“Wind-Up” Tebow and “Sugarfoot” Bradford together working a passing drill with receivers? Are we witnessing the Apocalypse?
Speculation running rampant, Eagles players changing positions, Chip Kelly domming press conferences, Sam Bradford a long way off from being approved for contact…so far this is possibly the most cray-cray week of OTA’s I’ve ever seen in Philly.
I’m already seeing “Final 53″ projections after only 2 days of light workouts!
Unofficially the first “Final 53″ guesstimate to appear here comes from “BleedingGreen 93“, a sometimes poster here and still a regular at PE.com’s On The Inside:
“Now I am going to make a extremely early 53-man roster prediction:
QBs-Bradford, Sanchez, TEBOW
RBs-Murray, Matthews, Sproles, Barner
TEs-Celek, Ertz, Burton
WRs-Matthews, Cooper, Agholor, Huff, Austin, Seyi
OL-JP, Mathis, Kelce, Barbre, Johnson, Tobin, Gardner, Coccia
[24 players on O]
DE-Cox, Thornton, Curry, Hart, Mahalik
NT-Beau [Allen], Bennie [Logan]
OLBs-Barwin, Graham, Smith, Braman
ILB-Ryans, Kendricks, Kiko [Alonso], Hicks, Goode
CBs-Maxwell, Carroll, Boykin, Rowe, Shepherd
S-Jenkins, Thurmond, Wolff, Watkins, Evans
[26 players on D]
STs : P-Donnie Jones, K-Parkey, LS-Jon Dorenbos
So if I can count correctly that should equal 53 guys…”
As you can see, BG93 has moved Walter Thurmond and Jaylen Watkins from corner to the safety position, based on early OTA drills which gave the players a look there.
He’s also got Tim Tebow making the Final 53 as a third QB… and no backup center. Chris Maragos gets the axe as a special teams guy and backup safety. And he holds on to a 4th running back:
“Barner as my 4th RB might be surprising— but I’m thinking if we keep a 4th guy it will be a player more in the mold of Sproles, a kid who could fill the void somewhat if Sproles did get hurt. Barner has a skill set that could accomplish this.”
Well, ya gotta give BG93 credit for sticking his neck out this early.
If they ever let all 53 guys dress on Sundays, such roster predictions would be a lot easier to make, too.
As for Sam Bradford? He’s noticeably favoring his recovering leg…and definitely not ready for anything other than some basic passing drills with his receivers. But he says he’s studying a lot of tape on Kelly’s offensive system:
“I haven’t gotten a chance to get out there and actually run it, but just watching it on tape and talking about it, I love the tempo, I love how fast we play,” he said. “It fits my style of game, making quick decisions. The run game is a little different — we’ve been running two-back’power’ (in St. Louis), it’s a lot of the zone-read stuff (here) which is new to me, but I see the advantages of it.”
Walter Thurmond getting a look at safety? Not really that big of a leap for Thurmond:
“I’m not completely new to the position, I’ve dabbled a little bit in practice during scout teams in Seattle and New York and stuff like that, so I’m pretty familiar, but it’s a lot different from playing corner my whole career playing football. So there are going to be a lot of opportunities, especially in this defense, and I’m looking forward to the challenge.”
“It’s a different footwork motion than (I’m used to),” Thurmond said. “It’s kind of similar to nickel. It’s a little bit different in that aspect as well, but more reading the entire field with your eyes. You’re another quarterback on the field so, especially in our defense, you have to make a lot of coverage calls, so you have to be a lot more vocal and verbal to the cornerbacks and to the linebackers as well. So that’s probably one of the biggest differences from playing corner and safety.”
Funny, but the defensive backfield rotations at OTA’s this week gave mixed clues as to the hierarchy of the candidates.
Nolan Carroll received the first shot at the cornerback spot opposite Byron Maxwell while veteran special teams standout Chris Maragos worked with the first-team defense at safety opposite Malcolm Jenkins.
The second-team defense featured E.J. Biggers and Brandon Boykin as the outside cornerbacks with Chris Prosinski and Walter Thurmond at safety.
The “third-team” secondary saw second-round pick Eric Rowe and sixth-rounder JaCorey Shepherd manning the outside corner spots with Jaylen Watkins and Jerome Couplin at safety. Earl Wolff is still out of action as he recovers from knee surgery.
More cray-cray stuff but of the good variety: ten months after tearing his ACL, linebacker Kiko Alonso was a full participant Thursday, taking reps without a brace of any kind on his surgically repaired left knee.
“I feel really good,” Alonso said after practice. “Knee’s feeling good. It’s been great during practices … I feel comfortable without (a brace). I’ve never really liked wearing a brace.”
Wow…that’s usually a 12-month recovery in the best of circumstances…Kiko’s way ahead of schedule.
Maybe the appearance of Tim Tebow at QB in an Eagles 7-on-7 drill seems weird enough, but there he was, and wouldn’t you know it, 7th-round pick DE (6-9, 302) Brian Mihalik intercepted a Tebow pass that was batted at the line of scrimmage. As much as things change, they stay the same…or so the saying goes.
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