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** Do you know where LT Jason Peters is? Yeah, we know where he is, and we know what's going on.
Do you expect him to be here the rest of this week and back for mini-camp next week? Yeah, I expect him here shortly.
He wasn't here on Monday last week because of ... He wasn't here last week either.
He wasn't here last week at all? Nope.
Is this an excused absence in your view? There is no excused because it's voluntary, so that terminology is not allowed.
Would you rather he be here? No, I understand exactly where Jason is.
As you're trying to put together everything and install stuff, how much would you like, I know it's voluntary to have everyone here? We have everybody here besides Jason, so we're good.
Not injury related though? No, it's not injury related.
Can you talk about the decision to have practice outside in steady rain and kind of what went into that? I think football's played outside. Last time I checked, [Lincoln Financial Field] doesn't have a dome. It rained a little bit. I know it may have been a little inconvenient for you guys, and I do apologize for that, but I think we had a practice. It wasn't like we had a hurricane or anything like that.
Is it pretty much business as usual now, whatever the weather is you're going to be outside? We just need to get a lot accomplished. We don't have a big indoor facility, so there are a lot of things. You can't practice special teams like that, so if we can be outside, we're going to be outside. We have to play outside. We have to get used to it. I have to look at the schedule, but I don't think we have any dome games. We have to get used to playing when the sun is out or the sun's not out.
It seems there was one other guy missing? [Safety] Kenny [Phillips] is here. He's with the trainers.
Was that a precaution because of the knee? It's got nothing to do with the weather.
How much can working in the rain, in the past, Andy Reid probably would have had the guys inside and find a way to go inside. How much can practicing in the rain with these kind of conditions as you've done with other things around here since you've been here help these guys when it comes to game time, preparing, and working in the different conditions? I don't know what went on in the practice, but I know you've got to practice in it if you're going to play in it. We've always felt that. Unless it's just so bad that you can't be productive. But we had some guys slipping and sliding a little bit. They have to learn to stay on their feet in those situations, so we felt it was good working outside today.
You said Kenny is okay? I said Kenny is here. He was in the training room. He wasn't on the field.
Does he have an injury? Yeah, he's had an injury for a couple of years now.
Has he had a setback on that? I don't ask questions. They just tell me who is going and who is not going.
Can we ask trainer Chris Peduzzi about the knee? I don't know. I don't know what the protocol is. But I'm not a doctor, they just tell me who is practicing and who is not practicing.
When you reviewed last year's tape, what did you see out of LB Mychal Kendrick, and what is his skill set here? I think Mychal's an athletic, real physical linebacker, but I think his biggest attribute is his athleticism. He's a three down linebacker, he doesn't have to come off the field in third down. He excels in pass coverage, but he's physical enough to play on first and second down. He's one of the more athletic linebackers in this league, so really excited about his future and what he can do. He can do everything we've asked him to do.
Is he motion, tight ends and other guys, could he be a defensive answer to some of those match up problems?I think he matches up well with people. I don't know if it has to do with motion or not motion. But I know he's got a great coverageability of what he can do and who he can match up with.
Is there anything you can say about certain guys running with the first team? No, we're just rolling guys. There's first group, second group, and we're rolling people through. [T] Dennis [Kelly] played some left side today, so [offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland] is just rolling guys through. We get a look at them. Just like I said, the last time we talked about it, I wouldn't make too much about who is playing with first group, who is playing with second group.
You showed some balanced formations on the line there, is that something you did at Oregon? No, there are certain rules in this league that govern how you can be on balance and not. That's a lot different than college.
How do you think QB Matt Barkley has started to pick up the offense? I know it's a little more of a learning curve with rookies. Matt's done a great job. He's a real student of the game. Had a great background to begin with. Started every game in high school and in college, so his experience that he came in here with. I don't know if anybody's done that, having that much experience coming in as a rookie. Real student of the game, does a great job of grasping concepts and understanding what we're trying to do and not just what the receivers are running for routes. I think that's kind of sometimes with the rookie, what routes are they running, and I'm going to throw the ball. Matt does a great job understanding the overall concept that's being run and then being able to kind of change. He may have done this before in the past, but now put it into our terminology and process things. And I think he's done a great job in his work ethic in terms of being here early, studying tape and doing those things. I think it's helped him. There is a reason why he's started every game in high school and every game in college, because he was prepared for it, and I think when you're around him, you understand that. It's not just he's so much more gifted than anybody else. It's really how hard he works at the game. Lot of fun to be around and lot of fun to coach.
It seems Matt is frequently getting backs, tight ends lined up and moving around, maybe more so than the other guys. Is that because he's with a lot of guys that are new here and still learning? Yeah, I think he's got most of the young guys in when he gets in sometimes. And they're judged on if the back runs the wrong route, that's tough for you as a quarterback when you expect them to be somewhere. So I think if you watch, Dennis is doing that a lot. It's usually the guys with the younger guys with them that they're getting those guys lined up. It's understandable. Like [TE] Will Shaw got here last week, and we're trying to have him figure out exactly what we're doing. And we added a lot today. Today was a big insertion day for us. There was a lot of new [things] that went in today by design. So we're starting to pile on now, and especially for some of these young guys that piling on process, if you just got here after the draft, I think you can hit a wall a little bit, but they've got to fight their way through it.
Can you talk about using the fly swatters or what do you guys call those? You had the helpers wearing them on their shoulders? Yeah, it simulates a pass rush. So when you're in seven on seven, obviously, you've got to throw through the lane. We made those at Oregon, and it gives us an opportunity. It's the exact height of a 6'4" defensive lineman with his hands up. You can't throw over everybody, so you have to throw through throwing lanes. It's the best way we can simulate that.
Did you say the majority of pass plays in your offense are designed to go through lanes whereas it wouldn't affect the quarterback no matter his size and about how much he has to throw over?No, I wouldn't say that at all.
You're not always through strong in lanes? No, how can you get in 7 on 7 without a pass rush and simulate the passing lane that's you have to throw the football through? I think quarterbacks get very comfortable dumping the ball. But if you've got a 6'7", 6'8" offensive lineman in front of you, you're not going to be able to do that. You have Dennis Kelly playing over there at left tackle. Whether that defensive lineman has his hands up or not, you're not going to be able to throw it through two lanes. That is something everybody understands. And seven on seven, you can get into habits of dumb noting the ball down low and not realizing there is an offensive or defensive line there, so we came up with that at Oregon, to make sure our guys know there are rush lanes and we have to throw the ball through the lane. Very rarely no matter what type of route you're throwing, it's in over the ball, and it's going to sail.
Is 6'4" the average height? Yeah, that's what we looked at.
G Danny Watkins is a former first round draft pick, and he struggled to live up to those expectations with that. Did you sit him down and talk to him and say forget the past, go forward. Don't carry that burden of living up to that? No, I have no expectations of anybody. When I got here on January 16th, it didn't matter to me if you were a first round pick or an undrafted free agent. It's about putting the best team on the field. Where they got picked in the past or those things, it was a clean slate with us coming in. It's a clean slate with him.
And how is he doing? How is he progressing? What does he need to work on? What's he doing well?
I think like everybody, they need to work on acclimating themselves to our offense, and getting an understanding of what we're trying to do. There is no one right now that I can say he's got it, he's good, so let's chalk him off and move on to the next one. I think everybody's trying to improve every day we're out here. Everybody's trying to get a little better understanding. And once you know what to do, you get into the real technical aspects of exactly how am I going to do that? How far am I going to step with my right foot, how far am I going to step with my left foot. Now that I've got the how part, really the what part is what I think most of our guys are working on. But today was a new insertion day for us. So there were a lot of things that went in new today, and it was the first time any of them heard it. So it's an ongoing process, but I think like anybody, Danny or any other player, what do they have to work on? They have to work on everything. We've still got a ways to go.
Is he still raw? What do you see there specifically? I think he's got athleticism to play offensive line; he's a physical guy and can move people with his hands. One of the biggest problems we have in this whole deal is we don't have pads on. So for me to make an assessment of this guy is this, and this guy is that, I have no idea. There are a lot of guys that look great running around shorts and t shirts. Then you put the pads on and start getting physical and try to knock people off the ball. Now the guys you weren't counting on, it's like holy smokes, look what he's doing. So I think all of us on our coaching staff have been around a long time, and we can't put all of our assessments into what's gone on in the last couple of weeks and we won't know anything especially with the offensive and defensive linemen until you put the pads on and get into preseason games. Because it's a physical game, we'll be a physical football team, and we'll find that out when we have the big boy pads on. And bound by the rules right now, we don't have that. So right now it's what are you doing, how are you doing it, and working on technique. But there are a lot of things that go on out there, where our D line, and O line are cooperating well together, because it's hard. If not, we'd just have a scrimmage every play, and our guys understand that. The biggest burden right now is on the defensive linemen. I know they could shock the offensive linemen coming off the ball, but we don't have pads on. So there is a certain amount of cooperation going on. So from an evaluation standpoint, it's difficult to say where a guy is totally at those positions, because you don't know until we get going and start to do the physical part of what we need to do to prepare here.
What have you been told that TE James Casey is going to be ready to go? I haven't. So I would imagine they said [training] camp. He's not going to go during OTAs or mini-camp next week. He just got operated on a couple of days ago. But we anticipate full recovery and to be ready by training camp.
Is one of the quarterbacks, Nick Foles, is one of them starting to emerge more like a number one guy? What have you seen? And we haven't had those discussions. It's can we get a ton of reps, get them on tape, that will go through training camp and what not. When you have to make an important decision on who a starter is going to be in some position, I don't think it's why should we jump to conclusions? Why do we need to name a starting quarterback in May? I mean, we're going to take the full amount of time that we have to make a thorough evaluation of what we do. When you make big decisions like that, I don't think you want to make a rash decision. You want to give everybody the opportunity to see what they do. Right now we haven't done a thing in front of officials. We haven't done anything except we've had three days of voluntary mini-camp before the draft, and today was our seventh OTA. So none of us have had any thoughts of hey, we've got to get a guy named by a certain point in time. It will play itself out. It will play itself out over the course of time when we've had an opportunity to make a thorough evaluation. It is a big decision. When you make a big decision, you have to take your time and let it play itself out on the field. So we're not looking at it like that. They rotate on a daily basis. Billy will tell you who will play in each group and they'll just go out and play.
Has Cary Williams spent some time here? He was back last week. He got married. He's done a great job of playing catch up. I couldn't tell you exactly where he is. But he did miss a good amount of insertion in phase 2, and that first week of OTAs, but he's a sharp kid. Really gets football really, really quickly. So it's a matter of [defensive backs] coach [John] Lovett and [assistant defensive backs coach Todd] Lyght getting those guys up to speed over there. But I think he's starting to feel more comfortable out there.
