Harbor upbeat about chance to play wide receiver for the Eagles

IF CLAY HARBOR weren't such a positive, upbeat guy, he might think the Eagles were trying to tell him something. Something not very good.

The fourth-year tight end caught a career-high 25 passes last season, then watched as the team added not one, but two highly touted tight ends in the offseason - free agent James Casey and second-round pick Zach Ertz.

Then, during OTAs in May, the coaches asked Harbor to take some reps at outside linebacker. The experiment lasted only a day, and coach Chip Kelly said it was nothing more than food for thought in the event of an emergency, but still.

Then this.

On Sunday morning, when Harbor arrived at the NovaCare Complex, 2 days after catching three passes for 47 yards in the Eagles' preseason loss to the Patriots, he was informed that, until further notice, he was being moved to another position.

No, not linebacker.

The 6-3, 255-pounder is now a wide receiver.

Harbor's reaction was exactly what you'd expect from the guy.

"I said, 'Sure, yeah. I'm open to it,' " he said. "The more you can do, the more reps you can get, it just makes you more valuable as a player."

The Eagles basically are moving Harbor because, well, Kelly thinks he has a lot of good tight ends on his roster, but with Jeremy Maclin and Arrelious Benn both out for the season with torn ACLs, not enough good wide receivers beyond DeSean Jackson, Riley Cooper, Jason Avant and maybe Damaris Johnson. And among them, only Cooper is taller than 6 feet.

"Clay's probably the fastest of the tight ends," Kelly said. "So until there are some cutdowns and some guys [become] available, we think the best route for us is the guys we have.

"If we can cross-train Clay a little bit and teach him to play outside receiver . . . He already knows how to play inside and understands a lot of route concepts. So, it's a matter of the more versatile you can be, the bigger impact you can make."

The move actually makes a lot of sense. Kelly's offense is tight end-centric and he almost certainly will keep four tight ends on his season-opening roster.

Harbor is the No. 4 tight end right now, behind Brent Celek, Casey and Ertz. Unless one of the top three gets hurt, Harbor won't be getting a lot of offensive snaps. Certainly nowhere close to the 354 he got last year as the Eagles' No. 2 tight end behind Celek.

If you keep four tight ends, though, you have to subtract a roster spot at another position. If the No. 4 tight end can play another position, like, say, wide receiver, you can carry fewer wide receivers.

"I think I could be a guy who does both," Harbor said. "You can only dress 46 on Sunday. "If we dress four [wide] receivers and three tight ends and somebody gets nicked up, I'm ready to go.

"I can play either one. I think that's what their thinking is. I'm getting familiar with it. I know all of the tight end and 'A' [slot] stuff. Now I'm getting familiar with the wideout stuff, so I can do both."

Harbor certainly is fast enough to play outside. He runs a 4.5 40. And he's not totally unfamiliar with the position. He played it in high school and was recruited to Missouri State as a wide receiver before being switched to tight end two games into his freshman season.

"Two of our starting tight ends got hurt in practice," he said. "So they came up to me and said, 'Clay, you're our biggest receiver.' At the time, I was maybe 215 or 220. I wasn't very big.

"It was 3 days before our one big game of the year, against Oklahoma State. I had a couple of catches, had some success. Played both [tight end and wide receiver] the rest of the year. Then, my sophomore year, they moved me to tight end permanently.

"At first, I didn't like the transition to tight end, knowing that I had to block people and hit those big guys. But I got used to it, and I love the position now."

During yesterday's practice, Harbor worked strictly with the wide receivers, took all of his snaps at wide receiver.

"I'm strictly with the wideouts right now," he said. "I'm meeting with the wideouts. I'm practicing with the wideouts."

Harbor shouldn't have too much trouble learning the position. He's a smart guy, and, as Kelly pointed out, all of the tight ends already know how to play inside. So it's just a matter of learning the outside spots.

"It's just a matter of learning a few more of the route concepts," he said. "You have to know where you are everywhere on the field. As a tight end, there are a [limited] number of routes where we know we can be outside on. But when you're outside [as a wide receiver], you have to know all of them.

"I was good on those routes. I just had to go back and study a little more. Yesterday was really my first night getting into the playbook and being able to look at that, because it was the first night I knew that I was a receiver.

"I came out here today and had a much better day than I did yesterday. You've got to be a lot more technical on your routes [outside] than when you're working inside."

While plenty of wide receivers are as tall and as fast as Harbor, few are as big and as strong.

"I feel I can use my size and strength to my advantage," he said. "I might deceive a couple of the cornerbacks who think I'm a typical tight end who runs a 4.7 40. I think it'll be good. I'm going to get a couple of games out there and see how it goes."

Harbor has developed into a better-than-serviceable blocker as a tight end. But blocking on the outside against cornerbacks is much different from blocking inside against linebackers and defensive ends.

"The only similarity there is it's still called blocking," Harbor said. "At wide receiver, those DBs are so quick. You can't go charging at a defensive back. He's going to move out of the way.

"You can't go in too hot. You can't go in too slow. You have to burst, settle and then you trigger when they trigger. There's a science to it, just like blocking on the line. You have to be patient, and when you get inside, you get your hands in on him and you can't let him go."

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