Camp notes

[FRESH]

We can use this thread to post what is coming out of these early camps.

A couple of early things of interest to me.....

Vinny Curry is getting some time at OLB. Good for him, it should fit his athleticism and ability to rush the passer. Not so go for Smith perhaps?

Sounds like Rowe is impressing early. He is my CB "hope" right now.

Ryan Mathews is aparently looking like a 230 lb freight train, and Taylor Hart has reportedly gotten himself into significantly better shape and stronger.

All positives, of course. But I like to hear who is flashing, and putting in the work at least.

[Eagle60]

We can use this thread to post what is coming out of these early camps.

A couple of early things of interest to me.....

Vinny Curry is getting some time at OLB. Good for him, it should fit his athleticism and ability to rush the passer. Not so go for Smith perhaps?
Sounds like Rowe is impressing early. He is my CB "hope" right now.

Ryan Mathews is aparently looking like a 230 lb freight train, and Taylor Hart has reportedly gotten himself into significantly better shape and stronger.

All positives, of course. But I like to hear who is flashing, and putting in the work at least.

It sounds like my not so surprise "surprise cut" is already making his way out the door.

[Eaglebreath]

Good news on Bradford. From pft

Sam Bradford confident he’ll be ready for start of Eagles’ training camp

Posted by Michael David Smith on June 17, 2015, 6:07 AM EDT

Eagles quarterback Sam Bradford isn’t all the way back from last year’s torn ACL. But he will be by the start of training camp in six weeks.

“If I’m not ready for 11 on 11 by training camp, then something has gone horribly wrong,” Bradford said. “That’s the plan right now. We’re going to keep plugging away and be ready when camp starts.”

Bradford said he feels far better now than he did when he was traded from the Rams to the Eagles in March.

“I feel like I’ve continued to progress. I feel better every week. You can notice it, if you’ve had ashy injury. It’s less stiff, less sore. You can go to the point where you don’t think about it. I’m there,” Bradford said. “I feel more comfortable dropping back. When I first got here I was about a half-count slow. I feel I worked myself back to where I’m close to game speed as I can get right now. I think overall I just feel more comfortable with my knee. I trust it more. Overall, I just feel better.”

Once he gets on the field in training camp, Bradford is expected to earn the Eagles’ starting job. Which is why, when Chip Kelly was asked if Bradford will be ready for camp, Kelly answered, “God, I hope so.”

[musicman]

As a fan of Zack Ertz and his potential, here's something I found this afternoon. Some of the article was stuff mentioned in the past, but I really like hearing the steps that have been taken for improvement and to me it helps understand why Mathis isn't here. These guys want team mates to be with them while they work towards something special.



Wake Up Call: Ertz Wants To Lead

By Tucker Bagley | June 17, 2015 at 6:00 am
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Photo By Jeff Fusco

On a day when the temperature was over 90 degrees, many Eagles quickly made their way to the air-conditioned locker room after practice. Some hung around to talk to the media. And then there was Zach Ertz, running routes, weaving between tackling dummies as Jordan Matthews threw him passes.
Ertz’s goal in 2015 is simple: He wants to be a leader.

"I just want to be a leader of the team, honestly," Ertz said. "Obviously my role has grown each and every year and I think it will continue to do that, but at the end of the day, all I care about is [getting] 16 wins next year, that's our focus."
Ertz also pointed out that this is the first full offseason he will have since being drafted by the Eagles in the second round two years ago, but he says he relishes the opportunity to be out on the field each day.
"I feel good, I don't ever want to be off the field, and I don't want to off the field during practice, so I don't really care about how many reps I take," said Ertz.


Besides the OTAs and his after-practice workouts, Ertz has gotten some help from a former NFL tight end who experienced some success in the league: Tony Gonzalez.
"I kind of just cold texted him one day, asking if he would be willing to meet with me, sit down and have lunch with me and luckily for me he was willing to do that," Ertz said. "I mean if he said no, he said no, I had nothing to lose and everything to gain, so that's how I looked at it."
Ertz expanded on their interaction in a post on his new blog:

We talked about a lot of things. When it came to football, we talked about the steps I needed to take to go from being good to great. We talked about little things — the nuances of how to run a certain route, what’s advantageous against certain coverages, that sort of thing. He also talked about the importance of having a routine. He had a routine of greatness that he would do every day. He felt it gave him the edge over the competition in the long run.
He also really focused on the mental side of the game. We put so much into our bodies physically and emotionally, he explained, that we kind of ignore training the brain, and learning new ways to train the brain. That’s kind of what we talked about. He reads a lot of books about mental training and successful CEOs to understand what makes them successful. That’s some of the knowledge that he imparted on me.

Ertz hasn't shied away from voicing his support for Chip Kelly's system and seems giddy when talking about being able to work out all offseason. That work ethic hasn't gone unnoticed as Mark Sanchez praised his work ethic, comparing him to a pair of premier tight ends.
"Oh absolutely, he has the prerequisites, he has the size, he has the speed, he has the hands and now, once you get that, its like 'okay, now what are you going to do?' Because I guarantee the [Rob] Gronkowski's and Jimmy Graham, those guys work and Ertz, he works his butt off," Sanchez said. "I mean, he's catching tennis balls, he's catching footballs, he's out there doing something with those bags [right now].
"He's all over the place and he's constantly trying to get better, constantly grabbing you to watch film, so when you get a guy like that, the sky is the limit."

Ertz has seen inconsistent snaps in his first years with the team because of his blocking, but he believes his hard work will pay off when the season rolls around.
"I’ve been lucky enough to watch Brent Celek block over the past two years," Ertz wrote on his blog. "He’s got great technique, and he’s been successful at it for a long time. I’ve learned a lot from him, and wanted to keep building on that foundation. I reached out Hudson Houck, a former offensive line coach for the Dallas Cowboys. Hudson is basically the guru of blocking, so I headed down to San Diego a couple months back to train with him."
It will be interesting to see if the student surpasses the master and Ertz begins to cut into Celek's snaps.



Read more at http://www.phillymag.com/birds247/20...3hYci8IlFtW.99

[FRESH]

Ertz is easy to like. I keep expecting him to become an elite level TE who gets a lot more targets than he does.... maybe this season. Certainly with the youth at WR, he's going to need to carry a larger load. If he can get his blocking down, he will get a lot more opportunities.

[musicman]

more on Curry


Curry Adding OLB Duties To His Arsenal

Posted 23 minutes ago
By Chris McPherson

• a
• a

Vinny Curry was second on the team with nine sacks last season despite playing just 32 percent of the team's snaps.
The Eagles want to get Curry on the field more this season and may have found a way to do so by giving him some work at outside linebacker as well as along the defensive line.
"We're trying to find better ways for me to help the team out and that's getting to the quarterback," Curry said. "I'm a team player and I'm willing to learn anything. It shows how much I'm willing to do to help the team out and be a part of the guys."
Curry was a second-round pick of the Eagles in 2012. A pass rush force off the edge at Marshall, Curry was the Conference USA Defensive Player of the Year after recording 11 sacks as a senior. However, Curry only saw action in six games as a rookie and didn't register a sack. Further complicating matters, the Eagles transitioned from a 4-3 to a 3-4 front prior to Curry's second season. Curry took the challenge of adapting to a two-gap style of line play head on. He gained nearly 20 pounds and the work paid off as he notched four sacks while carving out a role in the defense.
"I finally felt like I was over the hump and I could get back to being Vinny Curry, just having fun with football and getting to the quarterback and dancing and doing what I do and smiling and everything's just finally coming together in the way I dreamed of it coming together," Curry said of the 2013 season.
Last offseason, Curry quit red meat and dairy. He's 280 pounds now and claims to not only be faster because of his diet and training, but is also wiser with his three years of NFL experience. He was utilized by the Eagles on the outside in certain packages last season and, according to Curry, it led to a majority of his sacks.
"Vinny's doing a helluva job," head coach Chip Kelly said. "He's playing a little bit of outside, a little bit inside. I think he's expanded his role in terms of where we can deploy him."
Last season, Curry started keeping an eye on players like Connor Barwin and Brandon Graham, both of whom converted from hands-down linemen to stand-up linebackers. Curry will keep an open mind for the betterment of the team. Just don't expect him to be covering receivers one-on-one down the field.
"Let's not jump out the window there," Curry said.

[musicman]

Mathis episode latest case of Eagles valuing culture over talent

Malcolm Jenkins on talent vs. culture

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Tue, 2015-06-16 23:35
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June 17, 2015, 9:00 am







Jason Kelce, Malcolm Jenkins and Zach Ertz are among the Eagles players to publicly support Chip Kelly's culture-first apporach. (USA Today Images)













Malcolm Jenkins has played on a team that emphasized character and selflessness over individualism.

Sean Payton built the 2009 Super Bowl champion Saints, with Jenkins at cornerback, around team-first stars like Drew Brees, Reggie Bush and Marques Colston.
On the flip side, Jenkins recalled a certain team that tried to win the Lombardi Trophy by bringing in Nnamdi Asomugha, Jason Babin, Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie and Vince Young all in one frenetic week of the offseason.
And we all remember what happened to that team.
“Philly proved that wrong when we had the Dream Team,” Jenkins said. “As much as people hate [saying] that, it’s not always about talent. You can go get the best guys out there at every position, if they don’t jell as a team, if they don’t put the team first, then they don’t play well.”
The debate about culture versus talent is again being waged around the NovaCare Complex in the aftermath of Eagles coach Chip Kelly’s decision Friday to outright release two-time Pro Bowl guard Evan Mathis, who skipped all the voluntary organized team activities because of his contract dispute.
Since last offseason, Kelly has cut two players coming off Pro Bowl seasons (DeSean Jackson and Mathis) and traded away LeSean McCoy, the franchise’s all-time leading rusher who has finished first and third, respectively, in the NFL in rushing in Kelly’s two seasons.
Kelly has also brought in several star players, including DeMarco Murray, Ryan Mathews and Byron Maxwell, but releasing two Pro Bowl players under contract in two seasons without getting anything in return has raised questions about whether the head coach places more emphasis on buy-in than he does on talent.
“We have talent,” Jenkins said. “If you look at all our positions, I think we’re more talented this year than we were last year, personally. And I think we also have a better fit, if you talk about guys. When you put that all together, that makes your team better overall. It’s good that you’ve got to acquire talent and I think we’re doing a good job of that, but the fit and the culture are way more important.”
It’s hard to say Mathis didn’t completely fit Kelly’s culture. He’s wanted his contract redone for two years but last year attended all spring camps and training camp and never griped publicly about his deal.
His meticulous attention to fitness and strength training seems to jibe with Kelly’s sports science regimen, and he made the Pro Bowl last year despite missing seven games with a knee sprain.
So he missed some voluntary camps. Is that really a big deal?
Jason Kelce, who still considers Mathis one of his best friends, said it’s a big deal that 89 guys were busting their tails on the practice fields and one wasn’t.
“It’s unfortunate that I’m losing a good friend of mine, a guy I’ve played with during my entire career in Philadelphia. But he was doing something in his best interest,” Kelce said, “and the team in their best interest didn’t want to go in that direction, obviously. So that’s just part of the business.
“If you look at a lot of the cuts, or the things that have happened since [Chip] has been here, the most important thing that we’re trying to establish here, and I think is established, is a culture. It’s a workplace where everybody is in this together, everybody is with one another.
“People look at this like it’s voluntary, and that’s fine, but the fact of the matter is he was one out of 90 guys who wasn’t here. So that’s clearly not part of the team. Nobody has anything personal against Evan. I still consider him one of my best friends that I’ve had throughout my life, actually. This is just the nature of the business, and the nature of what we’re trying to build here.”
Since the start of last week, several Eagles have sided with Kelly and shown the cold shoulder to Mathis, which is a stark contrast to the disputes of the Andy Reid regime, when players routinely griped publicly about their deals and often found support from teammates.
Tight end Zach Ertz, who last week gave his endorsement for Kelly’s emphasis on culture, said outsiders probably wouldn’t understand why the Eagles have stayed loyal to Kelly and embraced the coach’s preaching of culture over talent.
“Other teams aren’t going understand what we’re doing here,” he said. “We’ve brought guys in and released guys that aren’t fully bought in. I think the guys we have are fully bought into the process. We want guys that want to be here. It’s not mandatory in any way but I think guys view it as being mandatory because we want to be here. Everybody here wants to be here, and I think that’s the precedent he set.”
Kelly is hardly the first top personnel man to prioritize team chemistry over star power. Bill Walsh and Bill Parcells were big proponents of building their rosters around high-character, low-maintenance core players.
Bill Belichick takes some character risks but is consistently ridding his roster of players looking for a better payday. Pete Carroll built the Seahawks into a Super Bowl champion by getting his best players, many of whom were late-round picks, to buy into his program.
Jenkins said Payton, who coached under Parcells in Dallas, built the Saints around similar team-first principles when he became head coach in 2006. Three years after he took over, Payton coached the franchise, a laughingstock for decades, to its first Super Bowl title.
“We practiced a certain way [in New Orleans], we went about our meetings a certain way and nobody went outside of that culture,” Jenkins said. “The biggest thing was they didn’t care when you were drafted, how much money you made. As a first-rounder I came in and played special teams for six weeks because you had to earn your keep there.
“It was all about the culture. We won a Super Bowl with that, with a defense where you couldn’t really point out a superstar until after the Super Bowl and then everybody really kind of paid attention.
"Look at New England. It’s always about the team first. They obviously have one of the best quarterbacks on their team, but when you look at their roster they move people in and out, plug people in and out and because they have a way that they do things — The Patriot Way — that’s how they win. I think that’s what Chip is trying to build here.”

[FRESH]

The Mathis cut wasn't about culture. It was a money issue. Chip said so.

[Eaglebreath]

The Mathis cut wasn't about culture. It was a money issue. Chip said so.

It wasn't until he skipped the OTAs. Chip can say what he wants, but my gut feeling is that if Mathis had been working with his teamates at the OTAs, instead of sitting home because he was disgruntled with his contract, he'd still be an Eagle.

But, you can't say outright that you released him because he didn't show up, that would be a CBA violation. Hence, it was about money.

[tinopuno]

The Mathis cut wasn't about culture. It was a money issue. Chip said so.

Fresh,

I think saying it was about $ is the easy way to avoid having to discuss/explain how Mathis' was seen as distancing himself the from the cohesive team 'culture' that is so fundamental to Kelly's grand scheme.

If Kelly focuses on the $ issue he keeps questions and answers pretty simple. If he talks about Mathis' failure to conform to the 'culture' that gets a lot more complicated and provocative. Kelly wants the Mathis thing behind him as quickly as possible.

Interestingly, of the guys that seem to be emerging as defacto leaders (Jenkins, Barwin, Ertz, Peters, Kelce, Lane) all seemed to have expected Mathis to be cut because his behavior was reflecting a lack of commitment to the shared team ethos (The Kelly Way) that they all embrace.

[musicman]

all these guys want to work hard and get better, forget Mathis, IMO the importance is in the want, work and desire of those who are here. As someone who fiddled around with coaching, if you have a hard working group with some talent, a lot can be accomplished. We seem to have a hard working group with a bunch of talent.

[FRESH]

I can't believe that you guys are suggesting that the Chipster would tell a fib. Tsk...tsk.....

[Eagle60]

Fresh,

I think saying it was about $ is the easy way to avoid having to discuss/explain how Mathis' was seen as distancing himself the from the cohesive team 'culture' that is so fundamental to Kelly's grand scheme.

If Kelly focuses on the $ issue he keeps questions and answers pretty simple. If he talks about Mathis' failure to conform to the 'culture' that gets a lot more complicated and provocative. Kelly wants the Mathis thing behind him as quickly as possible.

Interestingly, of the guys that seem to be emerging as defacto leaders (Jenkins, Barwin, Ertz, Peters, Kelce, Lane) all seemed to have expected Mathis to be cut because his behavior was reflecting a lack of commitment to the shared team ethos (The Kelly Way) that they all embrace.

It's kind of funny (strange) because Mathis was one of those guys too (leaders). As for Ertz, it's time for all the talk about him and "his perfect quotes" to stop and for him to "get'er done"! This is year 3 for him and he's still Mr. Potential.

[musicman]

58/702 in year 2 with 2 different QBs isn't too bad as the second team TE IMO. If he is a better blocker, he will get his. Thought I read somewhere that he had a really high amount of uncatchable balls thrown his way last season. Damn 60 you're tough.

[Eagle60]

58/702 in year 2 with 2 different QBs isn't too bad as the second team TE IMO. If he is a better blocker, he will get his. Thought I read somewhere that he had a really high amount of uncatchable balls thrown his way last season. Damn 60 you're tough.

I can be as you well know!! It's just that he's got "all world Russ Francis" written all over him but it really hasn't surfaced yet as Howard Cosell used to say. Are you old enough to remember either one of them Kory?