With training camp opening this week, hope is sweeping the Delaware Valley as Carson Wentz and Doug Pederson start their second season together. We start this special edition of Eagles Armchair looking at Pederson’s decision to keep tackling in his practice plan:
Going Deep
Doug Pederson may be a former quarterback, but he is an emphatic fan of tough, physical football. And when the Philadelphia Eagles 2017 training camp opens this week, physicality and competition will be stressed throughout every practice.
No football coach in the history of the game has ever entered a season hoping for his team to play a trepid brand of football, but in an era when CBAs and science has teams taking it easy on their players, Pederson is cutting against the grain by utilizing live tackling periods during his practices.
“This is a contact sport,” Pederson told the team’s website. “I am all about player safety and of course I want our guys to be healthy. And I know that injuries are part of this game. But I also want to condition the players and get them ready to play in games. I think the biggest thing about tackling is fundamentals and conditioning the guys to hit.”
The Eagles also had live tackling sessions during last year’s training camp, but they were cut short after Jordan Matthews was injured. Keeping a team healthy during an entire camp is nearly impossible, but it goes without saying, the less injuries the Eagles can sustain, the better. However, it seems the players enjoy the contact and will be looking forward to more of it this season.
“It was a lot of fun today,” Jason Kelce told CSN Philly after the Eagles’ first live tackling session last year. “I think that was one of the most fun periods we’ve had in a long time. Whenever you get to tackle, it adds a level of intensity you usually don’t get. And it’s always fun going up against the guys on the team.”
When Chip Kelly arrived in Philadelphia, he ended the tradition of tough training camps, sitting players down who were dehydrated or had a higher risk of injury, and ending all tackling in practice. But too often, his teams were chastised for poor tackling fundamentals and a lacking of aggression on the defensive side of the ball.
Pederson’s decision to turn up the intensity in training camp will hopefully squash that reputation.
Numbers Game
1: The Eagles have just one cornerback on their roster with more than five career starts in the NFL: Patrick Robinson. The acquisition of Robinson was largely glossed-over this summer, but if he can remain healthy, Robinson is a solid cornerback who has the ability to play on the outside and in the slot. Jalen Mills and Rasul Douglas may be penciled in as starters right now, but Robinson’s experience could come in handy as this season progresses.
13: Between his first and second seasons with a team, Jim Schwartz has coached his defenses up an average of 13 spots in the total defense rankings. However, unlike his past stops, Schwartz had immediate success with the Eagles. Due to their ranking last season, there’s no way they can jump 13 spots, but it is clear Schwartz’s teams have much more success as they get comfortable with his system. That could be scary for the Birds’ opponents in 2017.
2: Only twice in the last thirty years has an Eagles quarterback started 16 games in consecutive seasons. Donovan McNabb performed the feat in 2000-2001 and Randall Cunningham was healthy for three straight seasons from 1988-1990. As we mentioned above, staying healthy is a huge advantage in the NFL, especially at the quarterback position. The Eagles’ lack of consistency at the position is simply astounding. If things are going to trend upward in 2017, Wentz has to stay healthy all year.
Players to Watch
Carson Wentz: Wentz’s importance to this franchise cannot be mentioned enough. He’s the horse the Eagles brass have hitched their Super-Bowl hopes to and it’s imperative the North Dakota State prospect shows improvement in his second year in the NFL. Wentz spent most of last year’s camp injured before starting all 16 games as a rookie. The young quarterback needs to be a leader and command his much-improved receiving corps.
Chance Warmack: A former first-round pick out of Alabama, Warmack is a mauler who will get a chance to compete for a starting slot at the only open spot on the Eagles offensive line: left guard. Warmack seemed to be on his way to a substantial contract, but an injury left him on the injured reserve for most of last season.
Not only is this a former top-10 prospect who was called the “best football player” in his draft class, but he’s hungry to prove to the league he belongs in the upper-tier of interior linemen.
Derek Barnett: Expectations weren’t exactly too high for the Eagles’ first-round pick until he put up a good showing against Lane Johnson during OTAs back in the spring. Now, the Eagles rookie will get a chance to go up against Jason Peters all camp to try to prove his meddle in the NFL. Barnett v Peters will be a fun match up to keep an eye on.
Mychal Kendricks: Most people expected Kendricks to be gone by this time, but he’s still here and could be looking to prove last season was just a stroke of bad luck. Kendricks got hurt during camp last season and never really got a chance to crack the line up after Jordan Hicks and Nigel Bradham established themselves as the top two linebackers.
But Kendricks played well down the stretch last season and could get himself out of Schwartz’s dog house with a good showing during training camp.
Five-Step Drop
1. The Eagles made a couple roster moves yesterday, releasing veteran cornerback Dwayne Gratz and replacing him on the roster with QB Dane Evans. The Birds also added Sidney Jones and Beau Allen to the active/non-football injury list, meaning either guy can return to the field once he is cleared medically. Allen is working his way back from a pectoral injury he suffered in February while Jones is dealing with a torn Achilles.
2. Pederson also talked to the Eagles website about the hand injury Hicks suffered earlier in the summer.
“He injured his hand and he needed a minor procedure to fix that,” Pederson said. “He shouldn’t miss any time. We’re going to keep on top of it and take it day by day with him. We may limit him a little bit, but he should be out there every day.”
Hopefully this means Hicks will be ready to play at high level again in 2017.
3. More injury news, this time on offense. Pederson said Ryan Mathews is still working back from his neck injury and will remain with the team until he is healthy. It still seems like he has taken his last snap as an Eagle. Peters will also be getting a lighter workload, according to the coach, in an effort to keep the veteran healthy for the entire season. Jordan Matthews may also be limited early in training camp after suffering a knee injury during OTAs.
4. One thing that will be worth monitoring is how much the Eagles schemes change on both sides of the ball. Schwartz’s schemes are notoriously simple, but after a full year with these players, it will be interesting to see what kind of wrinkles he can add in. As for the offense, Pederson has a growing quarterback who actually has a an NFL-caliber receiving corps. Maybe the head coach starts dialing-up more aggressive calls in order to push the ball down the field.
5. How much longer will Marcus Smith be an Eagle? The NFL has just one cut day this year: September 2nd. So, to answer my own question, 40 days.
Who’s Next
The Birds still have a while until they line-up for their first preseason game. The Eagles open their preseason in Green Bay against the Packers on August 10th before coming back to the Linc and hosting the Buffalo Bills one week later.
