Eagles rookie safety Nate Allen has been having a solid training camp so far. At times he’s been outstanding and the Eagles have to be pleased with his play up to this point. Allen has become more and more comfortable with the defensive coverages and you can see it with his recognition of plays and pass pattterns.
Defensive coordinator Sean McDermott has been pleased with his progress and so has head coach Andy Reid, who talked about Allen yesterday.
“Nate’s doing a good job,” Reid told the media yesterday. “Nate’s kind of a smooth operator. He just has kind of a good feel for the game and he’s intelligent, so he’s able to pick up the concepts and apply them on the field.”
It’s really simple when judging a safety during the seven-on-seven drills at training camp. Do they get their hands on the football? If they’re getting their hands on the football, then they’re doing a good job. Allen has been doing that and doing it on a regular basis throughout this training camp.
He seems to recognize routes and formations. The youngster has good fundamentals and reads the eyes of the quarterback when he gets the chance.
“I’ve been impressed with him”, Reid continued. “He’s made a lot of plays out here. He’s had a lot of interceptions and made a lot of break-ups. So, right now he’s doing some good things.”
Still the jury is out on him and the other Eagles rookies until they’re getting it done in a real game. Making plays in practice is much different than making plays in a game, but you have to do one to have the chance to do the other. I want to see whether Allen can make tough open field tackles against the big wide receivers, tight ends and running backs in the league.
“He needs to get into the preseason games here, finish up the practices, and then get into the preseason games and let’s let him get against a new opponent here and a new scheme”, Reid explained to the gathering of media yesterday . “We’ll just see, we’ll see how he does.”
I like the fact that Allen has a veteran coach like Dick Jauron working with him because Jauron has seen it all. Each day he goes through the formations, routes, shifts and motions which the secondary will have to adjust to before the ball is even snapped.
One of the keys to being a good safety is being able to anticipate what quarterbacks and receivers are going to do in certain situations.
Time will tell.
this sounds like a reoccuring article just substitute the name…Considine, I mean Demps, oh I’m sorry Jones…my fault Macho Harris…ok..I’m not pulling your chain this time….”Nate Allen”.
I agree Songs. They say the same thing about a player in camp. The thing is, that’s all they can say. We can’t really take anything they say to heart because they have to give the company line. Every player they have drafted has “looked good” according to them when in camp. It’s a whole different thing on game day. Having said that, I always hope all these guys turn out to be good but I reserve judgement for myself and not what coaches say while in camp. If we listen to them, this team should be gonig 13-3, on the way to the Super Bowl and have the greatest offense that has graced the field of play and Kolb will never ever under throw anyone and all his passes will be on the money, McCoy will run for 1200 yards, the defense will allow 15 points a game and Stewart Bradley will be Ray Lewis.
I’m glad they found a guy with ball skills and good hands as a safety. As time goes on he can strendthen like Dawk did over the years to punish at key moments.
This years biggest addition to the secondary = Dick Jauron
When this team was making it to NFC championship games we had quality coaches As evidenced by the number of Head Coaches that have come through here during the Andy Reid Era. I must point out that while I feel AR is a quality coach I also have bashed him for his dang stubborn pass pass pass philosophy. I have come to accept that the RULES have changed the game to be a pass first league and so I have accepted that we have a very very good head coach.
This team should be very good this year!
Nate Allen will develop into a very good NFL Safety,
He is not a big hitter and is not his strength, his game is more proper positioning,solid tackling and making plays on the ball.. I kind of compare him to a lot like a Mickell but with much better hands to actually make plays..
Regal, I agree and that makes me think of how good a coach Andy really is or did he just have so many talented coaches around him that we thought it was Andy. I think he’s a good coach but the special teams hasn’t been the same since Harbaugh left and we all know about JJ and the defense and one could also make the argument that the offense was much more efficient and balanced when Childress was here. Jauron was a great addition to the coaching staff and will probably be a defensive coordinator in the league again in a year or 2 and hopefully he can get these guys to play. I know one thing he can’t do…. get Asante to tackle. No one can do that.
Bubble screen to the receiver on Samuel’s side goes for another 30 yards. If I was the opponent this play would be called every play.
Dallas used the bubble screen with their big receivers to expose Asante Samuel.
What have the Eagles done to show us it can be any different this year?
And I guess not being able to tackle on a bubble screen was Mcnabb’s fault too.