like a butthurt, unprofessional dick because we didn’t keep him after helping him break into coaching by giving him two years worth of experience..
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I seriously respect and like friggin Tebow more then shady, Tre and Cooper, and I never thought I would like Tebow more then shady who gave us so many great memories, but I will NEVER be able to celebrate the Eagles careers of those 3 players in the future… I hate that they brought this racial ignorance to our door step.. Not only did they bring racial ignorance to Eagles nation, but they brought this ignorance to our City… Hope Lurie NEVER celebrates the career of those 3 players
Stephen A Smith is a dangerous character. He has a forum and because he’s black people look to him as a semi-spokesman for the race – as they do with many others who have the same platform. Because he’s also vociferous in talking about race, he gets a lot of attention, regardless of whether it’s intelligent analysis or not.
I hate both of those guys because there’s nothing intelligent about their views or conversations, and so when they say dumb stuff like they do and get people riled up – what’s worse is there’s no consequences for them to not use such charged rhetoric.
100% agree.. Extremely dangerous and absolutely irresponsible
Man, I agree with you 100%. I grew up with guys like SAS, both white and black, and they are almost always self-serving. In this case, SAS has a platform because the determing factor is ratings, not truth.
He’s also a misogynist. I can’t take anyone’s views on race too seriously if they’re misogynists (you too, McCoy).
Great comment! This is something my wife and I talk about when speaking about him. Each time he opens his mouth we learn more about the type of person he is, and me personally – the more I hear the more I think he’s a shitty person.
I’m originally from East Germantown and “Phil from Mt Airy” reminds me of a lot of people that I grew up with.
It’s best to disregard anything those two say. They get viewers by taking extreme/ignorant stances and debating them.
One reason I’m starting to hope Tebow pans out, is so that there is no room for Chip to consider RG3 after the skins trash him after another disastrous season.. I’d rather have 4 years of Tebow in midnight green, then one year of that mutt RG3…. I’d rather chip pick up EJ Manuel as a project to work with instead of bringing RG3 or Geno smith to Philly…
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If it didn’t work out with Bradford, Trading for Kapernick could be the next “flier” chip takes,,,,, but I don’t see Kapernick having the character or work ethic that would make chip want to work with him..
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Ideally Bradford is amazing and stays healthy, Sanchez remains the best backup in the game, and Tebow pans out as a #3 who continues to improve. It would be nice to have some QB continuity next year
I wouldn’t mind a flyer on Kap or RGKnee. A trade and a fall from grace may be the motivational kick in the rear that they need to get focused. They’d do it a lot earlier in their career than Vick and may actually focus on improving exponentially.
Interesting, which would you prefer? I think I’d be more interested in Kaep for durability and coachability reasons.
Me too. One of the things I like about him is that he tries to avoid contact, so he gets down or out of bounds which I think would be important with CK.
that slide is a think of beauty
Definitely Kapernick.,,, probably is, I’m not sure either are coachable enough for Chip, and they certainly don’t seem like potential leaders of a chip Kelly locker room… But at least Kapernick has some talent to work with, I think RG3 is a hot pile of garbage and was one of the few who said it even when he was putting up numbers as a rookie thru a style of at he would never be able to sustain, being such a wreck less runner and so poor at getting to his 2nd and 3rd progressions..
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Kapernick at least has some talent I would be curious to see in Chips offense. There is LITERALLY NOTHING I like or respect about RG3 and his skill set
Kap is preferred but may not have the Football IQ, that Chip covets. Also, he might lack quick decision-making skills.
that’s what I was thinking. Kaep is perfect from the shoulders down, but doesn’t seem to be wired to QB in the NFL. RG3 also has the tools from the shoulders down, but he isn’t durable, and he’s a total head case to boot. You can make an offense around Kaep that can be pretty dynamic. There would be times when his limitations would show and others he makes the offense do things no one else can. RGIII is a step away from a melt down at any moments.
I don’t disagree… Think KAp would Intruig chip a little more, but I think we would have to be QB desperate to look towards their direction, hopefully that won’t be the case,… I love what chip did to this roster, but tge sooner we find our QB, and start getting continuity at the QB spot, the better.
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hopefully Bradford and Sanchez stay healthy, and prove to be a 1-2punch we can build around.,…
for me the issue isn’t with his skillset, but he’s a headcase with durability issues. There is just nothing that fixes that.
August 16, 1 p.m. – Colts. Hard to believe but true – that’s when we can really see where this team really is and what needs to happen before the bell.
I know a lot of people hate preseason, but this is why I love it. It really gives you an idea of where things are and you can try things that you wouldn’t do in the regular season.
Plus, they get tape and can see technique against competition and get a few weeks to fix it.
I like preseason too but only a small percentage of the questions that a team has are ever answered in preseason.
So hard to believe!
I am looking forward to how our D responds to Luck. Chip knows Luck, and has schemed well against him. Billy D better not mess up our D scheme!
Oh, also “The Assassin” will love hitting Luck and intercepting his passes.
“Scheme for Luck”?? Chip may know how to defend Luck, but August 16th our defense will be as vanilla as it gets, with our best defenders going thru the motions tryimg to get thru the game Healthy…how our starting defense performs against Luck in August means NOTHING..it will be vanilla defenses and pffense that we would never see in a regular season match up between Chip vs. Luck……
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I don’t expect to get much out of watching our 1st team Offense and Defense who will prioritize staying healthy and not showing our real players, over running thru brick walls trying to stop the colts and put up points at all costs.. Preseason games are more for our young players and depth competitions…
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the Only things I’m really looking for from the starters in the Preseason is:
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1) Getting Bradford ready while keeping him on a tight leash:
a) Let him face as few live pass rushes
B) łet him get used to playing at our “footbakl on Meth” Tempo
C)’Let him mainly work on our run plays. Our run game is very different then what he has experience in. preseash can get him comfortable in our run plays. While not risking him much in the preseason.. The ONLY thing I ask is that we let Bradford get accustomed to our run game, but do it with Backup RBs… No reason Demarco, Ryan !athews or Sproles should get more then 5’carries in a preseason game..
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2) Offensive Line continuity, we are still playing “Musical chairs” with our RG’s.. It’s important that Lane and Kelce get some live action to build chemistry with the RG that will lineup between them
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3) like to get a few running plays with ERTZ as a blocker on tape to look at.
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Defensively, there isn’t much I expect to get out of watching our starting defense..Guys like Cox, Kiko, Meco DONT have anything to prove. #1 priority is not getting hurt…I would like to see a few things:
Starting Defense:
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1) Id like to see Taylor Hart and Marcus Smith get snaps early in the game, so they can get some tape of how they look going live against starting Offensive lineman.. Guys Like Cox and Thornton can Sacrafice some first team teps to Taylor Hart, and Barwin and BG DONT need to play much, let MS2 get some of their snaps against startng Tackles… Outside Linebacker is Going to be very Important this next month. We need to get a close look at a bunch of options and try and find a suitable replacement for Travis Long… And we lack depth so Id rather not risk BG and Barwin much..
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2) Id like to see how Natural Thurmond looks playing Safety, I absolutely trust him in man coverage or playing Center field, but Im curious to see if he can tackle like a safety and with teams not wanting to risk their starting QB much, he should be able to get some decent work in against the run which is my main question that I need answered concerning Thurmond
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3) No need to risk Maxwell too much.. I’d like to see Eric ROWE, Shepard and Jaylen Watkins get a couple snaps against starting WRs. Hopefully our opponents lineup in a few 3 WR sets
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Only thing left that I look for from our starters is Im hoping Cody Parkey and Donnie Longball look to pick up at the high level thy left off last year..
And something important to me is getting Donnie a few punting opportunities, because Donnie and Boykin were a great pair on punt Coverage. Need to find a special team players who can fill Boykins shoes and down punts as well as he did these past two years..
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Other then that.. I don’t expect to see much from th starters. Get thru games and weeks without getting injured and I’ll be Thrilled. With that said this should still be one of the more exciting and important preseasons we have had because we have a lot of talent on the bench battling for the right to fill our depth spots… this is about as much Talemt as we could hope to see during the second half of our preseason games.. hopefully TEBOW and Barkley throw well to really make the second half interesting
You know its funny that you mention it will be Vanilla. In 2013 we saw all kinds of crazy formations and personnel groups that we never ended up seeing in the season. Then in 2014 pretty standard play. I think I recall Chip saying last year that he schemed for the pre-season and wasn’t worried about anyone finding out what he was going to do in the regular season. Think he said something along the line of “Why would we do anything different than the regular season, we are preparing for the regular season.”
Very interested to see what he does this year in pre-season. I think a bunch of positions were pretty well decided before training camp even started last year. Not so much the case now. I would love to see him bust out all 3 ILBs in a 4-3 or even 4-3 under look. Want to see Ertz run block. Want to see J Matt outside… and Sproles in the slot. I want to see the 4 TE set from 2013 pre-season. Wildcat with Tebow and Kinne?
I’m just getting pretty amped up.
This is certainly going to be a harder roster to make then past years, and that alone makes preseason important for us,.. Should see some Battles for backüp spots… We will probably see guys talented enough to make last years team get cut this year because of our improved depth.
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if Barkley and TEBOW play decent enough, it should be more fun then it usually is in the second half
Well said.
Plus T. Cole and Herremans and Gore and Andre Johnson and Ty Hilton. Hopefully all those vets won’t play
Here’s a question for the board:
Zach Ertz has worked this offseason to become a better blocker (and player), so he can compete for the starting job. Celek is probably still the better blocker (geez he looks almost like a lineman when blocking), but Ertz is light years ahead of him in terms of what he can do as a receiver.
Question: If Ertz’s blocking isn’t as good as Celek’s, but it’s pretty good overall – does he start?
More two tight-end formations. I think the Eagles would kill from that scheme and I get to avoid your difficult question.
Nice loophole. 🙂
Man I feel like we have been clamoring for two TE sets ever since we got the TE from the Bengals, back when Smith was here. I don’t even remember his name. Fast forward to having Casey, Ertz, and Celek.
Boy, your answer was a long way from the question. I should have kept scrolling before answering.
That’s the secret to my success, hoping people won’t realize I didn’t answer the question until I’m out of town and away from the tar and feathers.
Ha! No, I meant the actual physical (virtual?) location of the text was far off because of all the other answers. The content of your answer was on point.
What IM WAITING for is 2TE, 2RB, 1WR:
ERTZ, Celek both on the line looking like they will run block, Jordan Mahews as the only WR out wide.. Ryan Mathews and Sproles in the backfield for a series, ready to rev up the Tempo:
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1st Down: Fake the Toss to Sproles, hand off up the middle to Ryan Mathews. Hurry up, get lined up, ready to go fast.
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2nd down: fake hand of to Ryan Mathews who becomes a lead blocker, hand off to Sproles and let him explode up field behind Big Ryan Mathews blocking for him. hurry up, and get lined up ready To go fast..
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3rd and 2.. Come out looking to run again. But then move Sproles to the slot next to Jordan Mathews out wide, and split ERTZ out wide on the opposite side, with Celek remaining on the Line blocking.. Look at how the defense scrambles to account for Sproles and ERTZ moving into a pass catcher position, if they have Linebackers on them we can throw to Sproles or ERTZ against Linebackers, if they have Nickel or Dime with extra DBs, or they don’t have many players in the Box. We can always hand it off to Ryan Mathews and expect our 5Lineman plus Celek to get Mathews two yards,,
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When you have versatile mismatch weapons like ERTZ and Sproles, you really do put yourself in position to have an answer for whatever the defense tries to do.. defense puts more DBs on the field, turn Ryan Mathews into a lead blocker for Sproles and have ERTZ, Celek and Jordan BOCKING and smashing DBs… If the defense has too many men in the box, you flex ERTZ and Sproles out to a pass catching role, and you can either throw to Sproles or ERTZ(which ever has a LB on them), or if they have DBs on the field ERTZ can out jump any DB in this league…. Defenses are going to fear ERTZ and Sproles as mismatch weapons, so it’s great to go fast when we have them on the field because you pressure defenders to hurry up and get lined up, scrambling to make sure they have a decent matchup on Sproles or ERTZ, the more we pressure defenses, the more then scramble to get lined up correctly, the more suceptible they are to making mistakes giving us a big play opportunity…
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I really NEED to see us maximize the versatility of Sproles, ERTZ, Celek, Big Jordan, and a RB like Ryan Mathews who can take a hand off or be a lead blocker for Sprolea..we can do so much damage wth that formation.
Ertz looked like a serviceable blocker, did he not? Didn’t light the world on fire but it’s not like he was Jimmy Graham out there in terms of blocking.
Yeah, but CK kept him off the field in favor of Celek the better blocker. He should be better this year, so I’m wondering if he gets the nod.
The weapons of Matthews, Ertz, Sproles is known, and I think Huff will make some real strides this year. I think this offense is going to be the best we’ve seen including 2013 – if Bradford stays healthy. More opportunity for sustained drives.
I dunno, I thought Graham did better than Ertz at blocking?
The real question is -do you score more points with Ertz as weapon in the passing game than you do with Celek’s assets as a blocker?
I think that’s situational. Kelly hasn’t shown the best situational game planning yet, but I’d bet that’s where he makes a big improvement this year.
Someone is starting to understand Chip.
Yes.
Does he start? Doesn’t even matter as far as I’m concerned… What Matters is the percentage of snaps he gets significantly increasing, and I do expect that to Happen…
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my Guess is that,THIS year, we will see,Ertz pass Celek, and we end up seeing something like ERTZ playing 55% of snaps and Celek playing 45% or at most a 60/40 split… And then in ERTZ 4th year(season after next) take the next step and start commanding 80-85% of #1 TE snaps.. Due to a combo of ERTZ continuing to Develope and Celek starting to get up there in age.
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This season, I do expect ERTZ to play MORE snaps then Celek, which is a big step in the right direction from last year, but it should be close to an even split (if both stay Healthy all year).. And then the 2016 Season. ERTZ really takes the final step and starts to dominate #1 TE snaps, while Celek further declines..
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But even tho Celek will still cut into some of his snaps, I still expect a Monster year from ERTZ
I hope so. A crazy idea that popped in my was was that Celek should start at RG lol. He’s proven to be a good blocker so why not give him a chance?
Pretty-good is pretty ambiguous. I think that there is probably an acceptable level in Chips mind. If that is reached I think he absolutely does. Celek hasn’t gotten much love as a receiver lately, and has developed some drop issues as his blocking prowess has improved.
What if Celek’s blocking is as good as advertised and he improved his hands this off-season?
Could the guard play factor in to this decision?
I wonder about that. Even if Celek’s hands improved, is his speed and hands close to Ertz? No. But as @bertsbells:disqus pointed out, which one will lead to more points? Is it Celek’s blocking or Ertz’s receiving?
If Ertz’s blocking is good enough I think the latter. If not, probably the former.
If Ertz can block at an acceptable level, maybe we can move Celek to guard.
I think more than replacing Celek, I think if Ertz is good enough blocking we might see more two TE sets. Chip will use Ertz to force teams to stay in base defense, or punish them with the run if they don’t.
He damn well better. It makes me sick to my stomach that we’re paying Celek $5 mil / year for a 32 catch / 340 yard / 1 TD season.
Why wasn’t this dude’s salary reduced?
With Ertz been so much better than Celek, we could force teams to play dime against 3WR sets with Ertz, taking a DL or LB out of the picture.
Great point. Seeing Ertz go up the seam vs. fat boy LBs is going to be great.
I just can’t wait for the first time the Eagles toast Landon Collins. For a 2nd round draft pick, the Giants’ team, reporters, and fans think he’s some combo of Ed Reed and Steve Atwater…………except he SUCKS. We should hang half a hundred on the Giants both times we play them this year.
Great topic Tommy as Eagle fans need to know what this team is up to and I appreciate all that you do.
Compiling information and presenting to us in a clear and highly informative way is one your best forte’s, and nobody can do it better.
Since I was fortunate to actually be there, I can recall most of the events you had mentioned.
I saw that hit Ertz took and when he caught that pass, and as he was tackled the ball got lodged between Ertz’s stomach and the ground, and if anyone here has ever had the wind knocked out of them in similar fashion, then you know how that feels.
He was in pain, but he only laid there for about 20 seconds before standing up and gingerly walking to the sidelines.
He walked it off and then jumped right back into the drill.
He is one tough S.O. B., IMO, as I might still be laying there if it had happened to me. LOL.
Sam seemed to overthrow a few receivers, but I could clearly see how good of an arm he had as he was throwing it on a rope with ease, while the rest of our QB’s seemed to have more of an arc.
When Sam uses ARC’s it’s only on those deeper routes that require said arc.
He missed on several passes, but it’s to be expected as he has not been a full go for over a year.
The QB competition was won by Sanchez that day, and it wasn’t even close for obvious reasons like how much more time he has spent with the team.
If you take into consideration of Sam being so new, I think he is well ahead of where I would expect him to be at this stage.
Sanchez just seemed to have better timing and accuracy at this early stage, but I can see that Sam is closing the gap quickly.
Oh and by the way, that part about Tebow getting the ball knocked out of his hands was not quite right.
The play was basically over and Tebow loosened his grip and allowed the ball to be knocked out IMO, but I liked the intensity of the player knocking it out regardless.
All said. I think the Eagles look good as we are so early into training camp but one thing I did see was Lane Johnson and Jason Peters, as they were closest to where I was sitting, doing several drills and they both look like they are ready to destroy opposing defenses, as if a game was scheduled for today, they would be more than ready.
They looked like two massive beasts that are ready to dominate defenses.
On a personal note, I left training camp and decided to walk across the street to watch the Phillies and saw one of the best Phillie games I have seen in a long time.
How often do the Phillies hit grand slams? I felt it was icing on the cake.+
What a game.
Good stuff, thanks. My favorite, “They looked like two massive beasts that are ready to dominate defenses.”
Congrats on seeing the gs. Rare event, indeed.
Oh great not only is Huff reckless with the ball in his hands but now he’s reckless trying to get the ball? #DuckBias
http://m.bleacherreport.com/articles/2520265-nfl-urban-legends-donovan-mcnabbs-super-puke
Interesting read.
I feel like throwing up every time I think about those cheating Patriots.
Yeah it was pretty sad to read that article because I was like damn the Eagles had a squad that year yet they just couldn’t pull it off.
I hated that we tried the onside kick in the super bowl. I thought we should have kicked off, forced the 3 and out, had them punt to Westbrook who might have been able to make a big return, or if not at least we’d be getting the ball around the 30 or 40 most likely. 45 seconds to get in field goal range in that position is not unreasonable, even if we had no timeouts. It was killer that they got to punt from so far forward, and once the ball was so far back we had pretty much no shot at all.
3 turnovers in a Super Bowl game we lost by 3 points,,,,SMH, we should not have lost that game,,
#spygate
LeSean McCoy has been held out of team drills at Bills camp due to “toe soreness” the last two days.
We don’t usually post day-to-day injury notes, but this one stood out because McCoy battled a turf-toe condition in 2014, which seemed to cost him the ability to beat defenders to the edge. “It’s not turf toe or anything like that,” coach Rex Ryan insisted of the “new” injury. “But that’s kind of a soreness/swelling type thing. It’s not something that’s really going to hamper him in the near future.” Ryan believes McCoy will play in the Bills’ intrasquad scrimmage on Saturday night.
Wonder if the sports science staff saw something they didn’t like in his foot last year…
I don’t think it was that staff, maybe the Communications Dept. Kicking girls off the bus on the turnpike, leaving $0.01 tip, or even rumors of beating a woman. Now in his time up in Buffalo, he’s 1) called CK a racist, 2) tried to have a stripper party for those 21+, and 3) has acted like a child since leaving.
Well yeah, there’s that
I might be a bit hard on him, but I think that came after he left. I was a Shady fan, but seeing him off the team makes me realize partially why he’s gone.
I haven’t forgiven him for having his Twitter followers harass and bully the mother of his child.
And not tell them it’s crappy to do that.
That is just a gross mischaracterization of the facts.
1. He didn’t kick the girl off on the turnpike, he threw her off at a rest stop. Clearly Shady was taking care of his lower body, even back then.
2. The tip was $.20.
3. The party wasn’t for strippers. It was open to all professions of women who met the physical criteria and wanted to pretend to be strippers.
4. Shady acted like a child long before leaving Philly. We just looked the other way.
factcheckbeatdown
Jimmy’s drawing of McCoy sulking with his Tonka truck is engraved on my mind forever. ;~D ;~D
They definitely know more than we do and I wouldn’t put it past them to have some knowledge. I was very worried when it first came out that he had turf toe last season but he seemed to battle through it.
You could see it in the way he ran…
I really hated how he ran last year…. I know people praised the numbers he put up.. And some of it is due to the OL mess we had to overcome, but I didn’t enjoy watching shady play last year.,,. Too Often defenders were sitting on his cutback lanes and instead of adjusting his strategy he would cut right back into defenders, and then run around and lose yards.. Which certainly Wasnt going to help a QB that Im sure was playing a lot of those early games pretty banged.. FOles took a beating the first half of the Jags game, and the OL just became a mess, FOles kept taking beatings like the skins game, and shady wasn’t helping him enough…sometimes helping a QB is taking the 1 yards Instead of the 4yard loss, especially when we had such a ST advantage with the field position game..
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2013 Shady was one of the funniest runners I ever seen…2014 shady for me was infuriating but it wasn’t ALL his fault. Not Easy to run when Molk was getting Blown up 3 yards into the backfield as soon as the ball was snapped on every play…
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Especially when your OL is having problems, need a Discaplined RB. Shady did Foles and Sanchez no favors last year.. But his yard total was impressive considering his OL
We rarely saw the moves last year that we saw in 13′.
This from a guy posting on another board:
“I had it my senior year in HS as a WR and played on it. It is a debilitating injury, if severe. I lost 2-3 steps playing on it, broke the entire philangeal column on the foot as a result of not resting it and continuing to play on it, played on a metal plate the coaches had wood/metal shop carve for me, and coped by taking about 15 advil and 15 ephedrine in order to practice and play.
My recommendation is rest, which is the only real cure, and for longer than the player thinks he’s feeling pain. It’s essentially a broken big toe, with more severe injuries involving all of the connective tissues like ligaments, etc. Doctors can speak more on it, I only know what I was told and experienced as a kid. My injury permanently deformed my big toe and inhibits my ability to sustain long, grueling athletic endeavors to this day, 18 years later.”
ouch
“ESPN’s Dianna Marie Russini said to “look for” Chris Polk “to be the first one to see if he can hold down the fort” while Arian Foster (groin) is out.”
Additionally, Shady being held out of practice b/c of a “toe injury” could this be a lingering injury from last year? #sportsscience
It is going to be incredibly ironic if we trade a consistently healthy McCoy for a recovering Kiko and sign an oft injured duo to replace him then see McCoy as the one who struggles to stay on the field.
I hope chip doesn’t get the credit for selling high!
that would be too much
The toe injury is not new. I do wonder how much it slowed him last year
Savvy move by Polk going to the Texans, knowing Arian Fosters propensity for injury. Now he might have the chance to make a name for himself, a chance he never would have gotten here barring serious injury issues.
Actually, Polk is out right now with hamstring issues…
I actually don’t know if you’re joking
http://www.fantasypros.com/nfl/news/41160/chris-polk-recovering-from-hamstring-injury.php
*sigh*
just Polk-in around.
Yeah, I like his chances to beat out Blue if he gets on the field and doesn’t sit out all summer. I’m hoping Polk does get the first look at carrying the load in the regular season… I have always been curious to see what he can do in a main role…Gonna try and get him in a late round if I end up finding a fantasy football league
You were correct the other day on that. I didn’t realize the coaches had Polk over Blue on their depth chart.
Maybe…but that’s just Russini’s opinion.. You can also find plenty of reports that say Blue is next up behind Foster… Truth is, their coaches probably need this summer to figure out is Polk or Blue the #2… Both backs have Talent. If Foster can’t play, Id guess we see close to an even split between those two RBs…. But the Texans are,said to be high on Polk
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I’m thankful Polk didnt sigń with Dallas
After doing some reading on Blue from a per touch perspective; they need to play Polk.
yeah I might take polk late round in fantasy, TX rbs put up numbers.
Polk 3+ 100 yard games in first 8 weeks. Mark it down.
I’d be curious to know if any of our former players are still using any of the sports sciemce methods they learned here now that they are playing for teams who don’t require that of them? I wouldn’t be surprised to hear that guys like Herremans or Cole are still using some of what they learned here to continue and take care of their bodies., where as you can bet Cary has already forgotten everything he learned here
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Think it’s real cool to have Kiko’s unique perspective about “Eagles conditioning”.. He spent his college career practicing under Chip. Then he spent a year in a Traditional old school NFL organization, and now he is back to practicing the Chip way, which has probably been tweaked and improved upon since Kiko played for Chip at Oregon.. Cool to hear Kiko talk about how he imagined how tough it would be to play against the Eagles Tempo when he was in Buffalo because you can’t prepare for our Tempo and the conditioning it takes in one week..
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I think a major advantage for us is to have a defense THATS so well conditioned that it can practice against Chips offense every day.. No way an opponents defense should be as conditioned as ours.. Typically you get way more tired playing defense then offense, so we know how effective our offense can be in the second half after wearing down defenses,.. I don’t think I ever seen a Team OWN JJ Watt like we did last year,in the second half, and it’s not like andrew Gardner outclassed JJ Watt with his talent. Our tempo SLAYED Watt, ripped his heart out left him gasping for air in the 2nd half… I NEVER NEVER NEVER seen JJ Watt so ineffective..
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So Generally speaking, playing defense takes more conditioning then playng offense… Yet in Philly, our defense NEEDS to be conditioned enough to be able to practice against our offenses tempo, which means our Defense should be at a higher level of conditioning then all the other defenses..
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so while its naturally more tiresome to play Defense then offense’ our tempo magnifies that more then other teams.. Our Offense should have bigger conditioning advantage against opposing defenses then other teams… While our Defenses conditioning, should close the conditioning gap against opposing offenses because we can handle our Tempo..
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The Key this year is going to be EXECUTE EXECUTE EXECUTE so that we can exploit our conditioning advantage to the fullest, the better we execute, the more our PRactive methods provide an advantage. When we get the ball, 3 and outs squash our conditioning advantage. But if the Dfense executes and picks down a first down or two, if you don’t get a 6 and OUT against us, and you let us pick up two first downs, the conditioning advantage kicks in and we are probably going to end the drive with points on the board… We have seen our offense wear defenses down, but our defense hasn’t always done its part… We will really DESTROY opponents with CONDITIONING when the Offense, and Defense both do their job.. offense needs to pick up the two first downs leading to a scoring drive, and the Defense NEEDS to IMMEDIATELY ANSWER with a 3’and OUT which we haven’t seen enough of. We were awesome on 1st and 2nd down and then we blew it on 3rd down.. Once we start getting 3 and outs after our scoring drives, putting the opposing defense back on the field quickily to try and stop our Tempo Offense when it’s executing, THATS when we are seriously just going to start blowing Teams out of the stadium with our conditioning.,.. And we haven’t seen enough of that under chip which tells us there is a whole other level to the potency of this team that we can reach…. Offense gets two first downs, we end up scoring, Defense goes 3 and out. Quickily getting our Dfense back on the field, Offense picks up two first downs, we score again… That’s when we will really end up destroying teams… ESPECIALLY!!! Since OUR ELITE Special Teams will add to our Bombardment of Tempo by giving us the field position advantages to make like even easier for our offense and defense..
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We finally have the defense in place that can get the 3 and out immediately after a scoring Drive…. If we Execute, we are going to reach new heights in terms of potency
Eagles are signing UAB DE/OLB Diaheem Watkins to replace Travis Long on the 90-man roster.
Thanks,
Time to make the trip to youtube
He needs to spend about a year on PEDs, looked like Marcus Smith this time last year.
He’s probably just a guy to eat reps and snaps during preseason games
Denzel Rice seems to be passing Randall Evans on the invisible depth chart in the early going. Evans has been getting burned on the outside like a misplaced slot corner and should be moved to the slot to show what he can do there.
Chip raved about him again today, a “kid that seems to have a gnack for always being around the ball who they spent a lot of time with in the predraft process
Diaheem Watkins gets the ‘plays faster than his timed speed’ tag, and his timed speed probably kept him from getting drafted, a full half second slower than Andy Studebaker.
All the Studebaker talk the last couple days lol
I’m glad you find it amusing but it makes sense to bring in a few guys who are 250+ since the backup OLB spot is a question mark. I have no idea what the coaches did or didn’t see in Marcus Smith last year, and most onlookers are reserving judgement. There are as always a bunch of guys on the 90 man roster with no chance of sticking, some who are there to fill the numbers needed for drills and pre-season groupings.
Aside from Smith and D. Watkins there are no 250+ backups competing at OLB. Acho and Brad Jones are good players but they’re smaller than the traditional guys you have going up against the OTs. Jordan Dewalt-Ondijo is a smaller guy who, if you look at the Youtube, is a smart Duke grad that knows and practices all the edge rushing moves. You would assume the team has him ahead of D. Watkins because both are pure OLBs and they would have cut Dewalt-Ondijo to bring in D. Watkins otherwise.
Brad Jones is maybe a step faster than Studebaker, but over 10 pounds lighter. The Eagles picked up Jones for ILB before the Alonso trade and Ryans’ new contract. He’s played well but the Packers wanted to dump his $3M contract so the Eagles got him for less than a third of that. He would seem to be M. Smith’s main competition for the backup spot.
+ Curry of course if he switches positions. I was, um, thinking that Curry and Studebaker would make a good pass/run platoon, with Studebaker doubling on STs.
Man I like Andy as much as the next guy. I really do. Even before Reid went to KC I would try to keep an eye on him. I just don’t see how a guy with 2.5 career sacks in 96 games played is going to help this team. Brad Jones is filling the Studebaker spot on the 53. To bring in another guy like that, if you don’t like him at least as much as Jones, takes time away from the young players.
Well he’d be one of backup three OLBs over 250 in camp, and the only one with NFL experience, in which he’s played well. Do you really need all those WRs and Jared Wheeler? He’s over 10 lbs bigger than Jones.
Yeah doubt we have any interest in him whatsoever
I heard that when Diaheem really gets running, the only thing that can slow him down is Pepto Bismol.
I was thinking he must have gotten some jokes in school. To the first name pioneers go the arrows.
Fewer off the field problems when your name is a reminder to use birth control.
ouch
There must be something to this sports science, chip dodged a bullet on Marquise Lee who still isn’t healthy.
A BIG bullet. Allen Robinson seems to have picked up where he left off though. Should have a good season if Bortles does his part.
Justin Gilbert officially getting the bust tag in Cleveland.
Let’s send Cleveland a 6th for him.
NO!!!!!!!!. He is known for a horrible work ethic… We won’t even consider that kid… He was as much of a mess as Johnny Manziel… pier Desir and Jordan Poyer playes ahead of Gilbert
Oh nvm. I didn’t know he had a bad work ethic. Just thought he wasn’t panning out on the field for some reason.
Apparently he came back with a better attitude this year, but last year there were reports from half the veterans ripping him work lack of work ethic/Diva attitude.. But this year they are saying he came back with a better attitude. A little too late now that the Browns felt the need to pay for free agent Tranond Williams to start opposite of Joe Haden.. Gilbert is a really nice size/athleticism combo, so the fan in me would always love to add that type of young potential and talent..,but he has a reputation that doesn’t scream CHIP KELLY Player… But if the Browns wanted to dump him and we could trade like Barkley and a 7th round pick (conditional) toin him, I would love to see us take a flier on that size/athleticism combo..
Sucks to be him. Avery Greene look what you started haha.
“Titans.com’s Jim Wyatt indicates second-round pick Dorial Green-Beckham shouldn’t be expected to make an early impact as a rookie…Wyatt hints Kendall Wright, Harry Douglas, Justin Hunter, and quite possibly Hakeem Nicks are all ahead of Green-Beckham on the depth chart at this stage”
Sucks to be him. What’s his work ethic like?
Charecter and work ethic ARENT things he is known for….. Insane that they drafted him when he has a lot of the same red flags as Justin Hunter who they been calling a bust since they drafted him….. But Beckham has serious talemt, crazy catch radius that im sure Mariota will enjoy throwing to… I assume Beckham will have a quiet rookie season and then have a big year 2..
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Cordarrell Patterson Probabky won’t even be one of the Vikings top 2 WR…. What a waste of Talent.. Make or break year for that kid too,,
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Nice to hear Josh Huff starting to look good in Practice.. Louis Riddick this weeks was at our practice this week and tweeted something like “hope Huff stays healthy, he can do everything chips offense requires”..
I usually ignore Riddick’s ball coddling, I do hope that Mariota will have a good influence on those guys. Apparently he hasn’t thrown a pick yet — though maybe that says more about Tenn’s DBs…
Riddick has been fired and passed over for jobs more times than any other analyst alive. His opinions on just about everything ooze jealousy. F him.
Boykin graduated: Steelers CB Brandon Boykin opened training camp at right cornerback.
Good for him, everyone wins in the trade.
Honestly, I hope he’s not that great. I really want to believe our coaches knew something and weren’t just slaves to #measurables…
I hope he is amazing.
Just good enough to not win the Superbowl sounds about right
And to see Matthews toast him for 150 yards out of the slot in the SB.
The Steelers don’t play a press scheme. They aren’t a true Tampa 2 but they play primarily off and zone coverage. Boykin could excel in that scheme as an outside corner but that doesn’t necessarily mean he’d be successful in the Eagles’ press scheme.
Wait so you are telling me that different CBs fit different schemes?
That is some crazy stuff…. /s
EXACTLY!!!! People see boykin has good,cover skills, but he had no business playing outside in our scheme that is placing a strong emphasis on Press this year, Boykin would be what Undlin calls a “Pretender”..Guy who plays up on the WR as if he is going to press, but then not trust his technique and give the WR a free release.. If Boykin tries to press on the outside,against someone like Jordan, Mathews will just toss him out of the way….. Steelers value Boykin so much because he fits what their scheme requires from a corner…
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This really isn’t that complicated of a concept.. Amazing how the majority of the media and our fans didnt grasp this pretty simple basic concept….good thing that “we know our sports in philly” lol thinking Boykin could press? Treating rookie Macus smith like dog trash,… But “we know our sports”..”Can’t fool us”…. Lol
steelers are as good talent evaluators as any team in the league. boykin was an absolute gift
No they aint. They have been horrible drafting on defense for almost a decade now
fair enough ..
1) Nobody was clamoring for Hansen outside.
2) Boykin is vastly more talented than Hansen.
3) Boykin played better than every other CB he was on the field with. You’d have to be crazy to NOT want to see him get more snaps.
4) Boykin is not a press man CB
That’s true. But neither was Fletcher.
Give me that 4th
I know this is a re-post, but if you haven’t seen or taken the time to read Mike Tanier’s piece on Chip, do yourself a BIG favor and go read this! Can’t stress enough!!
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2511711-chip-kelly-and-his-relentless-assault-on-the-status-quo
With all the tired, lazy, click-bait narratives out there, this piece deserves to be promoted…
Until your re-post, I was not aware of that piece. That is a nice synthesis. Much obliged.
Tommy can you give us your expertise angle on Deflate-gate .. sorry to change the subject but ..
I think this mess finally takes the Commish DOWN !!!
I mean no way is roger goodell near as smart & tactical as Robert Kraft. and he’s got Kraft pissed!
I think the commish is TOAST walking.
dead toast walking
How could this bring him down? Kraft is one of 32 and other influential owners such as Jones have praised him regarding his punishment of Brady. The new CBA states Goodell has final say on conduct decisions. The NFLPA agreed to it.
Maybe that will change in 2020 when a new CBA will come about but Roger will still be around. Under RG the NFL has grossed the most income it ever has and TV ratings are soaring. Why in hell would the owners get rid of him? This is a busines
After all.
Anyone that thinks this will knock RG off has no grasp of how this works at all. I don’t like him but let’s think with logic.
Tommy please do not delve into deflategate, to much has been said about it as it is. Wish it would just be forgotten.
To add, RG is probably just as smart and business savvy as Kraft if not more. He is commissioner of the NFL after all and was a lawyer before. Played a huge part in winning a huge victory for the owners under the current CBA.
Do you think Goodell is both a representative/spokesperson for the 32 franchises that comprise the NFL, AND an autonomous governor of the League who does as he sees fit? HINT: He’s one of those, and he isn’t autonomous.
Exactly! Maybe Kraft is pissed (highly doubt it, though, since Goodell’s regime has been a money printing machine for him) but 31 other owners have his back. Or his strings, whatever.
I cannot understand the popularity of the “Goodell must go” sentiment. I get players having that perspective – because everyone has their own style – but if the billionaires were unhappy with him, he’d be gone in a flash.
ISNT his contract til 2020? I would assume no way he gets extended when his tenure is up… But who knows..
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Not sure what’s the process for owners trying to Impeach a commissioner before his contract expires…
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Kraft is pissed, but Im sure most owners are thrilled that the Pats are getting punished..
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The real problem for Goodell is that he lost his Bob Kraft support “safety net”… GOODELL better not get himself in trouble again, because he alienated a main ally who helped GOODELL get thru the Rice situation when the public wanted Goodells head,, Roger better not make any mistakes, because Kraft won’t be coming to his rescue any more..
Good call, unhinged. Goodell is there to facilitate the owners’ making money. In a large part, this means suppressing the players’ union. But in any case, if he is doing that, and people are still going to the games, and TV is still buying the rights, there is no reason for a change.
Generally speaking the courts don’t void arbitrator rulings in collectively bargained environments unless something illegal went down.
2 Cowboys related tweets:
https://twitter.com/edwerderespn/status/629096246062546944
https://twitter.com/jimmykempski/status/629106014449758209
Couldn’t help but smile when I heard McFadden has been unable to practice. That’s one hell of a light DL. Teams will try to run on them all year especially when it minimizes Hardy’s effectiveness.
The interior lineman Crawford is who they call a “secret star”…
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Lol @ McFadden injuring BOTH hamstrings…
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Lance Dunbar also got hurt yesterday
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And Randle had an ugly fumble right in front of reporters yesterday…
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These idiots really think the OL means they can lineup anyone at RB? fools… How did that work out for them when Fletcher Cox single handedly dominated the Dallas Offense on thanksgiving…the Thanksgiving game may be the best game Cox ever played..
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What’s funny is while the Cowboys rest on the laurels of their OL, the running games in our division have improved:
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Adding Sherf to the Skins OL should help Alfred Morris get it going.
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Giants OL is terrible, but they are better run blockers then pass blockers and Rashard Jennings and Vereen is not a RB tandem to scoff at…
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Hopefully no good RBs get cut, Dallas im convinced will have to pick up another RB. Someone like Zac Stacy once the jets cut him… I’m baffled as to why they haven’t signed Ray Rice yet? After all the human scum they added, what difference is adding Rice going to make at this point? They have scum all over their locker room, adding Rice is no big deal compared to the trash they welcomed onto their roster..
It’s not Rays incident that is holding him back its the fact he is washed up, 3.2 ypc.
They need to and will sign another RB and Stacey will probably be the best talent that could be cut.
Yes I’m aware of how much Ray had fallen off before he got suspended, but he is still only 28yrs old, and maybe time away from the game puts some more pep back into his step…. It’s not like I think they should blindly sigń him, but with such a shitty Runningback group, and a Owner who has no shame turning his locker room into a sess pool of human scum, they should at least be working out Rice and get a closer look..
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Their RBs are such a joke that they should take a look at every RB available, Ray Rice, Pierre Thomas, Zac stacy if he gets cut,
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IMO, the Cowboys should offer a 5th that becomes a 4th if he plays 60% of snaps for Rams RB Tre Mason of Bengals Giovanni Bernard.
Any chance Christine Michaels comes free?
I’d get Bradshaw if he wanted to play
Actually I could see that happen. Good call.., think they like Turbin, and people been talking up Micheal for a while but it hasn’t translated yet..
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Crossing my fingers the cowboys don’t end up finding a better RB on waivers then the slop they have.. hopefully McFadden gets on the field and shows them just enough to believe In him lol, then our run defense will give them a rude awakening dose of reality In week two
Concern over hydration levels = He was hungover.
#PercyHarvinproblems
at least they aren’t #AaronHernandezProblems
What kind of lazy and/or inept losers report on the Detroit Lions? Nobody has any published terms for the DeAndre Levy contract extension. Brutal.
Did you see what that Wacko did this offseason? That Psycho was walking and standing on the wings of a plane, thousands of feet in the air, and he didn’t even have a parachute on his back…. I hope they put some clauses in their comtract protecting themselves from the adrenaline Junkie off the field “hobbies”… But the kid is a Baller…
Dallas Guard Ronald Leary is starting to run his mouth,.. Sounds to me like the pressure of Lael Collins behind him is starting to get to him… He went on this rant about how he is the starting Guard(in the context of the battle vs Lael), Blah blah blah… Leary can run block, but a liability against the pass which could present problems when you have a 47yr old QB with a Bionic back…
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My favorite game was thanksgiving. Romo being so afraid of our pass rush, he would dive on the ground and start waiving his white flag before we would even get to touch him.
That makes me want to root for Leary to win the job.
I want him to win, just so Leal gets screwed for voluntarily joining the cowscum when he could have signed with almost anyone.
Eat up, Fletch
right now we are still playing Musical chairs with the RG spot. I’m sure they will want to use some preseason tape to decide if Gardner, Tobin or Moffitt will start next to Lane,.. But at some point, the RG has to start building chemistry playing Next to Lane and Kelce… At what point do you think Chip will decide who’s going to start next to Lane? can they possibly wait TIL the end of the preseason to make the decision and expect Lane to have built up chemistry with whoever the RG is with only 1 week between the end of preseason and week 1? When do people expect to find out who is starting at RG?
Nelson Agholor says he has only ever been to 1’NFL game and it was a Bucs game…,that kid is going to going to love it when he sees what a regular season game in Philly looks like
I think they can wait if necessary. Given the way they practice, there should be
Some chemistry built with all candidates by the end of preseason from the rotation. Not ideal but not as bad as it could be.
Just a question.. Didn’t view it as a problem. Ideally we know who all the starters are in time for the 3rd preseason game, but I don’t think that will be the case at RG.. Because the starters play at least a half, coaches may use that game to rotate all 3 into the game to get a look at the ones… Probably won’t know the RG til September.. I’m sure practice against the Ravens and the Preseason games will be a big part of deciding who starts at RG…
Fortunately all 3 are getting plenty of snaps this summer
There has been 3 days of camp chill out.
I want that settled before they name the starters for the 3rd preseason game.
Who do you have winning the RG job?
No clue man… I assume Moffit was the most talented of the 3. No idea who will be the best option in September., have no idea what type of growth rate Tobin and Gardner will show..
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What I will say is most people seem to think its Tobins spot to lose, but the impression I got last year was that Tobin played much better at LG, then he did when they moved him to RG, and I thought Gardmer did a better job then Tobin did at RG last year… But I have no idea what type of growth rate to expect from those two, maybe Tobin can pass Gardner now that he has played on the right side all summer?
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It would be pointless for me to even try and make a prediction.. If Moffitt never had drug problems and missed so much time, I would assume he would pass Tobin and Gardner when he gets a hang of the offense and shakes the rust off, but who knows what he has left? And I really have no idea what level of play to expect out of Tobin and Gardner today..
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I’m playing the wait and see game at RG,, I assume the coaches are going to use preseason performance to weigh heavily on the decision… We can judge their technique in practice ever day.. But at the end of the day that position comes down to Can you move and manhandle the man across
From you? I assume the joint practices with the Ravens are also going to be an important test that factors into the equation..
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Ideally we have a starting RG in place for the “dress rehearsal” #3 preseason game to get extended playing time to build chemistry with Lane… But it’s probably a close competition so I wouldn’t be surprised if we use the 3rd preseason game as a final exam, since the starters will play til at least half time so we could give each of the RGs about 10minutes to play with the starters… We may not know who our starting Guard is til September … Fortunately our practice style means all 3 are getting plenty of reps
It’s the first week of camp
I hear what ur saying and agree with most of it except for the dress rehearsal 3 as a final exam. I having a feeling chip has an idea who he wants to start and who he wants as depth. I just have a feeling that decision will be made before training camp gets to deep so chemistry can be formed, as you pointed out earlier
In ex-eagle news, DJax lost a fight with a tackling dummy
https://twitter.com/jimmykempski/status/629289472526389248
At first I thought you were talking about Dashon Goldson, but then I realized you meant the foam training device.
you mean a Taccling Dummy
I can’t wait to hear all the fans who said that they were stupid to let DJax go because he didn’t fit #measurables.
I do think CK learned a valuable lesson from Djax, everyone is going to the AFC now.
Kam Chancellor prepared to take his holdout into the regular season.
Oh if only there were a way….
If this Eagles squad stays healthy and rises to their potential, I argue the only team standing between them and the Super Bowl are the Seahawks. Discontent in Seattle would be glorious.
Also Packers because Aaron Rodgers.
Any team with ARodg is an instant contender.
I checked out the Vegas lines for some objectivity. Here’s the top 4 teams in the futures bet for winning the NFC:
Green Bay — 14/5
Seattle – 16/5
Dallas – 13/2
Eagles – 15/1
I was surprised to see GB favored over Seattle. In my mind, Seattle’s acquisition of Graham makes them way formidable. I think the Dallas spread is more about the gaming industry than the real possibility the Cowboys win the NFC. If the Eagles line holds and Bradford comes out of training camp in one piece, I’m putting money down. A $200 bet would win me $3000. A boy can dream, right.
Dallas is always given good odds because so many knuckleheads put money on them. Every year. No matter how 8-8 the team is.
You’re right that it’s a gaming thing more than a football thing.
That’s how most of the lines are made anyway.
they are already getting so much hype right now at the start of camp. I love it, let all the talk be about the boys again so when they implode it will be that much more glorious. Cant wait to see those sidelines as they embark on fighting to get to .500 ball later in the season, god willing.
I agree but my friend in Vegas never gets the odds I see online. Just a warning.
Thanks. The online world can be sketchy.
Kam has zero leverage, doesn’t want to lose a year of service, and has zero leverage.
As great as he is, Seattle is still good enough to win their division, get home field advantage, and get to the NFC title game without him. I think they’d need him to get to and win the Super Bowl………so even if he holds out until the drop dead day for the year counting I believe Seattle will be fine.
cary Williams is going to need more Safety support then Byron Maxwell did playing on that defense,.
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Cutting Tony MCDaniels is going to hurt that defense, and make life harder for Bobby Wagner… Bennett and Kam are disgruntled… They better keep that defense strong because soon they have to start getting ready for life after BEASTMODE retires….. Holdouts are dumb..rarely ever works
ya they will def take a step back in next year or two. Thats why I thought a long contract with RW was the way to go. It actually bodes well for them when they arent as stacked with him at QB. The way he creates with his legs will win games on its own when it comes down to that. Shouldve hedged all bets in that direction imo
https://twitter.com/howardeskin/status/629340122966806528
DJax seperated shoulder?
more time to focus on his reality tv show.
DJax’s rapping is a as creative as his route running, not very. #Go-Route!!!!
Isn’t this igglesblitz? Please no more updates about that clown from the skins.
Looks like Sherman and revis can hold him now
Kiko with a concussion. Not good.
Crap. Although, maybe this is part of a cosmic plan to keep him off the field during tc so his knee stays healthy.
No, but the most recently he could have sustained another concussion was January of 2014 so it isn’t like he’s a frequent flyer in that department.
Concussion, there’s barely any contact at practice, maybe he was thinking too much.
Are you sure it wasn’t brain freeze from the extra personal smoothie that he had?
Kiko has the concussion,
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If anyone is wondering why Demarco ISNT on the field, he got sent home with a handful of players who are all sick… Guess there is a bug going around. Ryan Mathews took all the #1RB reps Today.. Sproles is spending most of camp with the WRs(slot) because he knows the RB plays so now he is being cross trained..
Aren’t those caps just to identify special teams, caps vs no caps (since it isn’t Offense green jersey vs defense white Jersey). Or are you talking about something else.
I was under the impression those orange Caps are extra head protection against concussions….. Did I dream that or something?,.
this is what I keep hoping they will use.
there was a guy on the 49ers that used that for the longest time, It all came together to make 1 funky looking 49er
Steve Wallace.
http://ww3.hdnux.com/photos/07/53/61/2014298/5/920×920.jpg
I think I meshed him with Dana Stubblefield. Always though his helmet looked funny too. http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_5MhmGf9zMM8/TBEKJfyYCuI/AAAAAAAABqE/WnhzkQLsV3E/s1600/6-10-10+AJC+old.png
I know it looks kinda weird, but I’d rather have my guys playing the game than sitting out wondering when the world will stop spinning.
Agreed. I cannot stand player games lost due to preventable injuries.
I totally agree, there’s some weird stuff with that, though. Numerous studies suggested there was no evidence it really helped. Some say said studies were funded by people who would be asked why a known effective precaution against concussions wouldn’t be taken league-wide as standard equipment.
Whiplash injuries are usually called concussions in the NFL. Most of the preventative measures that apply to regular concussions – improved helmets, etc. – don’t work with that type of injury.
All of them are actually, The helmet’s primary design, the reason it is hard plastic, is to maintain shape and distribute what would be like getting hit in the head by a sledge hammer into and evenly distributed blow across the skull. The result is it effectively makes it impossible to crack your skull while playing football. That said, it does little to absorb the kinetic energy that sends your whole head flying: whiplash, triggered by a violent blow to the head sending the head going one direction (slamming the brain up against your skull at the point of impact before being taken along for the ride) until it violently smashes to a sudden stop (often onto the turf like Kolb vs Green Bay), hurling your brain into the skull wall on the other side. But padding does help, essentially a well padded helmet acts like the crunch zone of a car, it takes what would be a sudden and violent impact between 2 object, and gives way, rapidly decelerating the head before impact, damping the forces at play.
No helmet will be able to eliminate concussions, but better padded helmets can raise the force thresh hold required to cause a concussion (ie make them less common) while lessening the cumulative damage to the brain on a play by play basis. It is no exaggeration to say the future of this sport hinges on helmet technology advancing.
One thing I always thought though was that the larger helmets actually make head-to-head contact a lot more likely (since players don’t have to be as close together to make contact). It may mitigate the effects of that contact, but I do wonder if the extra hits can partially counteract the benefit.
Another thing was going back, players used to like huge shoulder pads to give them a more menacing look, and I always wondered if those served to cushion blows long before you got to heads. Nowadays players go for tiny shoulder pads in the name of mobility (they obviously are better for that) but they seem to expose the head a lot more, to an untrained eye at least.
I think they need to soften the outside of the helmet. If the helmet is a less effective weapon, they won’t insist on using it that way.
they probably should find a way to soften the exterior of the helmet, the damn thing is a weapon, a little extra padding on the outside to supplement the padding on the inside probably wouldn’t hurt the wearer’s safety either.
I think the problem there is that if the outside isn’t slick and hard it is more likely to “stick” to another helmet or shoulder pad or ground and cause a neck injury.
yeah it would have to be more of a slick soft shell over padding over the traditional hardshell which is itself over padding. Something to take the bite out of helmet to helmet impacts.
. Check out the Quoters from former players Josina Anderson provides about the chip racism talk. Some great stuff from Josina who did some digging and found aome great info from chips former players.
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Quotes about all the amazing opportunities chip has provided for young black men outside of the roster that no one talks about… A quote about how he was sticking up for Black kid Lagarrett Blount when he punched a white kid and Blount was getting death threats,,. How chip provided a black former linebacker a chance to be one of, if not the youngest coach in the league, and how these arent bogus internship spots, real opportunities to break into the coaching profession..
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im not going to get into this silly race talk again, but she got some nice Intel from former players that wasn’t common knowledge, check it out on your own time
So far I think the article that sums it up best is the one when they interviewed Harry Edwards who was a former Black Panther – he basically said this is ridiculous talk.
http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/eagles/20150806_Harry_Edwards_is_in_Chip_Kelly_s_corner.html?mr=1&submit=Vote&oid=1&pid=320805361&cid=8500281&320805361=Y#poll_questions_top
That is a much-needed dose of perspective. Seems the critical comments from hither and yon say much more about those players than they say about Kelly.
I don’t think it’s racism, I think it’s a culture difference.
Agreed. Chip doesn’t seem like the most socially adept guy at the best of times so not hard to imagine he wouldn’t find it easy to relate to/crack wise with young, cool guys from a generation below him.
Heck, I struggle to understand what the 20-somethings in the office are wittering about (though I’m pretty sure it’s terrible nusic or even worse reality TV) so I get his problem.
The dude Blount punched was a tool. I’m glad the guy got knocked out. He thought it would be funny to get in the face of an opponent and mock him after the game; Blount showed us all what was funny.
I love that punch.
Blount trying to fight the fans after that wasn’t really up my alley.
Mathis signing with Dolphins for way less, ouch
$3.5m a year less. #welcometomiami Must mean literally no one else was interested.
He hasn’t signed with them. At least not anywhere I’ve seen.
yeah I think the tweet was premature. He probably saw all the philly hate and backtracked.
mmmmm, love those situations where everyone loses.
“mmmmm, love those situations where everyone loses.”
– From the Holy Book of Fandom.
depending on your financial adviser and family/friends, making millions playing a game isnt exactly losing
I consider it a relative term as in eagles lose a talented player and are pressing their depth, and Evan loses 3.5 million/year in a situation that was completely avoidable.
I know, just wanted to point that out though out of context
Well lets not pretend that most of the players don’t end up broke with a Myriad of serious health problems. I think describing it as getting paid millions to play a game and calling it a win might take some of the nuance out of it.
Sad… It was painfully obvious Months ago that there would be NO WINNER in this drama… With the exception of Drew Rosenhause who I assume gets his comission on every new deal his clients sigń…
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The Only winners are Barbre, and the slimey agent…. It’s not even funny, it’s sad. We lose,a good player, and a grown man with a wife and family is taking a chunk of cash out of his families bank account, and we are talking about a player at the end of his career…. It’s a damn shame. What’s really sad is how easily foreseeable this was.. This wasmt one of Mathis’s smarter moments
If he signs for less, Rosenhaus would probably make less too (he has always been Mathis’ agent so he was making his cut of his Eagles deal). Really makes no sense at all, unless Mathis simply wanted out of Philadelphia for whatever reason, or he believed the PFT rankings to the extent he thought other teams would be very willing to pay him as much or more. Granted, now is not the time of year to be looking for a high-dollar multi-year contract; if he was released when Herremans was it may have been very different.
I guess chip does understand grown men of his culture
That what I hope every time the Giants and Cowboys play.
And the Redskins are so bad an usually out of the playoffs before Halloween, it’s almost always safe to route for them in division games vs either of them.
way to go mathis ya dumbass
Did you see the contract numbers?
Here is what Kelly offered Mathis
http://patriciopomies.com/images/gallery/corleone.jpg
Where did you read this? Only info I have seen is that Mathis is completely content to wait on the deal he is looking for. Also the Dolphins remain in constant contact with him but are waiting for his price to go down to the 2-3 mil range. No deal seems imminent but that is going off everything I am reading.
Eagles nest posted a tweet saying he “is going to” take a deal so nothing concrete yet, take that for whatever. I guess we shouldnt assume these things have inside sources anymore
chip was asked if he agreed with Billy Davis that we get 2-3 times more snaps then anyone.. And chip spoke in depth about it…Basically, our practice style doesn’t give any advantage to the starters, but it’s not an exaggeration when chip says our backups get the same amount of snaps as our starters.. it’s a TREMENDOUS advantage for developing depth, young players, getting new players acclimated to our system.
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The Example chip used is at typically Franchises give:
The starters 12 reps
2nd Team gets 6 reps
3rd team gets 2 or 3 reps.
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Practcing so fast allows us to give all our players 12 reps.. We are talking about signifcantly more reps then other teams when we add up all th extra reps of every session. Every day… It adds up to 100’s or reps more then our opponents back ups… Such a big Time advantage… Just look at the Individual examples:
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1) my favorite rookie corners were ROWE, and Cowboy Byron Jones who Cowboys said wont be starting for them as a rookie.. ROWE and Byron Jones are both spending the summer as 2nd Team players.. Yet in every session of every day, Cowboys coaches are giving Byron Jones 6 reps per session, while We give ROWE 12 reps per session…. 1 or 2 sessions per day, adds up to Rowe getting over 100 more reps then Byron Jones is getting this summer
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2) It gets worst for 3rd team players, who are asked to study like everyone else, do all the classroom work every,day, yet they only get 2 or 3 reps to show what they can do, and put what they learn in the classroom to work. it’s easier to bust your ass in the class room, when you know you are going to get 10-12 reps that day to put IT to use…. We spent a top 100 pick on Jordan Hicks who is absolutely BURRIED on our Depth chart being so deep at ILB. yet we have no reason to rush him. We can keep him with the 3rd team as long as it takes, because he will get the same number of snaps as all the ILBs ahead of him. Sometimes teams have to rush a top pick like him up their depth chart or he will barely get reps on the 3rd team… We get to be patient, and make Jordan Hicks really earn his way up the depth chart, and we don’t have to rush it because he will be developed the same way whether he starts or plays with the 3rd team
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3) I would Imagne this is a huge advantage for When you have an offseason wifh a lot of turnover, because you can give snaps to as many players as you sigń,, the Giants add 27 new players last year. not all of them were getting the amount of reps a starter would get.. Sometimes other teams have to rush a young top pick up a depth chart before he deserves it because he won’t get any Snaps to Develope him on the 3rd team.
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4) I imagine this comes in handy when we have a situation like this summer where we need to find a starting right Guard, If Andy Reid was still coach, he would have to choose two Guards to give snaps to today, a starter and a 2nd team starter, while being forced to basically ignore the other Guards on the roster who are only going to get,2 reps per session…..where as with Chip, Moffitt, Tobin, and Gadner are ALL getting the amount of reps our starters get, so Chip doesn’t have to guess who to give the reps to.. They will al. Get plenty of reps, which means NONE of our players can slack off in the classroom, or not study at home. Because everyone will get snaps every single day and if you don’t,put in the work. It’s going to show..
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I wonder how long all the other franchises are gong to allow us to keep this advantage over them? You would think that NFL coaches will have to evolve and switch up their practice habbits, but this isn’t an easy change for coaches to make.. it’s not as easy as Tom COUGHLIN waking up this morning, sick of his backups getting half as many reps as our backups so he decides practice is going to be really fast today lol, it’s not that easy for a HC to so drastically switch practice, his assistants will have to get used to it, and then he has to sell IT to his players… It’s a copy cat league so you would think soon everyone will chamge amd we will no longer have this advantage, but this takes altering your entire franchise. It’s really nOT an easy thing for other coaches to copy..
Shame it didn’t get any of Billy Davis’s backup CBs ready to play more last year.
Maybe they would have been had they gotten a chance. There were some Davis quotes in articles that said with retrospect he probably didn’t give Carroll near enough time last year — Davis thought things would turn out one way (playing Fletcher presumably) and then didn’t. After that of course, you need some talent on the backups. All the extra reps can help players reach their potential, but if the potential is still low, then yuck. Jury is still out on Watkins, but…
I hear you, I’m just having trouble flushing all of the salt from my system in terms of last year’s gutless choke-away of our division title down the stretch.
I could have also put the dig in towards the backup O-linemen all playing like crap when starters missed time.
The coach responsible for our CB’s Terrible play last year has been replaced!
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The DB coach Wasnt the ONLY position coach we replaced, yet you don’t hear our returning players RAVING about the new position coaches the way we see,our DBs all so excited about adding coach Undlin.. You don’t hear Sanchez, Barkley raving about a new QB coach every day,
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When you hear so much excitement about a new position coach, I assume its a combo of:
1) lack of previous coaches ability
2) impressed at the ability of The new guy
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I would dismiss the ranting and Raving over Undlin from a Guy like Nolan Carroll…,but a cerebral Veteran like Malcolm Jenkins, who individually had a nice season and has no reason to make excuses for last years play, because he played well regardless of what the corners or the DB coach did, him raving about Undlin is something I take serious.. He played well enough last year that the coaching change Doesmt matter when it comes to him, but he seems Genuinly excited about the effect Undlin will have on his secondary.
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Right now my concerns are the play of the safety next to Jenkins, and the play of our Nickel corner in early September…. I would assume Thurmond will start in September, and either watkins or Shepard will start in Nickel.. NONE of those players have starting experiemce in the NFL at their positions, so I think it’s safe to assume that early in the season, the Falcons and Cowboys are going to test and try and go after Thurmond and whichever unproven Nickel we end up starting.. They have the Talemt that I think can have a good year behind our elite front 7 with LBs that can cover, , but I fear initial struggles as they get comfortable in starting roles in September…
Until they win the division title back I’m not done flaming everybody involved over last year.
As to point #3; all of the players the Giants added suck. Especially Landon Collins.
Lol they might start WHATS his name, Cooper Taylor at safety…
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How would you rate the secondaries in our division? I assume it will be us vs, Dallas for the top secondary in our division.. No idea who is worse, the skins DBs or Giants….skins cut the safety they drafted in 2013.. What’s his name, Phillip something….. Byron Maxwell should perform as the top CB in our division. Todat Jenkins is probably up there as one of the best safeties in the division … I think the skins front 7 should be much improved, but their secondary is trash,
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Your boy Justin Putrid got into a fight with Damontre Moore…
Her name is Justine Puke. And she is weak and sucky.
Collins may be OK in the Giants defense as a box safety. His ceiling is probably Michael Lewis without Dawkins next to him.
Or he could be terrible and get burnt like Osage Avenue.
We’ll find out soon enough.
I’m going to MOVE onto your Osage Avenue guess. Collins sucks in coverage. And there are no credible DTs and or LBs in NY to keep blockers off of him in the run game anyway. Can you imagine Kelce, Peters, or Johnson getting to Collins on the 2nd level if Collins in playing in the box?
Good points.
From the VERY little I know about the guy he’s not a complete bum -he just has a specific skill set and limited range beyond that.
Guys who can’t cover get exposed very quickly in the NFL today. Can you imagine that loser trying to cover Zach Ertz or Jordan Matthews up the seam? Or match up with any of our RBs out of the backfield?
I agree.
(Just look at the Eagles secondary for the past 3 years)
who is their RB? did they draft one, sorry Im too lazy to google
Jennings and Vereen combo…………..SUCKY SUCKY
I’d probably rather have Jennings/Verreen instead of the Cowboys RBs, and I might take those two over Alfred Morris., they aren’t great by any means, but our rivals are weak at RB
True x 3
Vereen’s underrated IMO. Decent runner, dangerous receiver.
Nobody is blocking for him.
Yeah, just think he’s a decent player is all. Surprised he didn’t find a better home.
I agree completely.
Am I the Only one who didnt know our new DB coach who every player raves about these days, Corey Undlin was a “assistant Defensive coach” for the 2004 Patriots who broke our heart in the Super Bowl?
That’s a fun fact that’s not so fun.
Wonder what he knows about Bellicheks “Behavior” during that SB?… I assume most of the cheating was hidden from assistants..
Toughest
Guys
Ever
https://twitter.com/ShaunOHara60/status/629375782478069760
Lol your boy Pugh fought Damontre Moore
Good old Justine Puke. She can’t block anybody.
Any fantasy feedback would be welcome here. I’m drafting 4th in my money league, so I’ve been doing that on ESPN.
Picking 4th, 21st, 29th, etc.
Peterson, Alshon, Forsett, Keenan Allen, Chris Ivory, Allen Robinson, Ameer Abdullah, Jerick McKinnon, Breshad Perriman, Phil Rivers, Delanie Walker, John Brown, Sam Bradford, Virgil Green, Eagles D, Blair Walsh.
this is your best draft yet
Throw enough poo against the wall, and some of it sticks.
I like Peterson a lot at 4 because Norv Turner RBs tend to pile up a lot of stats. We’ll see after that.
So, Moffitt starts out with the 3rd team and is impressive enough in 3 days of camp that he moves in the 1st string rotation at RG? Hopefully, that speaks more to Moffitt’s good play than any negative play by Tobin/Gardner.
Or it could be they planned to rotate in regardless.
Moffitt was with the 3rd string the first couple of days. First day Tobin was with the 1st string, 2nd day Gardner, 3rd day Tobin and now Moffitt has bypassed the other 2nd string guys and is in the rotation. I guess t could have been planned all along and he just started out with the 3rd string to knock off rust. Now they just have to get him some practice reps at center so getting rid of Molk becomes a certainty.
I NEED Molk GONE!!!
we need to draft some linemen
I think they’re doing a lot of rotating. I’m not worried about who the “starters” are until the 3rd preseason game, when our line better be steamrolling people on the run and not getting pushed back on the pass.
Chip said that they are rotating… Tobin and Gardner already played with the 1’s this week.. Today was Moffitts turn… We aren’t even close to the point where the depth chart will tell us anything… jacorey isn’t starting in place of Boykin every day.. Biggers and Watkins will have their days with the 1’s just like Shepard
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In a day or two it will be Tobins turn to play with the starters again, them Tobin and then back to Moffitt
Dude, your Jimmy Kempski obsession really is getting out of hand. We know he’s your buddy, but do you need to mention him in every article?
He’s on a mission from god.
That’s hilarious. Tommy & Jimmy, the new Jake and Elwood. I want to be Reverend Cleophus James.
Tommy and Jimmy are like you and Elmo.
Easily solved problem, don’t visit Tommy’s site anymore.
Oooooh Hard to navigate t get excite by the way Bradford was talking today!! He was talking straight sexy today lol, seducing me with honest talk about how surprised he is that he is feeling even better then he thought he would. Apparently how he would feel after a few days in a row of practice was a concern and he seemed pretty Giddy about how great he feels..
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He also sounded pretty genuinely excited about the talent he has around him. He didn’t want to rip the Rams and former teammates but it’s
Pretty clear that he really believes this is the most talent he ever got a chance to play with and he does seem pretty excited about what he can be capable of playing with this team,,, he seemed like a little kid who couldn’t contain himself on Xmas morning…
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I want so badly for this team to have a healthy season. So curious to see how good this team can be..
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Chip also mentioned how
At Oregon, the peak of their offense was when they had the two big, powerful downhill runners Stewart and Blount, and Chip sounds excited to have that now that we have Mathews and Demarco.. He talked about how Ryan Mathews is a Rare Human with a size/speed combo you don’t see to often..
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Chip said Mathews is a 230lb RB who ran a 4.37 at the combine, and how big backs his size typically don’t also have his home run ability and pointed out how explosive he looks as a Kick Returner
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I doubt anyone looks forward to tackling a 230lb RB running a 4.37 on kick offs when he gets a full head of steam… Should aee some nasty collisions..
As excited as I am to hear all this news on Bradford, is it wrong if I am actually more excited to see Ryan Mathews? Don’t think I have ever been so excited about a backup since Buckhalter. Oh and hearing all this B-Max love is giving me the chills, it will be nice to finally get some decent CB play after the last 5 years or so of just shit play.
Agreed.. Im very excited to see Ryan Mathews. Im hoping he got about 10 carries or more a game. Maybe a 60/40 split with him and Murray. I feel he can get the tough yards and hit the homerun
I agree. Especially if Murray is the bellcow wearing down the defenses and in comes a fresh Mathews who even at his size can hit the home run long runs. Just excited in general about the potential of the run game.
Agreed.,, I think it will be closer to 50/50 split then most people think..60/40, 55/45… Sproles will get about 3 carries, hopefully 3-5 catches and continue to do damage on special teams
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Mathews needs to stay healthy, not fumble. Hopefully Marco and Mathews can use each other to stay fresh and healthy all year
Watch out Bradford, Tebowzz is coming for your job.
*Jaws theme*
Texans Owner Bob McNair made some weird comments, something like how they expect Arian Foster to have soft tissue injuries every year at this point..
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Not for nothing, but if you have such an important player with a history of soft tissues injuries, why not look to sports science or different training methods to try and cut down on them?
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Today Malcolm Jenkins talked about how every franchise preaches hydration, yet he never seen anyone be held out of practice for Hydration, saying how everyone talks about it, but the Eagles are the first team that really take it serious and try to use it the avoid injuries.. He said it might be tedious to take the hydration tests every day but you can’t help but to appreciate how the Eagles really practice what they preach and go to extremes to try and take care of our players bodies, keep them fresh for peak performance and try to cut down chances of injury…
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I’d be curious to know what was the hydration level of Foster during the practice that he got injured? What was the hydration level of McFadden when he hurt both hamstrings… I’d bet that the Texans have no friggin clue what his hydration level was the day he got injured.. Yet you could ask Chip Kelly’s the Hydration level of darren Sproles at the opening camp practice and I bet Chip has access the that data….
So DiccSean got into it with a blocking sled and separated his shoulder. That can be very painful no doubt. I wonder if the Washington football team will miss his 6 touchdowns? In 16 games.