A Perfect First Day

It's in the blogger's nature to be contrarian.  That, to me, is the whole point of blogging.  You don't generally have primary sources, your words carry no institutional weight, and your audience is all people who -- by definition -- want more than what they're getting from the traditional media.

If you can't find ways to zig when the others zag, what's the point?

The problem is that sometimes something happens that is so good only an idiot could mistake it for something bad.  Then this "job" -- spoken loosely -- becomes a me-too fest.  Which is pretty much where we are right now.

The first two rounds of this year's draft were great, truly great.  In Maclin and McCoy, the Eagles got two guys who might become special, but even if they top out at "very good" the things they bring to this team are such a great fit for what the Eagles do that there's almost no chance they won't be major contributors.

Let's start with Maclin.  There are two ways to interpret that selection.  The first is the "by the board" routine coaches and GMs give us every year.  Here's Andy's version:

"Actually we thought he was going to go quite a bit higher than what he did, so this was not who we had targeted. He just happened to be one of those guys who fell a little bit and kind of fell into our laps there so we wanted to take advantage of it.  We strictly trust our evaluation of him as a football player..."

"Honestly, I thought that he was the best player that was available.  Again, I just completely trusted the board and that's why I went with it..."

"I talked to him down at the combine. I didn't bring him in. Again, I thought he would be gone well before he got to us." 

Andy was in good company there.  With the notable exception of the savant-like Mike Mayock, very few people believed Jeremy Maclin would be available at the 19th slot.  The Eagles were extremely fortunate that once Al Davis made another one of his boneheaded decisions in selecting Darrius Heyward-Bay, the teams after Oakland weren't really looking for wide receivers.  Replace the Raiders' owner with any 12-year-old who's read a couple scouting reports and none of this would have happened. 

The second possible explanation puts us squarely in the "what it all means" trap I mentioned when we kicked off the blogstrav, but I'm going there anyway.

The Eagles' offense has been hampered the last couple seasons by an inability to scare defenses deep.  We heard a lot of excuses about how teams were playing umbrella coverages and the like, but that never explained why Kevin Curtis couldn't beat cornerbacks on go routes down the sideline.  That problem peaked this year, when even with DeSean Jackson the Eagles had almost no big-play passing threat.  Sure, some of that was due to a focus on short routes to protect a quarterback and his aging tackles, but the biggest problem was pretty simple:  speed.

This Reid offense functions best when it has a guy who can line up on the left side (X position) and fly down the field.  Jackson may never be that guy, because his small size means he's a better fit at the Z position, where he can line up off the line of scrimmage and have a bit more room to get a free release.  We mocked Pinkston for years, but until he lost his nerve, he could at least do that.  Donte Stallworth was terrifically entertaining in the same role. 

Without that threat last year, team's could simply sit back, tackle everything in front of them, and force the Eagles to march down and score the hard way.  (If this all sounds familiar to the regular readers, it should, and I apologize.  We'll have some new folks stopping by on Monday who haven't already heard the sermon.)

Here's the post I did at the end of the season breaking down just how bad the deep play passing game had been.  The core point:

[T]he big problem here ... is that this offense has completely lost the big play passing threat.  That's a longstanding part of this offense, and while we may all mock the contributions of guys like Todd Pinkston, it's clear that the "field stretcher" role has not been adequately filled by the current group of guys ...

Maclin fixes that problem.  Here's what NFLDraftScout.com says about him:

Maclin simply explodes out of his stance and past a lethargic defender to instantly get into his patterns. He has that natural second gear to gobble up the cushion and get behind cornerbacks on deep routes...

Maclin's burst has that "catch me if you can" label for defenders to view as he races by. Once he gets a clean release and into the second level, it is nearly impossible to slow him down...  He shows exceptional ability to get open deep, displaying that superb speed needed to take the ball to the house...

[Route running] is probably Maclin's weakest area. He routes his cuts at times and will drift in and out on long patterns. But, if you need a receiver to fly off the line, especially on posts, this is where he excels...

[M]uch like Carolina's Steve Smith, once he gets that ball in his hands he becomes the most dangerous weapon on the field.

We can consider that field stretcher role filled now, I think.

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One last word on Percy Harvin.  I still love the guy.  His ceiling seems limitless and I just hope Minnesota keeps struggling at the QB position so we don't have to worry about him

With that said, his non-football bust potential is certainly higher than Maclin's.  We got a much safer guy who brings the same kind of great speed and has more experience as a downfield threat.  And since we picked up McCoy in the second -- rather than a more complementary type back without the same receiving skills -- we don't have to worry as much about finding another guy who can run screens.

If Maclin hadn't been there, however, I just wonder what Reid and company were thinking...

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I don't have as much to say about McCoy.  Inasmuch as I've been making the point all week that we didn't need to go for Moreno because good running backs would be available in the second or third, I really didn't expect McCoy to fall that far.  That is a stroke of very good fortune.

I love this bit from his press conference:

On his blocking ability: "That's something that Coach Reid told me when I met with him early and actually when he just called in for me. He told me that I have to work on my blocking. He said that's the biggest thing that I have to work on, so when I get down there be prepared to start blocking, which is fine. I think everybody has something they can improve on. I think that thing with me is my blocking."

After the last couple high-profile running-back-of-the-future flameouts, Reid appears to be getting an early start on the blocking bugaboo.

I will just say one thing about McCoy coming in.  Knowing the way storylines go and how the guys at PE.com are, I'm guessing we are going to hear many, many times between now and September how the Eagles can get Westbrook and McCoy on the field at the same time to give opposing defenses fits.  I would remind people that we've also read those same stories for:

• Lorenzo Booker
• Correll Buckhalter
• Ryan Moats

And in no case has that ever ended up being a big part of the offense. 

The Eagles' hope for McCoy this year is going to be that he doesn't play very much.  Obviously, they like him.  But their plan isn't likely to change.  Westbrook gets 18 carries a game, the backup gets two to four, and McNabb throws the rest of the time.  We could get excited and argue that we'll see McCoy in more of a second-half finisher role this year, taking those unnecessary late game pile-thumping carries away from Westbrook, but even there he's going to prove that he won't make any mistakes or put the ball on the ground. 

The guy is going to get his chance to be the feature back some day, but the Eagles didn't give all that money to Westbrook last year because they thought he only had one season left.  As long as Westbrook stays healthy, I'll be shocked if McCoy's touching the ball more than five times a game.

Of course, if Westbrook doesn't stay healthy, that goes out the window.