Eagles Hall of Fame cornerback and NFL Executive VP of Football Operations Troy Vincent joined Fran Duffy in studio on the most recent episode of the Eagle Eye in the Sky podcast. Vincent watched the Eagles' Organized Team Activity that day and came away with interesting praise for rookie cornerback Rasul Douglas.
"Moved very well. Big, long kid. Reminded me a little bit of Bobby Taylor," Vincent said. "Probably a little bit better quickness. He was smooth."
Vincent and Taylor formed one of the league's best starting cornerback duos to help the Eagles get to three consecutive NFC Championship Games from 2001-03. Vincent earned five Pro Bowls during his Eagles tenure and his 29 interceptions rank seventh in franchise history. Taylor, whose 6-3, 216-pound frame is similar to Douglas' 6-2, 209-pound body, started 109 games for the Eagles and earned Pro Bowl honors following the 2002 campaign.
Vincent spoke with Duffy about the state of the Eagles' cornerback position and also touched on a number of league-wide topics relating to his job.
On the passing of the rule that prohibits players from leaping over the line of scrimmage on PATs and field goal attempts, which was proposed by the Eagles: "You knew that the inevitable was going to happen. It's a dangerous play. It's a dynamic and athletic play.
"Injury was just destined to happen and it could be catastrophic when you see some of the guys and the way they were landing."
On being a sounding board for the league's coaches and front-office executives after games: "That's our role and quite frankly in some cases I would say I'm a sponge, I'm a vetting block because half of the teams are going to lose between Sunday, Monday, and Thursday, and they've got to vet someplace. I get called all kinds of names. At the end of the 50-minute conversation, I might say two words, someone will say, 'Troy, thank you for listening. I really appreciate you, man.'"
On the role of character in building a team: "If you want to erode your structure, if you want to erode your culture, you start picking people that are bad character people. It will show up. If you start having personnel that don't treat people in the lunch room right, in the parking lot from your security to folks at the stadium, to me that's a big deal. That shows me a little bit about who you are."
