How can Andy Reid and the Eagles fail to try to sign a legitimate blocking tight end like Anthony Becht or any other run blocking tight end, yet say they're going to improve their red zone production.
Here's part of the interview which was put up on PhiladelphiaEagles.com.
Dave Spadaro: The team wasn't as productive as you wanted in the red zone last year. Do you feel the team has improved in that area, or is that something the team feels the need to address moving forward?
AR: "We've got to do some things better in the red zone. In the red zone, you've got to be able to throw the ball and you've got to be able to run the ball. I know people harp on the throwing and that we need to run it more in there, but we need to run it better in there, and we need to throw it better in there and catch better and block better. It's a whole gamut.
Will we cover that? Yeah, we've gone through it and we've looked at that. We tear it apart, and we study other people and look at the teams that had a little success, we study defenses and what they're trying to do to us down in there and then we'll come up and we'll put together a package.
"The red zone has been up and down. We've had great years in the red zone, and then we've had some down years. I'm glad we can narrow it down to just a couple of things from last year that we need to get better at and we can really focus on those areas. If you are going through all of your cut-ups and you've got 20 things (to correct) on there, major-league things that you need to fix, you're probably not a very good football team and you're going to struggle to get all of those things answered. If you can narrow it down to three or four things, man, you can focus in. You've got this whole off-season and you can focus in, dissect it, chew it up and hopefully spit out a great product."
I don't think they will improve very much if they can't block linebackers and defensive ends on the end of the line. Somebody has to step in here because Reid has as blind spot. They've got to get at least two run-blocking tight ends or the red zone offense will struggle again this year.
You don't have as much room to throw the ball in the red zone, so a run threat is a must. Teams have to respect your ability to run the ball or they will not react to any run threats.
