The Eagles will be having a longer training camp than usual when they head to Lehigh University at the end of the month.¬† Andy Reid knows he’s going to have to prepare this young football team for the ups and downs of the NFL.
He’ll be working them out physically but it’s the mental toughness that he wants to establish.¬† They must get in the habit of performing at their best in tough situations while battling injuries and playoff-caliber football teams.
There will be unfortunate mishaps, losing streaks, bad calls and key injuries.¬† The offense which will be led by Kevin Kolb will have weeks where they’re unstoppable then they’ll be other weeks where they can’t do anything right.¬† This group won’t have any problem dealing with the successful weeks but the way they deal with the bad weeks will be the key to the season.
There’ll be weeks when everything that defensive coordinator Sean McDermott calls works out, but then they’ll be other weeks where bad things happen even when the team is in the best defensive scheme.¬† These are the times when we’ll find out what this young team is made of.
You know how it gets around here when the Eagles have a bad game.  Some of the key players on the offense, namely Kolb, DeSean Jackson, Jeremy Maclin, Brent Celek and LeSean McCoy, and on the defense Trent Cole, Stewart Bradley, Asante Samuel and Quintin Mikell are going to get ripped for bad performances.
They must focus on what has to be done on the football field and ignore all of the talk and criticism.¬† They’ll have to answer questions about bad games but they can’t let this disturb their focus.¬† Yes, it will eventually get rather personal on the stars, but they must let it push them to perform better rather than cause them to struggle.
This is especially true of the team’s offense which is the strength of the team and will probably have to carry this squad for stretches.
So many times during the past decade the Eagles were able to shake off bad performances and come back strong.  They were able to always find a way to battle back and put themselves into position to finish the season strong.  This squad must learn the same thing.
After looking at the schedule it’s quite clear that they need to start off strong.¬† They must beat teams like Detroit, Jacksonville and San Francisco early in the season because Indianapolis, Minnesota and two games against the Giants and the Cowboys will be in the second half.
Reid’s teams have had the tendency to start out slow in the past but they can’t afford to do that this year, so Reid can work them hard at training camp but they’d better come out roaring when things get started at Lincoln Financial Field against the Packers.
I want to see them finish the first half with at least a 5-3 record.¬† 6-2 would mean they’re going to be a playoff team.¬† 5-3 out of the gate will mean they must duplicate that record against a very tough schedule down the stretch.
I see them starting out 5-3 and finishing up 3-5, to finish with an 8-8 record.
What do you think their records will be in the two halves of the season?
Longer camp means more injuries.
With the longer camp this year, AR and staff need to be real careful on how hard to work the
starting veterans and especially the ones coming back from injuries (Herremans,Bradley,Hobbs)
But with lots of Roster spots and some starting postions open on Defense, You have to let them play to see what they are made of… I would suggest that some of the key Starting Veterans like D-Jax, Peters,Avant,Celek,Weaver, Bunkley,Cole,Mickell, maybe take the afternoon sessions off and let the young guys go at it…
I do think that you have to see who reports to camp in tip-top shape.. If a Peters,Bunkley,Parker,Weaver or whoever,report to camp out of shape, then don’t give them any slack and let them particiapte in the 2-a-Days.. But if Veteran Starters come in tip-top shape
maybe let the Starters work the morning sessions only
There is so many young players and quality depth on the Roster that they should really let the back-ups,young players get as many reps in as possible as well at those players reall
ozz, i have the same concern regarding injuries, either during the long camp or later during the already long pre and real season.
History has shown that the teams that are able to avoid major injuries are generally the teams that do better.
Maybe big red learned some management skills during his overseas tour, hopefully he isn’t instituing a new boot camp mentality that could wear down the players.
I won’t predict anything until camp ends because, as the article states, there will be injuries.
It is very likely that at least one projected starter won’t be there at the beginning of the season. I don’t think we could afford to lose a starter such as DeSean Jackson.
Obviously, a lot depends on the state of our defense, with critical question marks at CB, MLB, and safety.
Also, I believe competition within our division is difficult to analyze. Who knows what Washington will be like? They have a lot of veterans. Is that a good or bad thing? New York is still only two years removed from winning the big game. And Dallas could be poised to repeat as division winners, and with the addition of Dez Bryant, they could be improved offensively.
I’ll go out on a limb and guess that Max Jean-Gilles will have surprisingly good season.
Alot of teams have shortened their camp and/or 2 a days. With all the OTAs and minicamps i can see why there are alot of ,more injuries.
What i meant is they dont do 2 a days anymore.
Good stuff Drummer,
I heard MJG will forgo Traing camp to tape Dancin with the Stars TV Show (ala Jason Taylor)
back to Football.
My Surprise players of this camp on the Defensive Side
CB J Hanson who earns the Starter opposite A Samuel
S Q Demps has a strong camp and solidifies back-up role to MIckell/Allen at Safety
LB J Cheney and DT J Owens have great camps and make the final roster
On the Offensive side of the Ball
OT K Dunlap has a great camp solidifying his spot as back-up OT
G/C M McGlynn pushes for starting Center spot and becomes #1 back-up at Guard
G S Andrews has an outstanding camp and plays very well and arrives in great shape
TE M Rucker has a strong camp and outplays C Ingram and C Harbor to make the team
RB C Scott opens up some eyes with a strong camp
Injuries …
I think E Hobbs has a tough time seeing the field, also I think T Heremans continues to have issues with his foot injury limiting his particiapation and O Gaither has hard time staying on the field
V Abriami doesn’t particiapate all camp is and released in August as Medically Unable to Perform
i think 8-8 is probably a fair and slightly optimistic record
7-9 6-10
i think it really depends on how the birds fair in the nfc east 3-3 and i think they can go 8-8 or evn better but a 1-5 yr and we r lookn at 6-10 7-9 season
either 3-13 or 4-13
I see them beating Detroit, Jacksonville, one of the Redskins games(maybe), and one of the Giants games. Outside of that the defense is going to be too green to deal with 98% of the experienced veteran offenses they’ll be playing. Chicago is a maybe, but Jay Cutler won’t have two horrible seasons in a row so it’s pretty unlikely.
4-12 (my mistake)
Reid will have half the team hurt before the first regular season game ,mark my word on this ,he over works his team . I have to laugh because I think Reid is the one whom should be putting in the extra work .
and yall said i was bad dam lol i at least i gave 7-9
haha butch i wouldnt even be surprised if ur right tho
very sad
PW I am laughing cause I had the same thought….hell I thought you were negative but Butch makes you look like Banner’s Bandwagon driver
I think I saw Banner/AR/PhillyWill down at Delasandro’s sharing some Cheesestaeks..
Unfortunately for PhillyWill, AR was seated right next to him and and ate most of the order…
yes then we had a few beers so his sons drove us home
clearly we were in a shootout
See PW,
Sometimes having that Marvin Harrison around, comes in handy if you know what I mean…
It’s not being negative I’m just looking at the schedule and the Eagles roster. If you’re realistic with yourselves you already know that about 50% of the defensive playbook is going to have to go out the window to accommodate the number new starters, rookies, 2nd year player starters and back-ups the Eagles are going to have to play. It will take at least 3 seasons to know if half of the people they drafted this year can actually play..and they’ll be the starters and backups going in this year.
That’s not even taking into consideration that on offense 80% of the outside passing and deep passing is getting eliminated or that there’s a huge question mark about what the quality of the offensive line will be opening day. Obviously they will run the ball a lot more which should help, but that’s still asking too much to expect a winning record with the schedule they have. This team is rebuilding, you might want to get comfortable with that idea SOON to save yourself some disappointment.