Once Jeremy Maclin gains a working knowledge of the offense, the Eagles could be extremely dangerous with DeSean Jackson, Kevin Curtis and their two backup role players, Jason Avant and Hank Baskett.
Right away, safeties will have to backup. There's nothing like the fear speed gives to a safety.
Linebackers have nightmares about getting run over like Bo Jackson did Bosworth.
Quarterbacks have nightmares of having a playoff game like Jake Delhomme, when he threw six interceptions.
Offensive linemen have nightmares that resemble Winston Justice's night against the Giants.
Safeties have nightmares about long bombs to blazingly fast receivers like Jackson and Maclin.
Jackson has the instant speed and he seemed to be playing faster now than he was a year ago because he's very comfortable in the offense.
Maclin has speed that sneaks up on you. His long stride will camouflage his speed until it's too late for the defensive back.
You can believe that Andy Reid and Marty Mornhinweg are over at the Nova Care Complex as I write this article and as you read it, drawing up ways to utilize that speed.
They'll have one of them run a clear route and have the other come underneath and get the ball with room to operate. They'll be able to get them deep in a zone against the safety, thereby flooding the zone deep.
Reid started to stretch out the routes in his offense, or allow the receivers to run them deeper when T.O. was here. Expect them to do that again.
They will go for the jugular on teams early in games.
You are going to see screens to Westbrook with the linebackers and safeties caught spread out by all that speed outside.
I could see them running a lot of double moves with Jackson because he gets on a defensive back so quickly, that he'll have time to run extra moves. Cornerbacks hate double moves like defenders used to hate getting caught trying to tackle Barry Sanders in open field.
Jackson plays the Z or flanker position in the offense, which is the featured position. It's the position Jerry Rice played for years in San Francisco and it's the position Owens played while he was here.
They will be able to move these guys around in order to get the matchups they want. You'll see Jackson in motion to prevent teams from double teaming him.
Initially I expect them to give Maclin the chance to beat people deep and get the ball on short routes with room to run after the catch.
Any critic of Reid would have to admit that he can do a good job of getting skilled players in position to make big plays. He's done that for years with Brian Westbrook and he did that with Owens while he was here.
They'll have series of plays or packages for all these guys which feature them.
