Blogging the bEast

I’m a little late with my notes this time around, so let’s just get right to it:

• Nick Foles during OTAs and minicamp this year >>> Nick Foles in training camp last year. The natural, intangible progressions from a rookie to a second year player like “He looks more confident” apply, but there’s another difference that I see in Foles’ play that is more tangible. Last year, here’s something I wrote about him:

Something I’m beginning to notice with Nick Foles: If he throws the ball more than 15-20 yards downfield, it quacks.

What I meant by that was that Foles wasn’t throwing tight spirals on the more difficult throws. His passes often wobbled, like “wounded ducks.” Hence they “quacked.”

That is no longer the case. Yesterday, Foles unleashed a 60 yard TD* that was on the money to DeSean Jackson. On the very next play, he threw a 20 yard laser** through heavy traffic, which once again, was also on the money. Those were throws he was not making in training camp last year. They were “wow” throws. Is it just a matter of Foles getting more comfortable with the ball used in the pros? Is it simply that he’s doing less thinking and just letting it rip? I don’t know the answer, but whatever it is, he’s throwing a much prettier ball.

Continued at the Allentown Morning Call…

• In case you missed it, here’s a pop quiz I prepared for some Eagles defenders. I was curious if they could identify the eligible receivers in the “Swinging Gate” formation.

• Mychal Kendricks had himself a very nice day. He was active all day in coverage, picking off Dennis Dixon once and getting a nice PBU on another pass that he almost picked off.

• Jason Peters’ jersey is darker than everyone else’s on the team. If the rest of the team is wearing “midnight green,” Peters is wearing “1am green.” Why, you might ask? It’s because he probably sweats more than any human I’ve ever seen. Credit Les Bowen of the Daily News with that observation, and also credit him for this good piece on the OL as a whole.

• Cedric Thornton didn’t get any reps during the team drills. He said he has a sprained quadriceps.

• Rookie DE Joe Kruger had a batted pass at the line today. Batted passes often lead to good things for the defense, and Kruger stands at 6’6.

• Michael Vick makes some absolutely outstanding throws… buuuuuut I should note that a lot of them occur after he has already been 2-hand touched for a sack. Nate Allen picked off Vick today.

Continued at the Allentown Morning Call…

A few weeks ago, Jason Brewer of Bleeding Green Nation wondered if Chip Kelly would bring the “Swinging Gate” with him from Oregon to Philadelphia. If you’re unfamiliar with the Swinging Gate, here’s a video from FishDuck.com that explains it very well:

Oregon often lined up in the Swinging Gate formation after TDs, and if the defense was confused or if they were lined up incorrectly, Oregon might run a trick play, going for 2 points instead of kicking the extra point. If the opposing defense was lined up unfavorably against the trick formation, the Ducks would simply shift into FG position and kick the PAT.

In the above video, the FishDuck.com folks note that there are times when the eligible receiver might be somebody unexpected, like the long snapper, which of course is very unorthodox. Oregon even converted a 2-point conversion attempt in which they threw to the long snapper against Stanford, as the video shows.

But would this approach work in the pros? It would depend on how prepared the opposing team might be for this formation. As a test, I figured I’d give a few Eagles defenders a pop quiz on the Swinging Gate.

For this study, I asked 6 random (and anonymous) Eagles defenders to take my pop quiz. It was a mix of defensive linemen, linebackers, defensive backs, rookies, grizzled vets, and younger vets. I showed each of them the following formation that I scribbled on my notepad:

This was the same formation used by the Ducks when they threw to the long snapper against Stanford:

Assuming the long snapper (the guy with the “X” inside the circle) snapped it directly to the holder (the guy directly behind him), I asked the Eagles defenders to identify the 5 eligible receivers.

The answer is here:

Continued at the Allentown Morning Call…

• Nick Foles had a good day. Three passes stood out. He threw a 50 yard bomb to Jeremy Maclin, who tracked it nicely and made the play, even with decent coverage from Cary Williams. Foles also slung a ball over the middle to Jason Avant in between 4 defenders that was right on the money. And finally, he hit Brent Celek with a nice touch pass over a defender on a 15 yard sideline route.

• Matt Barkley also had a decent day. It’s kind of funny to think that Matt Barkley and Mike Kafka were both 4th round picks. Kafka looked completely overwhelmed during his first NFL training camp, while Barkley looks absolutely nothing like a rookie.

• In previous practice recaps, we had noted that rookie UDFA Russell Shepard is always one of the last players off the field, staying after to catch passes on the jugs machine. We had also previously mentioned that Shepard had specifically sought out Jason Avant to take him under his wing. Today, after practice, Chip Kelly was speaking with reporters where the players would normally be catching passes on the jugs machine. They fired up the machine, but were told to turn it off because it was too noisy. So what did Avant and Shepard do? They started playing ball inside the house:

• Evan Mathis practiced today. He doesn’t think Jason Peters has lost a step “at all.”

• See the following formation? Get used to it:

Continued at the Allentown Morning Call…

In April of 2012, Cary Williams’ teammate with the Ravens, CB Lardarius Webb, signed a 5 year contract extension worth $50 million. Later that offseason in August, Williams reportedly turned down a 3 year deal worth $15 million, despite having only one year under his belt as a starter. That seems like a pretty good deal that Williams passed on, opting instead to play under his restricted free agent tag for $1.927 million in 2012.

During the 2012 season, Williams started off poorly, but he played well down the stretch, helping the Ravens win the Super Bowl, while Webb missed most of the season with a torn ACL. Williams was looking to cash in on free agency, and he landed with the Eagles on a 3 year deal worth $17 million. While that may seem like great money to you and me, it is just $2 million more than the money he turned down before the start of the 2012 season, which at the time was a massive gamble. Williams clearly thought he was worth more than that $15 million offer he rejected.

Yesterday, Tim McManus of Philly Mag listed the comical reasons Cary Williams has been missing various Eagles OTA practices:

Cary Williams was once again a no-show. The corner missed about a month of work as he took care of some personal business, which included getting married, having dental work done and tending to a house-build. The latest reason? His daughter’s recital.

Obviously, those are some pretty bad reasons for a professional football player to be missing practice, voluntary or not, especially for a player who just signed a deal that makes him tied for the 8th highest paid Eagle in terms of “average money per year.”

Crazy as it might sound considering he likely signed with the team who offered the most money, I wonder if Williams is sulking because he thinks that he’s worth more than what the market said he was worth during free agency. Whatever the case, Williams’ career with the Eagles is not off to a good start.