Praise for Moro Ojomo, praise for Chip Kelly and much more in Roob's latest Eagles observations.
A young Eagles defensive player whose coach already considers himself a coach on the field, an under-the-radar defensive acquisition who's making a roster push and an Eagle who calls Chip Kelly"a genius.
" We've got a fresh batch of Roob's 10 Random Observations as we inch closer and closer to Eagles-Cowboys on Sept. 24. Moro Ojomo is 23 years old, he’s started one game in his NFL career, he was a 7th-round pick and he has zero combined sacks, interceptions, forced fumbles, fumble recoveries, tackles for loss in his 456 career defensive snaps. Yet the Eagles are incredibly high on the interior defensive lineman from Texas, who projects as the Eagles’ third interior lineman, behind Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis. Eagles defensive line coach Clint Hurtt went as far as saying Ojomo is so advanced in the defense already it’s like having an extra coach on the field: “Effort and energy. But from a measurable standpoint, length, violence in his hands, his awareness as a football player to recognize blocking schemes and communicate protections, where the games are. He’s at the point now where he can come to the sideline and be able to tell me, ‘Hey Coach, you're sitting on this, what about this?’ He's starting to turn into a coach on the field with his level of intelligence, so to see that and then his confidence level because he knows he can do those things and he's right when we have those discussions, it's impressive to see him do that. He's an every down player. We don’t see him as a role guy.”Ojomo reacted to Hurtt’s comments on Saturday: “Honored. That’s a guy that’s been coaching for 20-plus years. A brilliant coach, a guy that’s coached a ton of players. And one thing that Clint does at an extremely high level is allow us to take ownership in the room and allow us to build from one other. It’s amazing. It’s really fun.”There are 14 players still active from the 2013 NFL draft. Lane Johnson and Travis Kelce are the only ones still with their original team. The others are 1st-round pick DeAndre Hopkins, 2nd-round picks Zach Ertz, Darius Slay, Geno Smith, Robert Woods and Jonathan Hankins, 3rd-round pick Keenan Allen and John Jenkins, 4th-round pick Kyle Juszczyk, 5th-round pick Sam Martin and 6th-round pick David Quessenberry and Dustin Hopkins.It is so hard for rookie wide receivers to find their way through rookie camp and learn the offense, stay strong physically through the daily grind, adjust to the level of competition and go out and make plays in practice and the games. For an undrafted rookie who played on the FCS level it’s even harder. That’s why what Darius Cooper did Thursday night and has been doing all summer was so impressive.This time last year, Cooper was preparing for his senior season at Tarleton State College in Stephenville, Texas, and talk about level of competition. I looked up Tarleton’s schedule and they played schools such as West Georgia, Central Arkansas, Southern Utah, Mississippi Valley State and Abilene Christian. And on Thursday he’s out there catching six passes for 82 yards with a 20-yard touchdown in his first NFL game. You can’t go out and make plays like that after playing at Tarleton State and going undrafted unless you have put in a tremendous amount of work preparing for your rookie training camp. And you also need to have a mentality where you're not overwhelmed facing NFL competition. You see so many young receivers — many of whom played at big-time schools — who are in way over the heads when they're starting out and just can’t make plays in a preseason game like Cooper did. I don’t know if Cooper will make the final 53-man roster or ever become an NFL player. But I love seeing a guy who was unknown a few weeks ago break through and put together a performance like that. He sure helped himself a lot Thursday night.A below-the-radar pickup just before training camp began was Ogbonnia Okoronkwo, an edge rusher who has played 80 games with 13 starts with the Rams, Texans and Browns. Okoronkwo, at 30 years old, is one of the oldest Eagles, and he’s had some production in his career with 14½ sacks over the last four years. Okoronko was with the Browns until late June, when they released him. He didn’t sign with the Eagles until July 26, a few days after training camp began. But he’s flashed lately. He’s got some slick pass rush moves and some athleticism at 6-2, 250. So far, Josh Uche is the third edge behind Nolan Smith and Jalyx Hunt, and Okoronkwo is probably next. Azeez Ojulari has been a little disappointing and we haven’t seen anything from former 1st-round pick Ochaun Mathis. So I feel like Okoronkwo is making a bit of a roster push here. Okoronkwo is an interesting guy. In 2021, his Pro Football Focus pass rush grade of 75.3 ranked 30th out of 162 edge rushers who played at least 100 snaps, then he ranked 16th out of 152 in 2022 at 81.9. He dropped to 62.8 in 2023 and then 55.4 last year , so maybe he’s trending the wrong way but so far it’s been a good summer for him.Only four active quarterbacks drafted in the sixth round or later have more career wins than Tanner McKee, who has one: Tyrod Taylor , Brock Purdy , Gardner Minshew and Brandon Allen .Dorian Thompson-Robinson threw out a name after practice on Saturday that hadn’t been heard in these parts in some years. Thompson-Robinson was talking about why he was able to get comfortable in the Eagles’ offense quickly and he referenced his college coach at UCLA: “I feel like a lot of that credit goes to Chip Kelly, my former college coach,” DTR said. “I feel like he's brought a lot of those same similar concepts, just the way that they talk about progressions here and how friendly the offense is with the quarterback in terms of getting different guys different route options and protection responsibilities up front. I think this helps out a bunch with just overall quarterback thought process and just kind of minimizing mistakes from a mental standpoint.” Kelly is known around here as the guy who gutted the Eagles' roster during his disastrous year as general manager. He got off to a good start with a 10-6 season in 2013 and 9-3 start in 2014 but went 7-12 after that and was fired with a week to go in 2015. After a miserable 2-14 season with the 49ers he wound up at UCLA in 2018, and DTR was his quarterback in 2021 and 2022, going 8-3 and 9-4 with 48 touchdowns and 16 interceptions. Kelly spent last year at Ohio State under Ryan Day — his quarterbacks coach with the Eagles in 2015 – and is now the Raiders’ offensive coordinator under Pete Carroll.The ridiculous list of quarterbacks who’ve spent time with both the Eagles and Browns: Doug Pederson, Kelly Holcombe, Jeff Garcia, Thaddeus Lewis, Ty Detmer, Joe Flacco, Nick Mullens, Brad Goebel, Cody Kessler, Josh McCown, Mark Rypien, Kenny Pickett, Thompson-Robinson. Those QBs went a combined 16-50 with the Browns and 17-19 with the Eagles. Detmer won the most games for the Eagles and Flacco and Holcomb won the most games for the Browns .Carson Wentz, now 32 years old, four years removed from his last year as a starter and eight years removed from his one Pro Bowl, is not currently in the NFL, and while it’s possible he could latch on at some point with a team that has an injury or two at quarterback or doesn’t have what it thought it had going into camp, it sure seems like this is it for Wentz. Crazy to think about his career arc. The Eagles don't get the No. 1 seed without him in 2017, and I'm convinced he would have been MVP that year if he hadn't gotten hurt. That nine-game stretch from the first Giants game through the Rams game when he got hurt, Wentz was as good as any Eagles quarterback has ever been, with 24 TDs and three INTs. But the injuries and his refusal to adjust his style of play to account for his increasing physical limitations turned him into a mediocre player. After going 11-2 in 2017, he was 29-36 the rest of his career. Out of 44 quarterbacks who threw at least 1,000 passes from 2018 through last year, his 89.5 passer rating ranked 31st. And a career that began with so much promise and excitement now appears over.Who was that guy wearing an Eagles cap who stuck around long after a very hot practice one day last week to help the equipment guys pick up and stack some random offensive line practice pads and mats under the blazing hot sun long after most of the players and coaches had gone inside and the fans had left?One of the biggest Philly celebrities ever becomes just another guy when he’s at Eagles practice, and it’s pretty awesome. Because he may have one of the most popular podcasts in the world and he might have Taylor Swift at his house for Thanksgiving dinner and he might be a 1st-ballot Hall of Famer in 2029, but at heart Kelce is an offensive lineman, and even though he retired after the 2023 season he’s still a great teammate.Whenever the Eagles had a smaller back during the Buddy Ryan era — Robert Lavette in 1987, Mark Higgs in 1988, Thomas Sanders in 1990 — Buddy would rarely get them any carries. He just didn’t like smaller backs. And we would always ask why he never mixed those guys into the rotation and Buddy would invariably say something like: “Aw you guys like them itty-bitty backs, run around, look pretty, get killed.” Cracked me up every time.
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