Not much to glean from Kelly's esoteric camp

TRADITIONALLY, this was the week when the Eagles loaded up the moving vans at Lehigh and headed home for the rest of the preseason. In fact, they were doing so a year ago today, and as usual, we wrote about what they thought they were taking away from their sojourn in the foothills:

"I know we're a very tough football team," Michael Vick said then, when asked what he knew about the 2012 Eagles that he hadn't known 3 weeks earlier. "I know we've got guys on this team who care, who want to win, and will go the extra mile to make sure we have a great chance of having success. That's gratifying."

Yeah, well . . .

There are no moving vans to pack this time, with training camp held entirely at NovaCare, but the urge to take stock remains, as the Eagles await their second preseason test, tonight at Lincoln Financial Field against the Carolina Panthers. Nearly 3 weeks into camp, what do we know about them?

Precious little, really. There is a sense that the excitement over Chip Kelly's offensive ideas is well-founded, that the Eagles will score points. Of course, with the o-line more or less healthy now, and fortified by Lane Johnson, this year's Eagles would probably score points with their old offense. There is a sense that the defensive transition is nowhere close to where it needs to be, mainly because that's what defensive coordinator Bill Davis keeps telling anybody who will listen. There is an overall sense of energy and focus, a sense of fresh air in the lungs, that comes from making a coaching change, when you haven't made one in 14 years.

The quarterback challenge enters a new phase tonight, with Nick Foles and Michael Vick expected to get more than the two series apiece they got in the preseason opener, and Foles taking the first snaps. The same people who a month ago were saying Foles had the edge in the race to win the starting job are now saying Vick has it locked up. Unless they've hacked into Kelly's brain, I'm pretty sure they're still guessing, or substituting their judgment for Kelly's.

Heading into tonight, if I were making the decision, I'd put Vick a little ahead. But I'm not making the decision, and I have about as firm a grasp of Kelly's Eagles offense as a Wikipedia entry reader has of quantum physics.

We all noticed how easily Vick assumed the mantel of leadership during the Riley Cooper crisis. This was partly because of his unique position, as an African-American quarterback and as a guy who understood what it was like to have done something nobody supported or understood. But it also was because he is, in fact the veteran QB starter, still a larger-than-life figure to quite a few teammates, who grew up idolizing him.

Starting Vick on Sept. 9 is the easier path. We all know the team will accept his authority, and that Foles will do and say the right things, won't ask for a trade or release because he might be asked to back up in his second NFL season.

The other path is rockier, given who Vick is and has been. Vick is battling time, at 33, trying to make up for two completely lost NFL seasons because of his prison term and another he spent trying to get his sharpness back here, after he left Leavenworth. Vick says he won't make waves, but he believes in himself, believes he's the man for the job, and so do some key teammates, such as DeSean Jackson. This might be Vick's last chance to start; if he leaves here after a year of backing up Foles, next spring he's 34 and headed toward one of those "in the mix" type jobs with another struggling team, or a clear backup role with a winner. So far, Vick is playing with the career-on-the-line urgency he showed in 2010, when he went to the Pro Bowl.

Of course, if Foles throws three touchdown passes tonight and Vick throws three picks, the QB narrative will change again tomorrow.

We started this assessment by poking fun at the idea of ever making declarations about a team in training camp, but I think most media observers would say Kelly's camp so far has been much more opaque than Andy Reid's. Part of this is about familiarity. In a year or 2, the hurried pace and the music and the flyswatters in 7-on-7 drills will be familiar. Right now they seem foreign.

Part of it is logistics. At Lehigh, reporters (and some fans) stood a few feet away from the players and coaches on the sidelines. Kelly has dictated that our NovaCare view is much more remote. We miss reactions, interactions, the way the sideline feels and sounds.

Also, Reid did way more 11-on-11 work in pads, with tackling to the ground. This kind of thing is easy for the layman to digest. So-and-so beat so-and-so, and Shady McCoy turned the corner. Many of Kelly's drills are much more esoteric.

I have a shorter-than-usual list of guys I know are playing well, and guys I think are struggling. In new systems, it's much harder to tell. Nearly everybody has "oops" moments. In the first preseason game, the Eagles' most dominant defensive lineman, 2012 first-round draft pick Fletcher Cox, was manhandled, leading to a 62-yard first-snap TD run for Stefan Ridley. Did not see that coming. Yes, Cox is transitioning from a one-gap to a two-gap philosophy, but if there is an Eagle more ideally suited to being a 3-4 end, I haven't seen him.

Danny Watkins, the much-maligned 2011 first-round pick, looked pretty good to me the first few weeks, but it took more than a few minor injuries on the o-line to get Watkins reps with the first team. Coaching praise has been tepid, and now Watkins apparently is sitting out tonight with a concussion. It seemed possible coming in that the switch in offensive line coaches from Howard Mudd to Jeff Stoutland would be good for Watkins, but he does not seem to be charging up the depth chart.

Like Kelly, I need this game tonight, and the next one, Saturday a week at Jacksonville, to make many lasting judgments. And I won't be surprised if the team that takes the field Week 2 against San Diego features at least a half-dozen players who aren't here yet, added as teams cut down to 53 and plugged into gaping Eagles holes, with little preparation.

I keep having this vision of myself at the end of the season, furiously running back through taped games, trying to put together a narrative of what exactly happened.

Blog: ph.ly/Eagletarian