On Tuesday morning, Eagles offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur met with the media outside at the NovaCare Complex practice fields. Among the many topics that Shurmur touched upon, he shined some light on where the Eagles are from a quarterback standpoint heading into Thursday afternoon's game.
Here are some key takeaways …
A Quarterback Update
After Sam Bradford was seen taking part in individual drills on Mondays, Shurmur confirmed on Tuesday that Bradford has indeed passed through the NFL's concussion protocol. Still, the Eagles are unsure of who will be getting the start in Detroit on Thanksgiving.
"We're going to get them ready to go and start one of them. We'll see," Shurmur said. "We won't learn any more today because today is a walkthrough.
"I don't want to lead anybody down the wrong path. I really don't know. We're going to go out and walk today. We have to see who is healthy and then we'll make that decision … I'm trying to be honest and transparent. I can't tell you what's going to happen because I don't know who is going to be healthy."
As for Bradford being back on the practice field, Shurmur explained that the workload in training is a little bit different since it's a short week.
"He participated in some of what we were doing, but yesterday was a half-speed deal too because we were just one day off from the game, so again it's really kind of up in the air," Shurmur said. "He did some team stuff, but again we we're going full speed, but he looked good."
The Wide Receivers Rotation
Wide Receiver Josh Huff has caught a touchdown pass in each of his past two games, but after his 39-yard touchdown on Sunday, he wasn't targeted again in the game. Shurmur explained how the Eagles have been rotating the outside receivers this season.
"We roll our guys in," Shurmur said. "As you know, we're a no-huddle operation. Last week, Riley and Miles each had 31 snaps. Josh rotates in with Nelson, and we intended to have it be even, but as you know, last week Josh missed one of our training sessions with his back. We weren't sure how much he could go, even though he was up. The intention was for them to share the reps. We got Nelson more reps … When you look at it in total, our four outside receivers over the course of the season, they've all played between 340 and 380 snaps."
On Tampa Bay's Defense
After scoring 14 points in the first half, the Eagles were held to just three points the rest of the game against the Buccaneers. Shurmur explained how he saw things from up in the coaches' booth on Sunday afternoon.
"They didn't do anything that we didn't plan for," Shurmur said. "There were a couple of plays where we didn't execute well, but for the most part we saw the defense that we were expecting to see.
"When the game gets a little bit lopsided score-wise, that's what teams will do. They'll play a little bit softer coverage, which then clouds the outside receivers so your focus then has to go inside."
On Detroit's Defense
With the Tampa Bay game now in the rear-view mirror, Shurmur explained what the challenges are that the Lion's defense will present on Thursday. According to Shurmur, Detroit's defense is not too dissimilar from what the Eagles saw from the Buccaneers this past week.
"They're a four-man front, much like Tampa," Shurmur said. "They play their edges a little bit wider. What do they call it? The wide-9 look. They play a little bit wider on the edges, although because we run the ball inside, every team we play will sometimes tighten the edges down. So they're a four-man front.
"Ziggy Ansah is a terrific pass rusher. They're really sturdy in the middle with Haloti Ngata. Their linebackers are active and I think their secondary is playing well together. They found a combination of guys that they feel good about. The past two weeks they've certainly been playing good defense."
