Written By Lloyd Vance Donovan McNabb was very sharp and loose in practice, so we know his blog about him moving on is true.
He threw long balls well to Jackson and Maclin plus found his tight ends including rookies Cornelius Ingram (#88) and UDFA Eugene Bright (#82) often. McNabb will take a few weeks off then he will resume his work in Arizona with several of the pass catchers.
Reid said the idea of players going to Arizona to work with McNabb was a very good thing in terms of repoire and learning the offense from the guy who knows it inside and out. Rookies Maclin, Ingram, and Brandon Gibson (#19) were all planning on going to work with McNabb.
Speaking of Gibson, he very well could be the biggest surprise of this draft class as the 6th rounder showed confidence and was solid catching the ball.
— The receiver position is very crowded and there will be some hard decisions to be made in training camp. Back for another season are Reggie Brown, Hank Baskett, Danny Amendola, Jason Avant, and Shaheer McBride. That group along with Gibson will have to compete for spots behind Jackson, Maclin, and Curtis.
— Florida rookie tight end Cornelius Ingram is a real athletic looking player and you could tell that the coaches have high expectations for him. Ingram is fully recovered from an ACL injury that kept him away from the field last season and he looked explosive in drills. Now Ingram will need to learn pro techniques on route running and blocking.
Undrafted rookie free agent from Purdue TE Eugene Bright opened some eyes with some nice catches in the redzone. Bright will be battling veteran Matt Schobel and fellow rookie Ingram for catches in two tight end sets playing with starter Brent Celek.
— Safety Sean Jones (#26) will be an interesting player to watch this off-season as he has been at the Nova Care Complex often immersing himself in Jim Johnson’s scheme.
Jones right now is running second team at both safety positions to the “Quintin’s” as Quintin Mikell is the starter at strong safety and Quintin Demps is the starter at free safety. Jones is a very smart player, who should have no problem learning Johnson’s defense, which is a lot different than the Browns system.
— Fullback Leonard Weaver (#43) may have been the Eagles biggest off-season acquisition. Weaver said that he had heard about the Eagles’ difficulty in short-yardage situations in ’08 and he believes that whether carrying the ball or blocking for Westbrook that he can be a difference in that area.
Lloyd’s Leftovers
The best part of mini-camp for me was watching and listening to the banter between the DB’s and WR’s. The two biggest talkers were veterans Asante Samuel and DeSean Jackson, who each kept score of which unit got the best of the other in passing drills.
Rookie Victor “Macho” Harris sat out Sunday with an illness, but head coach Andy Reid was high on the former Hokie DB. Reid thought that Harris is fast enough to play corner, yet physical enough to play safety.
It seems DB’s coach Sean McDermott will continue to work with Harris at all positions in the back four and then they will see in training camp where he fits best. The area whether Harris should make an immediate impact is on special teams.
