Reid Is Emphasizing The Positive With His Young Football Team

One of the keys to quality coaching is balance.  There has to be the proper balance between focus on offense, defense and special teams.  There’s a proper balance which must be struck offensively, when it comes to throwing and running the football.

On the defense side, it’s important to achieve balance in stopping the run and the pass.  On special teams, you’ve got to be both effective covering kicks as well as returning them.

On a different note, it’s very important with a young football team that the correct balance of correction and encouragement be meted out by the coaching staff.  You don’t want young players to be discouraged, but you also don’t want them to think they’ve arrived.

Obtaining this balance is one of Andy Reid’s strengths.  He does a nice of job of incubating his football team from outside criticism, but inside that bubble which he forms around the team, he challenge’s young players to step up their games.

I heard him defend a player in front the media, then challenge that player to get his game together during practice.  At times Reid makes challenging comments to his young players as they run by him during practice.  You’ll see him pull a guy over to correct him on an incorrect route or coverage.

He’s been known to wrap the criticism in some encouragement, when he’s dealing with his youngsters.  Reid knows that mistakes comes along with young players.  Regardless of their talent, young players will make their share of mistakes before mastering the game.

Notice the way he emphasized the positive when he talked to the media yesterday on a couple of days after the game.

“I had a chance to look at the film”, Reid said. “Obviously we saw some good things and we saw some things we need to work on. I thought the ones, particularly on the defensive side, did a very nice job. Always room to improve, but they played very emotional, aggressive football. Had some turnovers in there against what I consider a pretty good offense there. Offensively we’ve got a couple things we need to work on and we started that today. We will get better.”

Personally, I haven’t been surprised by the mistakes which have handicapped the young Eagles in their first two preseason games. There’s so much inexperience in different positions on this team that these early mistakes should have been expected.  The key will be how soon they make the corrections.  This team should be much better in the tenth week than they’ll be in week one.

Notice the comments of the following two young players.  Checkout how they emphasize the positive in much the same way as their coach.

Young wide receiver Jeremy Maclin isn’t concerned about the offense not getting into the endzone because their problems have been self-inflicted.  “No. I think a lot of stuff we’ve done, we’ve stopped ourselves. We’ve been in the red zone numerous times, but haven’t been able to convert. I had a fumble going in last week on third down. It’s inexcusable. Little stuff like that we’ve got to eliminate. Other than that I think we’ve moved the ball pretty well.”

First round pick Brandon Graham is being challenged to rush the passer from both the defensive tackle and defensive end positions, so he has a lot to learn, “Once you know one spot, you know everybody else’s spots, because you know where you have to be, and you know the way the defense runs, you pretty much know everything on the d-line. They can move me anywhere on the d-line.”

Behind the scenes, you can believe that Reid knows that time is of the essence, when it comes to getting this team ready to play against the Packers in a few weeks.