Will The Eagles Strengths Overcome Their Weaknesses?

The Philadelphia Eagles are amongst the most talented teams in the league at a number of positions and they’re also very csuspect at others. Can this football team’s strength make up for their weaknesses? The Birds season will come down to how that question is answered when the 2011 campaign ends.

On the offensive side of the ball, we’ve talked ad nauseum about the weaknesses and question marks on the Birds offensive line. They are many and they are glaring. Inexperience, inconsistency and inability on the offensive line will have to be overcome by the skill positions players on the offensive side of the ball.

On the defensive side of the ball, the Eagles linebackers and safeties are the obvious weaknesses. The defensive line and cornerbacks are their strengths. The linebackers are young, small and lack much of an NFL resume. The safeties are also young, inexperienced and they don’t have big time catch up speed.

One of the defensive challenges will be how well the Birds can defend the run, when big physical teams try to play a ball control style to keep the Eagles explosive offense off the field and wear down the team’s smallish defense. In the passing game, offenses will try to get the safeties isolated in man-to-man coverage on wide receivers, tight ends and running backs.

On special teams, the Birds will be relying on a rookie kicker and a rookie punter. They both have strong legs, but they’re never kicked in the winter weather in the NFC East with the playoffs on the line.

Back to the offense, another key to the season will be how the skill position players perform while the offensive linemen are getting familiar with their positions and their responsibilities. Michael Vick must be able to deal with occasional free pass rushers, by throwing the ball away, getting it to a shallow receiver or taking off on a scramble.

They have a Pro Bowl level quarterback in Vick. From an athletic ability standpoint, there’s not another quarterback in the league who can match him, but the Vick is going to have be great in his recognition of blitzes and his decision-making. We saw what he can do last year, if given the time and targets. He must stay away from turnovers even if the line is struggling.

The quarterback will be throwing the ball to three Pro Bowl level wide receivers. DeSean Jackson, who has made the Pro Bowl twice is the deep guy and Steve Smith, who has made it once, will be a key part of the attack. Jeremy Maclin, who is as talented as they come, is going into his third season and I think Pro Bowls are in his future.

These guys must come up with big plays every time they get the chance because there’s no tell how many chances they’re going to get if Vick is running for his life too much.

Brent Celek is an excellent tight end and he will be asked to again give up pass catching opportunities in order to help the offensive line and their pass blocking. He must make the best of what opportunities he does get.

The Birds have an excellent group of running backs led by LeSean McCoy , Ronnie Brown and fullback Owen Schmitt. They will play a big role in pass blocking. Many times they will be chip blocking before going out on routes and helping out on free pass rushers when an offensive lineman is beaten.

On defense, the Birds have two Pro Bowl defensive ends, Trent Cole and Jason Babin, and an excellence pass rushing defensive tackle in Cullens Jenkins. They’ll need to be dominant.

Defensive tackle Antonio Dixon is a solid run stopper and so is fellow defensive tackle Mike Patterson. They will be tested quite a bit because I expect teams to attack the run defense rather than throw the ball at those corners.

The defensive lineman must create mayhem in the opposing offense’s backfield in order to help the Eagles linebackers in their pursuit of the ball while defending the run. Versus the passing game, if the defensive line puts pressure on the quarterback they will make it nearly impossible for a passer to successfully execute. The better the big boys play upfront, the easier the linebackers’ job will be in plugging the holes.

Of course you know about the three Pro Bowl cornerbacks, Asante Samuel, Nmandi Asomugha and Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie. The will likely be asked to play a great deal of man-to-man in order to keep the safeties out of the one-on-one situations. The ability of these quality cornerbacks to shut down the top wide receivers in the league will make the safeties’ jobs much easier.

If the Birds have any trouble with their run defense, Juan Castillo will walk up one of the safeties and ask his cornerbacks to handle the wide receivers with little if any help.

In the special teams area, the Eagles don’t want to put Alex Henery and his holder, punter Chaz Henry in positions where they have to execute long kicks to win games. The explosive offensive skill people, along with the defensive line and cornerbacks need to make some big plays so that their games aren’t close and don’t go down to the wire.

So there you have it. Will the strengths of this team be able to cover for its weaknesses? We will all find out very soon.