Early Birds: Marcus Smith's limited preseason; No. 3 QB competition; Coaches prepare for Falcons
Marcus Smith needed a strong preseason to build his stock after a disappointing rookie year. He played one game.
1) Marcus Smith needed a strong preseason to build his stock after a disappointing rookie year.
He played one game.
A hamstring injury has kept Smith out the past two weeks. He is not expected to play on Thursday against the Jets, meaning the Eagles' coaches will need to form their evaluation off two weeks of practice and one game.
"You've just got to evaluate him on what's available," coach Chip Kelly said. "He did play in the first preseason game and then obviously got hurt while we were training with the Ravens. So we have that, we have last spring to work off of with Marcus, and then obviously the practices and training sessions we had before he got hurt."
Smith said there's "no nervousness" about the roster cutdown, even though there isn't much of a body of work for the coaches to use as an example of Smith's improvement.
A first-round pick usually has at least two years to prove himself, and the Eagles are thin at outside linebacker, so Smith's confidence in his roster spot seems well founded. But he still needs to prove that they can count on him when he's healthy.
"It's not showing the coaches enough [to keep him] – it's showing the coaches I know exactly what I'm doing so when I come back, they could put me in there," Smith said.
Smith offered no timetable for his return. He initially wanted to return for Thursday's game. Now, he hopes for Week 1, but he does not know for certain.
"I wish I could play in this game," Smith said, "but I need to do the right protocol to keep myself healthy and right."
2) Kelly said that "opinions aren't formed" about whether he will keep Matt Barkley or Tim Tebow as the No. 3 quarterback, and that Thursday's game offers another evaluation opportunity. With quarterbacks, Kelly places more value on games than practices.
"I think especially with the quarterback position, practice is different just because they are wearing red jerseys," Kelly said. "When they are not hit, when you get them out there in a game, it's another opportunity to get a legitimate evaluation of them. So there is a lot of weight in it."
Barkley is starting, but it's likely there will be an equitable playing-time split. This is different from last season, when Barkley played three quarters in the preseason finale.
3) Eagles coaches have to worry about Thursday's game to determine the final spots on the 53-man roster, but they are also spending time on a different game: the Sept. 14 opener against the Atlanta Falcons.
Kelly said Eagles coaches "started on [the Falcons] a while ago," although they won't present the game plan to the players until next week. Last season, Kelly said the first-team players would start training for the season opener during the final week of the preseason.
@ZBerm