Archive: May, 2009
Daily News staff
Catching up on the weekend of Eagles odds and ends:
A one-time Daily News staple was the annual strength of schedule rankings in the NFL. Thanks to the folks at the Fifth Down blog from the New York Times, we don't have to type it in this year.
The Eagles have the ninth most difficult schedule in the league based on the 2008 winning percentage of their opponents. Eagles opponents won at a 53.5 percent rate.
Les Bowen, Daily News Staff Writer
The immediate thought following the report by Dallas' WFAA-TV blog about the Eagles hiring former Cowboys defensive coordinator Brian Stewart as a defensive assistant is that this is more bad news about Jim Johnson's situation. A source close to the situation has confirmed the Dallas blog report, and said that the hiring will be announced next week.
Presumably, Stewart is going to take over the secondary, which Sean McDermott has been trying to run while also filling Johnson's role as defensive coordinator. Johnson has taken an indefinite leave of absence to fight metastasized melanoma.
If the Eagles felt Johnson was close to returning, they wouldn't feel the need to add to the staff; McDermott's helper in the secondary, longtime NFL corner Otis Smith, ran the d-backs last week in rookie camp. The additional hiring, assuming it is true, seems to confirm what has been feared -- that Johnson might not be able to resume his duties this season, if at all.
Les Bowen, Daily News Staff Writer
Cornelius Ingram was back on the field for the final day of Eagles rookie camp, wearing a black elastic sleeve on his bruised left knee but otherwise showing no ill effects from Wednesday's collision with safety Rashad Baker.
"I felt good after treatment, so I definitely wanted to go out and do something," said Ingram, a tight end who has looked like a fifth-round find in the early going. Ingram dropped in the draft because he missed last season following left ACL surgery. "The swelling went down a lot. I just wanted to come out and be with the team again ... At the beginning of practice, it was a little stiff, but once I started to sweat, we got going a lot more, it became more comfortable.
"I'll be honest, I was a little scared (to get hit in the same knee he had just finished rehabbing), but once I got up, the pain started to ease away a little bit. I went to the doctor (Thursday) morning and everything looked fine, so I'm out here today running around."
Les Bowen, Daily News Staff Writer
Ken Parrish was cut from the San Francisco 49ers before the 2007 season, didn't catch on anywhere in 2008, and finally came home and took a job as a police officer back home in Stroud Township, Pa., Monroe County, about an hour and a half northeast of Philadelphia.
About eight months passed, Parrish said Thursday. Then he got a call from a trainer he'd worked with in California, Paul Assad. Assad thought Parrish could still be a pro punter. "He was like, 'You need to make a decision. I'm going to tell you right now, if you want another shot at this, it's going to take your full dedication. It's not something you can do as a cop during the day, and train at night ... this is a no-joke league.' "
Parrish spent a few weeks talking it over with his family, including his father, William Parrish, a Stroud Township Police captain. The consensus was that Ken should go for it. He'll have the rest of his life to pursue a police career.
Daily News staff
The Eagles announced this morning that they have signed punter Ken Parrish and released rookie free agent kicker Sam Swank.
Parrish will presumably be the extra training camp leg to help take some of the burden off Sav Rocca.
Parrish (6-1, 210) spent the training camp and preseason with the 49ers in 2007 before being released before the start of the regular season.
Daily News staff
"It becomes a thing where I have done it for so long, it is just what I do," Runyan told SI.com's Ross Tucker, a former NFL lineman. "I have been conditioned to do this at this point, and it is like I am in that rut. I am more than prepared to step away from the game, which really makes it easier to continue to play. I love the competition, I love the game and know I could move on but don't want to."
He also makes no bones about what would happen if he returned to the Eagles.
Les Bowen, Daily News Staff Writer
"Gin a body meet a body
Comin thro' the rye..." -- Robert Burns, later quoted and given a wider audience by J.D. Salinger.
Don't know if the NovaCare practice surface contains much rye. But a body met a body Wednesday.
At first, it looked as if Cornelius Ingram was just shaken up. He probably was, given the scare he'd just gotten, but the fifth-round rookie tight end from Florida also sustained a knee contusion in a rookie camp collision with safety Rashad Baker, the Eagles announced. The team said Ingram should be fine, and ought to be able to return to the field Thursday.
Daily News staff
The Eagles announced the signing this morning of rookie free agent defensive tackle Trevor Jenkins.
Jenkins (6-1, 287) started 37 of 47 career games at Middle Tennessee State and was second-team All-Sun Belt Conference as a senior. For his career, he posted 105 tackles, 25 tackles for a loss and two sacks.
A native of Macon, Ga., he helped lead Stratford Academy to the Georgia 3A state championship after collecting 95 tackles and eight sacks as a senior.
Daily News staff
Dan Klecko seemingly did a little bit of everything last year for the Eagles on both sides of the ball. He played fullback and then he was back to defensive tackle and then he was a fullback again.
He was at the Birds' organized team activities today back on the defensive line, but he knows that versatility might be what helps him stay on the roster.
"We went through the fullback thing last year, a couple of times, but I still think that d-line is the best position for me to be playing," Klecko told the Daily News' Mike Kern. "I have to find my niche (here). But anything Andy ever asks me to do, I’ll do. I think he knows that. We can move on from there. I’m just trying to win games. That’s what makes this thing fun, is winning games. When they look at me, they can say I can (fill) a couple of different positions for them, be an emergency this or that. That’s what I’d like to portray."
Daily News staff
Figured we would catch up on a few Eagles-related items that we saw over the holiday weekend before the team's rookies and selected veterans head back to the practice field on Tuesday for four days of minicamp ... Some you might have seen and some you might have missed ... Enjoy
* We know you are sitting there wondering what Hank Baskett and Kendra Wilkinson did for the Memorial Day weekend. The wedding is about a month away; Kendra's new reality show on E! debuts June 7. Well, we'll tell you. Hank and Kendra and fellow "Girl Next Door" Holly Madison hosted a pool party at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, according to the folks at Enterainment Tonight online and VegasNews.com.
