My PE.com column is now up. I talked about OTAs and their value to young guys.
http://www.philadelphiaeagles.com/news/TastyKakeStory.asp?story_id=17858
WESTBROOK'S INJURY
We got the news yesterday that Westy is going to have ankle surgery. In my expert opinion, that sucks. We're used to Westy having all kinds of problems during the year. This is now his 2nd surgery during the offseason. I was encouraged to hear about the knee getting cleaned up. That had been a chronic problem and the surgery seemed like a way to help the situation.
The ankle is different. All RBs will have an ankle injury here and there. Westy's got severely hurt in the Steelers game back in September. He's now going to have surgery on it in June? That's odd, and not in a good way. The fact I can recite baseball stats from the 1980 season is odd in an entertaining way. The franchise RB getting cut on at this point for a problem that goes back to late September is not good news. The last thing we need is Westy with a degenerative knee and ankle.
I haven't gotten any inside scoops for you on this issue. You know what I do. He's going to be back in early August, mid-August, or for the regular season. If there is a silver lining to him missing all or part of TC and PS games it is that he'll be that much fresher for the regular season. Westy never got a ton of work prior to September, but maybe the extra rest will help him to stay on the field during the season.
LeSean McCoy is probably very excited by this news. He certainly doesn't want anything bad to happen to Westy, but LeSean can now get a ton of reps. He will get force fed certain things. If he can handle the situation, it may accelerate his development much in the way that Kevin and Reggie's injuries last summer led to the rise of DeSean. That worked out pretty well.
The timing of this situation does work well. McCoy will get a lot of work in these OTAs. That will help to get him ready for TC. The coaches and other RBs will have time to plan for Lehigh. The coaches need to assess the situation and figure out how to best utilize everyone. The players now will have extra reps coming their way. They must be ready to take advantage of the situation. Lorenzo Booker and Walter Mendenhall should be extremely thankful for the potential to get on the field more.
I'll write more about the RB situation in a follow-up post. And I'll continue to look at post drafts. I've set that aside for now since we have current Eagles stories to discuss.
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Thursday, June 4, 2009
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5 comments:
Westbrook is starting to break down. He always has been subject to injuries and has rarely made it through a season without missing at least a game or two. However, this particular injury is probably a result of previous ankle sprains and perhaps mostly the high ankle sprain he experienced last year. The surgery he is receiving normally entails a two to four week period in a boot before rehab can begin. There is a pretty good chance he will be ready for training camp and a very good chance he will be able to practice for most of training camp. I'm figuring he has two or more more good years left before he becomes a back up. He very well could be back to top form this year. However, the risk is there and LeSean McCoy is not enough insurance. We don't even know if McCoy can be a back up let alone the premier running back on this team. The Eagles need a back up plan.
I heard that the current surgery has nothing to deal with the last years' sprain; it deals with Westbrooks' career chronic ancle problems. The reason that he's agreed to a sergery is that he's been guaranteed that his chronic ancle vulnerability would totally disappear following the surgery. If this information is true, it is encouraging a bit.
If there was ever such a thing as "good timing" for your franchise RB to be injured, I guess this is it, though.
You're right to say we don't even kmow if LeSean can be a back-up, let alone a starter, but he has plenty of time to show Reid before it's REALLY crunch time.
But if we assume McCoy can at least fill in for now, the depth behind him is almost non-existent. I'm not 100% down on Booker like a lot of fans are, but he hasn't shown he can be the back-up like Moats did before we realized Ryan wasn't a long-term piece to the puzzle. Booker had a really good rookie season in Miami, we have to remember.
If we start the season without Westbrook or with a rusty Westbrook we've got options, though:
1) McCoy takes over a sizeable chunk of the carries and excels a la Slaton or Forte in his rookie season.
2) Weaver gets a lot more carries than anticipated. We know he's a RB in a FB's body. We know he has really good receiving skills out of the backfield. These are more given than anything we can say about McCoy at this point.
3) We added a veteran RB before Training Camp and he splits time with McCoy.
That was a neat Fandemonium article tommy, makes me really eager to get TC and the preseason under way so we can see just how far some of these key guys have come.
The guy Im looking at the most this year is Victor Abiamiri, we really lack a playmaker on the other side of Cole (Parker is so much better off the bench than as a starter) and if Vic can step up and be someone who can pressure the QB, that would be tremendous for our D I think.
Bring in Chris Perry.
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