The most intriguing story of training camp, do the Eagles have enough at safety and the time avowed media hater Jim McMahon bought the beat guys a round of beers in West Chester.<\/p>\n
Welcome to the final Roob\u2019s 10 Random Offseason Observations before training camp starts Wednesday in South Philadelphia.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s all about to get real interesting around here in a few days!<\/p>\n
THE MOST INTRIGUING STORY OF CAMP:\u00a0There are a ton of intriguing stories as we head into training camp, a bunch of guys whose every move we\u2019ll all be watching. Can Marcus Epps and Drew Makuba hold down safety or will Howie have to go out and find someone? Will Makai Lemon perform well enough to slide into that WR2 role? Can Jonathan Greenard live up to that massive contract and become the double-digit sack guy the Eagles need? Can Riq Woolen return to his Pro Bowl form and give the Eagles the NFL\u2019s best cornerback group? Will Landon Dickerson and Cam Jurgens hold up physically after their stem cell treatments in Columbia? But for me, the most compelling storyline is how will Jihaad Campbell manage as a full-time linebacker replacement for Nakobe Dean. Let\u2019s not forget just how good Nakobe was over the last two years. In just 25 games, he piled up 183 tackles, 7.0 sacks, 16 tackles for loss, an interception, two fumble recoveries, 12 quarterback hits and three forced fumbles. The only other players to put up those numbers were Frankie Luvu, one-time Eagle Eric Wilson and current Eagle Zack Baun. Dean was such a playmaker the last couple years and will definitely be missed. But the Eagles did invest a 1st-round pick in Campbell last year, and he did some good things in the 10 games he started, notably that athletic fumble recovery against the Bills, an interception off Baker Mayfield in Tampa and a red-zone forced fumble off Miles Sanders in the opening-day win over the Cowboys. He also had 80 tackles, which is a lot for someone who only played 710 snaps. Vic Fangio was forced by circumstance to play Campbell out of position as an edge rusher for about 150 snaps last year, but Campbell isn’t an edge, he\u2019s an off-ball linebacker, and while he wasn\u2019t all over the field like Dean I thought it was a promising rookie year for a 21-year-old rookie. Out of 64 linebackers who played at least 500 snaps, Campbell\u2019s overall Pro Football Focus grade of 76.2 was 12th-highest, which is awfully good, and his 78.6 coverage grade was 4th-highest. Without the distraction of having to change positions this year, Campbell can just focus on becoming a better linebacker, and I expect he will. He\u2019s a fast, big, tough, athletic player, and I’m looking for a big step forward in Year 2.<\/p>\n
TRAINING CAMP WAS WHERE???\u00a0If you\u2019re driving around Chestnut Hill, swing over to the corner of Willow Grove Avenue and St. Martin\u2019s Lane and check out Chestnut Hill Academy\u2019s Maguire Stadium. The stadium is fairly new, but the site was actually the summer home of the Eagles in 1935, their third NFL season. Why? Turns out Lud Wray, the Eagles\u2019 head coach in their first three seasons, had attended Chestnut Hill Academy before playing football at Penn, and he wanted to return there for camp after the Eagles held camp in Atlantic City in 1933 and 1934. The Eagles lodged that summer at the old Hillcrest Hotel at Stenton Avenue and Wissahickon Avenue and even played a preseason game on that field at Chestnut Hill Academy, winning 33-0 over West Chester Teachers\u2019 College. Wray was replaced by college teammate (and Eagles owner) Bert Bell in 1936 and Bell moved training camp to Temple, ending the Eagles\u2019 one-year stay in Chestnut Hill.\u00a0<\/p>\n
WHAT\u2019S UP AT SAFETY?\u00a0I don\u2019t think Howie Roseman will waste any time adding a veteran safety if we\u2019re a couple weeks into training camp and the Marcus Epps \/ Drew Mukuba \/ Michael Carter plan isn\u2019t going as well as hoped. Epps was okay last year, although it was only the last four games of the season. Mukuba did some good things before he got hurt after a rocky first month. And Carter should be functional as a backup. But there are question marks about all three. Epps is 30 and has started only seven games the last two years. Mukuba is only 23 and needs to find some consistency. Carter just hasn\u2019t played much safety in his career. The Eagles will certainly miss Reed Blankenship, but this group has a chance to be functional. Considering what they\u2019re surrounded with \u2013 an elite defensive line, an all-pro linebacker and three Pro Bowl cornerbacks \u2013 it\u2019s okay that the Eagles don\u2019t have any superstars at safety. No team has an all-pro at every position, and safety is really the only spot on defense \u2013 maybe on the entire team \u2013 that\u2019s kind of unsettled going into camp.<\/p>\n
WHEN JIM MCMAHON BOUGHT US A ROUND: Jim McMahon hated the media. He only spoke to us if he was playing and he had to do a press conference. One night after a long, hot day of double practices, a bunch of beat writers were sitting at the legendary Rathskeller, the local college dive bar, and a few players, including McMahon and his buddy Ron Heller, were sitting at the bar. At some point in the evening, a waitress arrived at our table in the back with a tray loaded with beers and announced, “This round is on Mr. McMahon.” On the way out, I walked over to the bar and thanked Jim for buying us a round. He glared at me and said: “Just because I bought you guys beers doesn’t mean I want to talk to you.”<\/p>\n
JALEN HURTS STAT OF THE WEEK:\u00a0With 14 touchdowns and just one interception in 190 pass attempts at the Linc last year, Jalen Hurts had averages of 7.4 touchdown passes and 0.5 interceptions per 100 passes and became only the fourth quarterback in NFL history with a touchdown percentage over 7.0 and an interception percentage of 0.5 or less in home games (minimum 150 attempts). The others were Aaron Rodgers in 2014 (0.0, 10.4), Drew Brees in 2018 (0.4, 8.9) and Matt Stafford also last year (0.3, 7.6).\u00a0<\/p>\n
WE\u2019RE #17, WE\u2019RE #17!\u00a0Let\u2019s get this straight: The only NFL quarterback other than Patrick Mahomes to win 50 games and reach two Super Bowls since 2021 is the 17th-best quarterback in the NFL? Got it.\u00a0Makes perfect sense.<\/p>\n
THE FORGOTTEN BLOCKS BEHIND BRIAN WESTBROOK\u2019S BEST PLAY:\u00a0One of the greatest players in Eagles history is Brian Westbrook\u2019s 71-yard catch-and-run on a screen pass from Donovan McNabb in the 2008 wild-card win over the Vikings at the Metrodome. The Eagles were having trouble putting the Vikings away and led by just 16-14 when they got the ball on their own 29-yard-line with 6:53 left. You probably remember that on the first play of the drive, McNabb threw a little screen pass that Westbrook caught on the Eagles\u2019 own 27-yard-line \u2013 behind the line of scrimmage \u2013 and then pin-balled through traffic with what was then the 2nd-longest postseason reception in Eagles history (it\u2019s now fourth). That gave the Eagles a little cushion in what turned out to be a 26-14 win. What you may not remember is that Nick Cole, the Eagles\u2019 unheralded, undrafted right guard, who was making his seventh NFL start, got down the field and had two crushing blocks out in front of Westbrook. Center Jamaal Jackson and right tackle Jon Runyan also had big blocks, but the largely forgotten Cole came up huge on one of the biggest plays in Eagles history.<\/p>\n
\u201cHE\u2019S OUT OF SHAPE AND DUMB:\u201d\u00a0When defensive tackle Kenny Clarke ended his 12-day holdout during the summer of 1986 and finally reported to training camp, Buddy Ryan had this to say: \u201cBig 71 is a hell of a player, but he held out and now he\u2019s out of shape and dumb.\u201d There was just never anybody like Buddy.<\/p>\n
REMEMBER THIS GUY?\u00a0Carson Wentz has thrown 158 touchdown passes and 72 interceptions in 99 career starts. Only six quarterbacks in NFL history have thrown as many TD passes and as few INTs in their first 99 starts as Wentz: Patrick Mahomes, Aaron Rodgers, Lamar Jackson, Dak Prescott, Russell Wilson and Justin Herbert. Weirdest career ever.<\/p>\n
HOW TOM MELVIN WOUND UP AT TAYLOR SWIFT\u2019S WEDDING:\u00a0Tom Melvin is among the quietest, most reserved and unassuming people you\u2019ll ever meet. Very nice man, very good football coach. Melvin has been Andy Reid\u2019s tight ends coach for 26 years now \u2013 the entire 14 years with the Eagles, the last 12 with the Chiefs. Melvin and Reid actually go back 42 years, all the way back to 1984 working under Vic Rowen at San Francisco State, Melvin as a graduate assistant and Big Red as offensive line coach. Melvin and Reid went to Northern Arizona together in 1986 and then Andy hired him here when he got the head coaching job in 1999. What I love about this story is that as Travis Kelce\u2019s only NFL position coach, Melvin got an invite to The Wedding and was in attendance at Madison Square Garden along with Reid and long-time Eagles trainer Rick Burkholder, who\u2019s also been with Andy since 1999. The thought of Tom Melvin, this obscure and nearly anonymous lifer football position coach, watching Paul McCartney perform at Taylor Swift\u2019s wedding is amazing to me.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The most intriguing story of training camp, do the Eagles have enough at safety and the time avowed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":787149,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[63],"tags":[169200,349,319775,99],"class_list":["post-787148","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-eagles-blog","tag-nfl","tag-roobs-observations","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787148","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=787148"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/787148\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/787149"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=787148"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=787148"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=787148"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}