Former quarterbacks abound on Eagles roster

After Friday practices at the University of Florida, some of the players who weren't quarterbacks would engage in a throwing contest to see who could most often hit the goalposts.

Jaylen Watkins, having been a high school quarterback, partook and said he never lost.

"I would beat everybody," Watkins, now a cornerback with the Eagles, said. "You can ask anyone that was there."

Eagles tight end Trey Burton, another Florida product and former high school quarterback, was there and he had a different version of events.

"I don't think he ever won once," Burton said.

You don't have to walk very far in the Eagles locker room to find a quarterback from a previous life. There are nearly a dozen on the 53-man roster - aside from actual quarterbacks Nick Foles, Mark Sanchez and Matt Barkley - who played the position at some point during their high school careers. Seven were good enough to be recruited by colleges.

Receiver Brad Smith was the only one, though, to play quarterback throughout his career at Missouri. The others - tackle Lane Johnson, tight end James Casey, linebacker Marcus Smith, safety Nate Allen, Burton and Watkins - made the switch to different positions. And aside from Allen, they all joined the Eagles after Chip Kelly became head coach.

Kelly will occasionally make mention of a player's quarterback past. He has made an obvious effort to get players with high character since his hiring, and often high school quarterbacks are also there for their leadership skills. But Kelly said the seemingly high number of ex-quarterbacks on his roster was purely coincidental.

"I think there are a lot of guys that fell into that role. That is just kind of what happens," Kelly said on Thursday. "If you are a high school coach, [you ask], 'Who is your best athlete?' and you are probably going to put him at quarterback."

Receiver Josh Huff said he was moved to quarterback for his senior year purely for that reason. Linebacker Mychal Kendricks said his high school coach used to insert him under center late in games when his team needed a big play or a touchdown.

But other than Burton and Watkins, the other five ex-quarterbacks considered themselves more passers than athletes that could take a snap and run.

"A lot of times they could have just been the best quarterback, so you can't take that from them," Brad Smith said. "Sometimes it's just the situation. Back in the day, Paul Hornung and those guys played several positions. There weren't as many specialists as today. Guys just went out and played football."

Smith, who worked out for several teams as a quarterback before the draft but was ultimately drafted by the New York Jets to play several positions, considers himself just a football player. Kelly has made a point of acquiring versatile players, partly because of 46-man game-day rosters, and ex-quarterbacks like Smith, Casey and Burton would certainly qualify.

The experience of playing quarterback, each player said, has benefited them at their new positions. Johnson, who played for a year at junior college in Texas before switching to tight end and eventually the offensive line after transferring to Oklahoma, said the mental challenges at quarterback make transitioning to another spot much easier.

"The quarterback has to be the leader of the offense, has to know what everybody has to do," said Burton, who attended Venice (Fla.) High. "So I'm not just looking at one position. So whenever they install a play, I'm looking at everybody, still to this day."

Watkins, who played quarterback in his last two years at Cape Coral (Fla.) High, said the experience helped him understand coverages in the secondary and reading a quarterback's mind. Marcus Smith said that making calls now that he's at middle linebacker isn't as difficult because he has had to be "the voice" before.

"I think it helps when you see things from a different perspective," Kelly said. "You've seen it through what the quarterback's eyes are like, so now you understand when you're on the other side what you were looking at. . . . The more you get exposed to those different things, you're a by-product of your experience."

Brad Smith first played guard as a 5-year old, but when he scooped up a fumble and ran the other way for a score, he was moved to quarterback.

Marcus Smith was a quarterback from Day 1, but when he got to Louisville his coaches suggested a move to linebacker and he took it because he wanted to play right away. It was the same for Allen, who initially insisted that he play quarterback at South Florida.

"I just wanted people to give me a shot at it, but when I got to college I realized first day of camp, I was like, 'You know what, we'll just make the switch,' " Allen said. "They were talking about redshirting and I wanted to play."

Watkins, who followed Allen as quarterback at Cape Coral, never entertained such notions even though smaller schools recruited him after he had committed to play defensive back at Florida.

Burton was in the same class and was recruited to play quarterback. But he lasted only a season there and was used in the Wildcat formation during his last three years. Burton and Watkins were running quarterbacks in high school, although they both argued that they won the Friday throwing contest.

"I have no reason to lie to you," Burton said. "Ask him how many times his high school beat my high school. Ask him what happened his junior year, first round of the playoffs."

Venice beat Cape Coral, 35-14, and Burton had five rushing touchdowns to Watkins' one.

"Ask him," Watkins shot back from across the Eagles locker room, "who picked him off in that game?"

According to the Weather Channel, the high temperature in Green Bay on Sunday will be 29 degrees and game-time temperatures when the Eagles-Packers kick off will be in the low 20s with winds up to 14 m.p.h.

Eagles kicker Cody Parkey, a native of Jupiter, Fla., and a product of Auburn University, has never kicked in those kinds of conditions. He said Thursday that he once played in 20-degree weather, but the lowest game-time temperature during his four seasons in college was 48 degrees in a 2010 game against Chattanooga when he handled only kickoffs.

Asked which game he was referring to, Parkey said, "I just remember it being cold."

The average game-time temperature for Auburn's outdoor games during Parkey's four years was 70 degrees and the wind averaged 7 m.p.h. The Eagles have yet to play in cold conditions this season. But for a kicker, wind is a more important element.

Parkey said the wind would swirl at Auburn's Jordan-Hare Stadium and that he often kicked in gusty conditions in Jupiter. "Right by the beach," Parkey said. "So wind isn't anything new to me."

Eagles coach Chip Kelly said Parkey booted a 48-yard field goal in "about a 25-mile-an-hour wind" at the end of practice last week. "He's very consistent and has been very consistent from a training standpoint when we're out here," Kelly said.

The rookie has hit 16 of 17 field-goal attempts this season and is sixth in the NFL in percentage (.941). Parkey's 62.5 touchback percentage on kickoffs is ninth in the league. So far, he's been a significant upgrade over predecessor Alex Henery.

In last year's November visit to the Packers' Lambeau Field, Henery hooked a 39-yard field goal wide left. The Eagles said wind affected the attempt. The game-time weather that day: 45 degrees and 12-m.p.h. wind.

Question: If you were NFL commissioner, what would be the one thing you would change about the league?

Answer: I would make contracts guaranteed like all the other [professional] sports.

Q: Are you a collector of anything?

A: Old Nintendo 64 games. That's my favorite console of all time.

Q: If you could have lunch with one person from any time period, dead or alive, who would it be and why?

A: Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist and cosmologist. Sitting down to talk to him would be pretty cool.

Q: If you could be any fictional character, who would you choose?

A: Luke from Cool Hand Luke.

Q: Who wins a fight between a bear and a shark in five feet of water and why?

A: I think the shark would take him in five feet because the water would slow the grizzly bear enough to where he wouldn't be able to defend himself very well.

When asked what Monday night's demotion to the inactive list meant for his future with the Eagles, safety Earl Wolff said he didn't know.

"I'm definitely disappointed, [with] all the work I put in," Wolff said this week. "At the end of the day, there are going to be times in the valleys and times in the mountains. Now I'm in the valley, but I know sooner or later I'm going to be back on the top."

Coach Chip Kelly said the Eagles went with newly-acquired safety Chris Prosinski over Wolff because of special teams. Prosinski played four seasons with the Jaguars before he was injured and waived earlier this season.

Wolff said he had been playing on all four special-teams units. While the Eagles have some of the best special teams in the NFL, Wolff had only one special-teams tackle in seven games.

"I feel like I have some strong parts where I'm really good at them and some things I could probably work on," said Wolff, who started two weeks ago at safety for the injured Nate Allen. "I didn't think I was playing terrible. All I can do is work. Stay positive."

Cody Parkey won an unofficial award for having the cleanest stall in the locker room at the NovaCare Complex.

"I'm not a neat freak or anything, but I kind of like everything in the same spot," the kicker said. "So I got my hats here, my game-winning football [from the Colts game] there. I haven't been here 12 years like Jon [Dorenbos]. I think Jon has a piece a clothing from every year he's been here."

Dorenbos, the Eagles' long snapper, wasn't awarded the dubious honor of messiest stall. Running back LeSean McCoy beat center Jason Kelce out by an unwashed jock.

"If a cluttered desk is a sign of a cluttered mind," Kelce said, quoting Albert Einstein, "of what, then, is an empty desk a sign?"

3.78 - Eagles' per-rush average on first and 10, which ranks 23d in the NFL. Last season, they averaged 5.38 yards, first in the league.

4.39 - Average on rushes up the middle, which ranks 11th. Last season, they averaged an NFL-best 6.09 yards.

6 - Rushes over 20 yards through nine games this season, which is tied for 10th. Last season, they had 19, which was second in the league.

jmclane@phillynews.com

@Jeff_McLane