Friday, May 1, 2009

Mini-Camp Items to Watch

Rookies

The first thing I'd like to know is where the rookies are lining up in terms of the depth chart. Is LeSean McCoy the #2 RB? They may have Lorenzo Booker there initially. Obviously where a guy starts out isn't critical, but it can tell you what the coaches are thinking. Shawn Andrews was the starting RG for most of his first mini-camp. They could see right away they wanted him on the field as much as possible.

Jeremy Maclin was the 1st round pick, but McCoy is the more important rookie. Will he be aggressively worked into the offense or will Reid push him along slowly? Maclin may start off buried on the depth chart at receiver. Don't worry. Maclin will have his special package of plays. They want him on the field. He just may have a harder time getting lots of reps because of the guys in front of him.

Cornelius Ingram could be the #2 or #3 TE. I hope he runs well and looks good moving around. I'll feel a lot better about TE if Ingram is able to win the backup job.

I Like Ike...Hopefully

We finally get to see CB Jack Ikegwuonu run. He had 1st round potential before tearing his ACL a year ago. Jack has had plenty of time to let his knee heal and get ready. Now we get to find out how far back he is and whether Jack can ever get back to his previous level of play. He had a rather messy ACL injury. This wasn't your standard situation. There is no guarantee he's going to pan out. We won't know anything definitive about Jack from this weekend, but we'll at least find out something. This guy has been more mysterious than Amelia Earhart, the Lost Colony, who shot JFK, or what happened to Bobby Hoying after 1997.

Right Tackle

Stacy Andrews is still recovering from his ACL injury. I have my doubts about him being ready by September, but we know he won't be on the field this weekend. So who will be the RT? They might line Winston Justice up with the 1's. That would leave Todd and Shawn at their G spots. Mini-camps feature limited contact so Justice would be fine in that situation. I'm still not sure how long he'll be an Eagle. If rookie Fenuki Tupou or 2nd year guy Chris Patrick look good...maybe Winston gets early walking papers.

The Eagles could shuffle the line and move Todd or Shawn to RT. I assume Nick Cole would then take over at the vacated G spot.

No matter what, it is finally good to see the guys moving around on the field.

_

8 comments:

T_S_O_P said...

From Iggles Blog:

Shawn Andrews At Right Tackle

Big Kid lined up at RT today in the first minicamp. Currently causing a bit of a feeding frenzy in Andy Reid's press conference.
This is what I think makes sense despite the fact that it could cause headaches (contractual) further down the line.

Baloophi said...

The Lost Colony? I had to do some digging of my own to land that reference (worth it, of course). Does it come up much in North Carolingian parlance?

Unknown said...

This might end up being a good thing if Shawn moves out to OT. Provided he stays healthy, and plays at a high level, the Eagles would have the excuse they need to redo his contract before he loses his mind again.

Thats only if he stays at RT though. I suspect its simply because Stacy isn't ready.

T_S_O_P said...

@McCud77

I agree with that, but there is knock on. How would Todd then feel as compared to Stacy, he would be a much underpaid Guard, moreso if he is the better Guard.

Tommy Lawlor said...

The Lost Colony is well known down here in NC. At least it was to my generation and those in the past. I'm not sure what kids today know.

Cliff said...

I just clicked through all the mini-camp photos on PE.com. Man, it feels great to know football is upon us.

Cliff said...

Everyone lears about the "Lost Colony" in grade school. I know this because I always got incredibly confused when they called it the "Roanoke colony." I'm from Virginia, so Roanoke is all the way in the mountains of southwest VA, not NC.

Anyway, I appreciate the updates, Tommy.

Baloophi said...

I received my early American history - 7th grade version - in Maine so everything was New England biased as you might imagine... but now I want to know more about the Lost Colony. I thought maybe it was an ABC spinoff or something. Oh... and thanks for all the football stuff, too.