Checking in on the Young Guys

Posted: November 16th, 2018 | Author: | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | Comments Off on Checking in on the Young Guys

The only upside to injuries is that they give you a chance, force you really, to take a look at backups and younger players. The Eagles have had to do a lot of that this year. Let’s check in on the young guys.

The coaches wanted to get Avonte Maddox on the field even when everyone was healthy. He began by playing STs and in a few defensive packages. Maddox was the team’s starting FS by Week 5. He’s played CB, nickel and FS. That’s a major challenge for any player, let alone a rookie.

Maddox has shown some really good traits. He tackles well. He’s aggressive. Maddox takes good angles to the ball, which shows a combination of brains and instincts. He can play in the box or back deep in centerfield. The Eagles found a good young player. The challenge is figuring out where to put him in the future.

Isaac Seumalo has played well at LG. He actually didn’t get the job due to injury, but rather Stefan Wisniewski flat-lining. Wiz played well in 2017, but didn’t build on that. If anything, he regressed. The coaches wanted to reward Seumalo and he’s outplayed Wiz. Seumalo isn’t some dominant young player, but he’s shown he can be a solid starter in the NFL.

Dallas Goedert is having a good rookie year. The Eagles might have brought him along slower, but Richard Rodgers injury made Goedert the primary backup and he’s done a good job in that role. Goedert is already a better blocker than Zach Ertz. Goedert has had a couple of drops, but mostly catches everything thrown his way. He has very good RAC skills. The only disappointment is that the coaches haven’t played him more.

Josh Adams was hurt for much of the spring and summer. No one was sure what to make of him. He showed enough ability for the Eagles to keep him around. With all the injuries at RB, Adams has gotten a chance to play. In the last two games, he is 16-108. That’s good. I wrote in my Dallas preview that if the Eagles could get a play blocked just right, Adams could have a big gainer due to his speed. The Eagles did block a play well and Adams went for 29 yards, the team’s longest run of the year.

Adams looks like a good role player to this point. Some people want to feed him the ball. I’d like to see him get more touches, but let’s not overrate him. The Corey Clement hype train already crashed and burned pretty badly this year.

Rasul Douglas was desperate to get on the field. He finally did play against Dallas. The results weren’t great, to put it mildly. He missed an easy tackle of a backup TE and gave up 10 extra yards. He missed a tackle of Zeke Elliott at the LOS and gave up 30 or so extra yards. Douglas went to the inside on a catch & run on 3rd/15. He let the receiver get out wide, get the first down and out of bounds. Those were all horrible mistakes. Basic football. Tackling. Positioning. You can’t do that three times in a close loss.

His coverage was up and down. Dak Prescott isn’t a good downfield passer so the one time a receiver got by Douglas and they should have had an easy TD, the pass was off-target. Like all DBs, Douglas celebrated as if it was his coverage that made the play. There were some plays when he did cover well. You can see his potential. You can also see why he’s on the bench. Too many mistakes.

Josh Sweat just isn’t playing much. You can see some raw talent, but the coaches need to play him a bit more.

Sidney Jones expects to play on Sunday. We don’t know if he’ll be in the slot or outside, but it will be great to have him back. Jones has had a solid year. He’s made some mistakes, but you can see his talent. He’s going to be a good starting CB in the future.

T.Y. McGill played his first game as a backup DT for the Eagles. I thought he looked good. He’s quick off the ball. He got pressure up the middle a couple of times. He was disruptive on some plays. McGill was in there for 16 snaps and made his presence felt. That was encouraging. Now go build on that.

Chandon Sullivan and Tre Sullivan each played against Dallas. Neither stood out. Tre had the one bad moment where Zeke jumped over him, but that’s more about Elliott being a freak than anything Tre did wrong.

Cameron Johnston continues to lead the league in punting, at 49.6 yards per punt. He’s having a strong season.

*****

I’m happy to see this. You don’t want the guys to give up and walk around. Show some energy and emotion.

And let that carry over to the field on Sunday.

Please…

_

Comments are closed.