Birds Finish Up Their Rookie Camp

Today was Jeremy Maclin day's at the Nova Care complex.  He really started to show off some of that talent today.

This was the second day of the two day camp.  Next week the rookies and a group of veterans will work Tueday through Friday doing a lot of the same things. Basically Andy Reid's thinking is he wants to get the rookies to a closer to where the veterans are mentally.

Maclin ran a go route down the right sideline and left pure exhaust fumes for one of the young cornerbacks trying to cover him.  Kevin Kolb put the ball out there and Maclin went and got it.

The route was about 45 or 50 yards deep when he caught it.  After he secured the ball in his hands, Maclin kicked it into another gear to run away from the defencive.. 

He also is making progress on some of the other routes.  He caught some passes on slants and outs which is what he needs to work on.  Maclin really opens up his stride when he gets downfield on those deep routes. 

One thing is true of Maclin in every workout i've seen him go through, the kid doesn't drop the football.  If it hits him in the hands, this young fella comes down with it.

it was tough day for LeSean McCoy in the passing drills.  He was corrected a few times with where he was lining up and in  all fairness all of the rookies had times when they lined up wrong.

The Eagles ask a lot of their running backs and I can understand why it's such a challenge to play running back in this offense.

Right now the young running back is thinking more than he's playing. It's understandable but it's also why Reid and his staff have these guys in here working out.

McCoy has to learn all of the running back assignments but he also has to learn what the wide receivers do because they shift him outside and when he lines up out there he's a wide receiver.

The young man must also know what the offensive line is doing because he's got to know which defender will come free because they big guys aren't going to block him.

In reality the running backs have to master this offense mentally as much as the quarterbacks.  They've got to know what every other players on the offense is supposed to do.

McCoy is having his ups and downs doing it but it's quite a challenge.

Cornelius Ingram almost got hit in the head by an A.J. Feeley pass because he didn't get his head around quick enough.  This happened on a seam route in the red zone.

The Birds spent another day working with Ingram in the red zone, but it wasn't a banner day for him.  He caught two touchdowns but they ran quite a few plays for him.  Andy and Marty were on him about consistency and details about running his routes.

The youngster told me after that Andy told how the linebackers hold down there by the goalline.

He's going to have some challenges in getting used to coming out of his stance and getting linebackers' hands off of him.  You can see that he's still not totally comfortable in the three point stance. 

The Eagles were on the field about 90 minutes putting in more plays and defenses for  this year's rookie class.