Eagles off to a bad start

[NJmaverick]

The Eagles have not had a great start to their training camp.

Their two starting offensive tackles (Newly signed Jason Peters and Shawn Andrews) were both hurt running springs. Andrews is having yet more back trouble and Peters complained of quad spasms. Their first round draft pick is still holding out of camp (they had high hopes for WR Maclim). Their second round pick RB McCoy has looked extremely raw (which is not good with Westbrook injured). Yesterday their Bradley (their starting middle LB and one they are hoping will fill the leadership void left by the departure of Dawkins) had a knee injury in which he heard a pop. This all on top of the usual bumps and bruises.

[trumad]

1. Well--- it's pretty dumb to run with Springs...

[NJmaverick]

2. Before my first coffee, meant to write sprints

however conditioning drills would be more accurate.

[Auggie]

3. Doesn't sound like the tackles are hurt too bad

Would be devastating otherwise

[NJmaverick]

4. Well I understand Peters is now well enough to practice

although the knock on him was that he is lazy (so a big payoff, like he got, may result in poor performance), so not being able to complete simple conditioning drills is a bad sign. As for Shawn Andrews, he missed most of last season with a bad back. Starting off camp with a bad back is not a good sign and certainly doesn't bode well for them. Plus you have to remember that they also signed Andrew's brother Stacy from Cincy and he is still rehabing from his serious knee injury of last season. With a new offensive line this is time they need to start learning to work together and could result in a line that gets off to a slow start.

[NJmaverick]

5. To update the Eagles have lost their starting MLB Bradley with a torn ACL

he was an up and coming player, this is a serious blow to their defense.

[Earth Bound Misfit]

6. Thaaaat's a shame...

:evilgrin:

[MrSlayer]

7. Andrews and Peters are fine, Westy is fine. Bradley is out.

Maclin is only hurting himself, the O is going to be devastating with or without him. Bradley is a tough loss but it's early enough in camp that someone else will take his spot. They have no leadership issues. They'll be just fine.

[NJmaverick]

8. Back issues can easily become chronic

so how can you feel so comfortable about Shawn Andrew's issues? As for leaderhip, the defense has lost Dawkins, JJ and now Bradley. I can't see how you think that isn't going to hurt.

[MrSlayer]

9. We did pretty well without The Big Kid last year if it comes to that.

Nick Cole is quite an adequate replacement even if he isn't an all-pro bulldozer like Andrews. There are other leaders on defense, Quintin Mikell, Asante Samuel, Sheldon Brown, Mike Patterson, Broderick Bunkley, Trent Cole. Sean McDermott is a Johnson clone, he understudied JJ for 10 years, the defense will be as aggressive as ever, he'll be fine. I'm not worried.

[NJmaverick]

10. Mike Lombardi is one of my favorite writers

he is a former GM (or some other front office type) and really knows the game. He goes indepth of what the loss of Bradly means to the Eagles and he also has an article on the genious that Jim Johnson brought to the Eagles defense. I just don't think the team will be able to replace either. Here are the articles

http://www.nationalfootballpost.com/Tavern-talk-Can-Eagles-close-their-gap.html

http://www.nfpost.com/Sunday-at-the-Post-7704.html