Eagles Notebook

Posted: September 13th, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 23 Comments »

Let’s start with some All-22 talk.  I had a chance to watch the coaches tape.  I’m not going to cover a lot myself because there are some good links that will do that for you.  I’ll just throw out some quick thoughts since it is already Thursday and time to talk Ravens.

guaranteed payday loans

* The player who stood out the most to me was DT Cullen Jenkins.  It is so hard to appreciate DTs from the TV angles.  Things are shot from the side and there is so much traffic that you just can’t appreciate the interior guys.  Jenkins had a couple of TFLs in the game, but he also got pressure by driving his guy backward and was just generally disruptive.  I really enjoyed watching him.

* Fletcher Cox also stood out.  We knew he was quick off the ball and a good athlete.  I was impressed with his strength, power, and physicality.  Rookie DTs can get overwhelmed at times, but I didn’t see that happen to him.

* It can be a lot of fun to watch Mathis-Kelce-Watkins on run plays.  All 3 guys can get off the ball.  Mathis and Kelce are very agile.  Watkins is worlds better than he was last year.  His pass protection still needs work, but you can see why Howard Mudd likes him so much.

* I was disappointed with Todd Herremans.  He got beat off the edge a few times.  He didn’t get a ton of help, but he also wasn’t facing elite pass rushers.

* I love the way Shady McCoy reads his blocks and moves in traffic.  He was masterful at this while at Pitt (that is where he went, right Gimpy?).  Did a very good job in pass pro as well.

* The LBs were just as impressive.  It wasn’t a fluke or luck.  Ryans and Kendricks are flat out good players.  There was a screen pass where the ball wasn’t completed.  If it had been, Kendrick was right there to blow up the RB.  He moved around blockers and took a good angle.

* Derek (from some ancient site called Iggles Blog) made a great point on Twitter that LB Akeem Jordan was the guy who blew his coverage on the pass to Nnamdi’s side that went for the long gain.  Jordan bit inside for some reason.  Should have dropped into his zone out wide and then Weeden has to think twice about throwing to that area.

Sheil Kapadia has good posts on the All-22 tape:  OFFENSE … DEFENSE

Andy Benoit from Football Outsiders has thoughts on the Eagles-Ravens based on All-22.

Make sure you read those 3 posts.  Excellent material.

* * * * *

Tim McManus has an excellent article up on some of the protection issues from the Browns game.  There were communication problems.  Kelce wasn’t loud enough for Herremans to hear.  The RBs were sometimes confused.  These are things that can be worked out.  You don’t have to deal with noise in the preseason so you just don’t know about these issues until you play a real game in a tough stadium…or a factory of sadness.

* * * * *

Andy Reid announced today that he’s closing practice to the media for the first time in his career.  He’s blaming social media and the fact that information is available instantly.  Coaches are paranoid so this doesn’t shock me at all.

The writers aren’t happy, as you would expect.  They couldn’t write about practices anyway, but the few nuggets they did get won’t be out there anymore.

I’m not all that bothered.  Like I said, coaches are paranoid.

* * * * *

More importantly, DeSean Jackson missed practice today with a slight hamstring injury.  Jackson was fine yesterday.  Les Bowen mentioned on Twitter that Jackson looked fine in the locker room.  Hopefully this is a very minor tweak and it won’t affect him Sunday.  In order to beat the Ravens, it might help to have Jackson’s speed.  I’ll have more on the game later tonight or early tomorrow.

* * * * *

Jimmy Bama and I did a new podcast where we covered the Browns game some more and then just talked about various players.  We ended up on an anti-Super Bowl rant with a classic story from Jimmy.

* * * * *

For the draftniks…

By the Numbers for Week 2

Draft Notebook for Week 2

* * * * *

Late note…Eagles added WR Jeremy Ebert to the practice squad and cut C Chase Beeler.  Ebert is a slot receiver type.  You wonder if they did this because of injuries to Mac and DJax and they needed someone for practice reps or is Ebert someone they wanted to help them prepare for upcoming opponents.  Several upcoming teams have slot receivers that are of the quick, elusive variety.  We can’t use Damaris a ton for that if he’s practicing with the starting offense.

I have no idea why they made the move.  Simply guessing.

  • ian_no_2

    My guess as to why they made the practice squad move is that after adding another center to the practice squad, Dallas Reynolds started working into his discussions with the head coach of how proud he was to be a versatile offensive lineman from BYU that there shouldn’t be any other OL on the practice squad except maybe his brother, a versatile offensive lineman from BYU, so they cut the center Beeler and added a Belichick pick.

    • TommyLawlor

      Interesting. What was that about BYU?

    • austinfan

      Cute, but I suspect the answer is simpler, they saw Beeler practice for a few days and Howard decided he lacked upside. Note that they cut Jarrett instead of Menkin, even though Menkin is unlikely to dress this year. If a player has promise, they’ll hold on to him.

      Scouting reports are one thing, but seeing a guy in the flesh is more telling. Though I thought they signed Carrier as well.

      • Anders

        They did and cut ford

        • austinfan

          What’s interesting is they kept McNutt, added Cunningham, now they’ve added Carrier and Ebert. What do they all have in common, they’re basically underneath receivers, which suggests that AR is worried about this part of his offense. Even Cooper is more of a down field player. So now he’s got two physical receivers, a fast slot receiver and an athletic WR/TE hybrid.

          • Anders

            I think Cunningham and Carrier could be good for us next year

      • ian_no_2

        I couldn’t help myself.. but yeah, Mudd is going through ‘em. They didn’t feel the need to hold on to draft picks Vandervelde and Washington, even for the PS. Look at a lot of guys, and when Mudd sees someone he likes, keep ‘em.

  • Anders

    Tommy, I know it might be early for draft talk, but any good potential Eagles to keep an eye out for?

    • TommyLawlor

      Too many guys of interest now. Need to watch them another few weeks to know who the best fits are going to be. I had a weird summer and didn’t get as much college tape watching in as I hoped. I don’t know the Senior class inside-out yet.

      I’ll see if I have the time to put together some thoughts prior to this weekend’s games.

      • Anders

        Would be cool for newbie into the college world. Also I asked you last weekend, but some good games in general to watch? I prefer games with great aggressive D’s (JJ’s crazy blitzing D and Dawkins/Trotter are the reason im an Eagles fan)

        • teltschikfakeout88

          Anders, watch CBS broadcast of top SEC matchups. I’ll get grilled by big ten homers but I stand by watching that conferences matchups week in and week out.

  • Yuri

    I dropped the $ for Game Rewind, and was very disappointed that coaches film was very slow to load last night (not in the afternoon when I tested). However, did give me a chance to use another feature: the “condensed” broadcast–naturally I checked out the RGIII and the Skins-Saints game. I would advice everyone to watch the first drive (ended in FG).

    This was an excellent example of “breaking in” a rookie QB. I was shocked how the Washington offense basically consisted of WR screens (same tactic Dallas beat us with at home a couple years back). RGIII was not asked to do much at all but perhaps fake a run and make quick throws to open receivers on LOS–and was quite successful. Only later in the game more complex plays were called (and RGIII performed admirably). Might have been a good idea for Vick in first real game as well…

    • Anders

      It did help RG3 that he was facing the potential worst D in the NFL, where the Browns have a potential top 5 D.

      • ChaosOnion

        I will be interested to see what happens when hes has to make a a 2nd or even a 3rd read against a good secondary.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=565087931 Jeppe Elmelund van Ee

    Tommy,

    The other day you wrote about what abilities you’d want in a SS. The main ability I focus on is instinct. It seems to me, that the players that succeed are players who have ‘that’.

    How highly do you rate that ability, in comparison to speed, technique etc?

    And are there any safeties in college right now, that you covet? And lastly, do you think we’d target one early in April to correct the Jarret-failure? Or has Coleman solidified that spot to a degree, where we don’t need to draft one in the first three rounds?

    • TommyLawlor

      Instincts are great in Safeties, but finding out who has them isn’t easy. When I do find an instinctive DB, I’m all for that guy. Felt Kurt Coleman was an instinctive player.

      Speed is overrated with SS/FS. Must be able to see things and anticipate things rather than react and run at blazing speed.

      Previous article on Safeties to watch:
      http://scoutsnotebook.com/2012/08/13/2013-safety-class-shows-promise/

      • Mac

        Tommy you are the man for draft info. Seriously… Many thanks!

  • ceteris_paribus1776

    According to Didi and Baldy the Birds may be in for a long season. Vick’s problems aren’t some temporary issue that can be expected to be quickly ironed out; they are the same issues that have plagued him throughout his career. Blitz, blitz and blitz some more. We’ll see how they handle the big, physical Ravens defense.
    http://www.csnphilly.com/pages/archive_didinger

    • TommyLawlor

      And they might be right. I do think we need to see a couple of more games to find out if this is the same old Vick or if the Browns game was just a rusty, crappy performance.

  • Todd B.

    Thanks Tommy. Love Eagles Notebook entries.
    You listed a number of players that looked better after watching the 22 tape. Any player that you thought originally look good but looked worse after watching the tape?

  • Mac

    I hadn’t really thought about the vertical passing game being more akin to sandlot football, and how that fits into Vick’s style as a QB. Actually makes some sense, and makes me a little less irritated about the playcalling.

    I still want to see more run plays called this weekend.

  • GermanEagle

    The last time the Eagles were 2-0 was 2004, the year they went on to the super bowl… Just saying!

    • Mac

      If they turn this ship around and can beat a good Ravens team… then I think you may be on to something.