I did not write this. Dave Spadaro Eagles News reporter did. Head coach Andy Reid arrived at the NFL Scouting Combine on Thursday and sat down with the Philadelphia-area reporters on hand and touched on a variety of subjects -- the Combine and draft process, what the Eagles need to do in the offseason to vault back to the top of the NFC East, quarterback Donovan McNabb and even the league's ongoing "Spygate" case involving the New England Patriots.
Reid, who missed last year's Combine as he took his leave of absence from the team to attend to family matters, is looking forward to reaching out and meeting this year's draft prospects. The Eagles have 60 interviews, 15 minutes each in length, lined up for the next week.
"It's part of the whole judgment process that you go through," said Reid. "You have an opportunity to talk to these kids, as programmed as they might seem to be through their agents, you still get a little idea about their personality. Then you get to see them run around a little bit. I'm not sure how much stock you put in that because it's really not playing the game but you get a chance to sit down and ask them questions. They really don't know what you're going to ask. They can't have them prepared for every question you ask. Then you get a chance to develop an opinion on what kind of people they are.
alt
Head coach Andy Reid
"I still believe the most important thing is how they play on the field."
Reid acknowledged that only rarely do players make dramatic leaps up and down the already in-place draft board that the Eagles have. The idea here is to spend as much time as possible around the players to learn as much about them as possible.
Of course, this is an especially busy time in the NFL. Agents are huddled with players and team personnel are all over the RCA Dome and the adjoining hotel trying to glean any bit of knowledge they can with free agency starting next week -- Friday, February 29 at 12:01 a.m., to be exact -- and with the draft right around the corner.
Reid provided bits and pieces of the Eagles' philosophy moving forward, although he provided no concrete answers as to which direction the team will take in both free agency and the draft. Here is an overview of what Reid had to say, first in a 34-minute interview with reporters and then a 13-minute interview with cameras on him ...
On the increased use of the franchise tag on potential free agents: "Guys are being tagged every day. We'll know over the next nine days or so (who is available in free agency). I guess you put your wish list together and then it kind of dwindles its way down depending on how things go with all the tags and then you get into all the competition to get guys here. People have money right now, with the way the cap is. There is a little more money in the pot for them to spend. Teams are finding that they can keep a guy around for another year or two by tagging him."
On TE L.J. Smith's reaction after being tagged: "He has been good. He has been around every day working out. He's been fine. I think the thing is that we kind of kept him up front about it, both he and his agent. We didn't surprise him with it. It wasn't something that kind of came out of the blue. If you read the comments from the players who have been tagged, they don't seem to mind. It doesn't seem to be a big deal. I don't know why that's changed. Maybe it's because they are making a lot of money.
On the rumors that CB Lito Sheppard was given permission to seek a trade: "You hear things, especially at this time of the year, and I don't know how they get started. Then they get running and they seem bigger than what they are. I talked to Lito after the season and then he was in town until a couple of weeks ago. I don't think it's anything. I don't get into all of that. He is a good player when he is out there. We just have to keep him healthy."
On the state of the cornerback position on the team: "I feel good about it. It was good to see Jose ( Joselio Hanson) step up there and I thought he played well. I feel OK with it. I'm always going to look at the corner positions, like I do with the lines. I'm going to keep a close eye on it.'
On the pool of free agents upcoming and the ability to get better immediately: "There are going to be good players out there. It narrows down, but there will be players out there whether it's through the draft or in free agency. I'll tell you what we've done, and it's a tribute to Joe (Banner) and Howie (Roseman, Vice President of Football Administration), we've maintained a lot of players here through contracts. That is a positive thing. We can go out and compete this next year without signing anybody and win a lot of football games. We can compete for a championship. But we'll keep our eyes open."
On the success of free agency: "I don't think it's bad to add a guy here or there, but the last three Super Bowl winners have signed one guy, and that was a kicker ( Adam Vinatieri, Colts). The success rate of free agency has not been tremendous. I think you have to be selective on who you bring in and not get caught thinking the grass is greener on the other side and bring a guy in that you get so enthralled with. Then you see him and he's not all that and one of your guys is better, one of your young guys who you developed."
On retaining GM Tom Heckert: "It's good to have him here. I thought it was kind of a slam dunk, him going there (to the Atlanta Falcons). I know they really liked him. He does a good job. That's what helped me last year when I wasn't here, the work that Tom, Jason Licht, the scouts and the coaches did. They did a great job quizzing the guys."
On his feelings about the team's young talent: "I kind of look forward to getting some of these guys on the field. I would have liked to have gotten the (Victor) Abiamiri's and the (Tony) Hunt's on the field a little bit more. (Stewart) Bradley, too. (Chris) Gocong showed improvement throughout the year. (Akeem) Jordan, he came out of nowhere and was a pretty good player at the end. So, yeah, I'm looking forward to that."
On the strength of the NFC East: "I think that's aweome. I love that. That's why we do this thing. It keeps you sharp. It keeps you aggressive and competitive. It helps you throughout the year, even during this period. You always look at things closely; now you look at things closer. You want to be sitting on top of the NFC East when it's said and done, be in the playoffs, win the (NFC) Championship, go to the Super Bowl and win that thing. People will tell you that when you have to play each team twice, you beat yourselves up. I think the Giants proved that wrong this year. I still believe the team that is healthiest and on the roll at the end of the year, who is playing the best at the end of the year has the best shot of winning. We were one of those teams, but we didn't take care of business before those last three games. If we could have picked off a couple of those other games, I thought we were as hot as anybody at the end there."
On the lesson the Giants' Super Bowl provided: "You keep battling the whole season. It's so long. I know I'm always hammering you guys on the one-game-at-a-time approach, but the thing about the Giants' season is that had they not taken that approach, their season is out the window. Then you get on a roll and you hope it is that last quarter of the season, that last half of the season."
On the defense forcing more turnovers: "We were last in the league in turnovers. There are some stats that blow you away, and turnovers are one of them. You've got to create those. That is one of our offseason projects that we're addressing. What did we do in the past or what did teams do in the past? Some of it is that that we had two guys who have been pretty big turnover guys in (Brian) Dawkins and Lito and both of them were banged up a little bit."
On simply saying the defense will be fine with a healthy Dawkins and Sheppard: "You can't do that. You have to go back and look at the scheme part of and what are teams doing to you that are giving you problems. Whatever it might be. There are a bunch of different things you look at, without getting into it now."
On the front four defensively: "Everybody is better on the back end when the front four are smoking. When those guys are coming off the ball and causing problems, that makes your corners, safeties, linebackers -- it makes them all better. We need to up our sack total. We need to get that up there, along with our pressures and our hurries. I thought (tackle Mike) Patterson improved there. I thought (end Trent) Cole improved there. J.T. ( Juqua Thomas), he was able to -- he didn't have a lot of sacks -- but he was able to put some pressure on the quarterback. He can do better. And then (Jevon) Kearse, if he comes back healthy, he can put pressure on the quarterback. We have to make sure he's ready to roll."
On the defense: "We need to get better between the 20's. It's great to have the best red zone team ... but let's stay out of the red zone. Let's not get in there that many times, because they're going to come out with points. We can do a better job there. There are things that we have to go back and evaluate and we have to make sure that everybody has an aggressive mindset."
On the ongoing investigation of the Patriots' "spygate": "I believe they beat us fair and square in the Super Bowl. I don't know what they did. I don't know. I like Bill Belichick. He's a friend. You can't know exactly what a team is doing. You're changing your signals all the time. On the offensive side, where they (Patriots defense) made plays, they couldn't hear me talking to the quarterback. They don't know what you're going to call. You have 200 plays on the game plan sheet. If they can figure it out, they're really good."
On whether it would bother him if a team taped his walk-through practice: "I don't show anything there anyways. You are in that big stadium and there is not a thing I show. Matter of fact, there are things I show that I don't run. You have had the guys out there practicing for two weeks. You get all of that done before. Now, if they were filming, sitting up in apartments (near the NovaCare Complex) filming our practice, then it would be different. I'd worry about that. That would bother me."
On if it's possible to film defensive signals during a game and then make halftime adjustements: "Yeah, it's possible. That's do-able. On defense, you are calling some of the same things over and over. It's not like on offense where you may never run the same play twice. On defense, you are repeating things all the time."
On how ready the Eagles are for the offseason ahead: "There has been a lot of time spent, and we had a lot of time with the way the season ended without the playoffs, and we've been in there and as we go day by day here, players are being taken off the board in free agency as they are tagged. However, we feel very good about the process we've gone through, we feel very good about the players that are still out there as of today and we look forward to getting the free-agency period started. Not that we're going to go hog wild, I think history has shown us that that is not really the way to go. But adding a guy here or there is OK. I think we've done a great job with drafting good, young players and we were able to get some of those guys in the game toward the end of the season. I look forward to having those guys mature maybe even more than bringing in free agents."
On recruiting free agents: "Money is one thing and people can compete with the money part of it now. The thing you've got to have is that coaching staff and you've got to have a place that player wants to go to, money aside, day in and day out year round. That is something that we can present to a player. We've got this fantastic facility thanks to the Luries. They have given us a chance to create this workplace that I think is second to none in the National Football League. We've got quality players that are very well respected around the league, veteran players, players that players want to play with. I think those are all positives. As the money goes up, you have to have one more thing that you can give that player and I think that we have that.'
On McNabb through the 2007 season looking at 2008: "We knew Donovan would have to work through the knee. Donovan knew that. Time and experience with that injury have shown that throughout the history of the National Football League. Donovan did that. There is no easy way around that. It's not going to be pretty early and hopefully it's going to be pretty later. Thank goodness Donovan was ahead of schedule and had worked so hard to put himself in that position. He finished the season up strong. We were one of the hotter teams in the National Football League when it was all said and done and a lot of that is the way Donovan played. I thought he played championship-caliber football down the stretch. He felt physically like he could do that. That long run against New Orleans, he couldn't have done that earlier in the year. It just wasn't going to happen. I look forward to '08. I think he will pick up right where he left off and continue to be even better than that, which is ahead of where most people are."
On the strength in the April draft: "I think it's a pretty good draft all the way around. I think the juniors add a little more zing. I would say, 'Where is the draft light?' I'm not sure there is a position where you go, 'It's not very good.' I think there are a bunch of cornerbacks, a bunch of linemen on both sides of the ball, you've got some great linemen. There is a nice group of receivers. I think it's going to be pretty good draft."
On being in a position of strength with so many draft picks: "I believe we are. This is one of those years that you are glad that you have a lot of picks. You should be able to pull some quality players from out of the draft."
Original Story:
http://philadelphiaeagles.com.
Reid, who missed last year's Combine as he took his leave of absence from the team to attend to family matters, is looking forward to reaching out and meeting this year's draft prospects. The Eagles have 60 interviews, 15 minutes each in length, lined up for the next week.
"It's part of the whole judgment process that you go through," said Reid. "You have an opportunity to talk to these kids, as programmed as they might seem to be through their agents, you still get a little idea about their personality. Then you get to see them run around a little bit. I'm not sure how much stock you put in that because it's really not playing the game but you get a chance to sit down and ask them questions. They really don't know what you're going to ask. They can't have them prepared for every question you ask. Then you get a chance to develop an opinion on what kind of people they are.
alt
Head coach Andy Reid
"I still believe the most important thing is how they play on the field."
Reid acknowledged that only rarely do players make dramatic leaps up and down the already in-place draft board that the Eagles have. The idea here is to spend as much time as possible around the players to learn as much about them as possible.
Of course, this is an especially busy time in the NFL. Agents are huddled with players and team personnel are all over the RCA Dome and the adjoining hotel trying to glean any bit of knowledge they can with free agency starting next week -- Friday, February 29 at 12:01 a.m., to be exact -- and with the draft right around the corner.
Reid provided bits and pieces of the Eagles' philosophy moving forward, although he provided no concrete answers as to which direction the team will take in both free agency and the draft. Here is an overview of what Reid had to say, first in a 34-minute interview with reporters and then a 13-minute interview with cameras on him ...
On the increased use of the franchise tag on potential free agents: "Guys are being tagged every day. We'll know over the next nine days or so (who is available in free agency). I guess you put your wish list together and then it kind of dwindles its way down depending on how things go with all the tags and then you get into all the competition to get guys here. People have money right now, with the way the cap is. There is a little more money in the pot for them to spend. Teams are finding that they can keep a guy around for another year or two by tagging him."
On TE L.J. Smith's reaction after being tagged: "He has been good. He has been around every day working out. He's been fine. I think the thing is that we kind of kept him up front about it, both he and his agent. We didn't surprise him with it. It wasn't something that kind of came out of the blue. If you read the comments from the players who have been tagged, they don't seem to mind. It doesn't seem to be a big deal. I don't know why that's changed. Maybe it's because they are making a lot of money.
On the rumors that CB Lito Sheppard was given permission to seek a trade: "You hear things, especially at this time of the year, and I don't know how they get started. Then they get running and they seem bigger than what they are. I talked to Lito after the season and then he was in town until a couple of weeks ago. I don't think it's anything. I don't get into all of that. He is a good player when he is out there. We just have to keep him healthy."
On the state of the cornerback position on the team: "I feel good about it. It was good to see Jose ( Joselio Hanson) step up there and I thought he played well. I feel OK with it. I'm always going to look at the corner positions, like I do with the lines. I'm going to keep a close eye on it.'
On the pool of free agents upcoming and the ability to get better immediately: "There are going to be good players out there. It narrows down, but there will be players out there whether it's through the draft or in free agency. I'll tell you what we've done, and it's a tribute to Joe (Banner) and Howie (Roseman, Vice President of Football Administration), we've maintained a lot of players here through contracts. That is a positive thing. We can go out and compete this next year without signing anybody and win a lot of football games. We can compete for a championship. But we'll keep our eyes open."
On the success of free agency: "I don't think it's bad to add a guy here or there, but the last three Super Bowl winners have signed one guy, and that was a kicker ( Adam Vinatieri, Colts). The success rate of free agency has not been tremendous. I think you have to be selective on who you bring in and not get caught thinking the grass is greener on the other side and bring a guy in that you get so enthralled with. Then you see him and he's not all that and one of your guys is better, one of your young guys who you developed."
On retaining GM Tom Heckert: "It's good to have him here. I thought it was kind of a slam dunk, him going there (to the Atlanta Falcons). I know they really liked him. He does a good job. That's what helped me last year when I wasn't here, the work that Tom, Jason Licht, the scouts and the coaches did. They did a great job quizzing the guys."
On his feelings about the team's young talent: "I kind of look forward to getting some of these guys on the field. I would have liked to have gotten the (Victor) Abiamiri's and the (Tony) Hunt's on the field a little bit more. (Stewart) Bradley, too. (Chris) Gocong showed improvement throughout the year. (Akeem) Jordan, he came out of nowhere and was a pretty good player at the end. So, yeah, I'm looking forward to that."
On the strength of the NFC East: "I think that's aweome. I love that. That's why we do this thing. It keeps you sharp. It keeps you aggressive and competitive. It helps you throughout the year, even during this period. You always look at things closely; now you look at things closer. You want to be sitting on top of the NFC East when it's said and done, be in the playoffs, win the (NFC) Championship, go to the Super Bowl and win that thing. People will tell you that when you have to play each team twice, you beat yourselves up. I think the Giants proved that wrong this year. I still believe the team that is healthiest and on the roll at the end of the year, who is playing the best at the end of the year has the best shot of winning. We were one of those teams, but we didn't take care of business before those last three games. If we could have picked off a couple of those other games, I thought we were as hot as anybody at the end there."
On the lesson the Giants' Super Bowl provided: "You keep battling the whole season. It's so long. I know I'm always hammering you guys on the one-game-at-a-time approach, but the thing about the Giants' season is that had they not taken that approach, their season is out the window. Then you get on a roll and you hope it is that last quarter of the season, that last half of the season."
On the defense forcing more turnovers: "We were last in the league in turnovers. There are some stats that blow you away, and turnovers are one of them. You've got to create those. That is one of our offseason projects that we're addressing. What did we do in the past or what did teams do in the past? Some of it is that that we had two guys who have been pretty big turnover guys in (Brian) Dawkins and Lito and both of them were banged up a little bit."
On simply saying the defense will be fine with a healthy Dawkins and Sheppard: "You can't do that. You have to go back and look at the scheme part of and what are teams doing to you that are giving you problems. Whatever it might be. There are a bunch of different things you look at, without getting into it now."
On the front four defensively: "Everybody is better on the back end when the front four are smoking. When those guys are coming off the ball and causing problems, that makes your corners, safeties, linebackers -- it makes them all better. We need to up our sack total. We need to get that up there, along with our pressures and our hurries. I thought (tackle Mike) Patterson improved there. I thought (end Trent) Cole improved there. J.T. ( Juqua Thomas), he was able to -- he didn't have a lot of sacks -- but he was able to put some pressure on the quarterback. He can do better. And then (Jevon) Kearse, if he comes back healthy, he can put pressure on the quarterback. We have to make sure he's ready to roll."
On the defense: "We need to get better between the 20's. It's great to have the best red zone team ... but let's stay out of the red zone. Let's not get in there that many times, because they're going to come out with points. We can do a better job there. There are things that we have to go back and evaluate and we have to make sure that everybody has an aggressive mindset."
On the ongoing investigation of the Patriots' "spygate": "I believe they beat us fair and square in the Super Bowl. I don't know what they did. I don't know. I like Bill Belichick. He's a friend. You can't know exactly what a team is doing. You're changing your signals all the time. On the offensive side, where they (Patriots defense) made plays, they couldn't hear me talking to the quarterback. They don't know what you're going to call. You have 200 plays on the game plan sheet. If they can figure it out, they're really good."
On whether it would bother him if a team taped his walk-through practice: "I don't show anything there anyways. You are in that big stadium and there is not a thing I show. Matter of fact, there are things I show that I don't run. You have had the guys out there practicing for two weeks. You get all of that done before. Now, if they were filming, sitting up in apartments (near the NovaCare Complex) filming our practice, then it would be different. I'd worry about that. That would bother me."
On if it's possible to film defensive signals during a game and then make halftime adjustements: "Yeah, it's possible. That's do-able. On defense, you are calling some of the same things over and over. It's not like on offense where you may never run the same play twice. On defense, you are repeating things all the time."
On how ready the Eagles are for the offseason ahead: "There has been a lot of time spent, and we had a lot of time with the way the season ended without the playoffs, and we've been in there and as we go day by day here, players are being taken off the board in free agency as they are tagged. However, we feel very good about the process we've gone through, we feel very good about the players that are still out there as of today and we look forward to getting the free-agency period started. Not that we're going to go hog wild, I think history has shown us that that is not really the way to go. But adding a guy here or there is OK. I think we've done a great job with drafting good, young players and we were able to get some of those guys in the game toward the end of the season. I look forward to having those guys mature maybe even more than bringing in free agents."
On recruiting free agents: "Money is one thing and people can compete with the money part of it now. The thing you've got to have is that coaching staff and you've got to have a place that player wants to go to, money aside, day in and day out year round. That is something that we can present to a player. We've got this fantastic facility thanks to the Luries. They have given us a chance to create this workplace that I think is second to none in the National Football League. We've got quality players that are very well respected around the league, veteran players, players that players want to play with. I think those are all positives. As the money goes up, you have to have one more thing that you can give that player and I think that we have that.'
On McNabb through the 2007 season looking at 2008: "We knew Donovan would have to work through the knee. Donovan knew that. Time and experience with that injury have shown that throughout the history of the National Football League. Donovan did that. There is no easy way around that. It's not going to be pretty early and hopefully it's going to be pretty later. Thank goodness Donovan was ahead of schedule and had worked so hard to put himself in that position. He finished the season up strong. We were one of the hotter teams in the National Football League when it was all said and done and a lot of that is the way Donovan played. I thought he played championship-caliber football down the stretch. He felt physically like he could do that. That long run against New Orleans, he couldn't have done that earlier in the year. It just wasn't going to happen. I look forward to '08. I think he will pick up right where he left off and continue to be even better than that, which is ahead of where most people are."
On the strength in the April draft: "I think it's a pretty good draft all the way around. I think the juniors add a little more zing. I would say, 'Where is the draft light?' I'm not sure there is a position where you go, 'It's not very good.' I think there are a bunch of cornerbacks, a bunch of linemen on both sides of the ball, you've got some great linemen. There is a nice group of receivers. I think it's going to be pretty good draft."
On being in a position of strength with so many draft picks: "I believe we are. This is one of those years that you are glad that you have a lot of picks. You should be able to pull some quality players from out of the draft."
Original Story:
http://philadelphiaeagles.com.
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