Happy Coaches

So as training camp approaches there are NFL coaches throughout the league full of optimism and happiness.  At least that is what they all will tell you.

I read an article today in the Philadelphia Daily News about how chipper Andy Reid is this year.  Here are some of his fantasy land spins on potential upcoming trouble.

Brian Westbrook and New Agent

• Andy has no worries here that Westbrook will be in camp and ready to go.  So even though he has been unhappy for quite some time over his contract feeling he is way underpaid it won’t hurt the team.  But the best part about how the Eagles handle their contracts was this quote, “We’ve always done a good job with those things, so I’m not worried about that. We’ve always been very fair and understanding to players we’ve approached about contracts . . . I’ll leave it at that.”  I am quite sure there are a number of players who may not agree with that.

Lito Sheppard and New Agent

• Once again no worries even though Drew Rosenhaus is Lito Sheppard’s new agent and he has been hoping to get traded since we signed Asante Samuel.  Well apparently instead we will have an interesting camp battle happening as Andy mentioned that he would be competing against Sheldon Brown for the other starting Cornerback position.  I’m not quite sure how this soap opera will now play out.  Considering Lito’s injury history, my bet is on Brown winning the job.

Changing As You Get Older

• The last tidbit is an adjustment by Andy Reid on training camp structure.  Andy has been known to have intense hitting camps but this year will shift as some of the players have gotten older (namely Brian Dawkins, Jon Runyan, and William Thomas).  All thirtysomething veterans, excluding quarterbacks and kicker, will work both practices for 2 days, then take the morning of the next day off, throughout camp.  So a little adjustment there from Andy who is hoping to keep some of his older stars fresh.

The days of camp are just beginning and it will be interesting to see how these three tidbits play out over the course of camp.  One thing you can always count on is your head coach saying all the optimistic things prior to the regular season kicking off.