Back to Football

Let’s get back to the reason we all actually care about the Eagles…football.

Baseball is 162 games. Hockey is 84. The NBA season is 82 games. Football is just 16, but teams are working together from mid-April until early January. That should tell you that football is as much about training, practice and preparation as it is the actual games.

The 2017 Eagles won the Super Bowl because of what they did on the field, but also because of how they prepared. They were great in practice and that mattered. I wrote about that for PE.com.

You have to give credit to the players and coaches for the practices. The coaches knew how to teach the scheme and specific skills required for each position. They also did a good job of motivating players. Practice can be boring. You have to get creative at times to keep everyone focused.

The players deserve a lot of credit for realizing how important practice is and truly buying in. Not only did they work hard, they competed. You’ve heard the old saying that “iron sharpens iron”…that happened with last year’s team.

The Eagles and Cowboys both had to deal with key injuries. The Eagles kept right on winning. Dallas fell apart. The Cowboys had some talented backups, but they didn’t play well. Part of that is due to practice. In Philly, players pushed each other. Coaches pushed players.

Duce Staley was tough on Corey Clement. That helped him get ready for the season and he closed it out by having a great game in the Super Bowl. We’ve heard stories about how good OL Josh Andrews, CB De’Vante Bausby and DE Steven Means were in practice.

How did all this happen?

Chip Kelly had some interesting theories on practice. He believed getting as many reps as possible was the way to go. He wanted his coaches to teach in the classroom. He wanted constant motion on the field. That had mixed results. Pederson focuses on the quality of reps rather than the quantity. He does still use music and I’m sure he kept around an idea or two that Kelly brought to Philly.

One of the things that the Eagles do is watch the wear and tear on their players. They use Sports Science to figure out who needs a day off. Pederson gives his veterans plenty of rest, understanding that the key is for them to handle the grind of the season.

This offseason will be extra challenging, since some players played in 19 games and had a month less to rest and prepare for this season. The coaches and Sports Science staff will have to work carefully to balance the need for reps and rest. There is also the challenge of having several key players coming off major injuries.

It will be very interesting to see if this team can prepare as well as last year’s group. They’ll need to do just that if they want to make another Super Bowl run.

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PE.com has a video showing TEs coach Justin Peelle working with his young campers. To put things in perspective, Zach Ertz is the old man in the group. He’s 27 and is entering his sixth season.

Peelle has his work cut out for him, but he’s got plenty of talent to work with. Rookie Dallas Goedert has tremendous potential. Richard Rodgers is a veteran who can be a good role player. I’m still curious to see what Billy Brown, Adam Zaruba and Josh Perkins can do. This is a huge opportunity for that last trio. They can make or break their careers by what they do this summer. It would be huge for one of them to have a strong showing.

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