Amid low expectations, the Eagles return to the Linc
If you did not know any better, the scene at Lincoln Financial Field would have looked pretty awesome Sunday. The thick early-morning storm clouds gave way to bright sunshine and the Eagles' fight song blared over the sound system as the team opened its first public practice of the Doug Pederson era.
If you did not know any better, the scene at Lincoln Financial Field would have looked pretty awesome Sunday. The thick early-morning storm clouds gave way to bright sunshine and the Eagles' fight song blared over the sound system as the team opened its first public practice of the Doug Pederson era.
"It was pretty cool," rookie quarterback Carson Wentz declared after his first workout on his new home field. "Coming out here, everyone's yelling. For a practice, it's pretty sweet to see the support and see everyone out here. It's really exciting. I had a lot of fun."
It is easy to understand Wentz's view. The last time he took the field for a game, he was playing for a college championship in front of 21,836, so the crowd of 18,276 that showed up for nothing more than a practice was quite substantial.
Had he been at the Linc for the last training camp workout a little less than a year ago, however, Wentz would have known better. An estimated crowd of 43,000 gathered that day for nothing more than a practice and the intensity of the workout immediately grew when a plane carrying a message all the way from Texas - "WE STILL DEM BOYZ!!!! #SACKSCOMIN. " - flew overhead. Former Dallas Cowboys defensive lineman Greg Hardy reportedly financed $300.00 of the cost for the fly by.
That same day, Eagles fans, through a GoFundMe page, had paid for a plane to carry the message - "WE GOT DEMARCO" - over the Cowboys training camp in Oxnard, Calif. That plane, however, never got off the ground because of a crash that killed the pilot of another plane that had taken off at the same airport that day.
It was a bizarre beginning for the Eagles and normalcy never returned at any point during coach Chip Kelly's final season. It all seems like a dream now - a long, bad dream - but because it was reality the expectations for the 2016 football season are way, way down in this town.
Somebody with some extra money and a sense of humor should have sent up a "WE GOT RID OF DEMARCO" banner before the start of Sunday's practice. If you're just tuning back in after a busy offseason, the Eagles got rid of DeMarco and Demeco (Ryans). They also waved bye bye to Byron (Maxwell) and kicked Kiko (Alonso) to the curb.
Ryan Mathews is already hurt, but, as the people at Geico like to say, if you're Ryan Mathews that's what you do.
Sam Bradford is back and he launched a feathery deep ball to Jordan Matthews with minimal crowd reaction during Sunday's workout. A year ago, Bradford was the primary focus of these public workouts and he remains the No. 1 quarterback on the depth chart.
But Wentz is the new kid in town and it's hard to have too much hope for the present when you know the quarterback of the future might not see the field this season. Still, they always love the quarterback that has not played yet, so when Wentz completed a series of mid-range passes during his final reps of the afternoon, it drew the loudest applause of the workout.
Later, when Wentz crossed the field for an interview session with the media, chants of "Carson, Carson, Carson," rang out from the portion of the crowd that remained until the very end. The North Dakota native should enjoy the adulation as long as it lasts because every quarterback that has ever played in Philadelphia can tell you it will not last forever.
For the Eagles players who have been around a while, they also know that great expectations can come and go.
"I think a lot of people are picking us last in the division and a lot of people don't think we're going to compete this year," center Jason Kelce said.
That's true. Also true: Pederson was ranked the worst coach in the league by NFL.com and Howie Roseman was ranked the worst general manager by the Sporting News. These things mean little, but they do not make it easy on the marketing department. On the other hand, there's still a long waiting list for season tickets.
"I think if you look at the guys we have on this roster, we have a lot of really, really good players," Kelce said. "I think we have a chance to be very competitive this year. It seems for some reason since I've been here that every time people think we're going to have a down year we tend to do very well and every time they think we're going to be great - the Dream Team and those types of years - we end up doing well. I'd almost rather they count us out, because it seems like we do better that way anyway."
The last time expectations were this low was 2013 when Kelly arrived on the scene and the Eagles went from worst to first in the NFC East. But the best of both worlds is when a team arrives at training camp with great expectations and rises to meet them. The last time that happened was 2004 and that was indeed a long, long time ago.
@brookob