The rookies had a challenging day this afternoon at this week's first OTA practice. Andy Reid had them all upfront and getting lots of reps with the first units.
It was hot and they went through an uptempo workout for about one hour and forty-five minutes. They worked up a good lather, drinking water when they had the chance and trying to get their winds.
Jeremy Maclin ran some nice routes, got deep a couple of times in the team and one on one drills but also dropped a few balls. These balls were right in his hands. It seems like he lost his concentration a bit.
I saw DeSean Jackson get his attention after some of his catches and give him some thumbs up support.
He did well with McNabb and the first team when he ran a twenty yard trail and made some catches coming across the field on the run.
Here's what Big Red had to say about the youngster's progress.
“He is a really smart kid and he’s picking things up very well. It’s just a matter of him doing it over and over again here, so that’s what we’re working on, getting used to this offense. And he played a lot of inside slot receiver at Missouri and we’re going to ask him to do a little bit more on the outside. He’s picking it up very well. I thought he had a fantastic few days in this past week when the rookies and selected vets were in. I thought he really finished up that camp well. We’ll just see how he does with the veteran players in here.”
Kevin Curtis didn't do much today so that opened the door for Maclin to get a lot of work. Hank Baskett started out the day as the first team X, but Maclin was put in there for quite a few of those plays.
LeSean McCoy was running with the first team all day long because Brian Westbrook was out with a sore ankle. He was struggling with all the formations and plays which had him out of the backfield and split out.
Reid said it's good that he finds himself in this situation because he'll get more reps and more chances to learn. McCoy is having to learn the playbook overnight.
He went on to talk about his top three rookies and McCoy and Ingram in particular.
“We’ve thrown everything at them, and is there a mistake here or there? Yeah. But for the most part they’ve done pretty good. Two of those positions, the tight end position and the running back position, those are tough now. You have to pick things up. You have the run game you have to worry about and the pass game. It’s tough – and the protection. But they’ve done well with it. We’ll just see how they continue to progress, but they’ll get a lot of reps so that’s a good thing.”
I don't know if it was on purpose but Lorenzo Booker was no where to be found in the locker room after practice. He was running with the second team behind McCoy, even though he told us all last week that he was backing up Westbrook and ahead of McCoy.
After the workout, Jackson was holding court with Maclin and McCoy sitting and listening to their older and more experienced teammate. It seems that Jackson is enjoying showing them the ropes.
Cornelius Ingram got some work with the first team also. He didn't miss a beat transitioning from the rookie workouts to the workouts with the veterans. He made a great play to end the team passing drills, when he went up and took the ball away from a defender.
It was another good day of catching the football for the young man.. He was thrown quite a few balls in the team drills and he caught each one of them cleanly in his hands.
