Kevin Kolb Era Starts With The First Training Camp Practice

The Kevin Kolb era officially began for the Birds this morning at Lehigh University and the youngster was eager to get it started.

The Eagles gave us a taste of what we’re going to be seeing when the offense takes the field this fall.¬† Kolb must have thrown ten or fifteen slant routes before you could blink and most of them were on the money.

He also was zipping in throws on some curl, hook and corner routes.¬† The Birds were working their underneath game for most of today’s morning practice.¬† The underneath game is going to be a big part of their attack because it’s something that Kolb does very well.

The other thing they worked on was the red zone.¬† It’s unusual that a team heads straight for the red zone so early, but it says something about the plan they have for Kolb and this offense.

Andy and Marty obviously want to see this offense get better in the red zone with the improved accuracy of their quarterback.¬† There won’t be as many rollouts where they utilize the athleticism of McNabb, instead they’ll be relying on Kolb’s arm when he’s in there.

Rookie wide receiver Riley Cooper and second year tight Cornelius Ingram took their turns running slant routes in the red zone session.  I could see the Eagles going to these guys in the red zone because they have great size and will be match-up problems for most defenders.

Backup quarterback Michael Vick also had a good day this morning throwing the ball.¬†¬† He wasn’t quite as accurate as Kolb but you can see he’s been working on his throwing mechanics.

The Eagles playcallers were allowing Vick to roll out quite a few times.¬† It seems that they have one offense for Vick and one offense for Kolb.¬†¬† With Kolb it’ll be one, two, three and the ball will be out in classic west coast offense style.¬† With Vick it will be roll this way or roll that way, execute the offense and give the speedster a chance to make a play with his arm or with his legs.

Rookie safety Kurt Coleman caught my eye during the red zone work against the offense.  He took the ball from a couple of receivers to force incompletions.  It seems that he has an attacking type of attitude which will help him play the safety position.

I saw some fiestiness out of the young linebackers, Jamar Cheney, Keenan Clayton and free agent Simoni Lawrence, which is something that’s a must because they’re not big.¬† These youngsters can run.