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Paul Domowitch: Eagles' backup tight ends don't harbor any resentment

BETHLEHEM - There is an interesting dynamic at an NFL training camp. Room assignments usually are determined by position. A running back bunks with another running back. A linebacker bunks with another linebacker. A tight end bunks with another tight end. You get the picture.

Rookie tight end Clay Harbor has moved ahead of Cornelius Ingram on the depth chart. (David Maialetti / Staff Photographer)
Rookie tight end Clay Harbor has moved ahead of Cornelius Ingram on the depth chart. (David Maialetti / Staff Photographer)Read more

BETHLEHEM - There is an interesting dynamic at an NFL training camp. Room assignments usually are determined by position. A running back bunks with another running back. A linebacker bunks with another linebacker. A tight end bunks with another tight end. You get the picture.

Anyway, this often means that players competing for the same job are thrown together in the same cramped, little dormitory room. Sort of a football version of sleeping with the enemy. Only the enemies often become friends. Sometimes out of necessity, sometimes because, well, they just happen to take a liking to each other.

Eagles tight end Clay Harbor wasn't sure what to expect when the fourth-round rookie arrived at Lehigh 3 weeks ago and was paired with Cornelius Ingram. Harbor and Ingram are competing for the backup tight end job behind starter Brent Celek.

"When I was drafted, I thought it might be a real cutthroat environment here," Harbor said. "But it's really not like that. Me and Cornelius help each other out a lot. It's not a level of competition where, man, I have to do better than [him]. We're just pushing each other to get better.

"If he sees me do something wrong, he'll come over and say, 'Hey, next time, give him a little stick [move] and you'll probably be open. If I see him do something I think he can improve on, I'll do the same thing for him."

A year and change ago, Ingram was a hotshot rookie out of the University of Florida whose speed and athleticism had the Eagles drooling. Then, just days into training camp, he tore his ACL for the second time in 2 years. He is healthy again, but two ACL injuries are a big hurdle to overcome. Especially at this level, where losing a step can be the difference between catching 50 passes and selling insurance.

"My first couple of days in practice in pads a few weeks ago, I was making sure I was jumping from around the piles because I was thinking about the knee," Ingram said. "But once I started to settle down and make plays, I got more comfortable. It's something everybody goes through, even if they only went through the surgery one time. And I went through it twice.

"It's in the back of my mind. I definitely think about it. But, for the most part, I try not to. It's been a long, difficult 2 years. I'm just trying to live in the moment. Relax and play ball."

While Ingram has struggled to regain his pre-injury form, Harbor has been one of the most impressive rookies in camp. Watching him on the practice field, it's hard to believe the kid is the product of a I-AA program (Missouri State).

He came out of nowhere last January with impressive performances in a pair of postseason all-star games, then knocked scouts' socks off at the combine and in his Pro Day workout, running a 4.57 in the 40, registering a 40-inch vertical leap and benching 225 pounds 30 times. Anybody who thought he might only be a workout warrior has found out otherwise the last 3 weeks. The kid can play.

He has moved ahead of Ingram on the depth chart, and unless he gets hurt between now and the Sept. 12 season opener against Green Bay, he'll probably stay there.

"It's important that he doesn't get frustrated, that he just continues to kind of push through," coach Andy Reid said of Ingram. "There were some good things he did in the [Jacksonville] game. He didn't play a lot, but the things he did, the plays he played, I thought he did very well."

There's a good possibility the Eagles will keep both Harbor and Ingram, or put Ingram on the physically unable to perform list and give him more time to get his knee right, though he insists it already is.

"The knee is perfectly fine," he said. "It's just the calf that's a little sore. But I felt good today. Better than I've felt in a week and a half. I'm definitely getting there. It's just something I have to deal with. As long as I stay positive, I'll be fine."

Eagles tight ends caught a total of 79 passes last season, but it was mainly a one-man show. Celek had 76 of those receptions. Alex Smith, the only other tight end on the Eagles' roster last season, had the other three receptions.

Both Harbor and Ingram are considerably faster and more athletic than Smith and will make the Eagles more difficult to defend when they line up in two-tight end sets, which, according to Reid, they plan to do more than they did a year ago.

"We like two-tight-end sets, whether it's with two backs in the backfield and one [wide] receiver, or whether it's two [wide] receivers and one back," he said. "We like those combinations and we've done that in the past quite a bit, and probably got away from it just a bit last year. But these kids [Harbor and Ingram] have the ability where you can utilize them."

While Harbor didn't have any receptions in Friday's 28-27 preseason win over the Jaguars, he has been sure-handed in camp and has impressed the Eagles with his blocking.

"The effort's there," Reid said of Harbor's blocking. "He's got to work on some technique things, but he is an aggressive kid and I like that. We just have to refine a little bit of his technique, but [tight ends coach Tom Melvin] is working with him on that. The kid will work as hard as you want him to work. He's a tough kid."

The 6-3, 252-pound Harbor came to Missouri State as a wide receiver, but was switched to tight end after redshirting as a freshman. He caught a school career-record 150 passes there.

Because there are so few in-line college tight ends in this era of the spread offense, it's hard for NFL teams to find college tight ends with finished blocking skills. Harbor said he finally started honing his after his junior year, when scouts warned him he probably wouldn't get drafted unless he improved as a blocker.

"I wasn't that good of a blocker, wasn't that physical," Harbor said. "People were telling me, you're gonna be a free agent or seventh-round guy. I had some guys come in who told me, 'You're really athletic. You can run routes and catch. You're just not blocking very well. If you want to play in the NFL, you're gonna have to learn how to block and get stronger and bigger.'

"So I gained 10 more pounds coming into my senior year and started working on my blocking over the summer. I started blocking well, and every scout that would come in would say, 'Are you the same kid we watched last year?' "

Send e-mail to pdomo@phillynews.com