Philadelphia Eagles: Things you may have missed Volume 5 (Seumalo, Marshall & Shittu)
Everybody’s accounted for as three rookies are now able to join the Philadelphia Eagles for the first time.
The Philadelphia Eagles were without three of their rookies throughout OTAs and minicamp, but they’re here now and ready to get caught up. NFL rules prevent any rookie on the roster from joining the team until their senior class graduates. That didn’t affect many of the rookies signed to the Eagles’ roster, but for Abdulaziz Oluwatosin Shittu Jr. (or Aziz Shittu as he’ll probably be more commonly mentioned), Byron Marshall and Isaac Seumalo, it was a different story.
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All are now present for training camp, but there’s a bit of a learning curve. Seumalo figures to be part of what’s already a better offensive line than it was last year. Being able to play all five spots along the line gives him the full confidence of head coach Doug Pederson, and Pederson’s comments about the rookie were extremely complimentary. “He was in shape, ready to go. He’s so smart and intelligent.”
The addition of Seumalo makes Eagles fans feel a whole lot better as no one was excited to see former guard Evan Mathis go. In his absence, the interior of the offensive line struggled throughout the 2015 season. Several key signings and the addition of Seumalo means that probably won’t be the case this season.
With the injury to Ryan Mathews, the addition of Marshall already appears to be one that will get a lot of attention. Marshall was the first player in Pac-12 history to notch 1000 receiving and 1000 rushing yards in a single season. Marshall has all of the tools and knows what he is up against. “I just know I have a little more work to do, but I wouldn’t call it catch up,” said the rookie. “Just study more, pay attention in meetings, make sure I have it down, ask coach if I have any questions then keep studying for a couple more hours.”
This is my job, so if I don’t come out here prepared it’s like not bringing the certain material for my job in the workplace- Aziz Shittu
Then there’s Shittu, who hasn’t gotten the same fanfare as some of the other rookies on the roster but has an opportunity to make a name of his own. Shittu was signed as an undrafted free agent, but received decent draft grades, has the tools and is extremely intelligent (he did got to Stanford). Of his situation Shittu noted “The transition hasn’t been too tough. I tried to stay on top of the playbook while I was at school. I had my (tablet) and everything, but obviously I’m going to do a little extra studying while I’m out here because the whole install is basically in. So I have to know every play in our defensive package.”
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He summed things up perfectly by making a statement that could very easily apply to all three. “You just gotta be locked in. It’s different from college now. This is my job, so if I don’t come out here prepared it’s like not bringing the certain material for my job in the workplace,”
That says it all. good luck to all of these young men as they now transition from college and now have a chance to make their NFL dreams a reality.