THE FIRST THING you notice about Eagles rookie receiver Riley Cooper – well, maybe the second, after the hair that flows out the back of his helmet – is his size. I know that big receivers are a rage in the NFL, but this dude is big – like tight-end big. At 6-4 and 220 to 225 pounds, Cooper sizes up favorably with the current tight ends on the roster, Brent Celek, Cornelius Ingram and Clay Harbor. It’s not a stretch to think that, at some point, one of his coaches considered having Cooper gain 10 to 15 pounds and putting him at the end of the line of scrimmage. But those coaches obviously were smart enough to recognize that in addition to his size, Cooper had speed. Not DeSean Jackson or …
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Cooper could be big target at wideout for Eagles
Michael Vick was among the highest-paid players in the NFL, then damned as a grand-scale purveyor of animal cruelty. He served time in federal prison for operating a dogfighting ring, but has since won praise for preaching against the illegal blood sport. Now, Vick is coming to South Florida, with controversy trailing him like a defensive tackle dogging a quarterback. He will host a celebrity party Friday night at the MI-VI (pronounced m-i-6) Club at Gulfstream Park Racing
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Michael Vick to host Hallandale Beach celebrity party; animal lovers plan protest
To many of the participants in the 2-week Eagles rookie camp that concluded yesterday, every day in the NFL is an adventure. The locker room, the playbook, the photos of ex-stars lining the hallways, the detailed, fulltime-job emphasis on such things as special-teams technique – every experience is a first-time experience. Then there are the guys like offensive tackle King Dunlap, who just sweltered through his third year of rookie camp. Dunlap is what they call a project – in his case, a long-term project. The Eagles drafted him from Auburn in the seventh round 2 years ago, intrigued by the idea of a long-armed, 6-9 lineman, figuring the seventh round was a small enough investment to …
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Eagles lineman Dunlap trying to get more King-sized
Safety Ryan Hamilton, a former Council Rock North star, was on the field at NovaCare yesterday wearing jersey No. 48, just a few days after being released by the Saints. Hamilton said the Birds, his favorite team growing up, inquired about signing him in the hours after last month’s NFL draft, but he already had signed with the Saints. The opportunity for Hamilton to play near home arose again after injuries to some offensive performers led New Orleans to want to bring in reinforcements – something that required them to make cuts elsewhere. “I was the only rookie” at the safety position, where New Orleans is pretty well stocked, Hamilton said.
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Hamilton getting shot with Eagles at safety
Not long before he died, David Nesheim taught his son how to snap a football. The way Daniel Te’o-Nesheim looks at it now, that long-ago lesson from his father led to his playing defensive end for the Eagles. “The last sporting thing we did together was to go out in the backyard and he taught me how to hike the ball and he taught me how to long-snap,” Te’o-Nesheim said Thursday after another workout for rookies and selected veterans. According to Te’o-Nesheim, if he hadn’t followed his father into their Seattle backyard as a 12-year old for snapping instructions, he may have never chosen to play center on his first football team. And if he hadn’t told his high school coach – after quitting …
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A long-ago snap got Eagles rookie started
Mike Kafka has undergone more transformations than some of the characters in his namesake Franz’s novels. Two years ago as a junior at Northwestern, the Chicago native was hailed as one of the nation’s best running quarterbacks after he set the Big Ten single-game rushing record for a QB with 217 yards against Minnesota. Last season, Kafka became one of the most prolific shotgun-style spread-offense passers in the nation. He threw for 3,430 yards and set all-time bowl records with 47 completions and 78 pass attempts in the Outback Bowl. Now Kafka, the Philadelphia Eagles’ fourth-round draft pick, needs to shift again to become an under-center West Coast offense field general. “The drops …
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Eagles quarterback Mike Kafka adjusts to the West Coast offense
Clay Harbor speaks to his older brother, Cory, just about every evening; Clay sketching the details of life in Eagles rookie camp for Cory, Clay’s teammate at Missouri State who didn’t get an NFL opportunity. Cory, who just finished work on his master’s, can take at least partial credit for the career of his brother, a fourth-round rookie tight end. If Cory hadn’t insisted, Clay probably never would have gotten a college scholarship offer. The Harbor brothers grew up in Dwight, Ill., a town of about 4,300 people. Clay said the high school, with about 300 kids, fields a combined football team with a school from another town. College recruiters don’t flock to the area, in rural Illinois. …
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Thanks to persistent brother, Harbor now with Eagles
DOWN IN NASHVILLE, Titans running back Chris Johnson has been conspicuous by his absence from the team’s voluntary workouts and offseason training program. Johnson, who rushed for 2,006 yards last season and set an NFL record for yards from scrimmage, wants a contract extension, and wants it now, and he isn’t interested in listening to any excuses why the team can’t give him one. If that means being a Grade-A offseason distraction, so be it. Meanwhile, over at One Nova-Care Way, wide receiver DeSean Jackson is in pretty much the same boat as Johnson. Like Johnson, the 2008 second-round pick clearly has outplayed his 4-year, $3.47 million rookie contract and is looking for an extension. …
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Comparing contract dilemmas of DeSean Jackson & Chris Johnson
Ernie Sims, the Eagles’ new weakside linebacker, might be the highest-profile starter attending rookie camp, as he gets a handle on the Birds’ defensive scheme. With no pads during these practices, you really notice that Sims is not big. His listed measurements of 6-foot, 230 could be overstated. But you also notice he’s really, really quick. It’s noncontact, so the offensive line was doing more shadowing than blocking, but Sims really motored into the backfield on a blitz yesterday. “I’m real confident in blitzing,” Sims said. “That’s something I like about this defense . . . the more the coaches put me in that situation, I’m going to take advantage of it.” The rap on Sims is his …
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Veteran linebacker Sims shows Eagles rookies what he can do
Lined up over a cone and a Gatorade bottle, quarterback Mike Kafka dropped back, set his feet and launched a deep pass to a running Chad Hall. The rookies, two of eight Eagles still out under the sun after practice ended Wednesday, did it again and again, and added some short swing passes as well. For at least the second straight day, Kafka and Hall, a wide receiver out of Air Force, stayed after practice to work on passing and receiving amid summerlike heat. As Kafka tries to grab the Eagles’ third-string quarterback job, his work ethic and focus on the finer points of NFL passing have impressed starter Kevin Kolb. “The thing that I love is his attention to detail. As a great quarterback, …
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Kafka puts in time, effort to stick with Eagles
For a variety of reasons, Chad Hall isn’t the first person you’d expect to compete for an NFL job. A former Air Force star, Hall doesn’t have the typical big-college pedigree of his teammates. He doesn’t have one standout position — a running back in high school and early in college, the academy turned him into a triple threat who played halfback, receiver and kicker returner. And then there’s the glaring reason he’s a long shot to ever play a snap for the Eagles or any other NFL team outside of the preseason. He’s 5-foot-8. Hall has heard knocks about his height since he played on the offensive and defensive lines in sixth grade. “It’s just something I work through. It’s not in my head. …
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Hall gets long look at camps
The New York/New Jersey winning 2014 Super Bowl bid won’t necessarily set a precedent for other outdoor, cold-weather sites hoping to play host to the sport’s premiere event in the future. Commissioner Roger Goodell stopped short of saying that yesterday’s vote would open the door for places such as Philadelphia, Chicago, Green Bay, Denver or Washington, D.C., that may have an eye on the game’s showcase event. “I think each game is going to be made on an individual basis,” Goodell said. “I do believe that New York is a unique market. I think the membership recognizes that.” That didn’t stop Redskins owner Daniel Snyder from lobbying for a possible Super Bowl in the nation’s capital …
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Super Bowl at Meadowlands won’t necessarily open the door for Philadelphia, Denver or other cities
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