Asomugha: Bowles will help

Eagles cornerback Nnamdi Asomugha made the media rounds last week to spread the word about a new initiative with the United Way focused on reducing the number of high school dropouts in this country.

During interviews, he also talked about football and expectations for the 2012 Eagles.

Speaking with Tony Bruno and Harry Mayes of 97.5 The Fanatic, Asomugha said the team's new secondary coach, Todd Bowles, is a welcome addition.

"Oh man, that guy's smart. He's smart. I don't know how much else to say," Asomugha said. "He understands the game, not only from a secondary's point of view and not only from a defense's point of view, but he understands it as a whole. He sees it very well. There are things that myself, that I see or that last year a couple other guys would see that... it helps to have a guy also that can help Juan [Castillo] out with that because he's seeing the same things that we see, whether it's how teams want to attack us, or ways to get better at our positions, how to cut off the things that don't work for the defense and how to upgrade on the things that do. So he's been very helpful so far, and obviously we'll continue to see how helpful he'll be, but it's been a great addition."

Asomugha was used in a variety of ways last year - playing inside, outside, even back as a safety in some packages. He gave up too many big plays when quarterbacks targeted him, but as I've pointed out before, opponents stayed away from Asomugha for the most part. When in coverage, he was only targeted about 6.3 percent of the time. As a point of reference, Asante Samuel was targeted 12.6 percent.

This year, I still expect Juan Castillo to use Asomugha in different ways; he won't just be parked at right cornerback, playing press coverage on every snap. But the Eagles have some more flexibility with their scheme this year. For example, if they want Asomugha to shadow one wide receiver the entire game, they can do that.

Even though he had a down year in 2011, the three-time Pro Bowler is not short on confidence. Here's what he said when asked by PFT's Mike Florio which NFL wide receivers concern him.

"If you were just going to sit up there and play man against a guy, then that's a different story. If that were the case, there aren't guys that stand out in my mind," Asomugha said. "There's a handful of guys that are really good at what they're doing from the receiver position, which is the easiest position in the NFL. There are a handful of guys that are good at it. So it's not one particular guy that would concern me when I'm going into a game, but there are guys that you have to take notice of in the league, absolutely."

I'll let you guys make the Victor Cruz references in the comments section.

MORE LINKS

Pro Football Talk has updated salary cap numbers. According to them, the Eagles have $18.02M in cap space, third-most in the league.

Bovada has released its latest Super Bowl odds, and the Eagles are 14 to 1, behind only the Packers (13/2), Patriots (13/2) and 49ers (10/1). The Broncos and Texans are also 14/1.

Days before he was named a senior college scout by the Eagles, Greg Gabriel (National Football Post) named the Birds one of his breakout teams in 2012.

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