Excitement is in the Air
Posted: July 31st, 2015 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 85 Comments »Training Camp is the first real football of the year. Players will be in pads. There will be hitting and even some tackling. The media is there everyday so we get constant reports on who is headed to Canton, Ohio and who has one foot in the football grave. Fun stuff.
This year’s camp is generating a lot of excitement because there is a great combination of curiosity and excitement. Many people feel the Eagles are going to win 10 to 13 games, despite the fact they changed QB, RB, WR, ROLB, CB, S and both OG spots.
Everyone is going to be focused on Sam Bradford, and for good reason. He is the most talented pocket passer the Eagles have had since…Jaws? Vick, McNabb and Garcia were all athletic players. Feeley was more overachiever than naturally talented. Ditto that for Ty Detmer. No one would describe Randall Cunningham as a pocket passer. He was The Ultimate Weapon.
Bradford can’t prove himself in Training Camp. He’ll have to wait for real games to do that. He can start to answer some questions and show his potential. The first order of business is obviously staying on the field. Bradford won’t be getting tackled or hit hard, but he’ll have the occasional rusher bump into him. Bradford needs to show that he can move around on the leg. He needs to show he can plant and drive when throwing. Ideally, you want to see him looking comfortable on the field. You don’t want him grimacing as he throws. You don’t want him favoring the leg. Bradford needs to look natural.
The pass rush will be live. Bradford will have to deal with bodies around him. That can be an issue for some players coming off an ACL injury. They get very protective of their legs and will focus on that more than running the play correctly. It will be a great sign if Bradford can stay focused on executing the play and not watching the rush or trying to protect his legs.
That’s the simple stuff.
Bradford will have a lot of pressure to perform well. Because of his background at Oklahoma, playing in a fast-paced offense and getting the ball out quickly should come naturally to him. Next is decision-making. You want to see him getting the ball to the right receiver. Last year Nick Foles was trying to be perfect and that led to him holding the ball too long at times. Mark Sanchez got rid of the ball quickly, which meant every game there were wide open players running down the field screaming for the ball while a checkdown target was battling for a 4-yard gain.
Back in his rookie year, Bradford was a checkdown QB when playing in Pat Shurmur’s offense. Now that Bradford is a veteran and he’s playing with a good OL and good receivers, he needs to be more aggressive. During the first few days of TC, he might focus on getting the ball out quickly, which means finding the first open receiver, often on a short route. That’s fine. If he’s still doing that on August 14, we might have an issue. You have to use the whole field. You have to use all your weapons.
Accuracy is an area where Bradford should be a step up from Foles and Sanchez. Some of you have pointed out that Bradford didn’t have a good completion percentage with the Rams. There is a big difference in accuracy and completion percentage. Accuracy is putting the ball where you want it. Completion percentage is all about receivers making catches. Bradford was very accurate at Oklahoma.
You don’t see a lot of receivers having to stop and wait for the ball. You don’t see many circus catches. Bradford put the ball in the right spot so his guys could make the catch. On many throws, he put the ball in the right spot so they could grab it on the move and then go for a big RAC play. That’s accuracy.
Completing 54 percent of your passes with a WR corps of Brandon Lloyd, Brandon Gibson and Austin Pettis doesn’t tell me a whole lot, especially when the LT is Rodger Saffold. How much time was there to throw? Were guys getting open? Were they running the right routes? Were drops an issue? And so on.
I expect Bradford to play well this summer. He’ll make some bad throws and likely have a bad day or two. That’s going to happen with a new team, a new scheme and lots of rust. Overall, I think he will look like a good starting QB and will kill any notion that Mark Sanchez can win the job.
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Jimmy Bama is the King of Training Camp. He’s great at taking notes and noticing all kinds of interesting things. Make sure you read all his reports this summer.
Bama previewed TC by making 25 predictions. My favorite ones…
12) Most likely player to have one good practice that a national reporter attends, and the reporter is flabbergasted that said player is not being talked about by the locals: Miles Austin
13) Most likely reporter to be “that guy”: Peter King
Bama vs Little Pete King? My money is definitely on Bama.
_
Chancellor expected to hold out for new deal. The sooner Seattle has cap issues the better. Between Wilson, Bennett, Chancellor etc. wanted to get paid, we need their payroll to catch up to their higher talent level so they start having to take lesser talent somewhere.
I don’t think Chancellor and Bennett are going to do anything but cry and complain. The new CBA makes skipping mandatory stuff really expensive. Really really expensive.
http://www.nfl.com/news/story/0ap2000000363626/article/the-holdout-handbook-exploring-key-issues-for-players-teams
But you’re 100% correct that after Wilson, rightfully, gets his big deal, Seattle is going to have to make some tough choices in other places.
I agree holding out might not work, but I want all these Seattle players to get paid sooner rather than later.
They’re not going to do squat for either of those two guys. Bennett especially. If he was so good, why did the pass rush disappear after Avril got hurt in the Super Bowl?
Wagner is the deal to watch right now.
Chip would have released those guys already! 😉
JR Sweezy. Please football jesus. Bring me JR Sweezy.
His contract is up at the end of the year. I guess he’s on your free agent shopping list.
OH YES. I’d put 5 years $40 mil on the table. Immediately. He’s the perfect combination of power (which we’ve been kicking the tires on) and athleticism. Seattle runs a zone scheme so from the technical standpoint he understands the concepts. And he’s nasty.
https://twitter.com/CoachMattJones/status/617035689767604224
https://twitter.com/CoachMattJones/status/606911977177284608
https://twitter.com/CoachMattJones/status/600306820008271872
https://twitter.com/CoachMattJones/status/598941405311012866
https://twitter.com/CoachMattJones/status/598880290237362176
The thing with Sweezy is I cannot get that terrible whiff vs. Babineaux from the 2012 season playoffs out of my head.
I f-ing hate Babineaux and Atlanta, was even more irate that Atlanta went on to choke at home the next vs. a-hole San Fran and Kaepertrash.
http://www.nfl.com/gamecenter/2013011301/2012/POST19/seahawks@falcons#menu=gameinfo%7CcontentId%3A0ap2000000125922&tab=videos
The sack video is “Wilson sacked as first half ends.”
I know none of that takes away from Sweezy’s growth as a player, but I hated that play.
Countdown to tebowmania!!
If I was Kempski, I’d be pissed you even mention me in the same sentence as King.
The QB situation is obviously a big deal, but I like Bradford’s talent. I think he’ll do great things as long as he’s healthy. So outside of him needing to be healthy enough, I don’t have any worries.
On a positive note, I’m looking to see how well our play is going to be at ILB, RB, and WR. Even though the WR group is young. I think all 3 groups are going to look really good.
On a skeptical note, I’m going to look at OLB, G, CB, and S with a very aggressive eye.
-Can Brandon Graham produce starters stats with starters snaps?
-Will Marcus Smith show an ability to get out there and contribute like the first round pick Kelly made him?
-Will two dudes step up and provide some type of quality play at guard or will our QB be looking at jailbreak type scenarios up the middle all year?
– Who goes out and WINS the CB job opposite Maxwell and WINS the S job opposite Jenkins?
thats a pretty good list. only other thing i want to look for is the young group of WRs. who wins what job? can anybody steal Cooper’s playing time? will we see Huff & Matthews step up their game?
Nolan Carroll is a lock to start outside in september. Too soon for a rookie corner to be able to beat him out…. If ROWE moves into the lineup, it would Probably be closer to Midseason… ROWE is his only threat and rookie CB’s suck
I miss the days of Lehigh. I’ve been stuck in Florida for 3 years now due to work so it wouldn’t be easy if TC was still at Lehigh, but I would definitely take a week off to fly up and spend time with family and go to TC.
You really don’t get to appreciate the violence and speed of the game unless you watch TC up close or you have low level seats during a game.
I’m definitely going to get tickets to the MIA game though. Cheaper then going to the Linc.
The lack of an open training camp at a location easily accessed by fans with out any strings attached is a major negative of Kelly’s time here as coach. In order to grow the next generation of loyalists to the team, there needs to be a better level of fan access as provided by training camp. Doing their thing at St. Vincent’s every year doesn’t seem to have bothered the Steelers very much.
I get what you are saying 100%. I do think there are 2 sides to it though. Everything CK does is to win more games and win the big one. Apparently he thinks non Lehigh TC has an advantage over Lehigh TC, which is a piece to the puzzle that will attribute to more wins. More then anything else the fan base will grow based on more wins.
Fan growth based on TC attendance is trivial compared to fan growth based on winning. Yes we can complain about the fair weather fan, but there are equally the amount of them next to the hardcore fan if not more.
I do understand the arguments of keeping it at the team’s training area. But why not expand those fields, add seats for fans, and get more people in there every day to see the team? The types of fans that will only watch when the team is good might be who you get with an extra win or two per year, but the types of fans who stick with the team no matter what are often the fans who became hooked on the team for life due to some connections made with being up close with the team in a training camp environment. Plus a significant amount of your fan base isn’t able to afford regular attendance at regular season games, those folks shouldn’t be shaded out of the free experiences a lot of their elders had over the years.
I agree with you. I just started a family and one of the things I was looking forward to in the upcoming years (when I do move back to.PA) was to bring my son to TC like my Gdad and dad did with me.
I agree, I was just offering a reason it may have been done. Kelly must have pitched something good to Lurie because TC at Lehigh was a big money maker for the organization and the economy of Lehigh County.
I remember when I was little the Giants and the Jets would scrimmage at Lehigh. I distinctly remember Gastino getting into an argument with a fan when I tried to get his autograph (my dad wisely directed us to the Jets players so we wouldn’t be corrupted by the Giants).
A compromise that may make sense would be to have all joint practices open to the public since they don’t have the same secrecy constraints as the usual practice… So 1 week of open practices leading up to a preseason game.
In theory that would be wonderful. However, those connections can be made in other ways as well, such as the play ground builds and involvement in the community which they have been very good at doing. For kids, meeting the players is more important than watching them play, the open practices mean more to us as adults who want to see all the position battles.
Those playground building activities are only hitting a few dozen kids at a time. An open camp practice gets thousands. I agree the community stuff is good work, but it isn’t an acceptable substitute to having training camp done in an open manner that is freely accessible to the public.
I agree it is small volume, but the quality of the experience is way more personal compared to the experience I had going to Lehigh. I also didn’t see a ton of kids there, so in terms of the number of kids being hooked may not be as drastic. They also visit schools and do the reading initiatives.
The other thing is the difficulty for philly locals to make it to Lehigh. For underprivileged kids, they aren’t getting there. So the argument that it allows people who can’t afford to go to games to see them is not entirely true. You could argue the two practices at the Linc do a better job of that. And opening a section or two during preseason games would be even better.
I totally get your point, but I think “all of the above” would be best when it comes to opening up things for the fans.
And you can still do both the open stuff at the Linc and an open training camp.
And if we want to cut down on the drive for the locals, why not do camp at West Chester (where it should be)?
Lehigh is antiquated.. We have state of the art facilitates, why would we want to go to Lehigh ? It would be a pain of the ass to move all the sports science equipment to Lehigh… Our daily hydration tests, classroom film sessions, we have everything we need here, slumming it in Lehigh for the sake of it is antiquated thinking,,.
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This isn’t a circus, they don’t owe us practice access, they owe us wins on sundays ..
That was my point if you read the whole conversation.
Isn’t the Miami game in Philly?
I thought I was in MIA. Shit…. I.Hope it’s not in Philly. I was really looking forward to it.
A stab at a 53 man roster based on a combination of what I would do and what might happen.
QB 3 – Bradford, Sanchez, Barkley – I’m not employing Tebow. EVER.
RB 3 (6) – Murray, Mathews, Sproles – I would have went 4 with Tucker, but Barner sucks at life and I can always have Huff take snaps here in an emergency. A few of the young guys in camp should be p-squad players who could get called up.
WR 6 (12) – Matthews, Agholor, Huff, Aijiroututu, Austin, and Cooper. I’d cut Cooper in my projections if I thought the team would actually do. I hope this is the last year that clown is on the team.
TE 3 (15) – Ertz, Celek, Burton – I don’t see a lot beyond this.
OL 10 (25) – Kelce, VanDeVelde, Moffit, Boyko, Barbre, Tobin, Peters, Johnson, Gardner, Graf.
Spec Teams 3 (28) – Parkey, Dirk, Dorenbros
Prosinski over Biggers
Long over Jones
Know you hate Molk, but I don’t think Batvelde has a shot.
Molk is smaller than half of the guys posting here, I do hate him!
I can buy Pros over Biggers, I’m just a fan of Biggers and think he’ll make enough plays to make the team. Maybe we trade Boykin?
Jones was a guy they paid some $ to get here, so I’m using that contract as a justification to keep him on the team, but we’ll see if Long’s knee is ready for action. I know Long was a guy they were high on, but I have a permanent vendetta against him because his injury forced me to watch too much Casey Matthews again. If he apologizes to me, I’ll let him back on the team.
Long wouldn’t have played over Casey. He did ok in a meaningless preseason game but he’s an OLB. I think Long makes more sense at OLB 4 than Goode does.
That works. But I still want somebody to apologize for Casey Matthews.
I am sorry for Casey Matthews. Feel better now?
(being married for 12 years has taught me to apologize even if something is in no way my fault)
did you just call us all fat?
No, I called you not 5’6″ 195 lbs.
I do beat both of those measurements. So it can’t be slander if it’s true.
Why would you want to trade boykin when we have the chance to be a very competitive,team this year? I could understand if we were poised to have a down year, but if We are a playoff team, I’d rather have Boykin then an extra 5th round pick in the future…Boykin has little value, the team that trades him has to commit money to him after the year or lose him to free agency, which devalues Boykin as a trade asset today.. Last year was the year to trade Boykin if you aren’t happy having the best Nickel in the game
Wilson’s deal just got done. 4 years. $87 mil ish. $31 up front, $60 guaranteed.
My thought is that the deal should have been longer, but kept that appx $22 mil / year. I think too much of the % of the money is guaranteed.
does it replace this year? You would think Peter King could tell us the basic facts.
Yeah. I assume it replaces this year and we’re talking a deal for 2015,16,17, and 18.
But none of these slackers has the details yet.
And over the cap doesn’t have the contract loaded as well.
How the F am I supposed to figure out who we can poach from Seattle’s roster?
right and King’s article doesn’t even address it or say he doesn’t know. Could they really have enough cap room to go up that high this year?
Wilson’s deal expires when he turns 31, allowing him one more payday before he retires
Mixed it up a bit today on the fantasy mock draft.
Picking 4th in a 12 team snake.
In order:
CJ Anderson, Gront, Forsett, Russell Wilson, Keenan Allen, Allen RObinson, Devonta Freeman, Charles Johnson, Montee Ball, John Brown, Doug Baldwin, Alfred Blue, Bradford, Helu, Bengals D, Blair Walsh.
Excrement is also in the air.
http://www.nfl.com/videos/nfl-network-total-access/0ap3000000505168/Robinson-RGIII-has-looked-really-really-good
RGKnee sucks. Any attempt to pump up his failed career is a joke.
I have to say, I absolutely love the amount of disdain you show towards our rivals, especially the Giants and their fan base, mostly because I can relate.
Enemies everywhere. These BS teams and their lame fan bases are attempting to steal our enjoyment of football at all times. They must be vanquished.
Haha preach. Almost all are bandwagon and major tools
A joke I hope the Racistskins keep trying to make, and keep ending up as the punchline.
Kiko needs to go ahead and grow a beard. He’s rockin the Hobbit look right now, and you can only be so intimidating looking like a hobbit.
http://cdn.phillymag.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/B80E7836.jpg
http://www.thenewsletterpro.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/lotr_hobbits1.jpg
http://oyster.ignimgs.com/wordpress/stg.ign.com/2014/05/oooo.jpg
You can still look tough without the beard.
going to need stronger evidence
Orge is the man.
Beardless Mathis, we hardly knew ye.
NNEERRDDSSS!!!
Nah he kind of looks like Bodhi.
I hope he starts screaming “VAYO CON DIOS!” before tackles
Who knows?
You might like it.
Here’s hoping he plays like this look-a-like.
http://goldenrankings.com/Football%20Pictures%202/1972%20Dolphins/MikeCurtisColts.jpg
Bradford is accurate, gets the ball out quickly and does not throw interceptions. What he does do is fumble the ball a lot when the pocket collapses or things get hairy. So if he is worried about his knee it could only get worse. It is difficult to change this type of behavior. But this is the challenge of the Eagles coaches. If he can get the ball out quick enough and often enough to not get in trouble and if he can stay cool when things fall apart the Eagles will have a spectacular offense.
Bradford had zero confidence in the Rams OL. They were terrible. He’ll have that confidence with this OL. I’m not seeing this as an issue. If the defense is getting to our QB at the rate the Rams let it happen, the are in more trouble then Bradford fumbling…
So deadskins officially sign junior gallette # culture
LOLskins and ‘Allas will sign anybody at this point. Cowgirls trying to match there success from last year and skins just trying to be relevant period.
Scumbags, the whole lot of them. I really loathe our division rivals right now, even more than usual.
Yeah they are definitely at an alltime scumbag obnoxious level….
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I really don’t understand WTF is the poïnt of Teams cutting their best players for being scumbags if another team is going to sign them 3 days later at a discount rate.
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At some point a hope an owner tells the public, kiss my ass, I’m not cutting so and so, because they got in trouble, just so someone else can pick him up and use him against us…. Unless every other owner won’t touch the player, I will applaud the first owner who tells the public to fuck off, and refuses to play along with this Moral Farce of cutting a player, if he is just going to play for a new team 3’days later….. Eithet owners band together and decide they won’t pick up these scumbags, or there is no reason to play this bullshit farce game cutting your best players.. If what they did ISNT so sever that no one else will pick them up, owners need to grow a pair and keep their troubled talent… Now if we he is a problem in the locker room, that’s a different story…
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rather see the Saints keep Jumior, then to funnel another talented scumbag to our Rivals… Since the teams in our division have no shame, I hope owners stop cutting troubled talemt
maybe some owners value their image and integrity more than others.
I read an article somewhere where his teammates said the “real” Gallette came out once he got his money
I don’t think you can lump the Giants in with the Redskins and Cowboys. They may have some players that you don’t like, but in general they’re a classy organization. Can’t say the same of the other 2 franchises.
Yes I can agree with that. It’s mainly the the two you mentioned. I hate them so much I refuse to even say their names.
17) Most likely to be practicing on another field while nursing an injury: Earl Wolff … I’d like to add he’s the returning, repeated champ at this too…
Stay healthy, don’t get arrested and DONT fail drug tests… If this continues to hold true, we should be able to play with anyone this year..
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Start of training camp will always be an exciting time, but the real offseason value is getting to practice against the Ravens! It’s extremely valuable for our new Oline to be able and practice against another teams defensive front… Ravens practice is really valueable for our OL, and to get Sammy boy comfortable in this offense.
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It’s crucial that we not only remain healthy to begin the season, but just as important is avoiding getting “Dinged up” in camp so you can take advantage of every practice session/growth opportunity, instead of having to miss valuable camp off on the side stretching with Earl Wolff and our trainers
Agreed.
Camp will give our O and D some good looks against good team. The Ravens play D every year and I’m curious to see how our O is going to hold up against them. I’m tired of seeing us struggle against the better Defenses.
And Flacco is a good QB, with some weapons. I’m curious to see how our secondary holds up. I expect the front 7 to be who they have been.
The Tampa Bay Bucs have not been shy in making Winston the face of the franchise. Heard they’ve been running this commercial on local television in the Tampa and surrounding markets:
http://thatguysportsblog.com/posts/2469756/-video–watch-jameis-winston-s-first-tampa-bay-buccaneers-promo.html
Excitement is in the air? Heck no! Excitement will be in the air once they start playing real games. The only thing in the air right now is the sheer dread I feel everytime I log on and go to twitter or rotoworld and pray to the demi-gods and demons that I won’t read about some superstar like G.J. Kinne tore a ligament in his pinky finger or some other catastrophe.
I approve of the way in which you hedged against a jinx.
I don’t understand what you’re referring to. You all know in a fair competition, G.J. Kinne would be our starting QB. A torn ligament in his pinky would affect his grip. I just hope the season isn’t ruined because some minor injury deprives G.J. of his shot.
McNabb was definitely a good pocket passer. He was not when he arrived, but he worked very hard and became one during his time here. People constantly complained why he would not run more when it was obvious he was running the offense from the pocket! Running a lot would have been counter productive. Vick never learned or made this transition. Randall certainly struggled with it for most of his career. Garcia, Feeley et al. I do not even consider major Eagles QB.
But Mac5 was not the most accurate QB, which is what I think Tommy is referring to.
Could be, he said “..most talented pocket passer”. I’d say McNabb was more talented in that role than Jaws although accuracy is a valid criticism. I’d balance that with McNabb’s superior pass rush avoidance and keeping plays alive in/around the pocket skill over Jaws. Both read defenses pretty well, McNabb had a better TD/INT ratio and threw a better long ball IMO. Anyway, I think people may want to lump McNabb in with Vick/Randall, but he was a far better QB than them mostly due to his growth as a pocket passer and runner of an offense. Vick never made that transition, Randall did but very late in MN.
I’m interested to see how Bradford does, but most of my focus will be on the CB, S, OL and WR who all need to take a step up if we are going to be a stellar team this year. We have a lot of question marks at those positions from Carroll to Tobin to Huff to Barbre to Thurmond to Cooper to Wolff etc. I’ll also be interested in seeing which LB get reps consistently.
I think you’re overstated these question marks. Carroll will be adequate on spot and if not he has a talented rookie waiting in the wings so I don’t really consider the #2 corner job a question mark. Receiver is really much of a question mark either. Huff would be no higher then #3 anyways and I am sure somebody between Huff, Cooper, and Austin will emerge as a viable option. Safety and RG are the only legit question marks.
Rookies are very risky to rely on as we saw last year with Smith, Huff etc. For every Matthews good rookie season which is fairly rare, usually there are struggles by the rest of the rookies. It is a very large leap from college to the NFL.
Carroll has a limited track record as a starting CB at this level, could not beat out Fletcher last season and our backup plan is a rookie?
Sorry, that yells question mark to me especially since we do not even know how Maxwell is going to play outside of Seattle.
At WR, we have Cooper who is inconsistent at best, Huff who is a question mark and Austin who is a 31 yr old mediocrity. Plus we are relying on another rookie, Agholor, to seemingly be a starter WR. If Matthews goes down, wow, we’d be in serious trouble IMO.
I agree about Carroll. He was a solid starter for MIA, and I think he will be an upgrade over Fletcher.
I’m not worried about WR. We know Mathews can be a good receiver in this league, and I think Agholor will be a very good fit. I would rather see Austin start over Cooper. I think he is a better receiving threat then.Cooper. Mathews will remain in slot primarily, but will also be used on the outside more then last year. Huff will be used more as an offensive weapon then a pure outside receiver and I think you will also see him in the slot many times when Mathews goes outside. With his RAC ability and quickness he will be effective in slot.
I do think Thurmond can be a very good cover safety. Expect him to play deep alot or line up against the slot receiver. His injury past worries me though. When he has played he has shown to be active against the run as a CB, but his size and injury history does worry me if he has to continuously take on a RB. Jenkins will be all over the field more whereas Thurmond will play deep or against slot.
G also does worry me some but it does help that the G’s will be playing next to pro bowl worthy lineman or in Peter’s case possible HOF lineman. I do think Moffit will start at some point and at the very least play at a Herremans level.
I watched the Minnesota Vikings in 1998. Randall Cunningham was a pocket passer. A great one, in fact. 34 TDs to 10 INTS that record-breaking season which only foundered one chip-shot FG away from icing a trip to the Super Bowl.
Just read an article over at philly.com about the only three outcomes for this season. It was awesome(ly) bad.
First option: Sam Bradford is #bad Eagles go 6-10
Second option: Sam Bradford and Sanchez are just #ok 10-6
Third option: Sam Bradford is #good 13-3.
Like you could literally insert any team into that article and hit print.
God I am happy to have this site.