Scouting Report
5 - Philadelphia Eagles Despite an off-season front-office shake-up,
Ray Rhodes's team will have a difficult time
improving on last year's dismal showing
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For the Eagles to stay
afloat, Garner, who has been productive
when healthy, must run like
Watters.
(Rick Stewart/Allsport)
| It's been
the highlight of Eagles
practices this summer: Hugh
Douglas versus Tra Thomas in the one-on-one pass-rush drills,
the race around the corner, ballroom dancing at breakneck
speed.
Douglas is the onetime defensive force from the Jets. A
rookie sensation with 10 sacks three years ago, then a
disappointment as an undersized
263-pounder trying to play a base end position in Bill
Parcells's 3-4 defense, he's happy to have been traded to
the Eagles and given a six-year,
$25.3 million contract, which makes him the
highest-paid player in franchise
history.
Thomas is the
No. 1 draft pick whom Philly installed as its varsity left
tackle before Paul Tagliabue had even finished announcing
his name. He'll be one of the most carefully scrutinized
rookies this fall as the Eagles once again try to fortify a
position that has
bedeviled them. He's the fourth left tackle they've drafted in
the first or second round in the last five years, the
eighth man to play the position in the last nine. This time
they feel they've finally got it
right.
Now the two combatants are lined up for their daily
matchup.
Douglas begins a wide, looping rush—his forte is
speed—and Thomas, a
6'7"
349-pounder who actually looks slender, matches him step for
step, riding him into no-man's-land. Juan
Castillo, the offensive line coach, yells so loudly his hat
falls
off.
Douglas smiles. The players line up again.
Blam-blam-blam. Douglas's hands are a blur, smacking the right shoulder to
set Thomas up, faking the inside move, a left shoulder
slap, a quick cut to the outside, and he's in
clean—all in a heartbeat. Silence. Veterans are
supposed to do that to
rookies.
"Never saw this at Florida State,"
Thomas says after practice. "All that swatting of hands.
Pulling back, faking, it's almost a martial arts thing out
there. But I'm learning, man. I'm learning. Working with
Hugh every day has been great for
me."
"Very talented rookie," Douglas says. "You
don't see that kind of foot speed on a guy that size. Good
guy for me to work
against."
What does Tra
Thomas mean to the Eagles this year? Well, the line gave up 64
sacks in '97, third most in team history. This year the
rest of the line will be O.K., nothing special. Start with
a pillar on the left side, though, and you've got something
to build on. Bobby
Hoying, who was Philly's third-string quarterback at the start
of last season, played well when he was given the starting
job with seven games to
go.
"Then they started blitzing me," he says.
"Let's say I
wasn't ready for all they threw at me." After throwing
no interceptions in his first three starts, Hoying had six
in his next four. The Eagles were 2-4-1 with Hoying at the
helm, including losses
in their final three games, but he's the guy
now.
Ricky Watters, who gave the Eagles three solid years at
running back, is gone—to Seattle as a free
agent—without so much as an offer from Philadelphia.
The plan is to replace him with
injury-prone Charlie Garner, who has a career average of
4.7 yards
per carry but has never carried more than 116 times in a
season, and second-year man Duce Staley, who had all of
seven rushing attempts last year. Irving Fryar caught 86
balls in '97, the most ever for a 35-year-old wideout, but
the Eagles are still
figuring out how to take the pressure off him. And Jon Gruden,
very efficient as the offensive coordinator, is now
coaching the Raiders. His replacement is former Stanford
offensive coordinator Dana Bible; the Cardinal was 5-6 last
year and ranked eighth in
the Pac-10 in offense. This is a unit with
problems.
| Schedule |
| Sept. | 6 | SEATTLE |
| 13 | at Atlanta |
| 20 | at Arizona |
| 27 | KANSAS CITY |
| Oct. | 4 | at Denver |
| 11 | WASHINGTON |
| 18 | at San Diego |
| 25 | OPEN DATE |
| Nov. | 2 | DALLAS (Mon.) |
| 8 | DETROIT |
| 15 | at Washington |
| 22 | at N.Y. Giants |
| 29 | at Green Bay |
| Dec. | 3 | ST. LOUIS (Thurs.) |
| 13 | ARIZONA |
| 20 | at Dallas |
| 27 | N.Y. GIANTS |
|
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In Ray Rhodes's three years as coach, the Eagles have
relied on toughness and emotion—and defense. A
perimeter pass rush is crucial. Last year their top sacking
end (four in 15 games) was 36-year-old Richard Dent, who
was playing on his fourth team in
four years. Now they have
Douglas, who will be teamed with another undersized wingman,
252-pound Mike Mamula. This makes you wonder what will happen
when teams load up and run at the Eagles, which they did to
the tune of
125.6 yards a game last
year.
Philly dropped to 6-9-1 in '97 (without a road win) after
two 10-6 years under Rhodes. He knows the heat's on. The
organization is in a state of flux. In May, Tom Modrak, a
veteran of 20 years in the Steelers' front office, was
brought in as director of
football operations to clean house. Which he did, shaking
up the personnel and scouting departments. (Among the
changes was the firing of pro-personnel director Mike
Lombardi, who had
just signed a new contract.) Since 1989 Modrak, as chief
scout, has drafted eight Pro Bowl players for the Steelers.
In the same period the Eagles have drafted
two.
It's not an easy fix. "We're sitting right where I
want to be," Rhodes says. "On the bottom. Nobody
gives us a chance. I've worked from that angle all my
life."
Sorry, Ray, but that's where we have you too—at the
bottom of the
division. —Paul Zimmerman
By the Numbers | Inside Slant | Lineup
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