For most football fans, Jim Schwartz will always be known as the guy that temporarily lost his mind when Jim Harbaugh gave him a firm handshake:
After Schwartz was handed a pink slip by Detroit in 2013, he again proved adept as a defensive coordinator with Buffalo the next year. Now in Philly, the 50-year-old Schwartz still has some fire. Check out his answer from after yesterday’s practice (via Birds 24/7’s Tim McManus):
“I’m not just talking about Eric, I’m talking about every guy on defense. You saw what happened today: we’d make a play, give up a play; make a play, give up a play. That’s not a way to play defense. That’s not a way to play football. We’ve gotta be consistent and that’s our challenge. Our challenge is ironing that out.”
If the Eagles are going to challenge for the division, the defense needs to be very good. Iggles Blitz’s Tommy Lawlor thinks there is a method to Schwartz’s madness:
If you gave Schwartz truth serum (whatever drug combination that is today), he’d probably tell you lots of good things about his defense. But Schwartz wants more. He’s going to keep pushing them to be better, to take the next step. Today’s theme was the need for consistency. And that has been an issue with the defense for the past few years. They would dominate a veteran QB like Eli Manning and then get lit up by a rookie like Jameis Winston. Remember Matt Cassel and Matt Asiata destroying the defense in 2013?
Schwartz is pushing a lot of buttons. We’ll see if they are the right ones.
In case you missed it at PhillyVoice
1. Training camp notes: Sam Bradford was on fire in red zone drills.
2. Under the radar: Five unsung Eagles having good camps, including Trey Burton, who is going to force Frank Reich’s hand. The 24-year-old tight end has been a special teams standout, but he should get more offensive snaps this year.
3. Chef Curry: Vinny Curry just wants to be someone football fans mention when talking about the Eagles defense. He’ll finally get his shot to do just that.
4. What have you done for me lately? According to Jim Schwartz, Eric Rowe hasn’t done much.
Other Eagles news, notes and analysis from around the web:
Wentz says helmet cam gives him what he really saw, instead of overview: Les Bowen, Philadelphia Daily News
Carson Wentz and Chase Daniel were rocking the helmet cams during Thursday’s practice:
"Still trying to work through it and get used to the views from that ... It's a cool experiment," Wentz said. "The biggest thing is, you see where your eyes are. You see where your eyes are looking, and also, the audio. You can pick up what kind of protection calls you're making" and can evaluate whether it was the right call.
Nelson Agholor flashes talent but needs to improve: Jonny Page, Bleeding Green Nation
Good look at the second-year receiver’s rookie film, and how he struggled against press coverage as opposed to corners playing off:
There’s a lot of things that Agholor needs to work on. At the moment he really doesn’t use his hands well at all against press coverage and his release off the line of scrimmage isn’t great. When you aren’t a big receiver on the outside you have to deceive the cornerback and sometimes Agholor would make a great fake inside but at other times he didn’t really sell the fake hard enough. I’m glad the Eagles have a new wide receiver coach and coaching staff as I hated the way Chip used him last season.
How to Quantify the NFL: Danny Kelly, The Ringer
This was an informative article, along the same lines of evaluating Chip Kelly on a per-drive basis, not per-game.
Follow Rich on Twitter: @rich_hofmann