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madbomber31
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i'm not the only one who thinks they are in a prime position to excel this season...
hey fistfull.... your gnats streak ends!!!
Assessing the Eagles, Part 1
July 22, 2001
It’s time to get right down to it. What do the Eagles look like, from this perspective, heading into the first practice of Training Camp, 2001?
For the most part, the Eagles are a set squad. They’ve done things the right way, by having solid drafts, by locking up their young talent to long-term contracts, by being smart in free agency.
The result is a team that is on the rise, one that has a “shot” this season at being very special, a team that is in the early stages of having a several-seasons-long window of opportunity for winning big.
But Friday is all anybody cares about. That’s the first day of practice. That’s when we find out a little bit more about some of the kids who need to step up and make a contribution this season.
So here’s what I’d like to do. I’m giving you my position-by-position opinion of the Eagles offense now, and then on Tuesday will offer up the position-by-position look at the defense and special teams.
Quarterback
There’s no denying the fact that Donovan McNabb has a chance to become the game’s best quarterback. He is a rare player and person: extremely talented and dedicated to the game, humble, very understanding of the big picture of playing quarterback in the NFL. From the first day he was an Eagle, McNabb worked hard to fit in and be “the man” in the locker room.
What you have now is a young quarterback who is focused on winning Super Bowls. In interviews he puts the team first. He is never one to say “I” before “we.” Having been around the Eagles since the late days of Ron Jaworski, through Randall Cunningham and then into the mishmash of quarterbacks since the early 1990s, I can tell you McNabb owns the locker room more than any Eagles quarterback since Jaworski’s days as an unchallenged starter.
Koy Detmer is entrenched as the No. 2 behind McNabb and he’s a good pinch hitter. No problems there.
Obviously, there will be a lot of attention paid to the No. 3 position, where incumbent Ron Powlus will have to hold off draft pick A.J. Feeley. It won’t be easy. The Eagles are high on Feeley. Look for both of these guys to get a lot of time in the preseason games.
Halfback
Duce Staley is ready to let it rip. He’s been working hard to come all the way back from his freakish foot injury from last year. He’s in awesome shape. He’s determined to get back to the level he was at before the injury.
What happens in camp? Staley has the green light to go for it, and the Eagles will be watching him closely. They were convinced at the end of the spring that Staley’s form was fine, that he showed no hesitation cutting and planting on the foot. Now comes full contact, and Staley will have to demonstrate that he can take some pounding on that foot.
Behind Staley on the depth chart is rookie Correll Buckhalter, who looked as impressive as anyone in the mini-camps. He’s big, strong, runs and catches well. If he looks as good in camp as he did in the spring, the Eagles could really have something here.
Veterans Brian Mitchell and Darnell Autry are next on the depth chart. Realistically, the Eagles will keep five backs, and a guess here on how it looks now would be Staley, Buckhalter, Mitchell, Cecil Martin and Stanley Pritchett. That puts Autry in a similar position as last year. He’s fighting a battle. So is Anthony Gray, who had a good spring in NFL Europe.
Will the Eagles sign a veteran backup? My thoughts: only if Staley struggles in camp, or if Buckhalter labors. Right now, the Eagles like what they have, believing Staley will be healthy and ready to go.
Fullback
It’s pretty well set with Martin and Pritchett, who will likely play the same swing role he did a year ago. Martin, to me, was the most improved Eagle (OK, he and Donovan McNabb are tied at the top of the list) from 1999 to 2000.
Offensive Line
The starters are set: Tra Thomas, John Welbourn, Bubba Miller, Jermane Mayberry, Jon Runyan. I just don’t see Bobbie Williams pushing Mayberry – who has developed into a solid, solid right guard – out of the way for playing time. I think Welbourn could take the next step this season into the status of a “very good” player. Thomas is already there, as is Runyan. Miller is a good, solid, center and leader for this line.
I’m going to be watching a lot of Runyan in camp. He is a devastating run blocker and I think you’ll see more of the Eagles running behind him this year. No doubt, he needs to be better against the likes of Michael Strahan in pass protection, so it will be interesting to see how the healthy ankle, a loss of weight, being in his second season in the system, and the motivation of improving will drive Runyan this year.
Tight End
Bing, bing, bing. Chad Lewis, Jeff Thomason and Tony Stewart are the three guys here, with Mike Bartrum as a premier long-snapper and emergency tight end. One note: even though it may not mean a lot, I sure did notice Bartrum catching a lot of passes in the spring camps. He looked good, too. Oh, well.
Wide Receiver
Oh, boy, is this going to be fun. What we know is this: James Thrash and Todd Pinkston are the starters on the depth chart. That could change at any time. There’s going to be a whole lot of competition at the positions.
Let’s figure on the Eagles keeping six wide receivers on the active roster. Thrash, Pinkston, Freddie Mitchell and Na Brown are virtual shoo-ins to make the team. Then there’s a group that consists of players like Gari Scott, Dameane Douglas, Isaac Jones, Elijah Thurman, Sean Scott, etc., that will be fighting for time.
I believe the Eagles are much more athletic and faster than last year’s group. They are more inexperienced. They have more upside ability. They have a lot of pressure on them.
Some predictions: Thrash will surprise people with how good he is, Pinkston will improve and win the starting job, Mitchell will help a lot this year, and Brown will make a much larger-than-expected impact.
To me, bringing back a healthy Staley, having a Pro Bowl tight end in Lewis, having McNabb make another huge improvement – all of that adds up to opportunity for the wide receivers.
Those first three days of full-contact practices – July 31, Aug. 1 and Aug. 2 – will tell me a lot about this group. If they can get off the line of scrimmage against the Eagles cornerbacks, they can do it against any team.
hey fistfull.... your gnats streak ends!!!
Assessing the Eagles, Part 1
July 22, 2001
It’s time to get right down to it. What do the Eagles look like, from this perspective, heading into the first practice of Training Camp, 2001?
For the most part, the Eagles are a set squad. They’ve done things the right way, by having solid drafts, by locking up their young talent to long-term contracts, by being smart in free agency.
The result is a team that is on the rise, one that has a “shot” this season at being very special, a team that is in the early stages of having a several-seasons-long window of opportunity for winning big.
But Friday is all anybody cares about. That’s the first day of practice. That’s when we find out a little bit more about some of the kids who need to step up and make a contribution this season.
So here’s what I’d like to do. I’m giving you my position-by-position opinion of the Eagles offense now, and then on Tuesday will offer up the position-by-position look at the defense and special teams.
Quarterback
There’s no denying the fact that Donovan McNabb has a chance to become the game’s best quarterback. He is a rare player and person: extremely talented and dedicated to the game, humble, very understanding of the big picture of playing quarterback in the NFL. From the first day he was an Eagle, McNabb worked hard to fit in and be “the man” in the locker room.
What you have now is a young quarterback who is focused on winning Super Bowls. In interviews he puts the team first. He is never one to say “I” before “we.” Having been around the Eagles since the late days of Ron Jaworski, through Randall Cunningham and then into the mishmash of quarterbacks since the early 1990s, I can tell you McNabb owns the locker room more than any Eagles quarterback since Jaworski’s days as an unchallenged starter.
Koy Detmer is entrenched as the No. 2 behind McNabb and he’s a good pinch hitter. No problems there.
Obviously, there will be a lot of attention paid to the No. 3 position, where incumbent Ron Powlus will have to hold off draft pick A.J. Feeley. It won’t be easy. The Eagles are high on Feeley. Look for both of these guys to get a lot of time in the preseason games.
Halfback
Duce Staley is ready to let it rip. He’s been working hard to come all the way back from his freakish foot injury from last year. He’s in awesome shape. He’s determined to get back to the level he was at before the injury.
What happens in camp? Staley has the green light to go for it, and the Eagles will be watching him closely. They were convinced at the end of the spring that Staley’s form was fine, that he showed no hesitation cutting and planting on the foot. Now comes full contact, and Staley will have to demonstrate that he can take some pounding on that foot.
Behind Staley on the depth chart is rookie Correll Buckhalter, who looked as impressive as anyone in the mini-camps. He’s big, strong, runs and catches well. If he looks as good in camp as he did in the spring, the Eagles could really have something here.
Veterans Brian Mitchell and Darnell Autry are next on the depth chart. Realistically, the Eagles will keep five backs, and a guess here on how it looks now would be Staley, Buckhalter, Mitchell, Cecil Martin and Stanley Pritchett. That puts Autry in a similar position as last year. He’s fighting a battle. So is Anthony Gray, who had a good spring in NFL Europe.
Will the Eagles sign a veteran backup? My thoughts: only if Staley struggles in camp, or if Buckhalter labors. Right now, the Eagles like what they have, believing Staley will be healthy and ready to go.
Fullback
It’s pretty well set with Martin and Pritchett, who will likely play the same swing role he did a year ago. Martin, to me, was the most improved Eagle (OK, he and Donovan McNabb are tied at the top of the list) from 1999 to 2000.
Offensive Line
The starters are set: Tra Thomas, John Welbourn, Bubba Miller, Jermane Mayberry, Jon Runyan. I just don’t see Bobbie Williams pushing Mayberry – who has developed into a solid, solid right guard – out of the way for playing time. I think Welbourn could take the next step this season into the status of a “very good” player. Thomas is already there, as is Runyan. Miller is a good, solid, center and leader for this line.
I’m going to be watching a lot of Runyan in camp. He is a devastating run blocker and I think you’ll see more of the Eagles running behind him this year. No doubt, he needs to be better against the likes of Michael Strahan in pass protection, so it will be interesting to see how the healthy ankle, a loss of weight, being in his second season in the system, and the motivation of improving will drive Runyan this year.
Tight End
Bing, bing, bing. Chad Lewis, Jeff Thomason and Tony Stewart are the three guys here, with Mike Bartrum as a premier long-snapper and emergency tight end. One note: even though it may not mean a lot, I sure did notice Bartrum catching a lot of passes in the spring camps. He looked good, too. Oh, well.
Wide Receiver
Oh, boy, is this going to be fun. What we know is this: James Thrash and Todd Pinkston are the starters on the depth chart. That could change at any time. There’s going to be a whole lot of competition at the positions.
Let’s figure on the Eagles keeping six wide receivers on the active roster. Thrash, Pinkston, Freddie Mitchell and Na Brown are virtual shoo-ins to make the team. Then there’s a group that consists of players like Gari Scott, Dameane Douglas, Isaac Jones, Elijah Thurman, Sean Scott, etc., that will be fighting for time.
I believe the Eagles are much more athletic and faster than last year’s group. They are more inexperienced. They have more upside ability. They have a lot of pressure on them.
Some predictions: Thrash will surprise people with how good he is, Pinkston will improve and win the starting job, Mitchell will help a lot this year, and Brown will make a much larger-than-expected impact.
To me, bringing back a healthy Staley, having a Pro Bowl tight end in Lewis, having McNabb make another huge improvement – all of that adds up to opportunity for the wide receivers.
Those first three days of full-contact practices – July 31, Aug. 1 and Aug. 2 – will tell me a lot about this group. If they can get off the line of scrimmage against the Eagles cornerbacks, they can do it against any team.
Hey I'm a Cowboy fan, i hate both of ya!!!! 
and i am all for a game
