OTAs – Day 3
Posted: May 24th, 2012 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 23 Comments »Doesn’t that title make you think of a hostage crisis or something?
Adam Caplan seems to be high on Mike Kafka. He says that he’s the most improved Eagle this spring. Adam generally is pretty good with QBs so that’s excellent news. I watched the QB video from today and I have to say that I like Kafka’s mechanics the best of any of the QBs. Vick is awkward, but he always has been. Foles opens his motion a bit too wide as he starts to come up with the ball. That delay isn’t good in the NFL even though it is maybe half a second. Trent Edwards doesn’t look like a veteran. He seems a bit stiff. Could be that he’s really pressing and that is messing with his body.
What we don’t see in this video is how Kafka drives the ball downfield. That’s one of the big concerns with him. I will tell you that you can improve your arm strength in the NFL. Tom Brady has a stronger arm now than he did as a rookie. Part of that is on the weight room and part is on mechanics. QBs who learn to use their legs can throw the ball much better.
We don’t yet know that Kafka is good enough to be #2, but he’s at least headed in the right direction. We have to see him play in a live hitting session and a preseason game to find out if he’s made the kind of progress we need.
* * * * *
Some fans continue to ask about veteran free agents. What about Plax? What about a Safety? What about a C or G? Any other TEs? I do not anticipate the Eagles making any veteran moves between now and mid-July (barring injury of course). The Eagles want the young players to get the reps. Let’s see what Marvin McNutt can do. Let’s see what Dallas Reynolds, Steve Vallos and Mike Gibson do. Let’s see if Brett Brackett looks like an NFL player.
The core of the team is set. Let the young players have May, June, and early July to practice. These guys are not finished products. They are learning on the job. Don’t worry if a rookie looks a bit lost now. This is the time for him to work things out. If the coaches see the same mistakes over and over, then it is time to look for help. We know some young players will fail, but you’ve got to give them a chance to fail. Others will learn from their mistakes and improve.
* * * * *
Jimmy Bama has some practice notes posted. My personal favorite is this: “Darryl Tapp continues the nonstop chatter throughout the entire practice, and yet, I don’t think I’ve understood a single word he has said.”
* * * * *
Brandon Boykin continues to get praise from a variety of people. As Mr. Burns would say, “Excellent.”
* * * * *
The Eagles made some changes to the scouting department. I’ll get into all those moves later this evening.
* * * * *
Geoff Mosher had the joke of the day on Twitter. When asked about Trent Edwards, Mosher replied that “he’s clearly the 4th best QB here…by a lot”.
* * * * *
Brandon Graham did get some reps with the 1’s today. I know a few people have asked about him.
The defense continued to do a lot of blitzing. This doesn’t mean Juan Castillo is going to be blitz happy during the year. You can blitz for a couple of reasons. You can do it to help teach the offense how to deal with it. You can do it to help teach the defense how to execute it.
I also think it spices up non-contact practices and keeps everyone on their toes.
* * * * *
For PE.com I wrote about the good vibes coming from these OTAs. Andy Reid and Howie Roseman have put together a terrific roster, but I like the vibes from this team a whole lot better than last year’s.
I have a dream, a dream that one day football players of every color will be able to sit down at the same table on lunch break. Thank you Casey Matthews for helping to realize this goal. Now if someone would just donate a really long room and table….
Casey is an ambassador of hope.
I’m shocked Juan didn’t invite the entire Matthews clan to eat all meals at NovaCare
Uh, yeah, especially if brother Clay was invited.
Shhhhhh, we don’t need tampering charges. Or we could just do a good old fashioned FACE-OFF with Casey and Clay…
Tommy,
Do you think Juan is going to continue the tradition of having assigned sides for our CBs this year or will he allow Nnamdi to eliminate a WR from the opposition from time to time?
Nnamdi will primarily be a RCB, but will move around in certain matchups.
i think you are right on the blitzing as being for the o and not the d.
i would bet that there are only so many drills that the d can do. when they are out there facing off against the offense like that, i would expect that some of the time the plan is to just let the offense run their drill, but see if you can confuse them. who knows.
Might want to tell McPherson to get his byline off your stuff Tommy!
He’ll get a warning. Steal Mortons’s stuff, not mine!!!
Chris edits some of my pieces and just forgot to change the byline.
I am glad to hear that Kafka is doing well. He and Edwards are playing for a job, right? They can’t afford to keep 4 QBs on the roster, and I would hate to see them forced to give up on Kafka now. He is only a year or two from turning into draft picks.
Slow down, now. We need Kafka to have a couple of 300-yard games to build up his value before he’s dealt to JAX for a high pick
Hopefully only one … he’s an unrestricted free agent after the 2013 season.
Dealt to Miami for a 2nd, anyone? Maybe Arizona for a 2nd and a 4th?
I’m pretty sure Andy and his magical QB elixir covered wagon won’t be welcome in either of those locations for a while.
On the other hand, maybe Banner could convince them that they should both be offering us a first for Kafka. That way we can select the next TBOTF (trade bait of the future) in an earlier round.
I could just see Joe Banner sitting in his big chair in his big office and saying, “excellent”
Is he still around?
Don’t let Chris McPherson getting the byline for Good Vibes ruin your good vibes.
Carpool with Cliff Harris’ designated driver after you sip a PBR for every time you hear so and so is “the same age” or younger than Brandon Weeden. Weeden is the new Watkins.
I’m feelin’ the good vibes as well. Typically for us Eagles fans, we’ve spent the most time talking about our 2nd/3rd QB and our 3rd WR.
Compare that to Dallas – they’re worrying about Romo and Jerry Jones announcing their window is closing. I can’t stand the guy, but Romo is similar to McNabb in a lot of ways. They put up really good numbers. They’re always in that “outside the elite QB” group (Donovan was in the past, anyway). Donovan had way more post-season success, but he shouldered the blame when we did lose those games like Romo. Fans spend most of their time debating whether or not Romo is “the guy” who can lead their team over the hump.
The good news is that when Romo messes up its usually in a more spectacular fashion than Dmac did. Romo at times makes being an eagles fan a beautiful thing.
I agree, I love Tony Romo’s ability to throw away critical games for the Cowgirls.
Kafka doesn’t need great arm strength, just enough arm strength.
Jeff Garcia was probably below average when he came to the Eagles, and even in SF, wasn’t stronger than Kafka.
If Kafka can just build his arm to Matt Hasselback’s level, that’s fine.
But you have to be better than Kyle Orton – he struggles in the 11-20 yard region.
You have the Mendoza line in baseball, I suggest the Detmer line in football (size and arm strength).
However, Peyton, Brady and Brees have never ranked in the top 5 in velocity.
Ryan Leaf and Akili Smith had guns, where are they today?
Jeff George had one of the great NFL arms of all time (Strengh, accuracy) but a 10 cent head.
Arm strength is overrated, other than the deep out (and how many does any QB throw per game?) you really only need an average arm IF you have above average recognition/anticipation, an above average release and good to excellent accuracy. Thowing downfield is as much about anticipation as arm strength, Garcia used to float his bombs, but he could quickly read that his WR had a step and let him run under those wounded ducks and make a kill. Most NFL throws (93-95%) are within 20 yards of the LOS, and any QB with a decent arm can snap those throws – what a big arm allows you is to be slower on your read and release (McNabb).
Quick decision making will become more important as defenses adjust to the new rules by emphasizing speed – faster defenses, both in terms of pressure and closing on the ball makes it imperative that your QB have good recognition skills and a quick release. Sounds like they’re gonna have to spend a year on Foles to tighten his delivery, I don’t think a McNabb type “windup” motion will work well in the future, you can’t give away .2-.3 seconds with a hitch or elongated motion, if you’re looking at a 3 second window, you need every tenth of a second.