NFL Team Report – Philadelphia Eagles – INSIDE SLANT
The Eagles’ wide receiving corps took another hit last week when Riley Cooper left the team indefinitely after he was caught on video using a racial slur at a Kenny Chesney concert in June.
The incident with Cooper comes on the heels of Jeremy Maclin’s season-ending torn ACL. The 6-4, 230-pound Cooper figured to replace Maclin as a starter.
Coach Chip Kelly insists that Cooper, who is expected to get sensitivity counseling, will eventually return. But he couldn’t say when. With Cooper gone, the Eagles are thin at wide receiver.
Of the nine wideouts who took the practice field the day Cooper left, seven were undrafted free agents — Damaris Johnson, Russell Shepard, Nick Miller Greg Salas, Ifeanyi Momah, Will Murphy and Dave Ball.
Shephard, Momah and Murphy all are rookies. The other four — Johnson, Miller, Salas and Ball — have a combined 50 NFL catches.
The Eagles also have Arrelious Benn, a former second-round pick with Tampa Bay that they acquired in a March trade. But the reason the Bucs were willing to trade Benn was because he couldn’t stay healthy. Ironically, he twisted his knee in the Eagles’ first full-squad workout of training camp and missed nine days of practice.
Asked if he had enough depth at wide receiver, Kelly said, “On August 2? Yeah.”
“This is the NFL, man,” veteran wide receiver DeSean Jackson said. “We get paid to go out there and get the job done, regardless of whether we’re down three (receivers) or four or whatever the case may be. Whoever steps in has to step up and get the job done. It just presents another opportunity for the young guys or whoever else.”
For the moment at least, the Eagles aren’t interested in bringing in a veteran wideout. The pickings are fairly slim right now anyway. They want to give some of their young receivers, like Johnson and Shepard, a chance to show what they can do first.
With Cooper gone, slot receiver Jason Avant has been taking snaps outside in both two- and three-wide receiver sets. But that really takes away from Avant’s strength. He’s one of the league’s better inside receivers.
He’s caught 50-plus passes in each of the last three seasons working out of the slot.
“I’ve got to get used to it,” Avant said. “I really haven’t been consistently out there since college. It’s going to be a lot harder in college. It’s going to be a lot harder in practice than it is in the game because they get away with a lot of holding and stuff in practice.
“I’m comfortable on the football field overall. But being acclimated out there (on the outside) is a little bit different, and I’m learning.”
Damaris Johnson showed promise last season, catching 19 passes as a rookie. But he’s 5-8. Putting him and the 5-9-and-change Jackson on the field together isn’t ideal, particularly in an offense that is going to be asking its wideouts to block a lot.
Asked Friday if he would be comfortable using Jackson and Johnson together a lot, Kelly gave a less than enthusiastic endorsement to the possibility.
“It depends on what’s available,” he said. “Do you have the full complement of people available when you’re playing in your opening game? Or do you have three or four injuries and those are your two best guys?
“In an ideal world? No. I would love everybody to be Megatron (Lions wide receiver Calvin Johnson). If we had five of them, that would be a great situation.
“But if we get to September 9 and those are our two best guys, then those are our two best guys. We’re going to play with what we have.”
———————————————–
NFL Team Report – Philadelphia Eagles – NOTES, QUOTES
–Some of Riley Cooper’s black teammates may have a hard time forgiving him for the racial slur he used at a Kenny Chesney concert, but not Jason Avant. The veteran slot receiver is one of the team’s offensive leaders and a friend of Cooper’s.
“He’s very, very contrite,” Avant said. “And it’s sincere. When he was at (the University of) Florida, some of his closest teammates happened to be my complexion. And here. That’s my boy. I tell him every day, I say, ‘I love you bro’.’ That’s how we feel about each other. I’m not going to let one isolated incident (change that). I’m not downplaying what he said. What I’m saying is, I have a body of work with him over the years and I’m not going to take one little thing and put that on top of the body of work.”
–There has been some concern that Chip Kelly might have to slow down his up-tempo offense after NFL vice-president of officiating Dean Blandino was quoted in a Wall Street Journal article as saying the officials control the pace of the game and not the teams. It seemed to be a clear message meant for Kelly. But NFL referee Scott Green spent two days working Eagles training camp practices last week, and he said there was no issue getting the ball spotted quick enough for the Eagles’ up-tempo offense.
“We didn’t really have any problems,” he said. “They were running 11-on-11 and we were getting the ball spotted. It didn’t seem out of the ordinary as far as the pace. I didn’t have all seven of our guys (in his crew). But we had five, and we focused on getting the ball in and spotting it. We didn’t really see any issue there.”
Neither did Kelly, who said he doesn’t anticipate a problem getting the ball spotted quickly enough for him to run his hurry-up offense.
–Rookie Matt Barkley is starting to get the feeling that the Eagles’ open quarterback competition is not as open as he had hoped. Michael Vick and Nick Foles have been splitting almost all of the first-team reps in training camp. Barkley, the team’s fourth-round pick in the April draft, is having to make do with practice reps with the second- and third-teamers.
“I didn’t know what to think coming in,” Barkley said. “You come in and do your best. Given that the whole situation is kind of different than other teams around the league, I didn’t really know what to expect. You hope for reps. But at this point, you’ve just got to do your best with what you’re given.”
———————————————–
NFL Team Report – Philadelphia Eagles – STRATEGY AND PERSONNEL
PLAYER OF THE WEEK: Wide receiver DeSean Jackson. Chip Kelly appears to have some reservations about Jackson’s commitment to the game. But the sixth-year wide receiver is having an outstanding camp so far. He seems to catch at least one deep ball from Michael Vick every day in 11-on-11 work.
BATTLE OF THE WEEK: Cornerback. The Eagles let both of last year’s starting corners, Nnamdi Asomugha and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie walk, and signed two veteran free agents, Cary Williams and Bradley Fletcher. Williams is expected to start at one of the two corner spots, but Fletcher could get lapped by second-year man Brandon Boykin. The 5-9 Boykin was the team’s nickel corner last year, playing more than 700 snaps. Fletcher is three inches taller, but Boykin is having an outstanding camp.
MEDICAL WATCH
–C Jason Kelce tweaked his ankle Monday, but it doesn’t appear to be anything serious. He’s listed as day-to-day.
–RB LeSean McCoy tweaked his knee in Monday’s practice. He was walking on it and it doesn’t appear to be serious, but he did sit out the rest of practice.
–LT Jason Peters is out again with a hamstring strain. He missed three days of practice after initially hurting it, then returned and tweaked it again.
FRANCHISE PLAYER: None.
TRANSITION PLAYER: None.
UNRESTRICTED FREE AGENTS: None.
RESTRICTED FREE AGENTS: None.
EXCLUSIVE RIGHTS FREE AGENTS: None.
DRAFT CHOICES SIGNED (all picks signed)
–T Lane Johnson (1/4): 4 yrs, terms unknown.
–TE Zach Ertz (2/35): $5,379,198/4 yrs, $2,292,144 SB/$3,657,854 guaranteed.
–DT Bennie Logan (3/67): $3,032,432/4 yrs, $684,092 SB.
–QB Matt Barkley (4/98): $2,739,528/4 yrs, $497,028 SB.
–S Earl Wolff (5/136): $2,372,000/4 yrs, $212,000 SB.
–OLB Joe Kruger (7/212): $2,223,732/4 yrs, $63,732 SB.
–CB Jordan Poyer (7/218): $2,220,256/4 yrs, $60,256 SB.
–DE David King (7/239): $2,205,896/4 yrs, $45,896 SB.
PLAYERS RE-SIGNED
–S Colt Anderson: Potential RFA; $1M/1 yr, $300,000 guaranteed.
–LS Jon Dorenbos: Potential UFA; 4 yrs.
PLAYERS ACQUIRED
–LB Emmanuel Acho (trade Browns).
–T Allen Barbre: FA; yerms unknown.
–LB Connor Barwin: UFA Texans; $36M/6 yrs, $8M guaranteed.
–WR Arrelious Benn (trade).
–DE Everette Brown: FA; terms unknown.
–TE James Casey: UFA Texans; $12M/3 yrs, $6M guaranteed.
–S Patrick Chung: UFA Patriots; $10M/3 yrs, $2.285M SB/$4M guaranteed.
–QB Dennis Dixon: FA; 2 yrs, terms unknown.
–CB Bradley Fletcher: UFA Rams; $5.25M/2 yrs, $1.6M SB/$2.35M guaranteed.
–DE Clifton Geathers (trade Colts).
–P Donnie Jones: UFA Texans; 1 yr, terms unknown.
–RB Felix Jones: UFA Cowboys; 1 yr, terms unknown.
–S Kenny Phillips: UFA Giants; $2M/1 yr, $1M RB.
–LB Jason Phillips: UFA Panthers; 2 yrs, terms unknown.
–NT Isaac Sopoaga: UFA 49ers; $11M/3 yrs.
–CB Cary Williams: UFA Ravens; $17M/3 yrs, $10.5M guaranteed.
PLAYER LOST
–CB Nnamdi Asomugah (released).
–T King Dunlap: UFA Chargers; 2 yrs, terms unknown.
–QB Trent Edwards (released).
–FB Stanley Havili (traded Colts).
–DT Cullen Jenkins (released).
–LB Akeem Jordan: UFA Chiefs; 1 yr, terms unknown.
–DT Derek Landri: UFA Buccaneers; $2.75M/2 yrs, $1.25M guaranteed.
–RB Dion Lewis (traded Browns).
–P Mat McBriar (released).
–WR Marvin McNutt (released).
–TE Evan Moore (released).
–DT Mike Patterson (released).
–CB Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie: UFA Broncos; $5M/1 yr, $5M guaranteed.
–G Jake Scott: Not tendered as UFA/Lions; terms unknown.
–DE Darryl Tapp: UFA Redskins; 1 yr, terms unknown.
