The Top Eagles Preseason Stories Getting No Attention

After a tumultuous offseason in which Eagles fans saw the departure of a defensive emotional leader (Brian Dawkins), their two bookend tackles (LT Tra Thomas and RT Jon Runyan), their starting tight end (L.J. Smith), a disgruntled corner (Lito Sheppard), and Brian Westbrook’s esteemed backup (Correll Buckhalter).

Eagles fans now find themselves learning new names and numbers across the board as training camp officially opened on Sunday at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa.

If you’ve heard anything about the Eagles offseason so far, it’s almost definitely been one of these three main topics.  

1) Personnel overhaul (nearly always referencing the new offensive line or the emotional hole left by Dawkins)

2) Brian Westbrook’s durability after coming fresh off knee and ankle surgeries in the offseason, and the most recent news out of Eagles training camp,

3) Defensive coordinator Jim Johnson’s battle with melanoma and Sean McDermott’s indefinite promotion to new defensive coordinator. 

All three stories will unquestionably shape the Eagles’ 2009-2010 campaign and will have a huge impact on whether this team, fresh off their fifth NFC Championship Game appearance in the past 10 years, will be able to piece together one more magical run (and maybe even finish it this time?).

However, while other columnists write thousands of words about the acquisition of ex-Bills Pro Bowl LT Jason Peters or try to pry out any information about Westbrook’s rehabilitation, I wanted to take a look at five stories that didn’t garner so much media attention during the offseason. I am talking about five stories that will mold the Eagles into Super Bowl contenders or leave them in the pretender dust.

1) The Andrews Bros. Rehab: While all the attention goes towards Westbrook’s grab-bag of injuries, two other very important Eagles find themselves coming off less attractive injuries – the brothers RG Shawn and RT Stacy Andrews. 

Currently, Shawn is the Andrews brother surrounded in more mystery – the three-time Pro Bowler missed all of last season with the Eagles with a back injury after skipping training camp due to “depression.” The Eagles hope the year off will have helped him regain his Pro Bowl form and did everything in their power to ease the process – including bringing in his brother, Stacy, from the Bengals in free agency. 

Stacy, a 6’7”, 340 lb former franchise-tag player for the Bengals, came to the Eagles in free agency this offseason as a replacement for stalwart RT Jon Runyan (much as Jason Peters did to replace LT Tra Thomas). Yet Stacy faces his own road to recovery after tearing his right ACL last year with the Bengals. As any athlete knows, the road to recovery after an ACL injury lasts upwards of a year, leaving Stacy Andrews unsure about participating in full-contact drills at the beginning of veteran's training camp later this week, according to Les Bowen of Philly.com.

While Stacy lacks the Pro Bowl accolades his brother can proudly boast, the Eagles hope that his presence in the Eagles locker room will cause Shawn to revert to Pro Bowl form. By replacing two aging tackles with two younger players ready to hit their prime, the Eagles actually may have improved on the offensive line, especially in regards to run-blocking (more on that in #4).

2) Jeremy Maclin’s Contract: This story has started to catch fire in the past few days, as rookie WR Jeremy Maclin remains unsigned and Eagles training camp started Sunday for the rooks. Maclin, the 19^th pick in the draft this year and the first WR the Eagles have taken in the first round since “Fabulous” Freddie Mitchell, arguably had top 10 WR talent and could have been taken much higher if not for the Raiders’ inexplicable Darrius Heyward-Bey pick at #7. 

The Eagles, notorious for hard-balling in contract negotiations (see departure of: Brian Dawkins, Jeremiah Trotter, etc.), are assuredly giving Maclin the treatment, yet he hasn’t backed down.

Reactions have been surprisingly tempered – so far. The local Philadelphia media remain unconcerned with Maclin’s absence, surprisingly so given their vitriolic history. In fact, the Philadelphia Daily News recently reported that Maclin selected his agents - Jim Steiner and Ben Dogra – specifically because they typically signed their picks on time, before camp started. 

Unfortunately for the Eagles (and for teams around the league), a shockingly low number (three) of first round picks have signed contracts so far, leaving little precedent for agents to negotiate market-based contracts. 

In a profession where agents and teams often rely on surrounding deals to narrow down the details on their own contracts, the Eagles and Maclin tread in uncharted waters as they can only base their negotiations off the Cleveland Browns’ signing of center Alex Mack (the 21^st pick). 

Both Coach Andy Reid and QB Donovan McNabb fielded questions about Maclin at Eagles training camp and both expressed their fullest confidence in Maclin’s negotiations progressing quickly enough to not cause a real problem. McNabb referenced Desean Jackson, the speedy second year WR from Cal who blew all expectations out of the water last year as he spoke about Maclin, believing Jackson’s impact could contribute to Maclin playing a large role on the team, especially for a rookie.

One thing’s for certain. If this détente continues a few more days and Maclin doesn’t report to camp by Friday (the day veterans check in), then we’ve got a real story on our hands… and one that would be a heartbreaker for Eagles fans.  Maclin needs to get in camp ASAP if he’s going to be the dynamic force and eventual replacement for Kevin Curtis that the mainstream media believes him to be.

3) Ellis Hobbs (and the rest of the corners):  In one of my personal favorite articles of the year, SI’s Peter King wrote an article after the NFL Draft where he praised the Eagles for their crafty draft day maneuvering, suggesting,

“What would you think if I told you the Philadelphia Eagles got third-, fifth-, sixth-, and seventh-round draft choices, plus half a starting cornerback for nothing in this year's draft?  That's right. For free. There is no smoke, mirrors or cheating involved, only thought and effort. For moving down six spots in the third round—eventually taking a player they were considering for that 85th pick anyway—the Eagles got filthy rich."

As King expertly described in detail, the Eagles played the role of John Dillinger during the draft, robbing the rich of their draft picks for absolutely nothing. The Eagles dealt two fifth-round picks to the Patriots on the second day of the draft to acquire Ellis Hobbs, a CB/kick returner who led the AFC in kick return average last season (which filled the hole in the secondary that resulted from releasing the disgruntled Lito Sheppard for a fifth-round pick). 

In a strange-but-fun fact, the Eagles will now line up the same two corners that the New England Patriots did for of their 16-0 season (the Eagles signed CB Asante Samuel from the Pats last year). Hobbs played a critical role for the Patriots in their (almost) perfect season – he scored the longest kickoff return in NFL history by returning a Mike Nugent kick 108 yards against the Jets in Week 2 and registered a number of crucial interceptions, including one in the AFC Championship Game and the Super Bowl. 

Depending how Reid uses Hobbs (whether he becomes the Eagles’ kick returner), he could become as feared of a special-teams player as Devin Hester a few years back.  More importantly, if Hobbs and Samuel can return to their ball-hawking days in New England, the Eagles could easily have one of the most fearsome secondaries in the NFL.

4) Leonard Weaver and the run game: As long as Andy Reid has been coach, there have been questions about the run in Philadelphia (and for good reason). Reid, unquestionably a pass-first coach, has favored a pass/run ratio closer to 60-40 than the ideal 50-50 balance that coaches tend to strive for. 

Unquestionably, personnel decisions impacted Reid’s ability to run the football early in his Eagles career – McNabb actually led the Eagles in rushing yards, attempts, and rushing TDs in 2000 as the Eagles found themselves riding the end of Duce Staley’s career.  While Correll Buckhalter emerged in 2001 to take some of the burden off McNabb, he was known as a running QB in the mold of Michael Vick (with a pinch more accuracy) for the first few years of his career in the NFL; only once T.O. brought the circus to town did McNabb start receiving praise for his arm as well as his legs. 

This year, the Eagles took big strides in the right direction to help out with the run game. Beside the (hopefully) improved run-blocking of the offensive line, the Eagles went out and acquired two legitimate threats in the backfield: FB Leonard Weaver from Seattle and RB Lesean McCoy in the second round of the NFL Draft. 

First, the Eagles haven’t had a legitimate blocking FB since… Thomas Tapeh?  It’s been a long time coming, folks. As admirably as Tony Hunt and Kyle Eckel tried last year (keep an eye on Eckel, though – he showed promise in limited reps), Weaver adds an entirely new element to the Eagles run game that had been missing for quite some time. If the Eagles commit themselves to the run early and often, this could be an entirely different team than the one Eagles fans are used to watching every Sunday.

Lesean “Shady” McCoy has been drawing rave reviews from Eagles insiders this offseason as he took most of the first team reps in the offseason with Westbrook still rehabbing. Reportedly, McCoy has met the challenge with open arms and remains the solid #2 option in the backfield. 

Westbrook will unquestionably get his starting role back when healthy enough to play again, yet McCoy could provide the Westbrook injury insurance the Eagles wanted with Correll Buckhalter, Lorenzo Booker and others last year. With the same body type and running style as Westbrook (a diminutive but quick cutter, not a power back), McCoy allows the coaches to call the same type of run plays as they would for Westbrook.  With these two players anchoring the backfield with Westbrook, the Eagles may finally lean closer to a 50-50 pass/run ratio by the end of this upcoming season.

5) McNabb’s contract extension: And last but not least… #5 for Number Five!  What is this? Can the Philadelphia media be ignoring Donovan J. McNabb?! In the first time in McNabb’s attention-grabbing decade with the Eagles, the main story doesn’t seem to revolve around him; instead people find themselves concerned with the new personnel, the scattered injuries, Jim Johnson’s melanoma, etc. However, the fates of the Eagles’ season rest firmly on the shoulders of the oft-maligned QB, who had a tumultuous offseason of his own. 

In the final games of the season (after the benching fiasco at Baltimore last year), McNabb began to publicly clamor for an extension, however; ESPN reported McNabb strong-arming the Eagles after the season’s disappointing conclusion in the NFC Championship Game, with McNabb demanding the Eagles surround him with more weapons on both sides of the ball. The Eagles went out and did more work than Kobe in Spike Lee’s latest film, and McNabb ended up getting himself a raise in the offseason, making him one of the highest paid QBs in the NFL over the next two years.  

His cries for extensions and more weaponry did not fall upon deaf ears, meaning the pressure is firmly on McNabb’s shoulders to make a serious Super Bowl run in the next two years. To his credit, the QB is not deflecting this harsh reality; in fact, he appears ready to embrace his destiny and has begun to reference “the next two years” as his working timeframe. Can McNabb pull one more rabbit out of a hat and get the Eagles back to a Super Bowl? More than any other player, McNabb’s performance this year will shape the trajectory of the Eagles’ season.   

6) Other stories to watch:

A. The TE battle between Brent Celek (the vet who came into his own by the end of last season) vs. Cornelius Ingram (5^th round pick from Florida, recovering from ACL injury).

B. Will David Akers continue to decline?  Will Sav Rocca revert back to 2007 form, or did lightning only strike once with the former Australian Football Rules player?

C. Sean Jones’ place on the team – the Eagles acquired him from the Browns in the offseason and he could have a role as a rotating SS in McDermott’s defense.