This Week, Andy Gets His Wish
Eagles rookie camp Wednesday and Thursday will not be about Lito Sheppard or Donovan McNabb.
This Week, Andy Gets His Wish
Les Bowen, Daily News Staff Writer
Andy Reid's mood ought to improve this week, when the Eagles assemble for rookie camp on Wednesday and Thursday. Reid, critical of the media focus on Lito Sheppard's status and Donovan McNabb's bid for playmakers when the Birds assembled earlier this month, ought to be hearing and reading a lot more about DeSean Jackson, Trevor Laws, Joe Mays and the other new kids, this time around.
We're still a couple months away from training camp, but one minor issue that hasn't been touched on much is that there will be fewer players in camp. Since the NFL did away with its European affiliates, the six preseason roster exemptions for players assigned to Europe also disappeared. For several years, the 80-man roster limit was really 86, with the exemptions. This was one of the reasons you'd go to preseason games and almost never see the "real" Eagles. That could change this year, with fewer bodies. It might seem like a tiny change, but it's probably behind the Birds' decision to bring in Richmond McGee to both kick and punt for training camp, saving a roster spot (so far, anyway.)
Don Banks has an interesting discussion of that issue on si.com
Getting back to this week's camp, Jackson, the second-round wideout and returner from Cal, is the rookie who seems to have piqued fan interest the 
most, for obvious reasons. (If you've read this far into an Eagles blog without knowing those reasons, kindly back-click and continue to await the arrival of the "Sex and the City" movie ... No, wait. We're all about inclusiveness here at Eagleterian. While you're here, ponder the following question: Who has the more bizarre wardrobe, Carrie Bradshaw or Terry Bradshaw? )
While we're ranging far afield, I've been pondering something from the Flyers' Eastern Conference Final playoff series against the Penguins. No question, Pittsburgh has a young nucleus that could bring a Stanley Cup to that city this year or anytime over the next several years, assuming salary demands don't force a breakup. Heck, it almost certainly WILL bring them a Cup. Yet would fans here, desperate for the title parade they haven't seen since 1983, be willing to go through what Pens fans went through to build this incredible nucleus? To get Sidney Crisby, Evgeni Malkin, Marc-Andre Fleury and Jordan Staal, the Penguins had to draft FIRST OR SECOND OVERALL four times. Not once, not twice. Four times. Know how many times the Flyers have drafted first or second overall, in franchise history? Last year was the second time.
To turn this back to football, more or less, the Eagles, who have not been as consistently successful as the Flyers over the past 40 years, drafted first or second overall several times in the early years of the NFL. But since getting Bob Brown second overall in 1964, they've drafted that high exactly once, in 1999, the year they did not take Ricky Williams.
What would fans here DO if one of their teams was THAT bad for THAT long? Would there be an arena or a stadium to play in by the time the team was ready to win a title, or would they have burned it to the ground by then?
Discuss ...
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Since the Luries acquired the team, no coach aside from Rhodes has failed to reach the playoffs in two consecutive seasons. Accordingly, it is highly unlikely the Eagles will ever be that bad for that long under present ownership. While the "gold standard" remark was a little too self-serving for my taste, Reid is the best coach in franchise history post-1949. Therefore, I am highly confident this flock of Birds will fly deep into the playoffs. When healthy, McNabb, Westbrook, Andrews, Cole, Dawkins, Samuel, and Sheppard are among the very best at their respective positions. Few teams in the league can trot out a comperably long list of high echelon talent. This will be the best of Reid's teams.— Stephen_Niksa
Comment removed.- I live and die with all Philadelphia teams, optimistic as hell as each season starts. There are more disappointments than fulfillments of my optimism, of course, but I wouldn't trade being a Philadelphia fan for any of the others. I love our teams, I root for them with all my heart.— gilbi
- It would have been nice to get Duncan a year after AI, but the Spurs sat David Robinson for 1/2 the year & snuck us in the lottery! That wasn't fair!— Super5
- That was the most worthless commentary I have read on this site, you may as well just open it up to the public and feature any old weblog.— TheRock2020
- I don't get the question. The Eagle's have put together a team that has been a legitimate contender for several years and look good for several more. I believe they have an excellent chance of ending up in the Super Bowl this year. Why would I want to go through several losing season to get to where they are today? Oh wait. I get it. You have to write a blog but have nothing to say. Yiy tried to manufacture a controversy about who should start at QB. Didn't work. Then you covered the non-existiant conerback controversy. Never materialized. Now it's throwing out a question about how to build a team that implies that the you need several top 5 draft picks in successive years to build a Super Bowl contender. The Eagle's have the right strategy but you're proposing another way even though there is no team in the NFL that has successfully built a team in the manner your proposing. The question is bogus because it assumes that by losing for several years can deliver a Super Bowl. It hasn't and it won't.— MikeP
- The Penguins have a solid nucleus of finesse cry-baby divers. Real exciting.— Bizzle
- The best thing about Andy Reid and his staff is "consistency". Andy has his philosophy and his way of doing things and he sticks to it, for better or worse. It may not always be the best strategy, but its good enough to produce a winner most of the time. He just needs to learn to be a little more flexible and make adjustments in the heat of action when necessary to get over that final hurdle.— SteveS11
- Comment removed.
- This strategy is not going to work in Philly, in the NFL for a few reasons. Obviously, hockey isn't football; in hockey you can have a couple of great players (especially a goaltender, llke Martin Broduer) surrounded by a supporting cast of merely decent players and be successful. Football requires more bodies and more good players to complement the stars. Also, you can't recommend doing what the Pens did because a lot of it relied on luck. Not only were the Pens fortunate to choose first or second (because the NHL has a lottery), but each of those guys was available in the years when they were picking and each has panned out. It doesn't always work out that way: the one year the Flyers were the worst team in the league, it was considered a poor draft and they didn't even end up end picking first (they picked second). They got a likely elite forward but not the next Syd Crosby. We should also bear in mind that the Pens did it the way they did it because they had to. They were broke and in organizational disarray, so unable to sign quality free agents or commit to anything other than drafting as well as they could. Philly isn't a small market, so this rationale the Pens had for delayed gratification will never present itself here.— terp
- At this point, the Eagles should have gone "all in" in an effort to win a championship before their critical veteran players (Dawkins, Thomas, Runyan, McNabb) lost their mojo. While I believe they have attempted to improve their roster and acquire established impact players, they came up short. They seem to ignore how potent thier team was during the Super Bowl season - an omnipotent offense coupled with a defense that played with a lead and boasted legit D-Ends. And yes - I appreciate having enjoyed the best football I have seen in my lifetime during the Andy Reid era. At the same time, when a team is THAT close, they need to pull the trigger to get over the top.— Ligs
- It is impossible for this to happen to the Eagles in today's NFL. First of all, we may not like them but ownership does know how to sign young talent to be around for a while and maintain cap space. With that in mind along with the fact that the NFL gives bad teams the chance to redeem themselves by giving them easier schedules the following year and high draft picks, the Birds would only have one year tops with a top 5 pick. With their history, that doesn't guarantee a potential HOF player, just a higher touted OL or DL.— rvb2321
- way off topic, lol WMMR concert yessterday at the waterfront, watched a stupid pens fan w a pens jersey get about 50 guys on him kicking the life out of him, it was great, hey if we;re going to lose to those females called the pittsburgh penguins, might as well kick their a__es!!— Will.i.Am
- PITT sucks !— Will.i.Am
- terrible topic. pittsburgh went bankrupt and sent all their good players away. no nfl team has to worry about bankruptcy. you have wasted my time once again, les.— mikeb
