As we all know, McCoy went with pick #53 to the Philadelphia Eagles. Sure enough, there are the standard cliches:
The Eagles were stunned McCoy, a first-round value in their eyes, was available with the 53rd pick.
Except, that they really weren’t according to Andy Reid.
Opening remarks:
“With the second pick, we took LeSean McCoy; a running back. We had an opportunity to bring him up here with the 30 players that we can bring up before the draft and visit with him. He’s a relatively local kid being from Harrisburg. He went to the same high school as Ricky Watters. We thought he had great quickness, very elusive in the open field, great vision inside the tackles. He catches the ball extremely well and we look forward to bringing him in here to learn this offense. He’s had a taste of it at the college level. He’ll give us a little depth at running back.”
On whether he could fit in as the No. 2 running back:
“We’ll see how it works out. We’ll see how he is and how he picks everything up.”
On whether he expected RB LeSean McCoy to be available this late:
“We were thinking somewhere mid-second round or high-second round. We were just a bit below that obviously. When we got to that point, I didn’t think teams were in need of running backs once we got down there.”
McCoy went within a few spots of where most mock drafts had him going.
Lots of different personal perspectives on McCoy. For Milford Academy, it was another player they had spend a year there and end up being drafted. Shonn Greene, Terrance Knighton, and Vaughn Martin also drafted went to Milford.
Mike McGlynn was drafted by the Eagles last year, he was asked about McCoy.
“(Knowshon) Moreno is up there and some of those other guys, but hey, (McCoy) is up there with pretty much the best of them at making big plays. I think it was a great pick for the Eagles.”
McGlynn is, admittedly, biased. He helped create space for McCoy when the two were teammates at Pittsburgh in 2007. Without an effective passing game, McGlynn said the Panthers put the ball in McCoy’s hands and let the kid’s natural talent take it from there.
“In the open field, he can make you look stupid,” McGlynn added. “He’d pull one move on a guy, and the guy is falling.”
The story also quotes a Delaware TE that played against him in high school.
McCoy used to clash against former University of Delaware tight end Robbie Agnone on the high school gridiron. Agnone’s Redland High School played annually against McCoy’s Bishop McDevitt, the same school that produced former Eagles running back Ricky Watters.
Yes, that would be the same Robbie Agnone that was originally a Panther in that cursed 2004 recruiting class. Agnone just signed as a rookie free agent with the Washington Redskins.
McCoy’s old HS coach at Bishop-McDevitt is happy to see McCoy going to the Eagles.
“He has everything you need,” he said. “He has great vision. His acceleration out of his cuts is unbelievable. He has great hands and he’s a very good route runner. I’m shocked they didn’t split him out at Pitt because I know they practiced it. It might have been because of quarterback issues, I don’t know. But he can do it, like Westbrook.”
One of the things that McCoy absolutely, positively will have to be able to do is run between the tackles. It is a fair question, whether he can. Westbrook can do it – and when he can’t do it, he has this uncanny leaping ability near the goal line. If he were to get hurt, they would need McCoy to be able to do it, too – unless the thought would be fullback Leonard Weaver inside the 5-yard line.
Anyway, inside running?
“He’s an inside runner,” Weachter said. “I watched him last year and I asked him, ‘Shady, what’s this with bouncing out?’ He said that [Pitt coach Dave] Wannstedt got in his head about some longer runs, so he bounced more of them outside. But he’s an inside runner. You’ll see . . .
“The thing he needs to get better at is pass-protecting. But he is physical. He’s not afraid of contact. And I’ve talked to him about it. If he doesn’t pick it up, he’s not going to see the field and he knows it.”
To be fair, running inside behind Pitt’s O-line has not been a productive decision for most running backs.
The pass blocking is something Reid mentioned McCoy needs to improve. Brian Westbrook echoed those thoughts.
Going into the draft, McCoy critics questioned his blocking abilities.
Westbrook emphasized that the rookie will need to concentrate on that aspect if he wants to get on the field.
“The truth is, especially when I came into the league, and still true now, if you continue to get No. 5 hit, you ain’t gonna play too much at all anyway. That’s just the bottom line,” he said.
If you examine Westbrook’s comments (or listen to the interview), they shouldn’t be viewed negatively. By all accounts, he’s one of the most-respected and well-liked guys in the locker room.
There should be little doubt that he’ll be a great mentor for McCoy.
McCoy acknowledged that the pass blocking will be something he needs to work at.
On McCoy’s ability to pass block and protect QB Donovan McNabb:
LM: “They definitely stressed [blocking ability] when I came in for my visit. Meeting with [head] coach [Andy] Reid we went over some things and meeting with [running backs] coach [Ted] Williams, that’s probably the biggest thing in my game that I need to improve on is my blocking. I know you can’t go out on the field without protection, so that’s something in my game that I can improve on. I’m a hard worker, I’m a hard worker and I’m going to get it done. I know that’s what I have to do to be able to get on the field. At Pitt I wasn’t really required to do it as much, being there for only two years I haven’t had a chance to do it as much, but here I will get the right coaching to get it done.”
On whether he was required to do mostly cut blocking in college:
LM: “The thing with my team is we had a lot of different ways of getting the ball out. Our passing game wasn’t where it needed to be, we had different schemes, so I did a lot of cut blocking.”
[Emphasis added.]
That’s just a touch of an understatement.
McCoy was happy to stay close to home and seeks advice from a former Eagles running back.
“It’s right down the street,” said McCoy, exaggerating just a bit about the distance between his hometown of Harrisburg and his new home away from home.
Actually, it’s about 100 miles down the street, most of it Pennsylvania Turnpike, but it’s a trip McCoy can’t wait to make after the Eagles used their second pick, 53rd overall, to select the record-setting running back out of Pittsburgh.
The 5-11, 204- pound McCoy was in for an extensive workout with the Eagles prior to the draft, and both sides liked what they took from the experience.
McCoy is an elusive runner who also catches the ball well out of the backfield, which makes head coach Andy Reid and his assistants happy. It’s also a location where McCoy can learn behind a Pro Bowl back in Brian Westbrook, and where another Bishop McDevitt alumnus had a memorable stop. McCoy talks frequently with Ricky Watters, and said the Pro Bowl back of the 1990s talks fondly of his time here.
“I know Ricky really well,” said McCoy. “I call him for advice. He’s kind of been everywhere and done everything that I want to do, both in college and in the pros. Also, Ricky had a nice career in Philadelphia, so I talk to Ricky a lot.”
Of course the close to home thing has a negative part. The interview with McCoy’s old high school coach had the coach strike the ominous note of how McCoy sometimes has trouble saying “no” to people. Being so close to home — family and old friends — can be a big negative if he doesn’t do a better job of saying no.
Interesting to note that the Eagles first two picks — Maclin and McCoy — have had major surgeries. And that it has affected their outlook on going to the NFL.
For Maclin, it was a knee injury, a torn ACL, an injury described as “grotesque.” For McCoy, it was an ankle injury, a broken ankle, an injury so bad that it made his stoic father cry. Maclin’s happened in July of 2006, before his freshman year at Missouri. McCoy’s happened 10 months earlier in a high school game in Harrisburg.
Both are still 20 years old. They are the NFL’s version of trust-fund babies now, except that there seems to be little sense of entitlement.
They cannot afford entitlement. They know.
In all the years of listening to these guys, have you ever heard a 20-year-old say at his first real NFL press conference, “At my position, as a running back, you only get a certain amount of hits in this game and I always wanted to enjoy my time in the NFL?”
Guys who are 28 say that. Guys who are 32 say that. Kids do not say that on the day after they are drafted, but McCoy said it yesterday. That one sentence explained everything.
…
It is a terrible lesson, one that every football player learns at some point. Rarely, though, does it make such a profound impression on players so young. Yet here the Eagles are, with Maclin (the first-round wide receiver out of Missouri) and McCoy (the second-round running back out of Pittsburgh) both coming out of college after two competitive seasons, both yet to turn 21, both so clearly focused on today because of frightening injuries in the past.
McCoy’s parents said that the tipping point in their son’s decision to leave school early was that broken ankle. Maclin was not as clear, but you could hear the influence of that awful practice field knee injury in his words.
