Eagles Wake-Up Call: One Way To Help Vick

On Michael Vick’s second drop-back of the preseason, he was sacked by Steelers defensive tackle Steve McLendon, who threw him to the ground.

On his fifth drop-back, Vick felt pressure from his front side, stepped up in the pocket, let go of the ball and slammed his thumb against Jason Kelce’s helmet.

A reasonable question to ask is: Why was Vick so close to Kelce when he released the football?

Vick was in shotgun, and at the deepest point in his drop, he was at the 14-yard line, or 8 yards behind the original line of scrimmage. The problem was that Steelers linebacker Chris Carter went around Demetress Bell and would have sacked Vick had he set his feet that deep in the pocket. So he stepped up, and when he finally threw the football, he was at the 18-yard line, just 4 yards behind the original line of scrimmage and in a crowd of linemen.

This is something offensive line coach Howard Mudd talked about earlier in training camp.

“The only thing that we really stress is the depth of the pocket because Mike isn’t really tall,” Mudd said. “So when he gets to his throwing spot, the more separation you can have between the original line and Mike is really important, so that he feels, ‘Oh, there’s a bunch of space here, I can see, I can deliver.’ That’s a real critical part of it.”

According to Football Outsiders, Vick had 19 balls batted at the line of scrimmage last year, or one every 22 attempts. Drew Brees, who is the same height as Vick, had six balls batted, per Pro Football Focus. Or one every 109 attempts.

As Mudd explained, one way to help Vick avoid hits and batted balls is with the deep drops. But those require that Bell and Todd Herremans keep pass-rushers from getting around the edge.

Just one more thing to keep an eye on this preseason.

WHAT YOU MISSED

Damaris Johnson took an unorthodox path to the NFL, but he was impressive Thursday night and is in great position to make the Eagles roster.

The Birds are stacked at defensive end. So who’s going to be the odd man out when they have to trim the roster to 53? Tim takes a look.

I put out a couple game reviews from Thursday’s win. Here are player-by-player breakdowns for the linebackers and the defensive backs after I re-watched the game.

WHAT THEY’RE SAYING

According to a report, Vince Young owes a company called Pro Player Funding $1.69M after he failed to pay off a loan he took out during the lockout.

Brent Celek, Kevin Curtis and Heather Mitts are suing a financial adviser in an alleged Ponzi scheme, reports Phillip Lucas of the Daily News:

According to court documents, William Crafton, of San Diego, intentionally made misleading statements to execute investments that were not in his clients’ best interest. The athletes told Crafton they wanted him to use a conservative investment strategy to ensure that their financial assets would grow over time, the documents allege.

Instead of investing their money in low-risk ventures, Crafton allegedly funneled it into Ponzi schemes with people with whom he had personal or financial relationships. Those relationships were never disclosed to Crafton’s clients, and it took years for them to learn that the investments were essentially worthless, the documents state.

The Giants held a moment of silence for Garrett Reid before their game against the Jacksonville Jaguars, per Mike Garafolo of NJ.com.

COMING UP

The Eagles are back up at Lehigh for four more days of training camp. They’ll have an 8:15 walkthrough and a 2:45 practice. We’ll of course have it all covered right here.

Follow Sheil Kapadia on Twitter and e-mail him at skapadia@phillymag.com.