Everybody swarmed rookie Jason Kelce’s locker when he walked into the Birds locker room at about 12:30pm this afternoon. We had talked to veteran center Jamaal Jackson, so now it was time to talk to the rookie.
We knew Jackson wasn’t going to be a happy camper after we heard offensive coordinator Marty Mornhinweg a hour earlier. When asked whether the rookie was going to be starting at center again, the guy who calls the Eagles offensive played responded, “Right now, he’s the starting center, yes,”.
Notice that Mornhinweg said “right now” before the starting part. That was a courtesy line for Jackson, but it’s just two words that don’t mean anything. Yes “Right Now” Kelce is starting and I can tell you that the youngster will be the Eagles starting center as long as Howard Mudd is the offensive line coach and he’s healthy.
Jackson knows what time it is. He knows the deck was stacked against him and Kelce is Mudd’s kind of center, undersized and athletic.
“You call it competition if you want,” the veteran center said. “I don’t. If he needs help, I’ll help him, but competition? There’s no competition. There’s no competition. Whoever’s in there, they’re the starter, point blank. I’m just out here working. Whoever the coaches feel as though can get the job done, they’ll put that person in there. And right now, that’s not me.”
Kelce told us today that Mudd has had him looking a video of Pittsburgh All-Pro center Maurkice Pouncey, who like Kelce is a bit undersized by very athletic.
“I think the scheme suits my abilities as a player so I think first and foremost that’s why they drafted me”, Kelce told a group of media members at his locker today. “……..From a mental aspect I pick things up quicker than most people”.
Eagles head coach Andy Reid has a great deal of respect for Mudd. He brought him in here with the agreement that he would be in charge of the offensive line. Of course Reid is still the head coach, but right now he’s giving, Mudd free rein.
Kelce seems to pick up things very quickly and he fits this offense with all the screens and sweeps. Rather than having only the 
guards getting out in front of the screens, Kelce has shown that he will have no problems getting out there and blocking defenders downfield. I also like the way Kelce has been respectful of Jackson in this transition. He wisely has had nothing but good things to say about the veteran. The youngster knows that one day he’ll be the one on the way out.
Mornhinweg is on board with it, but in truth does he have a choice.
“I know it can work,” Mornhinweg said. “I’m quite happy with their play. I’m very confident that it will work. It’s a difficult thing to do. Difficult thing with the center position alone. But I’m real confident they will be playing at a high level very quickly.”
I don’t see how anyone could look at the Eagles game against the Browns and come out of it, confident that the two rookies on the Birds offensive line “will be playing at a high level very quickly”.
I hope he’s right, but if he and Mudd are proven wrong, we could wind up watching Michael Vick get helped onto a cart and taken into the locker room. I like Kelce and think he’s going to be a very good center in the future, but I’m no sure about putting him out there in the first game of the year against the St. Louis Rams and Jim Johnson disciple Steve Spagnuolo.
Spagnuolo is probably working on blitzes to run against the right side of the Eagles offensive line right now as you read this article.
is jackson a salary cap issue and is mcglynn in the running for backup / insurance starter?
This SUCKS!
I like it,clean house with the old and bring in the new…
J Jackson is a shell of himself and hasn’t been the same player he was for teh last 2-3 Seasons and especially since tearing that knee up almost 2 Seasons ago.. Best wishes to a good player and nice fella, but it’s time to move one…
(Remember all, J Jackson was an undrafted Free-Agent for a reason, so lets not mkae him out to be a Pro-Bowler, At his best, he was an average Center on an average OL, nothing more, nothing less
i swear mudd is senile and thinks kelce is jeff saturday
Eagles fans I tell ya… Ill put it like this. Sean Mcdermott is in Carolina now. When he was a eagle everyone including myself wanted him out. Now he;s in Carolina and every down there is excited having him as a coach. Howard Mudd is the same situation. Everyone wanted him out of indy cause of that bad offensive line and he;s here and everyone is praising the guy! what kind of coach over looks talent just because you want a certain guy with a certain built to them? its all about talent! Jamal Jackson was arguably the 2nd or 3rd best O-lineman on this team last year and you hand the keys to a 6th round draft pick whos has bi polar hands and feet.
Fixed typos——
Eagles fans I tell ya… Ill put it like this. Sean Mcdermott is in Carolina now. When he was a eagle everyone including myself wanted him out. Now he’s in Carolina and everyone down there is excited having him as a coach. Howard Mudd is the same situation. Everyone wanted him out of indy cause of that bad offensive line and he’s here and everyone is praising the guy! what kind of coach over looks talent just because you want a certain guy with a certain built to them? its all about talent! Jamal Jackson was arguably the 2nd or 3rd best O-lineman on this team last year and you hand the keys to a 6th round draft pick whos has bi polar hands and feet.
There are 8 million stories in the naked city.
Vr, thanks for cluing us in on indy fans wanting mudd out. Good to know. Where did you hear that? I hadn’t. You were keeping up on indy fans’ opinions of theit oline coach way back in 09? Wow, impressive. Dude was retired before coming to philly. Or did you just make that up?
And for that matter where did you hear panther fans excited about seany mac? Really?
Indy never had a good offensive line manning was just good at reading blitzes and getting rid of the ball fast. They never had a decent run game sure they had flashes but it was nothing exciting. When your team is bad you blame the coach. If your defense is bad you blame the defensive coordinator. In this case Mudd was the guy.
Panthers fans are happy cause they have a new coaching staff from top to bottom they see a change they have not seen in years. If we fired Reid would it not give you some sense of excitement that we have a new head coach and we get to see how this team changes? I know I would be but oh I forgot your Andy Reids fan boy so after 10 years of failing might as well wait another 10.
TO Vricchini,
I disagree 100%.. Indy fans did not want Mudd or former OC Tom Moore out..
Peyton Manning did and what Peyton wants, Peyton gets..
3 Years ago Pro-Bowler LT Tarrick Gleen retired just before Training CAmp which caught the team and their OL by Surprsie and they have not been a good group since… They finally spent their top 2 picks on OL this years (OT COntanzo from BC and OG B Iljilana from VIllanova after foolishly using their Top Picks on RB/WR when they needed help along their OL…SOme of the other good OL besides T Glenn and J Saturday was R Diem (who let walk cause they spent too much $$ on Star tplayers, R Lilja was anothe rgood OL who they let walk and on and on …
1 last point about J Jackson being the 2nd or 3rd Best OL last year for the Eagles and he played 1/2 of 1 Game all 2010 Football Season.. C’mon Vricchini, get some fresh air please..
MY BLOG IN MY ABOVE COMMENT SAYS IT ALL
Vrricchini – your dumb comment is a prime example of why this site was getting watered down
things are picking back up and I refuse to let trash slide by anymore, read that blog entry and stand corrected moron
wait Vr – you still didn’t tell me where you heard that. Are you just putting words in the collective mouths of two large fan bases in cities far far away from Philly? Wow that’s ballsy and pathetic.
Now tell me, Marshall Faulk, Edgerin James, Domonic Rhodes? Nothing exciting? Those offenses ware EXCELLENT and the team won a superbowl. You have yet to provide any support to your argument that suggest anything other than, “you are just trying to talk shit on Mudd to prove your negative agenda/wishing the Eagles coaches are fired”.
Man you are transparent as all hell.
Were we watching the same game? Vick is not PManning, who is! This is not INDY! Protecting Vick is paramount! Jackson got a raw deal, and somehow this is going to backfire on the Eagles. The Steelers and Browns have laid the blueprint for success against Philly. The game footage DOES NOT LIE!
Keith, are you aware that they don’t gameplan – yeah, that’s right, they aren’t trying to win games in preseason!? Nobody copies the ‘blueprint’ when the ‘blueprint’ says ‘play around, don’t build anything’!?!
A blueprint is a plan. The Eagles plan for preseason games is ‘avoid injury and work on individual/unit development without showing your real tactics’. Um, teams having that ‘blueprint’ will do us harm during the season? How?
Schiller, you’ve got to block someone! At some point Kelce & Watkins are going to be good players, however until they fully understand the NFL game, exprerienced defensive tackles are going to have a field day. Thank God the LIons aren’t on our schedule.
For whoever the Jets beat the Giants 17-3
Stats Jets Giants
1st Downs — 15 21
Total Yards — 233 327
Time of Possesion was about 30 minutes each side
# of Sacks 2 0
Rush Yards 38-112yds 25-105 Yards
Penalties 7-79 yds 9-46 yrds
# of T/overs 1 Fumble lost 2 Intercepted Passes thrown by Eli
Looks like Starters played into the 3rd Quarter on bolth sides
keith – your damn right. Or they’ll step up and play well. How good is St. Louis defense? And how much can gameplanning/work in between now and then help? We’ll see. Beyond that, we’ll see.
i think the eagles will have to actually shift gameplans a little and protect these guys and build confidence
u will c probably a bit more running, celek staying in to block more, alot of rolling the pocket screens and reverses
hopefully we wont just come out shotgun every play
St Louis Rams Defense and in particular their front 7 is very good and disciplined.. . They have some veteran DT’s but have some excellent young DE’s (C Long, J Hall, G Selvie and Top Pick R Quinn who has had an excellen camp and PRe-Seaon by most observors)
Their LB corp are big but not super athletic and rely on positioning and experience with J Laurenitis in the Middle flanked by Veterans N Diggs and B Leber , get thier LB Corp out in space on Screens, delays roll-outs, Delay TE releases and you can do some damage.. .
Knowing and watching Spags Defenses over the Years, he will blitz alot and he will come up the gut so the interior of the Eagles OL will be tested early and often ad the Chris Long/ Jason Peters should be a great one.. I do think Herremans may have a difficult time with Rober QUinn who is both fast and strong so Herremans will probably need some TE or FB/RB help chip Quinn
If Eagles can negate the Rams DE’s (which is their strength) than QB Vick and the WR’s should have easy pickins on their Secondary.. but those DE’s are young,strong and relentless and will put up a big fight all game long..
Kelce, will be a very good run blocker (if they ever run the ball), but this line is going to struggle mightily to pass protect, especially early on. Young by week 3. Bank on it! $100m, down the toilet!!! FLUSH!!!!
VR, with all due respect, you do not know what you are talking about! There were years that Indy’s O-line didn’t allow a player to sniff Manning. Indy lead the league for many years in least sacks allowed. Don’t tell me it was because Manning got rid of the ball fast. He sat back there for 6- 8 seconds most of the time. Are you nuts!? Also, Mudd retired, he wasn’t forced out in Indy. Sean McDermott! Really!? REALLY!? Get your facts straight guys, before you come on here & sound like infantile, clueless, dopes! Everybody is getting all nuts over JJ. He is an old, injury prone, fat pig! Stop it already. He can’t even stunt block anymore!
Schiller, what is the method of operation for the Eagles, PASS and PASS some more. They live and die by their ability to quick strike. The young ones (Kelce &Watkins) are better run blocker, so how is any gameplan workable with these pieces. They will not run screen plays and check down plays the entire game, while hoping to win. And for sure, they will not dedicate themselves to a 60/40 run to pass ratio! These are the Eagles we’re talking about!
Man I might as well not even watch the games this season…I’m on GCOBB.com
I already know whats gonna happen….
If you are going to do it, do it now. Let him run with the ones. G. Cobb said he see’s alot of upside for this kid.
Just hope Vick lasts long enough for him to pick up the game.
The Crystal Ball is working at full power now.
Look forward to seeing who the Eagles pick up after all the cuts are made.
I will wait to see the opening day roster, to see if Crystal Ball Andy’s vision is completely insane.
His name will be MUDD – If Vick gets knocked out on a inside stunt.