Eagles Observations: Can Britain Covey energize Eagles’ return video game?

Can Britain Covey clear up the Eagles’ extensive-standing return video game difficulties? What happened to Miles Sanders’ getting capability? And a former Eagle whose daughter is now an international track star.

We’re all about the map with this weekend’s Roob’s 10 Random Eagles Offseason Observations. Soon to get rid of the “offseason” tag!

1. You know Britain Covey is going to be one of the most scrutinized players at Eagles education camp. Everybody’s likely to be watching the undrafted rookie from Utah. But what type of chance does the 5-foot-8, 175-pound receiver and returner have? Covey experienced five return TDs at Utah — four punts and a person kickoff — and that is the space he’s obtained to shine if he’s likely to make a operate at a roster place. He became a first rate slot receiver late in his school career — he caught 52 passes for 514 yards final year — but the Eagles really don’t have to have him to add on offense. They need firepower in the return activity, some thing that was sorely lacking past 12 months. They rated 28th in punt return average and 29th in kick returns, and they have not rated in the best-10 in either classification since 2016, when Darren Sproles was bringing again punts and Kenjon Barner, Josh Huff and Wendell Smallwood kicks. Covey averaged 15. yards for each punt about the final two years, 2nd-best in the BCS (at the rear of Houston’s Marcus Jones), and his 3 TDs were being tied with Jones for most in the state. He only returned 16 kicks the final couple of years, but his 29.6 regular was sixth-highest in the BCS all through that span. Covey doesn’t have world-class speed — he ran 4.50 at his pro day — but he’s explosive, he’s shifty, he’s elusive, and he’s astonishingly powerful for his measurement and is heading to struggle for extra yards. He’s really little, and which is heading to make it tough for him, but if he exhibits he can rejuvenate the Eagles’ moribund return recreation, he’s heading to make this roster.

2. Jalen Hurts Stat of the Week: Around the last five months of past period, Hurts had a larger passer score than Tom Brady. Hurts was 101.3 and Brady 100.3. 

3. Sanders’ precipitous decline as a receiver is a enormous thriller to me. Sanders caught 50 passes for 509 yards and three TDs as a rookie but has dropped to 54-for-355 with no TDs the last two seasons put together. Sanders is one particular of only two operating backs in NFL history with 500 getting yards as a rookie and much less than 400 the next two decades mixed. The other one was Mike Alstott in the late 1990s. Sanders rated seventh among RBs in receiving as a rookie, but he ranks 40th because. How does that transpire? Sanders was such a playmaker in the passing recreation in 2019. He experienced 16 catches of 10 yards or a lot more as a rookie and just 11 the past two many years put together. And he averaged 32 getting yards for every game as a rookie but just 15 the previous two years. It is strange. You do not just drop your potential to catch the football, but Sanders just hasn’t seemed the exact when it will come to finding open up, beating defenders on wheel routes and screens and securing the football when it’s thrown to him. Was his rookie calendar year a fluke in terms of getting? Probably the accidents have someway influenced him more as a receiver than a runner? He just hasn’t seemed cozy in the passing sport considering the fact that 2019. No matter what the explanation, it’s a trouble for a youthful quarterback who desires to be capable to toss to the backs when no one is open up down the subject or the pocket breaks down. This all performs into Sanders’ worth as he techniques the ultimate year of his deal. Jogging backs who can catch are just a whole lot far more useful than these who just can’t.

4. Terrell Owens experienced 20 touchdown catches as an Eagle. Only a few Eagles receivers have had a lot more around the last 25 years (DeSean Jackson, Jeremy Maclin, Jordan Matthews). T.O. only performed 21 game titles as an Eagle.

5. What Dallas Goedert did last calendar year is crazy: He was qualified just 76 instances but had 835 receiving yards. The NFL has been monitoring targets because 1992, and throughout that 30-12 months period of time no other tight stop has experienced around 800 yards on 76 or much less targets. Antonio Gates had 782 yards on 65 targets for the Chargers in 2010, and that’s the closest anybody else has been. That’s extraordinary manufacturing and performance by Goedert, who experienced the 17th-most targets among the limited finishes last calendar year but the fifth-most yards. All people raved about Mark Andrews’ season, and 1,361 yards is ridiculous for a restricted close. But he had 153 targets — extra than 2 times Goedert. Only five WRs have had 835 yards on 76 or fewer targets in the final 30 decades. Goedert experienced a historic year for a large receiver, and he’s a tight finish.

6. Remember Eagles linebacker Marc Woodard? He played in 48 games from 1994 by way of 1996, largely on specific groups, and he settled in South Jersey just after he retired from soccer. Woodard’s daughter Jessica, who attended Cherokee High College in Marlton, was a shot put All-American at the College of Oklahoma and created her initially U.S. nationwide group past month. On Saturday, competing from the major gals in the globe, Woodard put eighth in the shot at the Planet Athletics Championships in Eugene, Ore. She’s only the eighth U.S. woman to put among the the best 8 at Worlds. Her 63-7 ¾ at the U.S. Championships final month ranks No. 14 in U.S. record.

7. Anyone named my WIP clearly show with James Seltzer on Saturday complaining about how Jonathan Gannon hardly ever altered previous calendar year, and that is why the Eagles usually acquired blown out in the second 50 %. But essentially the reverse is accurate. Not counting the meaningless decline to the Cowboys on the last day of the season, they ranked 18th in the NFL in very first-fifty percent points permitted (11.3) but sixth in next-half points permitted (9.6). I thought the Eagles’ defensive challenges stemmed much more from not remaining ready at the commence of video games than nearly anything. They were third-worst in first-quarter points permitted (5.3 for every video game) but sound for the most element after halftime. With all the additions — Haason Reddick, James Bradberry, Jordan Davis, Nakobe Dean, Kyzir White — there is no purpose this cannot be an elite protection for 60 minutes instead of a respectable a single for 30 minutes.

8. Carson Wentz has experienced four seasons with at minimum 20 touchdowns and seven or less interceptions. In NFL history, only Aaron Rodgers has experienced a lot more.

9. When we communicate about Andy Reid’s outstanding first Eagles coaching staff, which bundled eight long run NFL head coaches as properly as legendary Jim Johnson and ace offensive line coach Juan Castillo, we just can’t forget about Rod Dowhower, Reid’s original offensive coordinator. Dowhower, an NFL coaching lifer who had coached Craig Morton, Neil Lomax and Mark Rypien, was in New York for the 1999 draft, and it was Dowhower who began working with Donovan McNabb on the Eagles’ playbook on the way to Philly just a number of hrs after he was drafted. Dowhower retired right after the 2001 season, but his affect on McNabb and the purpose he had in McNabb’s quick improvement from a uncooked rookie in 1999 to a Professional Bowler in 2000 to NFC Championship Sport QB in 2001 was large. 

10. Would seem outrageous that the Eagles’ past teaching camp at Lehigh begun 10 a long time back this week. I skip Lehigh.