Mandatory Eagles Minicamp Musings…

Brandon Lee Gowton, lead editor and writer for Bleeding Green Nation… I think…

This edition of the EYE should be more about the longevity of the career of Eagles left tackle Jason Peters… he is still regarded after almost a decade of excellence and periodic bouts of fighting through injury as one of the best players and best left tackles in the NFL.

But cut the music!

NFLN’s Top 100 Players Poll takes a back seat to Day 2 of the Eagles’ 3-day mandatory minicamp.

You know, we don’t give Brandon Lee Gowton enough credit. Gowton is the Big Kahuna editor and writer for Bleeding Green Nation. BGN is the highest rated internet audience magnet for the Eagles fan base, bar none. BGN  has cornered the market in Eagles coverage on the web.

Gowton took over for “Jason B.” a couple of years ago… it was when SBNation Network made a huge cash-infused push to dominate NFL coverage on the internet.

I used to get e-mail correspondence from “Jason B”…  Brandon Lee Gowton could care less about my questions or ideas. But that’s okay— you see, Gowton has hit the big time of alternative Eagles coverage.  He doesn’t need my mealy-mouthed suggestions.

I used to think his articles were a tad bland and lacking in real football knowledge. But over the last two years, he has really picked up his game.

Gowton has media credentials and he is allowed to attend open media practice at NovaCare minicamp this week. Here’s a sampling of his observations:

“Drill where [you have] quarterbacks throwing to uncovered wide receivers: Jordan Matthews drops a pass that may have been a little out in front. He gets real mad and yells after he picks the ball up. The guy practices super hard and hates making mistakes.”

“Mark Sanchez threw a pass that was a little high but undrafted free agent Justin Tukes was able to snag it and hang on as he fell to the ground. All that time spent on the JUGS machine seems to be paying off for the rookie. Sanchez gave Tukes some props by celebrating the catch. The rookie UDFA tight ends have been fairly quiet, so maybe Tukes is taking a lead.”

“Special teams ace Seyi Ajirotutu continues to have a good spring. The veteran wide receiver made a solid over-the-shoulder grab down the field from Matt Barkley at one point. Barkley likes throwing to him. It was a good ball, too.”

“Sam Bradford continues to impress. Like he did on Tuesday, he went second behind Mark Sanchez during 7-on-7 drills. Bradford connected with Zach Ertz on his first rep. There was tight coverage but he fit the ball where it needed to be. Ertz almost made a fantastic one-handed catch along the sideline not long after his first catch but Bradford put the ball a little too high and it bounced off of Ertz’s outstretched hand.”

“Here’s a Jerome Couplin update for you: the safety did a nice job of diagnosing the play in front of him and jumping a G.J. Kinne route to knock down a Tim Tebow pass.”

“Hard to get a great sense of how the running backs are doing when there’s no real contact going on but I like what I’ve seen from DeMarco Murray. He doesn’t dance a lot and he hits the hole hard. I can’t say I’ve seen him leave any meat on the bone during practice. He’s very hungry.”

“Rookie cornerback JaCorey Shepherd had a good practice. First he dove to break up a short Barkley pass. Later, he batted down a deep attempt from Tebow. It’s easy to see how Shepherd had 32 passes defensed in college.”

“Josh Huff’s quiet spring hasn’t been so quiet the past two days. Today he caught a pass from Sanchez in the middle of the field and outran the defense to score a touchdown. It’s not like the defenders are allowed to tackle him, but he still looks fast.”

“Jordan Matthews dropped a punt return attempt. He dropped a kick return attempt yesterday. You won’t want to see him on the return team any time soon.”

“Back to Bradford: he connects with Brent Celek on a deep pass. Yet another good ball. Feel like I haven’t seen him make any real bad decisions this spring, which is impressive since he’s picking up a brand new offense.”

“Bradford hit a tightly-covered Riley Cooper along the sideline who tip-toed to make the catch. He hit Cooper again on a short pass near the goal-line before capping off the drive with a short swing pass to Murray for the score. It’s fun to watch Bradford operate in the red zone because he can zip passes into tight windows.”

“For as good as Bradford looks, Tim Tebow still looks rough. He kept sailing passes during his red zone attempts. One time he missed a wide open tight end in the end zone. He also still takes a long time to even get rid of the ball.”

“Matt Barkley felt pressure and threw off his back foot into coverage. Marcus Smith (!) did a nice job of batting the ball down.”

“Nelson Agholor finally redeemed himself for the drops earlier in practice by catching a deep ball from Barkley with Eric Rowe trailing in coverage. I’ve written about this before, but the way Agholor goes up and attacks the ball in the air is impressive. He looks like he’s going to be good.”

Okay, it’s not exactly Mike Mayock doing the running commentary, but Gowton has come a long way in improving the technical accuracy of his observations of the sport.

Meanwhile, if you are following along on your Ouija board, the guy who has been moved into the left guard position vacated by the shunned Evan Mathis is Allen Barbre.

“We’ve seen Allen Barbre play in games,” Chip Kelly said before Wednesday’s practice. “We’re very confident in him. We’re real confident in all those guys that we’ve had an opportunity to coach.”

Barbre’s reaction: “Honestly, my mindset is just going out and working every day. We’re just getting continuity together as a group. That will be big going down through the stretch, understanding what everyone is doing and holding everybody accountable.”

To me (and ATV) Barbre is a tackle, not a guard… but what do we know? Perhaps more importantly, Barbre is coming off an ankle injury that hobbled him all last season after he filled in for Lane Johnson at right tackle in Game One of 2014.

And also, they are telling me that Dennis “Hagrid” Kelly is in the mix for the left guard job— but I tend to think of Hagrid as more of a swing-guy backup at both tackle and guard positions—not that there is anything wrong with that.

Matt Tobin is penciled in at starting right guard in minicamp.

Tobin had to play right guard to replace the injured Todd Herremans last season. That presented a learning-curve problem, as Tobin had trouble adjusting to a right-handed stance and got caught leaning the wrong way at times. Andrew Gardner eventually replaced Tobin at right guard after two games.

“Compared to last year, how I was feeling on the right side, I feel a lot better now than I did then,” Tobin said. “At that point, I didn’t have a lot of experience on the right side at all, my whole, entire career, college included. This whole offseason, I’ve really been focused on getting better on the right side.”

Tobin, Gardner and Kevin Graf are the main competitors for the right guard job. I wish I could tell you the O-Line is set up nicely here at left and right guards, but that would make me a liar.