Reid and Staff Are Focusing On Details Of The Passing Game

The OTA’s or organized team activities could be re-named “Team Passing Camps” because the emphasis is on executing and stopping the passing game.

Andy Reid stands in the deep middle at the start of the practices when the receivers are running the skeleton drill which is working on specific routes in the offense.  He makes it a point to offer corrections to nearly all of the receivers after they run their routes.

They either need to take it a little deeper before making their cut or make the cut sooner.¬† His corrections are very subtle but important in getting open when it’s game time.

Offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg talks to both the quarterbacks and receivers to make sure they’re on the same page.¬† His goal is to see that both the quarterbacks and receivers have the same understanding about each route and how that route coordinates with the other routes in that particular called play.

Sometimes one route is nothing but a decoy for the other route and the players have to be a certain distance from each other, so the players have to know that.  If one player runs his route incorrectly, it might prevent another player from getting open.

Young players like Cornelius Ingram and Riley Cooper are given plenty of attention, while the veterans are working on routes that they have run hundreds of times but must focus on running them correctly again.

They made it a point to match tight end Brent Celek up with starting quarterback Kevin Kolb to run a number of short routes over the middle.¬† He corrected Celek and had him run it again.¬† You know that you’re going to see a lot of that short route to get first downs or on first down to get the offense moving.

They were talking about Celek sliding to get room between himself and the linebacker, if Kolb looks his way but doesn’t throw the ball right away he knows to slide to his right or left to get away from the backer.

Everyday they’ll be getting to know each other better and better, to the point where Kolb will know where he tight end is without even looking his way.¬† When Kolb gets in trouble, he’ll probably be looking for number 87.

When Kolb gets into the repetition I can see his short compact release which is much like Chase Utley’s hitting stroke.¬† They’re both short and compact.

Kolb threw a deep double-move route to DeSean Jackson.¬† He pump faked, then set his feet and let the ball go. ¬† He couldn’t let Jackson open up the turbos because they were practicing inside and he would have led him into the defensive drills on the other side of the field.

I could see that Kolb and Michael Vick are making it a point to take care of the football.¬† If there’s nothing there they pull the ball down and scramble or throw the ball short to the backs.¬† I don’t think Kolb should taking off as much as Vick with the big difference in their speeds.

I definitely think there are going to be more intermediate connections with runs afterwards as compared to the deep bomb.

The Eagles have a lot of people lining up at the running back position.

LeSean McCoy is the starter and he’s been catching quite a few passes out of the backfield.¬†¬† In fact the Eagles installed plays yesterday which had McCoy leaving his spot in the backfield and walking outside in a wide receiver position.

He caught the ball well yesterday while running a few slants from the wide receiver position.