The Eagles went through a dual workout yesterday as they prepared for both a final preseason game against the Jets and their first regular season game against the Carolina Panthers.
Clearly the priority was the preparation for Panthers.
It would start with the first team Eagles offense running some plays against Carolina's 4-3 defensive front, then the second offensive unit would get in there and run some plays against the Jets 3-4 look.
The Eagles like to get their ideas on tape so they can see what they look like against a particular defense.
One of Andy Reid's strength is his ability to get his team prepared for an opponent. He doesn't go up and down as the season progresses, he focuses on the detail of the job week in and week out.
I think it is the key to the Eagles consistent success over the years. He and Marty Mornhinweg do a great job of studying a defense and identifying areas which they can attack. They attack schemes and they attack individuals.
Defensively, Omar Gaither was running things on the defensive side of the ball. This was a good move by the Birds. Joe Mays is probably more physical at the middle linebacker spot than Gaither but he doesn't have the mastery of the defense mentally on the level Omar has.
You can't afford mistakes on defense. The Birds have been played a simple vanilla defense in the preseason. It's going to get much more duplicated.
He's going to be the guy in the middle as far as I'm concerned. I thought the Birds were going to go to him when Stewart Bradley was injured at training camp.
They need Gaither to run the team's defense. You have a huge leadership gap on that side of the ball after the loss of Jim Johnson, Brian Dawkins and Bradley.
Gaither's strong asset is his ability to lead the team on the field. From the moment he arrived in Philadelphia, he was assertive in the huddle and was eager to take charge in getting the defense lined up properly.
This is too much for Joe Mays at this time in his career and the same for rookie Moise Fokou.
