The Eagles have signed 6-6, 280-pound defensive end Eddie McClam on Saturday, the team announced.
McClam was in camp with the Lions last season. He played college ball at Old Dominion. The 24-year-old worked out with the Eagles earlier in the day before landing the job and participated in Saturday’s practice at Lincoln Financial Field.
Players who were unable to suit up for the session include Curtis Marsh (broken hand), Felix Jones (oblique), Danny Watkins (concusion), Emil Igwenagu (concussion), Dennis Kelly (back) , Kenny Phillips (quad) and Casey Matthews (knee).
Jason Peters, who has been sidelined with a hamstring strain, took part in team drills. Jon Dorenbos (concussion) returned to practice.
Cole is one of the most important players on the team when it comes to undergoing a successful defensive transformation in Year One. The 30-year-old is being asked to move to a 3-4 outside linebacker role after eight (largely successful) years as a 4-3 defensive end.
Defensive coordinator Billy Davis said that his game plan for the Panthers was “pretty much the same” one that he put together for the Patriots the week before. Same techniques, same principles, same basic calls. It was just the results that were different.
A unit that surrendered 248 rushing yards (8.0 average) to the Patriots in the preseason opener limited Carolina to just 74 rushing yards on 25 attempts (3.0 average) Thursday night. The first unit yielded just a pair of field goals in the Eagles’ 14-9 win.
“It was so new, the scheme was so new,” said Davis of the first preseason game. “Everybody wanted to do well so bad. I think we pressed a little bit. Tonight felt a lot more relaxed, guys just taking care of their job more than anything.”
The first question to Chip Kelly following Thursday’s preseason win over the Panthers:
Chip, after tonight, how do you tell Michael Vick he isn’t your starting quarterback?
“That’s a good question,” Kelly responded. “I thought Mike put another good game together. But we’re going to evaluate everything. I thought besides the throwaway that Nick [Foles] couldn’t get out of the end zone he did a nice job, too. I think we have two quarterbacks that can play in an NFL game.”
But only one can start. And after two preseason games, Vick has made the better case for why he should be the guy.
Michael Vick and Nick Foles have gone head-to-head in two preseason games now. A leader has emerged in the quarterback competition.
Discuss tonight’s Eagles-Panthers game in our live game thread. Kickoff is set for 7:30.
Reserve outside linebacker Phillip Hunt underwent surgery to repair a partial tear of his left ACL, the team announced Thursday.
Hunt is the fourth Eagles player to suffer a torn ACL this preseason, joining Jeremy Maclin, Arrelious Benn and fellow linebacker Jason Phillips. The first three players sustained the injury on the NovaCare practice fields. It is believed that Hunt was hurt at Lincoln Financial Field Friday against the Patriots.
Will Billy Davis’ system cater to Fletcher Cox’s strengths? Will Vick and Foles both be on the roster? How is the D-line battle going? We try to answer these questions in the latest Twitter Mailbag.
Let’s face it, there are a ton of guys on this roster that will be fighting for something on Thursday night. New coach, new schemes, no favorites. Depth chart written in sand, etc. That’s part of what makes this Eagles preseason so interesting.
Some have more riding on tonight’s tilt against the Panthers than others. Here are the five with the most to gain/lose, in one man’s humble opinion:
The Eagles’ defense tried its new 3-4 scheme on for size Friday evening, and learned that it’s not yet ready for prime time. That was evident on the first play from scrimmage — a 62-yard run up the gut from New England’s Stevan Ridley.
Let the record show that one of Chip Kelly‘s first decisions as head coach of the Eagles was to sign Cary Williams to a three-year, $17 million contract.
The deal has upwards of $10.5 million in guaranteed cash (The $4.75 million base in 2014 reportedly becomes guaranteed on the fifth day of that league year.)
Kelly knew he wasn’t buying the services of a “yes” man or a choir boy with that money. He was getting an edgy, hot-tempered corner that would essentially serve as the anti-Nnamdi (even if Williams said he modeled himself after the Raiders version of Asomugha at his introductory press conference). The team needed players in this secondary that wanted to hit people; they needed to extract the soft and fill in the holes with concrete.
The Eagles offense did something on Friday night that we have seen very little of during training camp. It huddled.
Chip Kelly has had his group working at a frenzied pace during practice, with the idea that the games will seem slower by comparison. When Matt Barkley came into the game, the pace was slow by any standard.
“I think he was just trying to start slow,” said Barkley, “but he eventually got excited and went up-tempo and we all felt better for it.”
Use our open game thread to chime in on tonight’s Eagles-Patriots game. Tim and Sheil will offer some thoughts and updates throughout.
Chip Kelly suggested at the beginning of training camp that Matt Barkley would have an opportunity to win the starting job. To this point, though, it sure has looked like a two-man race, with all of the first-team reps going to Nick Foles and Michael Vick.
“Camp’s not over,” Kelly said. “You’ll see a lot of him on Friday night [against the Patriots]. Camp is not over.”
The carrot, then, still dangles in front of the rookie signal-caller.
Vick and Foles will alternate series in the first quarter. The plan is to then hand it over to Barkley for the second and third quarters. He’ll have more snaps on tape than any of his competitors by the end of the night.
The answer is in: Michael Vick will start Friday night in the preseason opener against the Patriots.
It’s probably best not to read too much into Chip Kelly‘s decision. Vick and Nick Foles will split the first-team reps, and Foles will start next week against the Panthers.
Vick and Foles will rotate by series in the first quarter. Matt Barkley will play in the second and third quarter, and Dennis Dixon and G.J. Kinne are likely to see action in the fourth.
“It was Mike’s day in the rotation, that was the easiest way to do it,” said Kelly. “We’ll make sure the rotation works out that Nick will get the start next week. We met with those guys this morning, they were great with it, so that’s kind of our plan going in.”
