Eagles vets missing OTAs means first-team work for hungry players, like Tre Sullivan and Rasul Douglas
This is the time for guys who want to move up to show what they can do.
By unofficial count, 13 veteran Eagles who could play prominent roles on this year’s team aren’t involved in organized team activities – four because they decided to take advantage of the “optional” tag on these workouts, nine more because they are working back from injury.
In the second week of OTAs, this is not a big problem. It distorts any premature attempt to formulate a depth chart, but as Eagles coach Doug Pederson noted on Monday, these sessions aren’t really for the veteran starters.
“This time of year is designed really for the younger player and the guy that you want to develop and grow in your system and see where they’re at,” Pederson said. “This is that time when we can really go hands on with them, and teach and coach, and put them on film and correct.
“The guys that aren't here, they're veteran players. They're guys that have played a ton of football for us. They helped us win a championship a couple years ago. So I'm not concerned really with those guys not being here.”
He said he “fully expects” the four uninjured starters to report for mandatory minicamp June 11-13 – safety Malcolm Jenkins, offensive tackles Jason Peters and Lane Johnson, and wide receiver Alshon Jeffery. The intrigue there will be with Jenkins, who reportedly wants a contract adjustment. Pederson said he was basing his assumption that Jenkins would report on his “personal feeling.”
“Obviously, next week's a different set of circumstances … it's the only mandatory portion of our offseason,” Pederson said. “But the guys that are here have been working extremely hard, and we're building that chemistry right now, kind of laying the foundation right now with the guys we have.”
A couple of third-year players, safety Tre Sullivan and corner Rasul Douglas, feel they have benefited from guys ahead of them not being here. In Sullivan’s case, Jenkins is sitting out and Rodney McLeod is working alone on an adjoining field as he comes back from knee surgery. That means Sullivan and veteran free-agent signee Andrew Sendejo are the starting safeties right now. Douglas mans one of the outside corner spots, with Ronald Darby (knee) and Jalen Mills (foot) sidelined.
Sullivan arrived two years ago as an undrafted Division II linebacker from Shepherd University who was being converted to safety. He showed he could hit in his first preseason game, sending then-Packers receiver Malachi Dupre to the hospital, but Sullivan had much to learn.
Sullivan spent much of the Super Bowl season on the street before gaining an Eagles practice-squad berth that November. He began last season on the practice squad, before injuries tore up the Eagles’ secondary. Sullivan ended up playing in 12 regular-season games and both playoff contests. He played more than half the defensive snaps in the final two regular-season games and again in the postseason, against Chicago and New Orleans.
Practicing with the starters right now, without pads, is “just building my confidence,” Sullivan said Monday.
Sullivan said he wants to show he really knows Jim Schwartz’s scheme and can make the adjustments now the way Jenkins or McLeod can.
“Really knowing what’s going on – this will be my third year in this same defense, I’m blessed to have the same coordinator. … I feel a lot more comfortable this year,” Sullivan said. “Showing I’m reliable. Consistency, Jim says all the time, is a big thing. That’s really what I’m working on this year, being very consistent, not being just a flash player, you know -- good plays here, good plays there.
“It’s a big difference from Year 1 to Year 3, and even from Year 2 to Year 3.”
Douglas said Sullivan and Sendejo had to step up, to get the defense in the right coverages for these sessions.
“ ‘Dejo’ and Tre have no choice but to take that role. Here, our safeties have to do a lot of talking. They’re doing a good job talking. Especially Dejo,” Douglas said. Sendejo is beginning his ninth NFL season, but it’s his first with the Eagles and Schwartz. “He probably knows more than I do right now. I think he’s in his playbook probably every day.”
The Eagles want to be better prepared, if injuries strike at secondary depth this season. Douglas is one of six corners who could win starting jobs. Sullivan and Sendejo are backed up by returning vet Deiondre’ Hall, second-year safety Godwin Igwebuike, claimed on waivers from San Francisco, and Eagles and Rams vet Blake Countess.
“We got a lot of good talent … a lot of great competition,” Sullivan said. “Definitely, our room is deeper.”
Sullivan said he talks to Jenkins regularly. Does he know if the leader of the secondary plans to report for minicamp?
“I’ll ask him questions, [but] nah, we focus on us being here,” Sullivan said. “Like Malcolm would say, our job is to get ourselves better.”
Douglas, a third-round pick in 2017 from West Virginia, played a lot as a rookie but began last season with almost no role defensively, taking the field for no more than 5 percent of the defensive snaps in any of the first five games. Injuries changed that, and Douglas made the most of his chance, playing every snap in the final five regular-season games and every playoff snap until he suffered an ankle injury in the season-ending loss at New Orleans. He and Mills are the team’s two bigger, more physical corners, and one of them probably will end up starting outside, paired with Darby, Sidney Jones or Avonte Maddox.
Pederson mentioned Douglas – who lost weight in the offseason in an attempt to get a bit quicker -- as a player who has stood out this spring. Douglas was asked if he thought the starters would easily regain their roles when they return.
“No. Nah. Because I’m going to keep the same edge,” he said. “They’re going to have to come in and they’re going to have to match the intensity. Right now we’re setting the bar for how we want to play.”