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The Eagles held a Chalk Talk for local media on Tuesday evening. Les Bowen wrote a post about for his blog. It is definitely worth checking out. Les came away impressed with Marty's knowledge of a highly complex offense. He liked Bobby April. He felt that Sean McDermott was the most useful of the 3 coaches. He talked about various looks the team uses (4-3, Nickel/Dime stuff, some exotic looks and even some 3-4). Sean also talked about several of the players.
I spoke with someone else who attended and he agreed with the first assessment. He also made mention that McDermott said Asante Samuel will tackle better this year. I guess that is a point of emphasis with him this summer.
FROM THE MOTHERSHIP
Dave wrote a good column on WR Chad Hall and his situation. Chad is working his tail off for us part of the week and then flying back West to finish his obligation to the Air Force. That's a heck of a commute. I think you can see the dedication Hall has when you read the piece. I really hope he plays well this summer. I want this guy on the team, either active roster or Practice Squad.
PE.com also has a video interview with King Dunlap. He's added about 25 pounds this year, by design. Juan Castillo and King planned for the bulking up. King was thrown over to RT in the last mini-camp, but he indicated that was just done for that session. He referred to it as a "numbers thing". We'll see. Could be that the return of Max at RG will push Fenuki Tupou back out to RT and that will send King to the left side.
WESTY UPDATE
Brian Westbrook talked to the Rams. He recently visited the Redskins. Now he's on his way to Denver. I'm guessing teams are doing research more than showing specific interest. I still have torn feelings with Westy. If he's truly healthy I want him to play. I'm just not sure that's the case. And I hate the thought of seeing him on the field as a pedestrian player. Best of luck to him.
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11 comments:
That Les Bowen stuff was great. I would've killed to go to those meetings.
Tommy as far as you could tell from all your film study of the Eagles, did you see much, if any, 3-4 last year?
I know we've seen some 3-3-5 over the years with Gocong rushing, and 5 down lineman, but I don't recall any pure 3-4
This team is simply going to be a lot of different this season.
1) On offense we have to wait to see how things change based on Kolb's lengths and weaknesses. McCoy and Maclin are no longer rookies. Celek is establishing himself as an impact TE. Teams are game planning against him.
2) On defense, we have a ton of new starters. We'll probably have a rookie at FS and maybe a rookie at LDE. We'll have Stew back and Sims sharking it up. Fokou will be a year more mature and that sounds like it will be HUGE for him because in interviews, he's really identified his own weaknesses and struggling points.
3) On special teams, Bobby April is here.
We have major changes at all 3 phases of the game. I like it. I don't buy in to the "rebuilding" stuff, but it's certainly a "rebirth." There's just a much fresher feel to this team than in years past.
Since we are talking about misc stuff I thought I would mention one thing about the cowgirls draft board as a food for thought and then let the issue die. . .
I think the reason that the cowboys had graham listed as a 2nd round pick was due to the fact that they like their outside rush linebackers to be huge. Ware and Spencer are both 6'4 whereas Graham does not have the height of those two. Denver and New England on the other hand use outside rush linebackers that do not need to be as tall as long as they have good motors. Since Graham was not 6'4, the cowboys did not value his skills as much as the Eagles or other teams where height is not a factor when the motor is constantly and can get to the qb.
@ Cliff
I agree it is a maybe on the LDE. If it wasn't for Graham being the second DE taken and with the 13th pick, maybe might have turned to probably. Eitherway, he will be signed sooner than the already announced starting LT for the Redskins I think.
Do you know if Marty's knowledge of a highly complex offense might involve understanding the need to run the ball, or is that too simple of a concept for such a fascinatingly smart man?
Along with Pitmanite's question, it seems that at times we could be a much better offense if we just simplified things a little bit on occasion. I hate to question our offensive strategy, especially when we are breaking franchise scoring records, but at the same time, I think a lot of that has to do with the way the NFL has changed.
I guess another question about the offense is, how bad would it be if we tweaked our offense such that maybe we end up scoring slightly less points over the season but end up increasing our TOP? I'm not necessarily talking about becoming a power running team by any means, but becoming more focused on short-intermediate gains rather than the short and long gains we seemed to have become focused on in the past few seasons. I just feel the way we have played the last few seasons has often led to either 3 and out or a 3 or 4 play drive that included a 60 yard td throw. I am guessing that Kolb's skills are a slightly better fit for the more TOP type attack so we may end up seeing it this coming season, but I was curious on your thoughts.
If the Eagles use a three man line does it have to be the same paradigm as the 3-4 teams where you have the huge nose guard? If the Eagles started with a three man front they could still blitz a fourth man either a joker type end or a linebacker essentially a zone blitz where you don't know where the fourth pass rusher is coming from. Or of course they could blitz more than one like a more traditional blitz. My question is can this be effective against the run or can it only be used on passing downs? At what point does playing multiple fronts start to dilute the potential of being really good at one of them.
After all the opponents have lots of tape. It seems to me that success in the NFL depends on being so good at something that the other team can't stop it even when they know it is coming.
BGN has the pass-by-pass analysis for Kolb's gam against the Chiefs up now.
http://www.bleedinggreennation.com/2010/5/14/1471851/kevin-kolb-game-tape-week-3-vs#storyjump
Love these reviews. Even though I watched the games it's nice to have a much more thorough look at them.
RE: Kolb play-by-play's
These breakdowns definitely show that the potential is there for Kolb to really excel in our offense.
What I am NOT looking forward to is the boo-birds who are going to come out and slam Kolb when he makes a typical, 1st-year-starter mistake (he will make them). Kolb can be very good and still do some bonehead things out of inexperience. We just have to live with that. I mean, geeze, McNabb had plenty of those moments as a grizzled vet.
Anyway, I look forward to seeing how things change with Kolb. As I said in a previous comment, it's like a "rebirth" or "refresh." Fairly exciting, to me anyway.
Hi Tommy, I hear that Vick is looking a lot better than a yr ago & was wandering since Buffalo never addressed the QB position this offseason that if he showcases himself well during the Preseason if you think we could trade him for a good RCB from them, or via a 3 way trade with 1 of the Jets CB and get maybe a 5th rd pick as well. A RCB is very important & I feel bringing Garcia in as a backup would help Kolb progress a heck of a lot more than Vick could; with the West Coast offence. Buffalo could possibly pick up Vick comeing back to Pro Bowl form & we can get a much needed CB and a draft pick. The Jets have several CB (Bills can give them M. Lynch, or something), if Vick is really back, maybe even better passing wise, lots of people can benefit tremendously here. Thanks, tbeach10@gmail.com P.S. Appreciate your opinion
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