The Eagles are serious about upgrading their secondary this season, and are working out another player that they hope can help them do it.
According to Aaron Wilson of National Football Post, the Eagles are scheduled to work out California safety Christopher Conte. Conte is projected as a late round draft pick, but he is climbing the boards of many scouts. Conte has some height as he stands at 
6’2, but the former cornerback is ranked as only the 19th safety in the draft.
The Eagles have shown they are interested in upgrading the secondary in the draft, as they have worked out more players in the secondary then any other position.
But the status of the secondary will hinge on the Eagles decision of whether or not to resign Quintin Mikell this off-season.
Mikell has had an up and down career with the Eagles so far, going from special teams ace, to underrated talent, to overrated and expendable. Now, going into free agency, the question of whether or not Mikell should be resigned is a big one the Eagles have yet to make.
Statistically, Mikell had an average year at best. He finished the season with 88 tackles and only 1 sack. His 3 interceptions left him tied for 13th among safeties, and even with Nate Allen, the rookie free safety. It also matched his career high. The knock on Mikell last season was his inability to capitalize on turnover opportunities. Eagles fans are probably still yelling at Mikell to find the ball as 
it sat in his lap against the Green Bay Packers in the playoffs.
Mikell is going to be 31 if and when the season starts on schedule in September, and the Eagles reluctance to hand out contracts to players over 30 has been well-documented, but if the Eagles let the Mikell walk, it will leave them extremely thin and young at safety.
Kurt Coleman played well at times when he stepped in to play for the injured Allen, but he also had his worst game in a must win over Minnesota. Coleman can play either safety position, which means he and Allen could start together. Allen is still recovering from a knee injury, but he is expected to be ready for the beginning of the season. Colt Anderson got a surprising amount of playing time after being signed late in the season, but he is nothing more then a backup player.
It is very important with a new defensive coordinator in Juan Castillo that Nate Allen is ready to go at the start of training camp to learn the new defensive schemes. If he is not, he will be playing from behind from the start. Its one thing to learn the playbook- it’s another for a second year player to get out there and learn the defense.
Mikell is a veteran that should be able to learn any new defensive schemes quickly. He also has shown he is willing to work with young players and help them along. He is a locker room guy, and a leader on the defense that severely lacks quality leadership. If things start to go sour with Castillo, it will be important to have a veteran player to keep the younger players in line.
There is hope the Eagles can sign a big name cornerback to replace Dmitri Patterson, or draft one high in the first round. But the chances of the Eagles landing a big name free agent or draft pick to play safety is slim, making resigning Mikell even more important.
A white safety! LOL If he is anything good is whole career will be compared to Lynch
vricchini…. LOL. And if he’s bad, then he’s Sean Considine v2.0. Since you brought that up, there haven’t been a lot of outstanding white safeties in this league. Some decent ones here and there but besides Lynch, no one to write home about. Pretty funny to think about it.
Now to the article. Mikell is average. I was tired of him last year. He tries to carry himself as if he’s the leader on defense but dude doesn’t do anything in key spots on the field. And I don’t mean picking up a fumble that someone else caused. I mean laying the wood on someone or playing good coverage and getting an INT (not one where the QB was just plain inaccurate but a good play on the ball). He’s an average safety, an over achieving undrafted FA. That’s it. Having said that, he’s our best safety. That lets you know how good our safety position is.
Before last year began many looked at the secondary as the weakest part of the defense and in the beginning of the year, it looked like they were going to prove everyone wrong. Well they soon began to prove everyone right and show they were a big play waiting to happen. I still see this secondary as the weakest part of the defense. We need a CB and 2 safeties (if Nate Allen isn’t healthy enough). If we don’t improve those areas a lot then we are again going to be getting thrashed by big plays.
Probaby a bit more like Sean Considine.. Good Grief..
ha, no love for zordich?
Inappropriate racial commentary. BS!
Conte is another average player. I am sick of the mediocrity…..Kurt Coleman is not an NFL starting safety. Quintin Mikell is mediocre and stood out with Dawkins next to him. Look when Dawk left….Mikell was exposed!
The Eagles should target Oklahoma S Quinton Carter… .the guy is projected to go between picks 65-85 and is a hitter who can play both safety spots. The kid reminds me of Dawkins when he was at Clemson.
Scorp I agree 100%. I wanted to ass in that II really like what I saw from Coleman last year.
This defense has the potential to be dominate with a few plug ins at DT, CB DE? and SS
Blah sorry for the last post horrible spelling
Ass was suppose to be add
II was suppose to be I
jott. I will admit. I have been a eagles fan for 10 years now so im still some what a noob. But I do have the feeling that they want to change the culture of this years team. Once this CBA gets done I look for lots of moves to be made. On another note what scares me the most is Vick. Can he come back and have a season like that again? what if Kolb goes on to be the next Troy Aikman?
While talking about Race Relations
Successful Safeties who happened to be “White”
Pat Fisher – Redskins
Paul Krause- Vikings
Larry Wilson – Cardinals
Dick Scott- Dolphins
Charlie Waters – Cowboys
Now the list for succesful White Safeties in the last 20 Years…
John Lynch – TB Bucs
Terry Hoage – Eagles
Eric Weddle – Chargers
Jim Leonhard – NY Jets
Best Safety with Asian Decent
Patrick Chung of the Patriots
Haruki Nakamura of the Ravens
Best Safety with Poyneasian Decent
Troy Polamalo of the Steelers
Best Safety from Canada
Oshiomogho Atogwe formerly of the SL Rams and now of the Redskins..
Best Safety of Italian Decent
Sabo Piscitelli of the Browns
Matt Giordano of the Saints
Aaron Francisco of the Colts
Best Safety of Polish Decent
Tom Zbikowski of the Ravens
Best Safety of Irish Decent
Kyle McCarthy – Denver Broncos
John McGraw – KC Chiefs
Best Safety with a Cowboy Name
Colt Anderson — Eagles
Safeties with a Muslim/Islam Name
Hamza Abdullah — Arizona Cardinals
Husain Abdullah — Minnesota Vikings
Akwasi Owusu-Ansah – Dallas Cowboys
Sha’reff Rashad — Washington Redskins
Safeties with a French Decent
Jordan Babineaux — Seahawks
Pierson Prioleau — NO Saints
Safety named afer a Video Game Manufacturer
Atari Bigby of the Packers
Safety named after a Color
Quinton Teal of Chargers
Safeties with 2 first names as their Proper Name
Earl Thomas of the Seahawks
Adrian Wilson of the Cardinals
George Wilson of the BIlls
Eugene Wilson of the Texans
Chip Vaughn of the Colts
Curtis Taylor of the 49ers
Bryan Scott of the BIlls
Ed Reed of the Ravens
Jarrard Page of the Patriots
Paul Oliver of the Chargers
Safeties found in a Bakery
Antrel Rolle of the Giants
Myron Rolle of the Titans
P-man, you must have worked on that for an hour…LOL!
Paulman you deserve a reward for that post. EPIC
Clever, Paulman, I applaud you for that at least. When people talk about “white” players, often as being slow, short, whatever, and think they are funny or enlightened–it is not cool–because then someone can or can’t talk similarly about “black” players and stereotype them. When commenting on race, it should be intelligent and well thought out, not involving stereotyping of any kind. A safety is a safety, a forward is a forward, a bum is a bum, etc. etc.
I like Coleman a lot, and think he can do well, but they still need to get some competition in there. I would like the Eagles to draft Robert Sands……. He has been falling in the draft, but I think he could be the best safety to come out this year.
SportsBum, I couldn’t agree with you more. There is no guarantee that Coleman can do it. There must be more competition at safety.
Paulman is a human stat book
Tim Hauck
I think Kurt Coleman is a starter in this league. Everyone knows the Eagles have employed worse safeties. Hopefully they find a good one in the draft, and I would resign Mikell to a 2 yr deal or less. If he can do better… GIT
In think Mickell is a goner and will sign a pretty good deal with Carolina,Saints or the Cowboys who all need Safety help.. (Mickell is from Louisiana)
I think the Eagles will draft a Safety and possibly go after 1 in Free-Agency if and when there is one.. but I can see a Safety Tandem of Coleman/Allen for the future.
hahahaahah no love for jason seahorn cb turned safety ala rod woodson
I never understood why they moved Mikel from FS to SS and then he’s been a pretty poor SS. Why not move him back to FS….?……do they think he lost a step…..?……Someone explain this please!..!!!…..
Negative on Jason Seehaorn who was overrated only because he was a white, good looking guy playing fior NY GIants… His wife was pretty hot though..
To Cant Climb– Mickell moved to SS beacuse Nate Allen is a FS and not a type of player to play down in the Box, Nate Allen is a center fielder type of Safety whose strength is more as a coverage Safety, than lets say a physical player, to help out with stopping the Run..Coleman is more this type of player.. Mickell is a good player but not great or a playmaker at either position for he doesn’t have the foot speed or ball hawking skills to center field or really have the physicality of playing down in the box on a full time basis which is why he probably won’t be offered a contract by the Eagles and move on to another club..
Paulman that was a great post earlier.
If they would have just taken Earl Thomas last year we be in a little better shape. But instead you reach for a DE who is now another torn ACL guy and get a safety in the 2nd round (who isn’t that bad), who is also now another torn ACL guy. Of course, no one could have predicted those things would happen but with the drafting of Graham and Allen you still have the same needs on defense that you had last year. I think we would have picked Thomas one of our safety spots would have been solidified for at least the next 5 years. But now we are still have questions at both spots, still need a DE opposite Cole and still need a CB. Hopefully the kids show us something in 2012 because chances are we aren’t good to see a lot of improvement over last year with those injuries.
Yeah Sehorn was overrated. He had some decent seasons but nothing extraordinary. And Fansince1960 calm down. Who said anything that was stereotypical about white athletes? vricchini simply said that if he’s good people will compare him to Lynch and honestly that’s probably true. Whether we like it or not he would get compared to the best/worst white safety. Not that we agreed but that’s how people are. They compare players to those they most identify with especially physically. If he hits hard it’s more than likely people will say he’s just like Lynch and not so much Steve Atwater. No one said anything wrong. They are already comparing Cam Newton to Akili Smith and Jamarcus Russell. How come he’s not compared to some of the white QBs who have been busts? You’d probably answer that by saying because of his playing style. But it has a lot to do with the color of his skin. How many good white QBs of today are looked at as the new Warren Moon? None.
Can someone say Considine? if we picked Considine in the 3rd round what makes any of us believe we can trust a safety projected in the late rounds? Let’s call up Ray Rhodes and ask him what a real safety looks like, because we have not drafted a pro bowl safety since Ray Rhodes. Damn…we can say the same for linebacker…There’s nothing to see here folks…Keep Mikell before picking up this bum.
1. vricchini
March 28, 2011 – 4:09 pm
“A white safety! LOL”
2. paulman
March 29, 2011 – 10:29 am
“Negative on Jason Seehaorn who was overrated only because he was a white”
You guys love to do your “white” thing, generally to picture “whites” as slow or not as athletic as “black” athletes. Paulman loves to do this constantly; he thinks it is incredibly clever. It bores the s#*t out of me. Stereotyping only gets you “white boys” into trouble like Paulman got into when he did his Lawrence Taylor rap. All this stereotyping is very 20 years ago, very guilt-ridden. And if someone talks about “whites” derogatorily, what’s to stop them from talking about blacks or Italians or Jews or any other group? Grow up! Don’t you know that stereotyping is not where it’s at? It’s not even funny at this point, it’s just stupid.
Fan, thanks for some sanity. Its so often on here that we hear about a person nobody ever knew existed, g tells us basic football stuff about him, and then the experts (sarcasm) give us the real facts through the eyes of an eleven year old boy. Based on the rock solid logic that obama, lt, jackie robinson, biggie smalls, mlk, are all functionally the same, and same for rothlesburger, the pope, montana, the unibomber, david koresh and wayne gretzky, — race tells us everything. Its truly truly pathetic
Must agree with fan, in all my years following sports I have never heard the constant references to race like here, constant, to some , a lot here, it is more important what color you are than how you actually play, this fellow songs is a bright man, but because of his agenda he says stupid things like Kolb is “ass”, many others here as well equally stupid
Schiller & Jakedog, I loved your comments! Right on the money!
This is the funniest *bleep* (posts) I’ve read in a long time…
Someone is actually getting upset because someone here is stereotyping white athletes….? So what! the black athlete, the black male has been stereotyped from day one…is it right? No. But like the saying goes, “What goes around, comes around”
LMAO…I knew Real would be over here sooner or later…What up
Lighten up FS1960
I picked on Seehorn for if he wasn’t the All-American Good looking white guy from next door, with a beautiful wife (like Ken & Barbie) who happened to be playing in the biggest media market in the NFL, most people would have never have heard of him..
He was a good player but not an elite player like the NY Media/NFL Spin machine would have you believe.. If Seehorn played for KC Chiefs or Arizona, he would have been just another player in the NFL…
Seehorn did seem to play his best games versus the Eagles though..
Probably because McNabb was QB at the time..
paulman, if there were an expression (help me out if you think of one, or anyone else for that matter) that was the opposite of ‘lighten up’, it should be said to you. All the time. You’re TOO ‘light’. You joke around more than Dez Bryant flashes his ego and/or stupidity. Jokes/lazy ‘just playin around’ thinking/posting have their place, but not 95% percent of the time.
Hey RealTalk. You’re not keeping it real. Read the posts again and understand them. I don’t like stereotyping, of blacks, whites, anybody. Giving a soapbox to anonymous people who are into stereotyping and viewing everything through a racial lens is a dangerous thing. You read the posts wrong. Besides, I don’t identify myself as “white.” And if what goes around keeps coming around, then the treadmill of racial “bleep” will continue and I figure you don’t care for that any more than I do.
I will try to be more “serious” for you Schiller..