Evaluating the Weaknesses

Now that everyone's feeling pretty good about the team after the pasting of the Patriots -- and even a serious letdown effort against the Jets in the no-starters final preseason game isn't likely to change things -- it's probably a good time to take a look at the question marks we had going into the preseason, to see if the weaknesses have been addressed.

In no particular order, here were the concerns as we all seemed to see them:

Starting Quarterback
I know this seems crazy now, but heading into training camp and the preseason there were still any number of people pushing the idea that if McNabb struggled early, Kolb could somehow overtake him.  Even those of us not eager to run Donovan out of town were wondering how fast he'd start this year.  We have our answer now -- with McNabb completing 63 percent of his passes for a 95.8 rating (even with the butterfingers Carolina game) you can cross starting quarterback off your list of concerns.

Fullback
Now you all know I love Tony Hunt.  And both Brian Westbrook and Rory Segrest have lauded him for how hard he tries out there the last couple of days.  But I also love Donovan McNabb and I'm not sure he'd make a great fullback with basically two weeks of practice either -- and he outweighs Hunt by a good 15 or so pounds (and knows the offense even better than Hunt).  Here's how Marty described his performance in the last preseason game:

"He did a couple of things real well. Then, there was more than a couple where he splattered just a little bit..."

Fullbacks generally don't want to "splatter." 

The one upside to Hunt as a fullback:

"You saw last week that we, I don't want to go into too much detail, but we split a man out and then he carried the football really from a halfback spot even though he was playing fullback, so those are all of his possibilities."

Now this is interesting.  Say you have Westbrook and Hunt in the game together.  If Westbrook goes in motion, the defense has to shift big time to cover him.  That either means bringing a safety up or sliding an LB or two out.  If no safety, go deep.  If LB moves out, that's one fewer guy to block. 

If this is what it takes to keep Hunt on the team, so be it.  But that still makes fullback a question mark.

"Offensive Weapons"
Not really sure how to split this one up.  We figured LJ would come back and play well now that he's healthy.  But beyond that, there was a real question about where the firepower for this offense was going to come from.  After three games of (yes, only) the preseason, things don't look that bleak.  Jackson seems legit, Baskett and Avant know what they're doing, and Booker isn't going to singlehandedly tilt the entire field the way he seemed like he might in training camp, but he's still going to be valuable in a few different packages. 

Of course, then Curtis got hurt and screwed up the math.

Cornerbacks
Asante looks good in game action so far and he continues to victimize all three QBs in practice.  Lito is healthy.  Pissed off, but trapped and healthy.  And Sheldon is fine.  Moreover, the three guys all seem to be friends.  No worries here.

Safeties
Which is a lot more than can be said for the guys who play behind them.  Dawkins continues to struggle with injuries and the question really needs to be asked whether a guy who plays the way he does can plausibly keep his body together for a 16+ games.  At this point, even an Eagles' optimist has to think that answer is "no." So at least two other guys are going to be getting significant time at safety this season.  I'll give you Quintin Mikell as a solid starter, but as G Cobb never tires of pointing out, Sean Considine really doesn't look good with the ball in the air. 

J.R. Reed is my guy, and I love the way he plays, but will he even make the team?  And Quintin Demps is getting pulled in too many directions right now.  He's the #1 kick returner, in the mix at punt returner, taking reps at CB, and also trying to learn the safety position.  If he's on the field in anything more than spot duty this year, expect plenty of mistakes. 

This position is still a big old pile of question marks.  Good thing these guys aren't the last line of defense or anything.

Linebacker
It's funny, going into training camp, the question was whether Stewart Bradley would build on the last couple games he had last year and establish himself as the man in the middle.  We assumed the other two guys would be fine. 

After three games, you can flip that around totally.  Bradley has been really good in the middle, while Gaither and Gocong have:

• Had trouble stopping the off-tackle run;
• Struggled at times in space (esp. Omar);
• Not exactly piled up the statistics.

Meanwhile -- and yes, it's against the backups, but still -- a couple of the young guys look really solid back there.  Everyone's focused on the line, since there are going to be some tough cuts there, but the LB situation is worth keeping an eye on.  I'd even go so far as to say that I think the streak of new starting threesomes could be continuing in 2009.

And are they really going to cut Studebaker?

Defensive End
Question before camp:  How to keep all these solid players. 

Question now:  Jerome McDougle can't be that good, can he?

Here's a quick exercise.  Look at the six guys currently listed above McDougle on the depth chart.  Which two of those guys do you cut so that McDougle can have a roster spot? 

• Not Trent or JP. 
• Clemons costs you $4 million to cut right now, and while they have the space, it would be odd to ditch a guy who hasn't even proven he can't play (because he's been injured). 
• Bryan Smith was a third-round pick. 

The leaves Darren Howard as the odd man out if you keep McDougle.  And you know what ... I can see that.  Howard has made it pretty clear he really only likes the right side, which is ably manned at the moment by our own Trent Cole.  And after a summer's worth of talk about how great he was looking this year, Howard has managed a whopping one tackle and one assist. 

Hmmm ..... especially because of what we're seeing at the next position ....

Defensive Tackle
.... where Dan Klecko is firmly entrenched at the #4 DT spot and gives you everything in the middle (quickness, penetration, pass rush) that Howard was supposed to provide in there as a backup DT. 

Jim Johnson sounds a little giddy talking about him:

On who the fourth DT is: "That fourth defensive tackle is a guy by the name of Klecko. He looks pretty good to me right now. He had a good game the other night and he's had a great camp."

On whether he has seen a guy with Klecko's build be able to do the things he's done: "No, I haven't. He has such great quickness. He has good football sense and he loves to play. He's a high-motor guy. The biggest thing he has is he really has quickness."

On whether he had concerns about Klecko's ability to put weight back on and play DT: "A little bit. I'm not going to say he didn't surprise me some. He has, I think he's surprised a lot of people. We've seen before he has played some linebacker, some tackle, some fullback. Right now, he's one of those four tackles. To say I'm surprised, not after getting to know him I'm not quite as surprised after being around him a little bit. He's a tough guy; he's a good competitor and he loves to play." 

"A guy by the name of Klecko"?  Wow.  That's not the Jim Johnson I know.

Punter
Sav was decidedly mediocre last year.  He was decidely less than mediocre in the first preseason game.  Then he went absolutely nuts, pinning five out of seven inside the 20 in the second game and averaging a net of 48.5 on four punts in the third game.

I like the trend.

Placekicker
I'd feel better about the visual evidence that Akers seems to be bombing his kickoffs this year if his numbers this preseason didn't look so much like his numbers last preseason.

I think it might be better if we just didn't talk about this position.

Return/Coverage
I think we've answered the question of if anyone can actually return kicks this year.  I'm not sure we've yet decided whether we can cover them.