Opening Thoughts From the First Week of Eagles Training Camp
Congratulations! You’ve finally made it to football season.
Sure, they won’t play meaningful football for over a month, but players have officially reported to training camp. That counts for me.
We’re no longer doing speculation, Eagles’ history, or random tangential stories about the Eagles—time to dig into some real football footage and notes.
We’ll take a look at the Eagles’ offense first. They easily have the hardest job of the two going into the season, returning to Super Bowl caliber form. The good news is that the more you lack, the more progress you can make. This all starts at the top with newbie Sean Mannion.
We heard it before in the offseason that Jordan Mailata has referred to him as an “evil genius.” He reiterated that point to start the camp.
What does having an “evil genius” mean for the offensive scheme? While we don’t know exactly, it seems to be about showing the defense one look while running something different. Honestly, that should be the goal for everyone watching. If you can guess the play call, the team has a bad offensive coordinator. Not to drag on Patullo too hard, but I get PTSD flashbacks to how many 1st-and-10 basic run plays that, at best, gain two yards. Hopefully now, through that same look, we get a quick pass, play-action, screens, and other plays that can’t be predicted from our couch.
The other important part of the scheme is more under center looks. This is something Jalen Hurts hasn’t done much in his career. Schemes like this open up two facets of an offense. The first is a stronger run game. Simply put, giving a running back momentum before the handoff helps. The other part is that it opens up passes across the middle. We’ve already seen it starting to take effect.
Even the team’s official account has been posting videos about it.
Last offseason training camp note is a healthy offensive line. This will be a welcome sight going into the season. While I wouldn’t trade Super Bowl 59 for anything, it was a long season of tush pushes on the fellas.
I’m a trenches guy. You win football by dominating the line of scrimmage. Cam Jurgens has said he feels better than ever.
You give me a happy, healthy offensive line for the Eagles, and I truly think the sky is the limit.
The Eagles’ defense remains the team’s strong point under Vic Fangio. They’ve done this by keeping excellent players on the team. Re-signing good players is good #analysis.
This is shown by their decision to re-sign Jalen Carter. Regardless of the off-the-field issues, he still makes the team better when he plays.
The hardest part about evaluating a defense is that no news is good news.
That said, they got better from last year. While I said the offense talk is over, a good defense helps the offense. One hand washes the other during training camp. Their secondary should be one of the best units in all of football. This means the receivers get some of the hardest matchups in practice and training camp. Iron sharpens iron. We also have the stout offensive line going up against the younger defensive line.
This should help players like Uar Bernard make strides in becoming an NFL player, especially since he has a model in Jordan Mailata to make the leap. A little you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours. Alright, I’ll stop with the cliches and wrap this up.
Finally, let’s bring this to a close. In general, the team seems excited going into camp. Sure, every team feels this way, but the Eagles have a particular edge.
And I didn’t even give you the best news: we’ll have two NFL teams playing this Thursday for the Hall of Fame game.
We’re there, folks.
Welcome back to football!
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