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    IgglesBlitz, In-Depth Philadelphia Eagles Analysis



    Flip
    Posted: June 22nd, 2017 | Author: Tommy Lawlor | Filed under: Philadelphia Eagles | 13 Comments




    The future of the Eagles franchise is young QB Carson Wentz. The man who is tasked with coaching Wentz, and who has a big say in the how things go for the Eagles, is QB coach John DeFilippo. DeFilippo recently met with the media. PE.com posted 15 minutes of the interview session and it’s worth watching. Flip doesn’t say anything groundbreaking, but he gives you an idea of what he and Wentz are working on and how things are going.

    You may wonder exactly what a QB coach teaches his guys. They have a lot of ground to cover. If you read Chris Brown’s first book (The Essential Smart Football), he tells the story of how QB guru and Duke head coach David Cutcliffe starts out by teaching his pupils about defense. Cutcliffe teaches them about the pass rush, zone blitzes, coverages and anything else that will help them understand what the guys on the other side of the line of scrimmage are doing.

    Some coaches obsess on fundamentals. How do you grip the ball? What is your elbow level? Are your feet split far enough apart? Too much? All coaches teach this stuff, but to some those details are crucial.

    Some coaches really focus on protection. There are so many different rush packages and blitz packages these days that a QB isn’t going to have success if he can’t adjust to what he sees by calling the right protection. That could be having the line slide right or left. Or maybe adjusting and having the RB stay in to pass protect. QBs and offenses have different ways of adjusting to the crazy looks defenses throw at them. The best QB in the world is no good if he doesn’t have time to get the ball to his weapons. Much of that is on the line to block well, but the QB must also be able to make pre-snap adjustments to give his players the best chance to protect him.

    I know the first thing Jon Gruden did when he came to Philly was to watch all of Randall Cunningham’s sacks from the 1994 season. Gruden felt Cunningham took too many sacks. Those are drive killers, not to mention you don’t want the QB getting hit that much. Gruden felt there were plays where Cunningham could have run, dumped the ball off or just thrown it away. After all, 3rd and 10 is better than 3rd and 16. Cunningham was a terrible QB student and he and Gruden never hit it off.

    DeFilippo and Wentz are lucky. DeFilippo has a player who wants to succeed and is willing to learn. Wentz is a hard worker who will embrace tough coaching. Wentz is lucky to have a coach who has had success with other young QBs. DeFilippo knows what he is doing. He understands football, but is also a good communicator and good motivator. That is critical.


    Vince Lombardi ‎@LombardiQuotes


    "Coaches who can outline plays on a black board are a dime a dozen. The ones who win get inside their player and motivate."

    11:41 PM - 16 Apr 2013


    Wentz has terrific physical ability. He needs DeFilippo to help him take advantage of that potential by developing his QB skills. The most important ability for a QB is being able to process information quickly and correctly. This starts with prep work before you even get to a game. The QB must know the play, inside-out. That means studying the play book over and over and over. He must be able to look at the defense and know what they are doing. That means being relentless with tape study.

    If a QB has done all of this prep work, what happens after the snap will be “easier” to understand. Obviously the three to four seconds of the average play is incredibly complicated so there’s usually nothing easy about it, but you have an advantage if what you’re seeing is what you expected based on all the work you did before the game. That allows you to think less and react more naturally.

    DeFilippo told Wentz one of his goals this year was to know “where the bones are buried on every play”. That’s a very odd phrase for the situation, but it works. Wentz is supposed to know who should be open on a play based on what the defense is doing. Different receivers will be open vs Cover 2 than Cover 3. Wentz has to know this for every play against every anticipated defensive coverage or look.

    I think part of what makes DeFilippo so good with young QBs is that he gives them clear, tangible goals. He had Wentz work on specific issues with his mechanics. DeFilippo didn’t go into great detail about that with the media, but he had a clear plan for Wentz.

    Coaching can make a real difference, even with veteran QBs. Rodney Peete was the backup QB to begin 1995. He ended up starting 12 games. He was a mediocre player, but a terrific leader and helped that team get to the divisional round of the playoffs. The next year Peete was the starter and got a ton of attention from Jon Gruden and the staff. Peete looked like a completely different player. I remember him throwing a quick slant in the opener at Washington and going “That was actually a good throw. Crazy.” Injuries limited him to just five starts, but you could see the impact of the coaching.

    One of the focal points for DeFilippo is consistency. The Eagles want their QBs to be consistent in terms of emotion, work ethic, focus, and of course, performance. They don’t want highs and lows. Those will happen, but the goal is to try to avoid them.

    DeFilippo and the staff teach the QBs to keep an even keel emotionally. Don’t get too high when things are good and don’t get too low when things go wrong. Emotions can affect your performance. They preach the importance of body language. QBs live under a microscope. Everything that is said or done is evaluated by fans, the media and even teammates. Don’t feed the beast. Stay cool, good or bad. You are the team leader. Act like it.

    How do you develop consistency?

    DeFilippo tells his QBs to “stack practices”. This means having a good performance one day and then following it up the next day with another good performance. Do that again. And again. Stack up good performances so that they become habit rather than special achievements. Wentz was up and down this spring, but stacked together a couple of good practices to close out the minicamp. That will make DeFilippo happy.

    The upcoming challenge for Wentz will be to stack good Training Camp performances.



    A lot of these ideas may seem simple. Remember the immortal words of Pat Shurmur. Football is a game made up of PE majors. That means that sometimes simple is exactly what the doctor ordered.

    The key to success is for DeFilippo to get Wentz to buy into these ideas and work on them as if his life depends on it. In the football sense that is true. If Wentz does what the Eagles hope, the future is bright for him and the staff. The franchise will win a lot of games. If Wentz doesn’t develop into a star QB, the staff will be looking for jobs and the Eagles will be looking for the next franchise savior.

    For now, optimism is high. Life is good for DeFilippo and Wentz. This fall will give us an idea of where things really are for the teacher and his student.
    "Hey Giants, who's your Daddy?"

  • #2
    Thanks 60. The right words and thoughts are there. Let's see if they get where they want to be.
    Wait until next year is a terrible philosophy
    Hope is not a strategy
    RIP

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