May 06, 2015
The Eagles will have a rookie camp beginning on Friday, May 8th, which will run through the weekend. And then we'll enter a dead period for a few weeks until OTAs begin the last week of May. Here's what they're saying in the aftermath of the draft.
In one offseason, the inside linebacker room has been completely bolstered with the additions of Kiko Alonso (trade), Brad Jones (free agency) and Jordan Hicks (draft) to go along with the return to health of DeMeco Ryans, who expects to be on the field for training camp, and Najee Goode. There are options here, of course, but it shouldn't shock anyone to see the Eagles at least think about moving a piece or two around from time to time and help the pass rush. The edge rushers are Connor Barwin and Brandon Graham, with Marcus Smith hopefully stepping up. Travis Long, now healthy, will get a look on the edge. Maybe Alonso runs some blitzes out there. It's really an interesting group to watch. How good can this linebacker group become? It will be a central theme throughout the season.
As pointed out by the great "The Guy," there's a very interesting omission from Spadaro's linebacker write-up. In SAT reading comprehension style, we'll give you multiple choice options of which player does not appear:
A) Brad Jones
B) Najee Goode
C) Travis Long
D) Mychal Kendricks
The answer can be found at the end of this post.
We’ve all assumed Sam Bradford would be handed the Eagles’ opening-day starting quarterback job as long as he’s healthy. And that Mark Sanchez would back him up, and Matt Barkley and Tim Tebow would battle it out for the No. 3 spot.
Not so fast, says Sanchez.
Sanchez said he believes Chip Kelly will have an open competition between himself and Bradford this offseason, similar to how Michael Vick and Nick Foles — remember them? — competed for the starting job before the 2013 season.
“Absolutely,” Sanchez said. “That's the way I understand it.”
It certainly wouldn't surprise me if Chip Kelly will tell Mark Sanchez and Sam Bradford that they are competing for a starting job. However, the Eagles traded Nick Foles and a second round pick for Bradford, and Bradford will make just shy of $13 million this season. For Bradford not to begin this season as the starter, he'll either have to be hurt or so obviously horrible that they absolutely can't put him out there. Mark Sanchez beating out Sam Bradford for a starting job would be an embarrassment of gigantic proportions to the front office.
A sampling from BGN's post:
Eric Rowe got better today! @EricRowe32 @Eagles pic.twitter.com/bSkKo1kOZ7
— footwork_king (@footwork_king1) May 5, 2015
4. The idea that the Marcus Mariota possibility was a media creation is hilarious to me. I get the Mariota fatigue. It was four months of non-stop speculation. But the fact of the matter is that Kelly tried to move up for his quarterback. He talked to both the Titans and the Bucs. By all accounts, the Eagles were the most serious suitor.
Kelly saying the team didn't "offer" any players seems like semantics. Would he have been willing to part with certain players to land Mariota? Of course.
In the end, what I underestimated was that the Titans really did want to draft Mariota. My sense at the time was that they were trying to leverage the best offer. But in reality, they had no interest in doing a deal. Kelly clearly had interest and explored making a move. He has admitted as much. But because the Titans wanted Mariota, there wasn't anything he realistically could have done.
I, too, had the wrong read on the Titans' interest in Mariota.
Big plays were down from 2013. There were 80 pass plays that were good for 20 or more yards in Chip Kelly’s first year. That total fell to just 63 last year. That was still one of the better totals in the league, but it wasn’t what Kelly wanted. He covets big plays.
Agholor can deliver big plays. Watch his highlights and you can see his vertical speed, but also his ability to run with the ball after the catch.
One of the big disappointments with Jeremy Maclin is that he wasn’t more dynamic with the ball in his hands. I remember watching his first games as an Eagle, back in the 2009 preseason. They put him in as a returner and he looked like a deer in headlights. Where was the guy from Missouri?
Maclin did not adjust well to the physicality of the NFL. In college, he ran by or around everyone. He didn’t take many big hits. He wasn’t breaking many tackles. Maclin was a special player in college and a good player in the NFL.
Tommy has old Maclin highlights from his Missouri days in his post, which was fun to watch.
*The answer to the linebacker question above was (D), Mychal Kendricks. Spadaro mentioned Brad Jones, Najee Goode, and Travis Long. But not Mychal Kendricks.
In today's installment of #CloseReadingSpadaro, he fails to mention Mychal Kendricks at all in the LB section: http://t.co/BuXzViaRYt
— the guy (@theguyotc) May 7, 2015
Follow Jimmy on Twitter: @JimmyKempski
