When the Eagles have the football, I’ll be focusing on a number players and positions to measure the progress of this football team near the end of training camp and about a month before the start of the regular season.
Of course the first player I’ll be taking a look at tonight will be Eagles new starting quarterback Kevin Kolb. He doesn’t have to break any records, he just needs to run the offense efficiently. Take care of the football and take what’s there.
We don’t need any heroics, like him tucking the ball under his arm and trying to run for a first down. He needs to put together a drive or two and get in the end zone.
I’ll expect to see the same out of Michael Vick when he gets in there, and competence from the rookie Mike Kafka when he gets his chance.
DeSean Jackson, Jeremy Maclin, Brent Celek and Jason Avant have nothing to prove but they want to help Kolb look good so they need to make a plays or two if they get the chance.
I will closely examine the play of the offensive line, especially the middle of it at the center and guard positions.
Mike McGlynn will be worth taking a look at, as he tries to take the starting center position away from Nick Cole, who is injured.
“The media doesn’t tend to see things the way it is sometimes,” McGlynn said. “When I was asked if I expected to see more reps with the ones . . . I still thought that job was up for grabs. And now this is an opportunity for me to step in and show what I can do.”
The play of the guards will be worth checking out. How will Stacy Andrews and Max Jean-Gilles hold up? I want to see if they’re getting any movement on running plays, which means moving the Jaguars off the line of scrimmage.
The young tight ends will be worth taking a close look at. Cornelius Ingram and Clay Harbor need to use this time to show they can block in the NFL. They should each both catch a few passes, especially in the red zone.
I want to see rookie wide receiver Riley Cooper show us he can repeat his training camp performances at Lincoln Financial Field. Get open, catch the football and be physical. I’d love to see him do something in the red zone.
The running backs could go after Eldra Buckley’s job as the back up to LeSean McCoy and Mike Bell, but their chances are very slim. They’re really trying out for another team in the league because I think Buckley has locked up that job.
Chad Hall could give himself a chance to make somebody else’s team, if he shows he can do something as a punt returner.
I’ll be on 610-WIP at 10pm tonight after the game. Give me a call and tell me what you thought of the game. Who did you think played well and who didn’t?
If Chad Hall shows something this preseason, I think the Eagles keep him and go with 5 DEs.
Good stuff G,
I think the interior of the O/Line gets the closest look and scruntiny as well as the TE battle..
Since the Eagles face the Jags the 3rd week of the season, I wonder how much of the “Real Offense”
the Eagles will show with their Starters for the 1st half or so…
I expect more rushing plays for the O/Line,& RB’s to get a lot of reps than we are used to seeing..
I want to see WR’s Cooper,Washington,Collins all make some plays and block downfield
I also want to see how Buckley,Scott run the ball, block and catch the ball out of the backfield and of course everyone wants to see how Kolb/Vick handle the offense and protect the ball and make plays
They definitely should keep Chad Hall if only to keep Jackson off of Special Teams permanently. He’s the second shot at a nice role-player/sleeper guy like Ammendola which doesn’t happen a lot here.
Cooper looks good, but he’s just not a burner (not a bad thing when you have Jackson and Maclin)
Anyone have anything good to say about “Macho” Harris? (did he get any playing time? Injured?)
At this point I can say McGlynn probably won’t be a liability if he’s on the field and that’s a great thing considering the current situation at center.
Obviously the offense is pretty vanilla right now, but I tend to think regular season strategy isn’t going radically different outside of “Gadget Plays”…which is bad.
With this very young a team, if they are as talented as the brass would like us to believe, I expected to see more missed and broken tackles created by offensive skill players. That wouldn’t have involved revealing any more of the playbook. Gotta see the next couple of games and then obviously the couple of reg. season games just to know what’s going on.
Brandon Graham looks pretty good, although I will have to:
A.) See that he’s actually effective at getting sacks (Parker had 8 last year, so I expect somewhere around there since that isn’t ProBowl level )
B.) See that he’s not totally ineffective at the end of the season.
Even with the errors Vick looked like more of a threat to the opposition to score than Kolb.
Kafka could turn out to really be a monster. (looking back to performances of Adam Dimichele and other “Camp Body” type QBs of the past)