Okay, we are prepared to get back to football operations…
Ironically, events have transpired in a work-stoppage environment to somehow elevate classroom performance above athletic prowess…
This is one of those years when knowing WHERE to line up may actually trump WHAT happens after the snap…
I’m being somewhat facetious and dramatic to make the point. Obviously, the athletic talent and intuition of a player will always be the final say in whether he makes an NFL roster or not…
But the point is: if you have two or three candidates for a position in training camp this year, and all are of equal or similar athletic ability, the one who makes the final roster will most likely be the guy that shined in the classroom.
Not since the last work stoppage has such a premium been put on knowing a playbook—and learning it fast.
It may very well play out for many teams, not just the Eagles, that access to the best efforts of your top-flight first-year and new Free Agent signees may not be realized until well past mid-season… if only because it may take them that long to learn the system and play it without having to think everything out in their heads first.
Since all NFL teams are in the same boat on the 2011 learning curve, I expect an atypical wave of “parity” to strike the league in the first half of 2011.
I envision a lot of 3-5 and 4-4 teams going into that 9th game… some of whom will catch fire when the “connect” happens between superior athletic ability and timing of play execution.
Maybe I’m overreacting to the loss of OTA’s and mini-camps this past Spring… but it occurs to me that historically many a rookie and free agent has made it onto an NFL roster based on OTA performance and advance study of the playbook…
And in the success stories of certain young players, that kind of credibility just carried over into Summer camp…
My theory bodes well for the job security of veteran players already under contract within the Eagles system.
Suddenly, aging guys like Juqua Parker (DE) and Quintin Mikell (SS) have new possibility and potential life in the Eagles 2011 plans…
If you’re a known commodity with a proven track record of executing your playbook consistently, your value to the team has just increased…
Circumstances now definitely favor the odds of extending a 2-year or 3-year-deal to MLB Stewart Bradley, based upon the pending results of his latest physical and realizing Stew knows the defensive calls and signals of the Eagles as well as Johnny Bench once knew the Big Red Machine’s pitching staff.
Stew may end up at SAM instead of lined up in the middle…but at least the Eagles will know Stew is lined up correctly…
It’s a big deal in football. If you’re lined up wrong… or indecisive about it and it shows…you will eventually get torched for a big negative play.
You can be the best cover or the best wrap-up tackler on the team— but if you’re lined up wrong, it won’t contribute a thing.
The classroom learning curve this pre-season will retard the development of many a rookie and free-agent…
It will take that much longer for guys like Casey Matthews (LB), Jaiquawn Jarrett (SS) and Stanley Havili (FB/RB) to make their statements for first-string consideration…
And those young guys have already convinced me they are capable of making a huge difference…as long as they know how and where to line up.
The classroom challenge will also apply to Free Agents who may be signed with very little actual time to learn a new playbook.
Rumors are abounding with the Eagles having alleged interest in signing everyone from Clinton Portis (RB) to Brian Westbrook (RB), Charles Johnson (DE), Matt Hasselbeck (QB), Plaxico Burress (WR), Albert Haynesworth (DT), Jason Babin (DE), Paul Posluszny (LB), Dominique Rodgers-Cromartie (CB), and/or Johnathan Joseph (CB) or Josh Wilson (CB)… and as we’ve seen in recent days, even Brett Favre is on the potential FA radar.
But say just for laughs that all those FA’s were signed… the only individuals who would not be facing a huge learning curve of the Eagles’ system and interactive personnel timing issues would be Westbrook and Babin—who have been here before and would be re-united with former coaches—and, to a lesser extent, Favre and/or Hasselbeck, who both have familiarity with Andy Reid’s system from old Green Bay days…all of whom share an entrenchment in the offensive philosophy of the Mike Holmgren coaching tree.
All of which is to help make the point: in this abbreviated and high-pressured 2011 pre-season, the guys that excel in the classroom will have the early defining edge over their competition, including rival positional teammates and early-season opponents…
But by mid-season, I expect the “late-bloomers” to finally catch up— and establish the intended order of athletic dominance and play execution.
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