It was teaching time for the Eagles coaches this week at the team's rookie practices.
You could tell it was a learning session because many times during the workouts, plays were stopped and repeated. If somebody lined in the wrong place or motioned the wrong way, it was corrected on the spot.
The rookies were trying to digest a huge amount of the team's offensive and defensive systems,
Each morning they would put in plays and defenses, then take the youngsters out on the field to work through the same plays and defenses.
The first thing the offensive skill position players had to master was the formations and the Eagles have a lot of them. You've got formations, which can change based on the where the players line up and which skill position players (FB, HB, TE or WR) are on the field.
The positions that are on the field at a certain time are called personnel groupings. They run all of their formations with all the different personnel groupings to get the type of matchups which favor them.
The personnel groupings always equal five and the Eagles have names for each group. The players have to be alert on the sideline during a game in order to know which personnel grouping is in the game.
For instance, the Eagles have personnel groupings with two backs, one tight end and two wide receivers.
On short yardage, the go to three tight ends and two backs.
They also use one back, two tight ends and two wide receivers.
In passing situations, they're likely to use one back, one tight end and three wide receivers. They might even go to one back and four wide receivers.
It's not easy for the rookies to learn all of these formations and all the plays in such a short period of time.
LeSean McCoy and the young running backs are challenged more than anybody else because the Eagles line them up everywhere so they have know the offense as well as the quarterbacks.
They have to know what each of the five receivers is doing on every pass and running play. They have to know which players the offensive linemen are blocking, so they'll know whom to block on blitzes. It a great deal of information.
It's one of the reasons that running backs have taken so long to play in this offense.
Remember how slowly Brian Westbrook was brought along.
