The Eagles have concluded their final mandatory minicamp before training camp at Lehigh. Per the new CBA rules, the vets can now work out with the team, but can't do any work on the field until camp starts. So this was Andy Reid's last shot to take a look at his team, what did he think?
"I love the energy and mindset right now," said Reid. "For nine weeks, these guys have been coming in here and grinding it. I mentioned this before that 80% of the team was in here before that with [strength and conditioning coach] Barry [Rubin] getting their lifts in. I want that to carry over to training camp. This is going to be a tough training camp for them, I've talked to the team about that. It's going to be a demanding training camp, and from now until we get up there, they need to keep themselves in the shape that they're in right now."
Andy says that guys should expect a tougher camp than they saw last year.
"In the recent past, yes, especially compared to last year. Really, you lose two draft classes there and whatever free agents you brought in that haven't been through a normal training camp."
We'll have Andy's take on some specific players later, but generally he says that the coaches and players are just happy to playing football this summer.
"I'm glad we had the opportunity to do this. I just mentioned that when you get something taken away and you get it back, you approach it with all this energy and excitement. It's good to see their want to get better and the effort there."