I left Citizens Bank Park in the middle of the eighth inning, Phillies trailing the Mets by two runs, because I felt the need to be at thr Linc at least two hours before kickoff.
For an Eagles preseason game that is almost utterly meaningless.
As everybody now know, the Phitins staged a comeback to sweep the Metropolitans in a four-game series. Pat Burrell, Jayson Werth, Tadahito Iguchi and Chase Utley were the late-inning heroes. I could hear the cheers rocking the stadium as I walked away, reminding me of the time when I was 12 and my Phillies-crazy grandmother was so angry because we walked out early and missed a game-winning grand slam by Darren Daulton.
Anyway, nothing could possibly heppen in tonight's Eagles game that would remotely approach the importance of any play the Phillies ballgirls made this afternoon. But, hey, it's football. So let's enjoy it, and hope that none of our late-round fantasy sleeper picks get hurt.
Bria Kelly National Anthem Philadelphia Eagles Audition 2007
This little girl is pretty awesome. According to the video's blurb on youTube, she'll be singing the Anthem again on Thursday night for the Jets game. Since the sit has about a gazillion clips of her singing in front of big crowds, I'm guessing she won't be nervous enough to mess up, but I wish her the best of luck.
The sound and the fury has faded. Moorestown High School graduate Dereck Faulkner is among six cuts made by the Eagles today, one day ahead of the Tuesday deadline for getting down to 75 players.
The cuts were Faulkner, place kicker E.J. Cochrane, tight end Kyle Hunt, wide receiver Jermaine Jamison, safety Chris Smith and offensive lineman Chris White. The Birds also placed running back Ryan Moats, defensive end Jerome McDougle and offensive lineman Stefan Rodgers on injured reserve, and they traded quarterback Kelly Holcomb to the Vikings for an undisclosed 2009 draft choice.
Holcomb is almost certainly the biggest news here. It would be interesting to find out what level draft pick the Eagles ended up with for him, since there are a number of teams that could use him. The writing was on the wall with Holcomb last week, when the Eagles gave him the game off, and last night when he didn't take a snap.
I'm sad to see Dereck go, though it was nearly inevitable. The wideouts they want are pretty clear right now, so he and Jamison were bound to be among the easier cuts they had to make.
A couple days ago I told Captain -- a doorman at a prominent local watering hole in the wall -- that I was going to Pittsburgh, and after offering his condolences, he suggested I visit the Andy Warhol Museum. Warhol is one of the most prominent American artists of the 20th century, but he is primarly identified with New York, where he spent most of his life. The fact, however, is that he's a native Pittsburgher.
Anyway, when Captain says "Go to the Andy Warhol Museum," I say "How high?" (The answer being, of course, not high at all, but 100 percent sober, as we all should be as often as possible.) So while I was waiting for check-in time at the hotel to roll around, I found it nestled right in there among the Steel City's cathedrals to professional sport, just across the Andy Warhol Bridge.
There were seven floors of exhibits, and all the different salons were typical Pittsburghian: cavernous, stone and steel, cold and Spartan, except for the priceless canvasses and memorabilia on the walls and in the cases.
The most interesting pieces were the ones included in the Warhol/Keith Haring "Personal Jesus" combination. I had never seen a lot of the Haring pieces before, and didn't realize that so much of his work had such violence. I knew about the sexual themes, but the violence was incredibly affecting. The Warhol half of the special religious exhibit was terrific too. I did't realize he was such a devout Catholic, but it jumped right off the wall there.
Another note about Keith Haring: One of South Jersey's most prominent pro athletes, bass badass Mike Iaconelli, is an insane Haring fan, and has multiple replications of Harings work colorfully tattooed on his person. That was actually the first thing I thought of when I saw the exhibit.
There was a ton of other interesting stuff, like a photo collection by a woman wo enjoyed intimate access to the whole Warhol/Velvet Underground Silver Factory scene in Manhattan in the late 60's and early 70's. And also examples of Warhol's clothes, inclduing his famous silver wigs.
The only thing that disappointed was the gift shop. I went in full prepared to find a t-shirt that I had to have, but was underwhelmed, and came away with only a postcard photo of Warhol kissing Salvadore Dali. Funny enough, I guess, but I was hoping for something a little more permanent and memorable.
All in all, it was a terrific few hours in the Steel City, and well worth the rather steep 12 bucks it cost. Of course, Philadelphians are used to walking into museums for free on Sundays, so maybe that made it seem more expensive. In any case, all those who travel to Pittsburgh should put it on the to-do list.
Why was Brian Westbrook on the 8 a.m. USAir flight from Philly to Pittsburgh with no other Eagles anywhere around?
After unexpectedly staying up all night (long story, too long) I staggered onto the plane this morning only to see the Eagles' starting running back settled into the right-rearmost seat in first class. He was wearing sunglasses and a cap pulled low, but he was still unmistakably Westbrook, trekking across Pennsylvania half a day behind the team.
There are a number of perfectly innocent explanations for BWest's tardiness. For example, he could have been excused for personal reasons, as he was for a few consecutive practices during training camp. But the non-innocewnt reasons he might have been there are more fun to speculate about.
Maybe he missed yesterday's plane, and is due for punishment for violating team rules. That would be fun.
Or how about this: Maybe Westbrook's not playing in tonight's game. It seems unlikely, given the problems the running game has suffered, that the coaches wouldn't want him in there against the Steelers, but this regime is notoriously wary about it's oft-injured players during the preseason.
I'd like to report some actual conversation, but as he was in first class and I was in Row 19, he was very likely off the plane, into a limo and to the team hotel before I got my carry-on bag out of the overhead bin.
By the way, I thought I spotted Jasper Harvey too, but it was probably just another huge dude flying coach.
"Probably not, right now," is the answer you'd get from almost anybody. But more to the point, neither could Trotter. To have a successful night, Gaither just has to sho the same nose for the ball and knack for playmaking that got him on the field ahead of schedule last year. A lot of what he does will be affected by the play of Mike Patterson and Brodrick Bunkley in the middle of that defensive line. Gaither's not a huge man, so it's going to be tough for him to shed lineman blockers. But if he's in the clear, the guy makes plays.
2. Will the Birds be able to walk it up the field? We know the passing game is on point; that Kevin Curtis is a real asset, that McNabb's arm is strong and accurate as ever, and that the young tight end can really play. But like the Phillies, the Eagles need to be able to manufacture points too. Thay cannot rely solely on the big play, and that means they need to give the ball to Brian Westbrook. Westbrook said the other day that he'd like to get 20-25 carries a game. Yeah, good luck with that. The Eagles are going to need him in the 15-20 range to keep defenses honest, however, and unless the running game progresses against the Steelers, Reid won't have the confidence to run it that many times until McNabb gets hurt again. Contrary to popular belief, Andy Reid doesn't hate to run. He just has no patience for it.
Will Big Sav close the deal?
Some media members around the NovaCare Complex are under the impression that the Eagles' punting job is Saverio Rocca's to lose. I'm not one of them, but I'd be prepared to give him a 51 percent chance to be in Philadelphia two weeks from now. The coaches know what Dirk can do, and they're obviously not overwhelmed by that, or else they would never have signed the big Aussie. Sav's got the eye-popping distance, but the trajectory control on his punts has been spotty. IUf he continues to improve, Dirk may cut as early as Tuesday.
When will Kolb get in the game?
Kelly Holcomb was healthy but didn't take a snap in practice on Friday, and Reid would not guarantee that A.J. Feeley would relieve Donovan, opening up the possibility that Kolb might see some time with the first-team offense in the third quarter. That would be new for him, and it would be interesting to a see.
How much/how well will Brian Dawkins play? Normally, Dawk is one of the very last elements of the Eagles that would ever make its way anywhere near a question, unless you're talking about big picture stuff like, "When will he begin to play like the 33-year-old dude he is?" But considering the fact that he has not see the field at all in the first two preseason games, and adding the absence of Trotter as his fellow voice of leadership, maybe it isn't unfair to question. I'd be surprised if he was anything less than very good, however.
If Tuesday had the air of a death in the family at the NovaCare Complex, Wednesday was like those dreary weeks and months aftrward, when thoughts automatically go to the departed loved ones at any slight provocation. Life moves at light speed in the NFL, of course, so this malaise will probably linger a fe days, then Trotter won't realy come up all that often.
And by the middle of the season -- unless these linebackers fall on their faces -- it'll be like, "Trotter? Yeah, he was a big part of this team when he was here." We'll forget about Trotter as the NFL player and embrace him as a former NfL player. It will cease to be, "The Eagles really miss Trotter," and become "The Eagles really miss having someone who could do what Trotter could do."
Will he be successful somewhere else? Everyone truly hopes he will be, but the hard-eyed analysis is not optimistic. After all, Trot left Philadelphia and Jim Johnson's very specific defensive scheme once before, going to Washington in 2001, and he wasn't even the same player then, six years younger. At the height of his skills, he was a tailored fit for what Johnson wanted out of a middle linebacker. Or, possibly, Johnson tailored his defense to fit what Trot could do from that spot. Either way, the odds are atronomical that he will find close to the same fit with another team.
If he's not going to be the Man for any other defense -- and even a lot of ardent Trot fans don't think he can carry that load anymore -- then he will have to accept a diminished role. And if you believe what he said yesterday about bleeding green, then he won't be happy as a role player in some other color.
So I think the Axeman should lay down his Ax. He's got his car wsh and a number of other business ventures to ease his transition to a post-football life. Walk away an Eagle, Trot, with head held high. And then if Omar Gaither and Stewart Bradley do fall flat/get injured, maybe you can ride into the Linc on a white horse, on fresh legs, and save the hides of the guys who cut you.
Jeremiah Trotter is no longer a Philadelphia Eagle, as much as he and Andy Reid and the res of the team claims that he will always belong. The Eagles released thier former Pro Bowl middle linebacker this morning, as Reid informed him they would in a man-to-man conversation last night.
Trotter said that he respected and even agreed with the decision, which I believe is awfully generous of him. The Eagles have a long history of making cold-blooded decisions that end up looking very good, if you can get around the lack of loyalties. This franchise is ever-ready to make the tough choice, almost to the distaste of its fan base. Many would argue that Trotter deserved better. Trotter himself, clear-eyed warrior that he is, doesn't want pity.
Today's news strikes a particular chord with me. Though Trotter certainly looks like he's been wrestling with grizzly bears for 40 years, he's actually only 30 years old. He's six months younger than I am, and he's an old man, all but discarded. It speaks to the brutality of this sport and the lack of feeling that it takes to stay at the top.
We'll see if what happened here today comes back to bite Andy Reid and the Birds, but I would not count on it. This was a trauma that happened here at the NovaCare Complex today, one partially healed by Trotter himself. But the wound, especially in the leadership void, is part of the equation. So, I think if the Eagles believe he's that clearly finished, then he's probably finished.
The Eagles are in their white jerseys, which I don't understand, and they came out of the locker room as a team with no individual introductions. I guess if they couldn't introduce Dawk, they didn't want to do anyone. Donovan did run out after everybody else.
The Birds won the toss for the second straight game and elected to receive for the second straight game.
Just over two hours until kickoff of the preseason home opener
Here's a non-comprehensive list of things to keep an eye on tonight (I'm reminding myslef as kuch as I'm telling anyone else). In random order:
** The play of Max Jean-Gilles at Shawn Andrews' right guard spot. Max was part of the second-team line that was toasted in Baltimore, but he's running with the ones tonight.
** Will McNabb get hit? And if he doesn, how does he respond the next few plays?
** And a corrollary to the above: Will McNabb run?
** How much love is Brent Celek getting with the first-team offense? More than Matt Schobel?
** The holders for place kicks. Akers missed one with Dirk holding on Monday. Can Sav do it better?
** Who, besides Jeremy Bloom, is getting reps in the return game?
** How long will Chris Gocong play. Everybody thought he'd be in there the whole first half in Baltimore, but he barely played a quarter.
** How much does Darren Howard play on the inside? And Victor Abiamiri, same thing. With the defensive tackle position so depleted, those guys may have to move over some njust to fill out the rotation.
The simple analysis of the Eagles' punting decision is power vs. consistency, the home run hitter vs. the contact hitter. Of course, Big Sav Rocca is the Ruthian, bombing 70-yard punts and then shanking a few, and incumbent Dirk Johnson is the slap hitter, moving the runners and never hitting into a double play. But of course, it's not that simple. Dirk's got some pop in his bat, and Big Sav has professional experience that will keep him from peeing his pants on the big stage.
This fight will go down to the last moment, and I'd love to know what they're basing the decision on. I don't know if it's significant, but Andy said that Sav will punt and hold the first half tonight, and Dirk the second, which is the opposite of what it was Monday.
The holding situation is interesting too. David Akers was explaining the other day how he had it so great for a while with Mike Bartrum snapping and Koy Detmer holding because he could be as fast as he wanted to be, and the ball always got there in time. Being fast helped, he said, helped him beat the apex of the D-line's jump, avoiding a block even with his line-drive sort of kicking style. It's clear that neither Dirk nor Sav is in Koy's league as a holder, but I can't tall if Akers likes one over the other quite yet.
I'm pretty certain that Jon Dorenbos is no Mike Bartrum on the long snap, either, but he seems to have that job locked up. As does Jeremy Bloom as the primary returner, though the Eagles haven't tested a lot of options there. Given Barksdale's solid performance on Monday, it would be interesting to see him try a return or two.
Wide receivers -- Kevin Curtis for MVM (Most Valuable Mormon)
I am on record as being a Kevin Curtis believer from the very beginning, or at least since 2005, when he was an early-season free agent pickup of one of my best-ever fantasy squads, TheTyrannyOfEvilMen. Nobody had a better camp than Curtis, who is fast become a fan darling. We hear less and less Donte Stallowrth hand wringing, especially since the Eagles' former field-stretcher showed up on New England's PUP list.
And that's the crux of why Curtis will vastly outstrip what Stallworth gave the Eagles: he'll be on the field every week. Stallworth was a nice element to have in a receiving corps no doubt, but the dude only caught like35 balls because he was hurt so often. If you put the over-under on Curtis at 50, I'd take the over in a heartbeat. Pair him with Reggie Brown, who has been consistent in both his play and his improvement over the last two years, and that's a nice X and Y.
That brings us to Z, who, at this point, still appears to be Jason Avant, who had a great camp and even greater mini camp and OTA campaign. This guy caught just about everything, nudging himself ahead of the receiver that put on that performance a year ago, Hank Baskett. I think Avant and Baskett will share those duties pretty equally, with the coaches looking for matchup advantages whenever possible. But they will both certainly make the team.
Now the numbers game.
It seems unlikely that the Eagles will keep five running backs from their current roster of players, so assuming they don't go out and get a Corey Dillon or somebody like that, they will probably keep six wides. That is, if L.J. Smith's groin situation wasn't what it is. If they're not sold on L.J. being healthy at the start of the season, they almost have to keep three tight ends, which means a roster spot has to come from somewhere else. Wide receiver is a very possible target. And given that Jeremy Bloom is really the only guy returning kicks at this point, it looks as though he's going to make this team.
That leaves Greg Lewis out in the cold if the Eagles keep only five WRs. If they keep a sixth, I think it will be him because they trust him, he's rlatively sure-handed, he's not old yet, and there are no recent draft picks competing for that spot.
As for the rest of the receivers, J.J. Outlaw has been mentioned as a possible backup returner, which is a good sign for him. Bill Sampy was doing great until he contusioned his quad, and he has not appeared since, scuttling his hopes. Bill Gasperson showed some moxie in coming to Sav Rocca's aid on Monday night, but it won't be enough to get him on the roster, Zac Collie has done some nice things, but, you know, probably not. And Jermaine Jamison shot himself in the heart with his fumble against Baltimore.
And what about Mr. Sound and Fury himself, Moorestown High School graduate Dereck "Revolution No. 9" Faulkner? I'm hoping hard for a practice squad place for him. The numbers don't add up right for a roster spot, certainly, but he's had some signature moments. Of course, there are a ton of little things the coaches are looking for that I couldn't hope to be able to see. I have a feeling the way Dereck does those little things has a lot more to do with his future than the occasional circus catch.
.... this kid and his friend Jeremy have been recklessly shooting a bow and arrow.
Not only is this poor kid in jamjama pants on youTube, but his folks are yanking his chain saying he got a letter from the state police about his careless regard for the welfare of his neighbors. Of course, it turns out the package is Eagles tickets for today's preseason Carolina game. Not great, but better than the trip to the po-po that the kid seemed to be envisioning.
I have a feeling Shawn Andrews got the spanking he was hoping to avoid after all.
As expected, once Andy Reid gave us the injury/Donovan report this afternoon, the first question was about what guard Andrews said yesterday, about his visit with the ankle specialist being a "tear jerker." Big Red did all he could to put out the fire started by Andrews' Wednesday -- and my suspicion is that it WAS a performance -- but it didn't really work all that well.
"Shawn's an emotional guy," Reid said. "He wants to be out here playing. That locker room can become a rough place when you're not playing. They guys get after you a little bit.
"The bottom line is that there's nobody that wants to be out there more than Shawn. He's frustrated. But the main thing, and really the only thing I care about right now is that he's getting better. And that he's doing."
The coach said he believes his All Pro right guard will be in the Eagles lineup for the season opener in Green Bay.
Then a TV reporter asked Reid a question that basically said Andrews had made it seem like his career was threatened by this injury, which is not what I took from it at all. The most interesting detail of Andrews' act Wednesday was his mention of a "window," which I took to possibly mean that he had a chronic, degenerative ankle condition that could potentially shorten his career, though not end it.
In any case, Andy's answer to the question went like this:
"That's him being Shawn. One thing that makes Shawn a great football player is that he's an emotional football player. He showed you a little emotion yesterday, and he wants back out on the field, and he's just got to weather this thing and as frustrating as it is for him he's just got to weather through it."
Translated: Shawn Andrews is a big girlie wuss who can't get his feelings under control, but sometimes big girlie wusses are great football players.
What followed was definitely an interesting exchange, in which Rueben Frank Asked Andy why he doesn't let players talk about injuries.
AR (uncomfortably): I'd rather just do it myself. It works out better. I mean, we're taking this thing here (the Andrews thing)and blowing it way out of perspective.
RF: But that's because he felt he couldn't talk about it so it makes the situation (worse)...
AR: Why don't we move on to the next question.
And the press conference went back to its regularly scheduled Donovan-centric programming.
For the most part, I think Andy's right. It does make his life easier for players to not be able to talk about injuries. It also oftem makes the players' lives easier, since they can just deflect those questions.
In fact, Andrews could easily have just echoed the party line about working back and taking it slow and hoping for the best, etc., and we all would have made it a two-sentence blurb in the daily notebook and Andy wouldn't have been uncomfortable at all. But Andrews didn't.
More to the point, he chose not to make it easy on himself.
As usual, the next question is why, and now we're back to where we were this morning, wondering if Andrews is just screwing with us or if this is something real. Except now there's a third intriguing option, which is that Andrews thinks he's fine, and he's putting Reid and the Eagles' under pressure to play him just to prove they're not hiding some horrioble thing. Which they absolutely won't.
As I said before, I think he's just having fun with us, jerking us around. I was there, I saw Andrews' face, he didn't look like a guy not in control of his emotions. He looked like a kid pushing buttons. Which I appreciate. Heck, it's given us something to write about, made our jobs a little easier and more fun for a couple of days, let us use the work "spank" in quote multiple times in print. I'm grateful, even.
Until Andrews plays, we probably won't know anything, because I doubt we'll be hearing from him much again before then. As far as speaking to the media, I'll bet Big Shawn is on double-secret probation.
Brent (Magnum) Celek burst into the collective consciousness of the Eagles nation on Monday night with his brilliant catch and run against Baltimore. A fellow fifth round pick from Cincinnati, defensive end Trent Cole, said he wasn't surprised at all. "That's just Brent," he said. "He's always been a strong runner."
It sure seems like Celek is going to make the team, though with L.J. Smith's health in such doubt, I can't see them cutting Matt Schobel either. So that means the Eagles will probably carry three tight ends, Lee Vickers will either be cut or more likely go back to the practice squad and Kyle Hunt is pretty much toast.
Smith was working out here at NovaCare on Wednesday, so he can't be too bad off. I don't imagine we'll see much out of him during the preseason, if anything at all, but it's probably better than 50/50 that he's on the field in Green Bay. But it's way less than even money that he's back for next year.
In a strange way, though, this injury stuff may be improving L.J.'s chances of returning to Philadelphia. If he struggles with it the whole season, the market value that he and his agent are looking for may wander down to the number the Eagles are willing to pay him. Otherwise, Celek is looking like your tight end of the future.
I feel like Sav Rocca is destined to win an NFL job, because even though Dirk Johnson probably had the better night on Monday, with two punts down inside the 20 and a higher average, it was Big Sav who got the postgame attention. Ever since I met Sav for the first time back in March or April, I've been looking forward to seeing him lay his first hit. I didn't even think about him taking one.
In the postgame frenzy, I couldn't fit all the stuff I wanted into the stories for the paper. I would have liked to get Sav's quotes in: "As soon as it happened, I was, like, where the hell did he come from? But it's fine. If that's the best he's got, good luck to him."
One of the last days in Lehigh, Chris Gocong estimated that he hoped to play "at least three quarters" against Baltimore on Monday night, and defensive coordinator Jim Johnson seemed to bloster those hopes, saying the second-year linebacker would get a nice long look.
Gocong, to just about everyone's surprise, lasted barely a quarter before giving way to the other young players on the Eagles sideline. Today at the NovaCare Complex, Johnson and Gocong's linebacking teammates all said basically the same thing: he looked good, did a lot of good things, no worries at all. Which sounds a lot like what we heard about Matt McCoy this time last year.
I think if you could meld Gocong (a biggish, pass-rushing SAM) with McCoy (an undersized, pass-defending WILL), yu'd have a very good linebacker. I feel like Gocong can play the run fine. He's certainly got the physical size to get the job done. But coverage is a concern. He got beat a couple times in Baltimore.
As it is, McCoy is iffy to even make the team this year. Conventional wisdom has the Eagles keeping six linebackers, and they will certainly take the annointed starters _Takeo Spikes, Jeremiah Trotter and Gcong -- plus LB-of-all-trades Omar Gaither and draft pick Bradley. Essentially, that leaves one spot between McCoy, Tank Daniels and Dedrick Roper. Daniels had a nice camp, but McCoy wasn't bad either. The guy who really hurt himself was Roper, who missed a lot of Lehigh with a foot strain.
The wild card might be Akeem Jordan, who got the Eagles only sack on Monday night. He may well have earned himself a closer look against Carolina. In any case, keep an eye on the linebackers in the second half to see who lines up where and for how long.
The Eagles revealed today that DE Jerome McDougle suffered a triceps tear and will have to undergo season-ending surgery. Add that to Monday' night's Ryan Moats news, in which the Eagles' third-year halfback broke his ankle and will also miss the season.
In the coming days, both McDougle and Moats will almost certainly land on Philadelphia's Injured Reserve list, which -- for them, at least -- is preferable to where they would probably have ended up up they had played through the preseason in perfect health, which is the cold, hard NfL free agency market. Moats was less than a 50-50 shot to make the team, especially after contracting fumble-itis up in Bethlehem. McDougle was more or less useless in 2006, and the Eagles' drafting of Victor Abiamiri was a strong signal that they were ready to cut bait on their 2003 first-round draft pick.
You could say they these were million dollar injuries, though neither Moats nor McDougle are slated to make a million this season. Together, yes, but not individually. Moats's season-long paycheck is 435,000, which he has preseumably already recevied in part. Same goes for McDougle and his 790,000.
Chances are Moats would have gotten himself another opportunity somewhere if he'd been cut. He's shown flashes of considerable talent, and he's still pretty young.
McDougle's probably another story. If I were being bad, I would simply say that, as a football player, he's "shot." But since he was -- unfortunately -- shot in the leg a couple of years ago, I'll just say that last season he seemed very much spent, and nothing the Eagles coaches said or did during training camp really indicated otherwise.
So Jerome has himself one more year of a full NFL salary, and God bless him after that. By all accounts he's a quality, star-crossed dude.
Wireless difficulties in the Baltiomore press box helped keep me off the blog for most of the game, though truth to tell there wasn't much time to post. In any case, none of it was all that good for the Eagles.
Kevin Kolb looked overmatched, Ryan Moats broke his ankle, Brent Celek looked pretty good, Moorestown High School graduate Dereck Faulkner (that's his full, official name now) made a five-yard catch in the fourth quarter, Kelly Holcomb got sacked like 15 times, the Eagles made three mental errors on two Sav Rocca punts, etc. etc., etc.
Then they called time out on the raven's last possession of the game to try to get the ball back, even though they were down 26 points with 70 ticks left. Baltimore just threw for another first down and knelt the game mercifully into history.
After all that, we tramp into the Eagles locker room to find that it's wall-to-wall with the players' bags, meaning nobody could get around at all. It was madness, I tell you. Absolute madness. I was stepping on stuff, I don't even know what they were, just to get my job done. Hopefully nothing was broken.
I'm sure that the extra 20 or so players that a preseason NFL team carries made a difference, but that was definitely a little locker room.
In the end, this is just the preseason. Personally, I'm glad there are three more of these gems before the season starts. My deadline-pressure game is a little weak right now.
******
The end of the first quarter, 7-0 Baltimore. The Eagles defense was pretty well toasted on its first drive but looked better on its second.
Bunkley has made a couple nice plays already.
******
And we're just about off.
The Ravens introduced their offense, so we didn't get to see Ray Lewis do his thing. Butg we did get to see Steve McNair, who -- by an unofficial count -- has the most jerseys in the stadium.
Incidentally, this place is about two thirds full, being generous. I hesitate to imagine what the traffic would have been like for a packed house.
The Eagles won the toss. They're undefeated, and they're taking the ball. The A.J. Feeley era is about to begin.
****
The teams are on the field, there are 25 minutes left until kickoff, and you could swaer this is a Super Bowl preview. Or not.
The Ravens' Hall of Fame left tackle Jonathan Ogden is listed on the Physically Unable to Perform (PUP) list, which is disappointing. Or at least as disappointing as the absence of a lineman could be.
In honor of the start of preseason football, which is like NFL football, except that it's kind of lame, occasionally embarrassing and ultimately pointless:
For the first time in aseveral years, depth in the definsive secondary is a real, honest to God concern for the Eagles. But the starters, assuming that Brian Dawkins' Achilles problem is just a training camp/preseason thing, are solid.
I was cruising around youTube earlier today and saw the lip of the Eagles' goal line stand down in Dallas last year, noticing all over again that Quintin Mikell was in on all three stops. That's tremendous production out of a fourth safety, and though I think Q will give the birds more in the final analysis than Michael Lewis did last season, I think that whoever the coaches end up going with as the fourth -- be it Marcus Paschal or C.J. Gaddis or even Chris Smith -- will be hard-pressed to live up ti Mikell.
I think Pashcal has the edge right now, especially since he's back on the field after a short injury-related absence. Gaddis has been inconsistent, and though he has tremendous physical upside, he probably needs a better feel for the position. I could easily see him getting Goconged in the next few weeks and spending his rookie year on IR. At this point, Paschal is a more complete player.
Sean Considine had a nice camp, showing some of the pop you need at strong safety. It remains to be see whether he can keep that weight on. He said it's mostly about diet, and because he's such a film hound, he made the mistake of opting for film over both meals and weight training last year. With a better grasp of the defense, I think he'll be able to spend more time keeping that bulk.
Cornerback is one of the more intriguing positions on the team, because if Will James can actually stay healthy, he;s a guy that a lot of teams would start. He's got more height than Lito or Sheldon, which definitely helps with matchups in three-wide sets, He could very well turn out to be an upgrade on Rod Hood, who was a pretty damn good third corner in his own right.
I feel like the Eagles will probably take five corners, especialy given their lack of depth at the returner positions. That gives a guy like Rashas Barksdale an extra shot of making the team, though corner-wise the draft pick is behind at least Hanson and Graham. Graham, by the way, completely outplayed Hanson when it came to coverage. Knowledge of the defense and other considerations might be a different story, but I would be a little bit surprised if he didn't make the team in some capacity.
One guy who's been really hampered by injury is Dustin Fox, who missed the second half of camp with an Achillies strain. If he can't get on the field he can't make the team, though he might be another candidate to be Goconged.
Last year, the Eagles had a miraculous lack of offensive ine injuries, all the way up until late in the second half of the New Orleans playoff game when Shawn Andrews went down with a neck ailment. But during the just-ended training camp, the O line was one of the most frequent victims of those nagging hurts that can often extend into the season. Andrews is out with a very worrisome ankle sprain, Jon Runyan had to leave practice one morning late last week with back pain, and Scott Young suffered a knee sprain, though he was back on the field the very next day.
For that and other reasons -- one of which being the fact that it's hard to see what actually goes on in the trenches -- I have little idea what's going on with the offensive line. I know that Runyan and William Thomas are anchors o the outside, that Andrews and Todd Herremans and Jamaal Jackson are locks to be back as starters as long as theyre healthy. I also have a vague notion that Max Jean-Gilles impressed enough to the point where coaches may have him compete with Youn to be the Andrews insurance. But what kind of camp did Winston Justice have? Who knows. Pat McCoy? Even less idea.
As I've said before, at some point the Eagles need to figure out if guys like Justice and Jean-Gilles and so forth can actualy play in the NFL. For the first time in a while the team did not draft an offensive lineman, so perhaps they recognized the backlog of youngsters that this peskily rampant health has created. William Thomas said he wants to play till hes 85 or somesuch, but realistically, they need to know if Justice is their left tackle of the future. I think, for that reason, we'll be seeing a ton of those young offensive linemen during the upcoming preseason campaign.
When I listen to Jevon Kearse talk, all I can think of is that huge dude in The Green Mile. I don't know if anyone else gets that, but their voices are so similar to me that I can't help it. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that The Freak is not a small man himself, though weight-wise, he coud definitely be a linebacker. Anyway, Kearse's health is what's imporaant to the Eagles right now, not his voice. The sample size was only two games last year, but the effectiveness of the Birds pass rush was so overwhelmingly improved with him in the lineup as opposed to when he was hurt.
I believe Trent Cole will be the starter on the other end by the time the season starts, though Howard didn't look bad at training camp. Howard suffered a major power outage the second half of last season, and it's hard to know if he can ever be the player the Eagles acquired him to be. But if they can keep him fresh, who knows?
One of the guys that had a tremendous camp was Juqua Thomas, who got a contract extension from the Eagles during the offseason. He got some reps with the first team and really made the most of them. I'd say he and Victor Abiamiri, the second-round draft pick out of Notre Dame, helped theselves more than anybody else on the defensive line.
Interestingly, Jim Johnson played with Abiamiri both as a tackle and as a joker, or basically a fourth linebacker in a special run-stopping package. If he continues to show that versatility and can actually learn to flourish in all those positions, Vctor is going to become one of Johnson's favorite players pretty quick.
Assuming the Eagles are going to keep fives DE's and five DT's, like they did last year, then Jerome McDougle is a dead man walking. Many jumped on the solid results he was putting up during training camp as a sign of life, forgetting that he was doing it against third-team offensive linemen. You won't find a coach saying a bad thing about him, but that doesn't mean they want to keep him.
Brodrick Bunkley and Mike Patterson both had strong camps at DT, and injuries aside, I think folks will be relieved by their production in there. Neither is probably quite as good as Corey Simon was at his best, but then look where Corey Simon is these days.
The big concern is with the Eagles' two free agent pickups, Montae Reagor and Ian Scott, neither of whom will see any action in the Baltimore game. If it isn't clear the one or both of these guys is going to be able to contribute, then the Birds have to look for a Plan B or C to fill out the all-important rotation. That means LaJuan Ramsey is in for a bigger role, maybe Abiamirir sees more plays inside, or perhaps a guy like rookie free agent Jeremy Clark gets a chance to make the team.
Quick story: I was standong out front of the Eagles locker room/workout facility the other day with Les Bowen of the Daily News when Clark walked out. Les started interviewing him and it took me a second or two to figure out who he even was, but I eventualy caught up. Anyway, Les asked him if he thought an ankle injury he'd suffered had hurt his stock to the point where he had not been drafted, and Clark sort of slid by the question. In fact, he pretty much gave rote answers to everything. But as he was walking away afterward, he suddenly stopped and turned around and said, "I never thought my ankle had anything to do with the draft." Like it had really just occurred to him that an injury history might have spooked some teams, or that scouts thought he wasn't as quick as he was because they saw him when he wasn't 100 percent. It was a very strange moment, and I sort of hoped Clark gave himself room to feel more confident after that. I have no idea if he's an NFL player, but it seems like the draft is such an area of disappointment for some of these rookie free agents that any excuse they can use to discredit it is a good one.
Brian Westbrook said today that he fully expects to start the game on Monday, but I'm not sure how many carries the Eagles' real franchise player will get. There's no sense at all in getting him injured, which is a real possibility against a nasty first-team defense.
Westbrook looked pretty good in camp, when he was on the practice field. He took a day and a half off this week, I believe to attend a funeral, but returned Thursday afternoon.
Correll Buckhalter did not get hurt. That was the main thing. Buck looked very good at times, and at others -- like Friday -- he looked like he could just as soon have been someplace else. It's OK, that's how I felt too. Anyway, every little misstep on Buckhalter's part is another opportunity for Tony Hunt to work his way into the lineup.
Hunt had a terrific camp, proving that he could do to second-team NFL defenses the same thing he did to college defenders, which was move the pile, grind out tough yards, take what's given and an inch or two more. Hunt has progressed in the passing game after a rocky start. At Penn State, he caught a decent number of passes, but they were mostly safety-valve stuff. He said the hardest thing to learn was allthe routes that backs run in the Eagles offense. Hunt should see plenty of carries during the preseason, but once the regular season begins he's going to need to find a way to make his impact on special teams.
Everyone has very nice things to say about Ryan Moats personally and professionally, but as an active member of the Eagles' roster, he's pretty much toast. Virtually every positive thing he did during camp was offset by a fumble, and the coaches were unequivocal in saying that such things were unacceptable. He's a natural runner and an extremely dynamic talent, but with a few flaws, all of which are fatal in the Eagles' system.
In slightly better shape is Nate Ilaoa, because at least he's a rookie who can go to the practice squad for a year. Nasti can really catch the ball out of the backfield, which is what he didn a lot of at Hawaii, but he seems a litttle overmatched, speed-wise, at the NFL level.
One of the quiet battles going on is at fullback, where Thomas Tapeh is attempting to hold off the athletic Jason Davis, as well as Jeremy Cain. I've always been a little confused about how the fullback actually fits into the Eagles offense since they so often use those three-wide receiver sets, plus the two-halfback sets that worked so well at the end of last season. Davis had a pretty good camp, though, and should put some pressure on Tapeh during the preseason schedule. There's only room for one fullback, so there's really no margin for error there.
Obviously, Donovan McNabb is the starter, and it seems as though he;s on pace to be ready for the season opener. Whether the brace makes it there remains to be seen. I'm on record against the brace because it's too restrictive, as evidenced by No. 5's lights-out afternoon practice the one afternoon he didn't wear it. But this QB has always been driven by his very individual fears and expectations, so if he believes he needs the brace, no one is going to convince him otherwise.
By the way, there is about a 0.0004% chance that he'll see the field on Monday night in Baltimore. All the factors are against it. It's a road game on an artificial surface against a defense full of head hunters with another preseason game just four days later. Expect to see Donovan play a series or two on Friday, maybe a quarter in the third preseason game and not at all in the fourth.
The more intriguing question right now is what happens at the backup position.
Kelly Holcomb has looked awfully good during camp, albeit mostly against the third-team defense. And A.J. Feeley has not looked so great, though everybody seems convinced that he has never practiced well. The conventional wisdom says that the job has belonged to A.J., and no one is going to take it from him. The Birds made a commitment to him in the offseason, and they trust him. But it's not outside the realm of possibility that Holcomb will play well enough in the preseason that Andy Reid and company have a difficult decision to make. They have always said that if they see a player that can be an upgrade and help their football team win, they're obliged to take a look at that guy. Does it count of the player is already an Eagle?
Young Kevin Kolb has looked awfully young the last few days, but he's made some nice throws to. The most important thing, however, is that he seems in command of the offense at the line of scrimmage. Once the ball is snapped he has not always made the right decision, but he does grasp the playbook well enough to be a leader. I'm not certain you can expect a whole lot more out of a rookie quarterback sharing reps with three othr guys, each of whom has actual work that he needs to get done.
So0 I think Feeley will be your starter on Monday night, though part of me believes it ought to be Holcomb. A.J. and Kelly might get a quarter each, with Kolb taking most of the second half.
I missed a few days right in the prime time of Eagles training camp last weekend due to a personal issue, which I won't go into other than to thank all those folks who have offered words of comfort and support. It's nice to be reminded how good people can be when you need it.
Anyway, I actually returned to work on Tuesday, but it's been hard enough to do the bare minimum so the blog has obviously suffered. I have just begun to feel somewhat like myself again, so I figured it would be a good time to resume the blog posts, and hopefully there's enough time to build up some momentum ahead of te season.
I'll start with the very next post, and a position-by-position reset heading into the next phase of 2007 preparation. In many ways, the picture has not changed that much from the way it looked pre-camp.
... because I missed it, and no one here at Lehigh seems to have caught it either. Apparently, Haddon Township's own Sal Paolantonio dumped on Donovan, saying he looked terrible during Wednesday's practice, and that he shouldn't even be on the practice field. Furthermore, the rumor goes, he said that Kelly Holcomb is the best quarterback in Eagles camp.
Now, I could barely care less about what SP (I refuse to use that nickname) or anyone else at ESPN thinks, other than a very certain few. But it does want to make fools of those of us who were also here in Bethlehem watching practice Wednesday, and who basically wrote, "He looked fine," which he did. Personally, I thought he looked a little creaky, very rusty, but not unlike any other quarterback finding his timing again after a serious injury.
More to the point, there's no way Andy Reid was even going to let McNabb try to do anything that would have betrayed a real weakness. If he were hobbled, with no hope of being ready to play any time soon, we would not have been able to tell based on what he was asked to do Wednesday, which was basically to take snaps, make handoffs, see and feel the rush coming, and make a few throws.
What I believe happened was that SP saw some moments of uncertainty -- a ginger step here and some errant throws there -- and thought to himself, "What's the splashiest, most bombastic inference I can make out of that?" Forget about what McNabb, Reid and the rest of the Eagles organization have said over the last months, or even how he looked in practice on Tuesday.
I believe it's called grandstanding, and though I have my own doubts about Donovan's readiness to actually play NFL football, it leaves a foul taste.
Incidentally, it seemed as if McNabb must have caught the segment, because he was on today. His throws were money, and when the second-team defense did not bite on a play action, he even scrambled out of a collapsing pocket, drawing a huge cheer from the bleachers. No. 5 has always fed his inner warrior with disrespect, sometimes real but usually imagined, and this may have been one of those cases.
Use of this site signifies your agreement to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, updated June 7, 2005.
Copyright 2005 CourierPostOnline.com. All rights reserved
