Golden Tate is working at learning the Eagles' offense. He's staying late after practice going over verbiage. He's talking with quarterback Carson Wentz and offensive coordinator Mike Groh. He's studying his playbook and he's focused in practice.
It just takes time.
Two games into his Eagles career, Tate has seven receptions for 67 yards, not exactly the grandiose thoughts that percolated after the Eagles made the trade at the NFL deadline three weeks ago to acquire him from Detroit. It's coming. Progress is being made.
It just takes time.
"I really didn't know what to expect because I had never been traded midseason. It's a completely new system. I just know that I'm spending a lot of time while I'm here and at home trying to study material. I'm doing a lot of talking with Carson and Groh and Coach Brew (Gunter Brewer, wide receivers coach) trying to get comfortable and speed up this process, because we've got time. Just not much time."
The Eagles are looking for a lot of solutions with an offense that hasn't been hitting on the high-octane cylinders expected. Fitting Tate into the offense, into the rotation at wide receiver, into packages that are in the game plan, is one of those projects. What makes it most difficult is that the offense hasn't sustained drives in the last two weeks in losses to Dallas and New Orleans.
With a new week, though, comes new hope. And in this must-win game against the Giants on Sunday, Tate hopes to contribute to a victory.
"With the personnel we have, I have no doubt that we can do special things," Tate said. "I know that just from being here, it's going on three weeks. We have a lot of talent. We just need to put it together. I think we're getting closer and I know we're working to do that."
When Tate joined the Eagles, he spoke about how different the Eagles' system was at first glance than what he'd played in while a member of the Seattle Seahawks and in Detroit. The verbiage is different, as it is with every team and Tate said that his routes are different – on paper they could be 1 or 2 yards different in depth and the angle of coming back to the football is very specific and particular here in the system and with Wentz.
It just takes time.
The question is: Will Tate factor into the offense as everyone thinks he can in enough time to push the Eagles in the right direction?
We'll see. The Eagles have a level of urgency for Sunday's game. They know there is a very slim margin for error. Tate thinks the Eagles "are close" with the offense, even though the numbers don't say the same. Tate pointed to the touchdown drive, and the ease with which the offense flowed, in the loss to New Orleans. That's a big-picture challenge the Eagles have faced since the start of the season. The only 60-minute performance came in October with the win over the Giants at MetLife Stadium.
The other nine games have been heavy lifting.
"I'm trying to learn this as fast as I possibly can and do my part," Tate said. "We're trying to go 1-0. We just need to go out there and handle our business. We're at home and that's great. We need to refocus and handle business and then come back the next week (against Washington at Lincoln Financial Field) and handle business. I'm just excited to be here, to play ball with a bunch of guys who love football. Unfortunately, it's not happening the way we thought it would, but we're digging deep, we're working hard, and I have full confidence that this squad is going to get it done soon."
As the Eagles get closer to Sunday's game at Lincoln Financial Field, the offense knows it has to start faster than it has this season (just 21 points in the first quarter of 10 games) and finish stronger. Tate is here to work into the rotation and be unselfish along with Nelson Agholor, Jordan Matthews, Alshon Jeffery, and the tight ends, Zach Ertz and Dallas Goedert.
"We just have to do the simple stuff better," Tate said.
It just takes time.
