August 02, 2018
Earlier in the week, Doug Pederson was asked which young players have stood out to him so far through the first week or so of Philadelphia Eagles training camp.
"You know, I think offensively obviously Greg Ward who is kind of a veteran player but he’s a young player," Pederson said. "He's made some strides. Of course we talked about Shelton Gibson. You know, Corey [Clement], even put Corey in that group and how well he's come in to attack camp early on.
"We talked about [De'Vante] Bausby, Rasul Douglas is showing up, making some plays now. I like even Destiny [Vaeao] who missed some time a little bit last year with his hand and all that. He's flashing a little bit, young player. Aziz [Shittu] is another D-lineman that’s been kind of flashing a little bit. So I'm excited to watch these guys. They're going to get a ton of reps as we go during camp, especially in these first couple games."
So, let's take a look at each guy:
• WR Greg Ward: Ward has indeed had a good camp, as he did last year before the team released him at 53-man cutdowns. His best position is in the slot.
• WR Shelton Gibson: While Gibson has unquestionably been much better this camp, that's a low bar to clear as he had one of the worst training camps I've ever seen a year ago. He simply couldn't catch the ball. This year, he has made some nice plays so far, but I'm sure the coaching staff would love to see him cut down on the double-catches, and bring in the ball more cleanly.
• RB Corey Clement: I haven't mentioned Clement often, but he has had a solid camp, and will be a contributor in the offense from Week 1.
• CB De'Vante Bausby: We have mentioned Bausby quite a bit, as the "emerging no-name guy" who who has broken free from the group of young corners and put himself in a great position to make the team. Bausby has gotten reps both on the outside and in the slot.
• CB Rasul Douglas: This one surprised me. Douglas has gotten toasted quite a bit in 1-on-1's, though he has been solid in team drills.
• DT Destiny Vaeao: Jim Schwartz praised Vaeao as well, as we mentioned in our mailbag earlier this morning.
• DT Aziz Shittu: Doug mentioned Shittu back in the spring as well, which really made no sense, seeing as the team was practicing in shorts, making OL-DL evaluations difficult. I wonder if Doug is just chuckling to himself, seeing how many of us he can get to write about these guys.
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