Philadelphia Eagles-New York Jets: What I’ll Be Looking for Tonight

The Philadelphia Eagles preseason will come to a close tonight. After tonight, the team will begin to make it’s final decisions on roster positions and will then enter full game plan mode for the Packers.

Tonight is going to be a very important night for a lot of Eagles players, especially the young guys. The starters won’t be taking any reps tonight so that the backups and third-string guys can battle it out to prove who deserve a spot on the roster.

One guy I’ll be watching already has a spot on the roster and that is Michael Vick. His play this preseason has been very inconsistent, and we will see him take all the quarterback reps during the first half tonight.

I’m not concerned about Vick’s ability to run the ball and see that as an asset the Eagles will use to their advantage this season. However, I am worried about his decision making with his passes. His arm strength is great and I think he can place the ball where he wants, but he has made some bad decisions this preseason.

If Vick can prove that he can make good decisions throwing the ball, he should be a real dangerous dual-threat this season.

Another thing to watch for will be the battle between Hank Baskett and Kelley Washington. These guys will see a lot more time on offense then they have in the previous weeks, but I don’t think that is the important thing.

I think that if one of them can make a big play on special teams tonight, it could be the deciding factor. No matter who makes it, they’re not going to see a lot of time on offense during the season. They will spend a lot of time on special teams. With these two, the Eagles need the best special teams player, not the best receiver.

On defense, there are a lot of guys to watch. I’d like to see Dimitri Patterson and Trevard Lindley play well. I think these are two guys that can potentially prove they can come in and play on nickel type situations.

I’m also interested to see how much time Macho Harris gets. He has missed a lot of time this year and he could end up being cut.

There’s also a bunch of other rookies on defense who I’ll be watching. Guys like Jeff Owens, Jamar Chaney, Keenan Clayton, and Kurt Coleman are fighting for positions and need to have a solid game.

What will you be looking for in tonight’s game?