njuries happen in the NFL. The good teams anticipate them and prepare for them and have the resources to compensate when a player goes down. The Eagles lost a promising rookie when cornerbackJaCorey Shepherd
was injured in Sunday's Training Camp session and now they go with the popular "next man up" theory.
"The way we do it, everybody is ready to play," cornerback Nolan Carroll said. "Coach Cory (Undlin) has done a good job making sure everybody knows everybody's position on defense. The safeties know what the corners are doing, the corners know what the nickel is doing, the nickel knows what the safeties are doing. We're all interchangeable back there.
"When one guy goes down, we can plug another guy in."
It isn't that easy when a team lacks talent, of course, but the Eagles feel they have a well-equipped group at cornerback to compensate for the loss of Shepherd, who suffered a torn ACL in his right knee and is likely out for the season. It's the same reason they felt they could trade a player like veteran cornerback Brandon Boykin, who went to Pittsburgh in return for a fifth-round draft pick in 2016 that becomes a fourth-round selection should Boykin play 60 percent of the snaps for the Steelers this season.
Anyway, the focus is on how the Eagles play it at the nickel cornerback position. And the possibilities are many, as the Eagles develop rookies like Eric Rowe and Randall Evans and Denzel Rice, and how they fit veteran pieces like Byron Maxwell and Walter Thurmond and E.J. Biggers into the secondary mix.
Key words here: Develop. Fit. Secondary mix.
was injured in Sunday's Training Camp session and now they go with the popular "next man up" theory."The way we do it, everybody is ready to play," cornerback Nolan Carroll
said. "Coach Cory (Undlin) has done a good job making sure everybody knows everybody's position on defense. The safeties know what the corners are doing, the corners know what the nickel is doing, the nickel knows what the safeties are doing. We're all interchangeable back there."When one guy goes down, we can plug another guy in."
It isn't that easy when a team lacks talent, of course, but the Eagles feel they have a well-equipped group at cornerback to compensate for the loss of Shepherd, who suffered a torn ACL in his right knee and is likely out for the season. It's the same reason they felt they could trade a player like veteran cornerback Brandon Boykin, who went to Pittsburgh in return for a fifth-round draft pick in 2016 that becomes a fourth-round selection should Boykin play 60 percent of the snaps for the Steelers this season.
Anyway, the focus is on how the Eagles play it at the nickel cornerback position. And the possibilities are many, as the Eagles develop rookies like Eric Rowe
and Randall Evans and Denzel Rice, and how they fit veteran pieces like Byron Maxwell and Walter Thurmond and E.J. Biggers into the secondary mix.Key words here: Develop. Fit. Secondary mix.
