Foles With First Team, Vick With Second Team In Eagles Workout

Eagles quarterback Nick Foles worked out with the first team offense today at practice and Michael Vick worked out with the second team.

It was another lively practice for the Birds, with the music blasting and the plays run in a hurry, but I didn’t think the offense had a particularly crisp day throwing the football.  I thought there were far too many footballs on the ground during the workout.

At times it wasn’t  easy for the quarterbacks to get their offenses properly lined up and get the ball snapped at the right time with everybody on side.  One of keys to getting lined up properly is getting the running back lined up on the correct side.  The wide receivers line up on the right or the left on each play.  They don’t switch sides, so that it doesn’t delay the play.  A number of times the offense wasn’t able to get the play called and run properly.

“It’s still a challenge each and every day,” Vick said after the workout. “As far as us being able to go out and play, I think it’s getting easier for all of the quarterbacks. We just go out there and try to take it one play at a time. The comfort level is there.”

“It’s very diverse. We don’t know everyday if we’re going to come out and run the football or if we’re going to come out there and we’re going to throw it,” he said. “We’ve got great run concepts. We’ve got great pass concepts. There are a lot of different things that we do.”

This is all understandable because the Birds are still putting in the playbook.  They introduce plays every day and different parts of the offense.  When they come in the next day, they put in another part of the offense that involves a completely different area of the offense and a new sets of plays and concepts.

Foles likes his chances of winning the starting quarterback job.

“You have to have that mindset no matter who you are. If you’re a rookie coming in, you got to have the mindset, ‘I’m working. My goal is to be the first-team quarterback,'” Foles said. “If they see you exert that confidence, it going to make them think, ‘Hey, this guy knows what he’s doing. We’re going to go out there and we’ve got to do our job. This guy’s going to execute the play.'”

All the quarterbacks were running the read option at practice.

“I feel comfortable with it. I’ve done it before. It’s a great play. If you run it successfully, it’s a great play,” Foles said. “As a quarterback, you’ve just got to be able to get a couple 5-, 10-yard runs a game. It puts the defense on their heels because they really have to watch out for you because they don’t want to give up a big run to the quarterback. I’ll tell you that.”

Vick knows the read option is his key to starting.

“Everything that’s installed in [Kelly’s] offense, it’s pretty much what I like to do,” said Vick after practice. “Everybody knows I like to carry the football, run with the football, get yards, and play off [improvisation], too. It just suits my game.”

I like the way rookie Matt Barkley is able to look off defenders to thread a pass in there.  He knows how to look to his left through out the entire play then comeback to his right and deliver the football.  Dennis Dixon is still the quarterback who runs the offense without hesitation.

Running back LeSean McCoy left the practice early in the workout and said his knee was bothering him.

Offensive tackle Jason Peters, cornerback Cary Williams, defensive tackle Fletcher Cox, and safety Patrick Chung all missed practice because flight cancellations due to weather made impossible for them to get here today in time for practice.  Offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland missed the workout as well for the same reasons.

Last week Vick told a reporter that Kelly taught him how to carry the football properly.  It’s not often that you hear a veteran quarterback like Vick tell someone that his coach just taught him how to carry the football.

“I always feel like I’m carrying the ball the right way. I felt like last year I fixed some things. When I was running with the ball, I sometimes still have the tendency to keep it loose,” Vick said.