Eagles General Manager Howie Roseman continued his conversation with Dave Spadaro of PhiladelphiaEagles.com by discussing linebacker Keenan Clayton, who the Birds selected in the fourth round of last year’s draft.
Roseman says Clayton will continue to be a Will linebacker. Sean McDermott utilized him at a quasi-safety position a year ago in nickel and dime situations. He’s very small for a linebacker, but he’s got great quickness and speed. I love the way he explodes to the ball,
I remember the play Clayton made against the Green Bay Packers on the last drive. Clayton was covering the Packers running back, but was smart enough to go get quarterback Aaron Rodgers when the running back he was covering picked up one of the Eagles blitzers. He got the sack which gave the Birds a chance to come back and beat the eventual Super Bowl Champions.
You can’t teach the instincts to make plays on the ball and I see that in Clayton.
Clayton can run with the fastest of running backs and tight ends. Roseman pointed this out and stressed Clayton’s ability to cover 
and I would agree with him. This young man has great cover skills because of his quick feet and tremendous athleticism.
He said the minor knee injury Clayton had slowed him down a bit.
This young man needs to spend a lot of time in the weight room if he wants to have a chance to play linebacker full-time in the NFL. I do like his instincts to make plays much better than current starting Will linebacker Ernie Sims.
He needs to get much stronger and bigger with the weights, I don’t know how much his frame can take but he needs to put on about twenty pounds of muscle.
A guy i like to see get some real reps this season……. He reminds me of Cato June when he was a force with the colts sometime back…..!!!!!!!!!
Can Howie stop bringing up every injury,muscle pull,headavhe,upset stomach that any of these players had last year.. Bumps,bruises are part of the game for every player every season..
Back to Clayton, I think the Eagles could use Clayton like the PAckers use Woodson in passing situations.. Line him up as MLB and cover the short/intermediate routes in the middle of the field thus allowing the SAfeties to play more of a Cover 2 scheme to prevent the deep routes
He is not an everydown LB at this stage of development, but can blitz and cover with his speed on passing situations and play Special Teams..
I’ve stated this before. This kid was an ALL American safety in high school and played both S and LB at Oklahoma. I’de love to see him play strong safety. He can hit and cover ground. I just want to see some bigger bodies that can take the pounding (and dish some out) of todays NFL.
God, anybody over Sims…. please, anybody over Sims
WIth FB Weavers Injury and probable failure to pass a physical leading to retirement, the Eagles may need Clayton to play a little FB…
Clayton is @ 225lbs give or take a few. If he adds 15lbs to be around 240 without losing his quickness he is going to be special. I think he has the most upside of all of out LB’s.
Boyer I’m with you on that
I like Chaney and Clayton and I want to see more of them on thei field…but I just feel like the Eagles will now do nothing to upgrade their linebackers in free agency or trade(cuz we know they wont draft one in the first round) because they feel like the guys they have are good enough. I hope they are good enough but I would like to have atleast one stud linebacker on this team that these young guys can look up to and learn around
Anybody know the deal with Barrett Ruud? I don’t know if the bucs placed a tag or something on him..But I would pay him over Bradley
As far as I know, Barrett Rudd is a free-agent, I think The Bucs were going to place a Tag on one of their OL.. Rudd has been a very good player and at 27 years old with no major injuries in his past would be a very good player to pursue .. ( I like Ben Leber from the VIkings who is a little bigger than Rudd)
but either one would be an upgrade over Brafley who I think has peaked and with all his injuries just is not going to be the player all had hoped adn wisheds for.. I actually think Bradley will take a Free-agent Deal with either the Rams or Chiefs and not return to Philly.. Those teams will offer 3 year deals which the Eagles will probably only offer him a 1 year deal, but Bradely and Mickell with both be gone in my opinion..
I like Bradley, but all the injuries have slowed his progress and play….. He is done, and I actually hope they don’t resign him.
Mikell is a little bit of a different story. I don’t care if he stays because I like him, but I don’t care if he goes either, because I like Coleman. Plus, Mikell is getting up there in age.
agree with letting him play safety….. he doesnt have the frame to put on 10-15lbs and be effective. we dont need small linebackers, the d-line is already undersized.