The Philadelphia Eagles new head coach, Doug Pederson, made it very well known that he intends to bring hitting back into training camp after it was disregarded under Chip Kelly. Although it looks good on the outside, the Eagles hitting in camp may be doing more harm than good.
Philadelphia Eagles Hitting in Camp May be a Problem in Disguise
During camp last week, the media questioned Pederson about his policy of hitting in practice following injuries to Zach Ertz and Jordan Matthews. They suffered upper-body injuries and were pulled from practice. At the press conference, Pederson made this statement.
“I just know this: Football is a contact sport, this is gonna happen. Whether it happens today or it happens Thursday night. It’s a part of the game. I’m a big believer that you never shy away from contact. You have to have contact. It’s a contact sport. You just keep training the guys. You keep talking to them about protection.” – Doug Pederson
This quote looks good at first glance, but when you think a little deeper, it is actually quite concerning. To paraphrase, Pederson is saying that he wants his players to be tough and good tacklers. There is nothing wrong with that in of itself, but it seems as though that implementing more tackling is more of a pride thing than actually helping his players developing fundamentals.
Toughness vs Health of Players
It makes sense that the Eagles would now be doing the exact opposite things from what they did under Kelly’s tenure. Philly now wants a tough, hard-nose team that plays brutal defense rather than a soft, offensive-based team. This is exactly the reason that they hired Jim Shwartz as their defensive coordinator.
Toughness is essential for an NFL team, but it should not outweigh the concern for injuries. This season the Eagles are weak in terms of depth at many positions, especially on offense. They can’t afford to lose a corner stone of their offense in Ertz or Matthews because of rough tackling in practice.
There is balance between toughness and care for injury and it’s up to Pederson to find it. Both fans and the Eagles organization will be unhappy if key players come out of camp injured or fatigued.
Pushback From Eagles Players
The other day Ertz made a statement to the media, saying that he didn’t appreciate rookies hitting low. The former Stanford Cardinal wants the Eagles rookies to have more respect for the veterans and their health. It’s not good for rookies to be hitting low when that could cause injuries to the knees (especially ACL or MCL tears). And knowing quarterback Sam Bradford‘s history, hitting low might not be the best option.
It’s good to see that Doug Pederson can step in to do some coaching, unlike Chip Kelly, but he must also make sure the team knows that the veterans are to be respected on the field and in the locker room. Unlike the past few years, the team actually has the appearance of a real NFL team once again. But Pederson just needs to figure out how he can stop the first year players from hitting low, and possibly even dial back the amount of tackling in camp all together.
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