Why Avonte Maddox will play more safety this season for the Eagles | Early Birds

Good morning. The Eagles take the field at 1 p.m. today for their first practice session leading up to Sunday's game against the Minnesota Vikings. Doug Pederson has a 10:30 a.m. news conference. Carson Wentz takes the lectern at 11:55 a.m.

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Avonte Maddox is listed as a cornerback, but the rookie will continue to play safety more as the season progresses. (Jalen Mills will not play safety and will not be demoted from his starting job. For more on the news of the day, check out Les Bowen's story.) The Eagles played Maddox, their fourth-round pick, at safety on Sunday.

It was the Eagles' first game this season without Rodney McLeod. Defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz admitted that playing Corey Graham 71 snaps is an "unrealistic" long-term solution at safety. Considering McLeod's going to be out this season, it seems like there's an opening for Maddox to take on a larger role.

"Guys that can cross-train are important to us," Schwartz said. "Gives us a little bit of flexibility. He can cover wide receivers. He's got great range. Has really good eyes for the football. I think you see that on the interception, he's just cluing the quarterback the whole way there. There have been some very successful safeties in the NFL that have that skill set. Just a little bit different than some of the bigger guys that have played the position, doesn't mean you can't be effective doing it."

Maddox, who is 5-foot-9 and 180 pounds, does not have prototypical size for the position and doesn't have a background at the position, either. However, Schwartz said Maddox's size is similar to McLeod's. (McLeod is one inch taller and 15 pounds heavier.) The Eagles liked his toughness while he was at Pittsburgh, and as Schwartz said, he has skills that can translate to safety. Considering the Eagles' depth at cornerback, it's a worthwhile move to make this season. The Eagles wanted to get him on the field. This is a chance.

"He's just a little bit inexperienced," Schwartz said, "and each rep he gets he will get better for us."

The Eagles called 20 running plays and more than 50 passing plays in Sunday's loss, prompting questions about the run-pass ratio. Of course, the Eagles totaled 432 yards, so they had little trouble moving the ball. I didn't see it as an issue, but they had success rushing and Doug Pederson has been known to get pass-happy at times.

"We try to be as balanced as we can be and we're going to play the game that we think needs to be played, and some of it is dictated during the course of the game," offensive coordinator Mike Groh said. "We've prided ourselves and I think Coach [Pederson] is as patient a play caller as there is in the running game in this league and really doesn't deviate from it. You can see there at the end of the game we're still running the football. Even in the overtime drive, we're running it time after time and having good success. So, a run call is never very far from the tip of his finger. He's always thinking about it and conversing with the staff during the course of the game."

The Eagles have the 11th-ranked rushing offense in the NFL this year and have called the 10th-most running plays.

If you missed it last week, Eagles defensive end Chris Long committed to invest nearly a quarter of his 2018 salary to increase early literacy for young children. Long, who has a base salary of $2.5 million, launched the "First Quarter for Literacy" campaign, which will provide books for children in underserved neighborhoods, raise awareness for the role parents/caregivers in raising readers, and engage fans to purchase books to donate to kids. Long's mission is to develop reading proficiency in kids by the fourth grade. His philanthropic efforts will focus on Philadelphia and rural Virginia, although teammates and opposing players have contributed and will contribute for other markets.

"I think this is one of the best ways to improve a kid's life, through school and subsequently after school into adulthood," Long said. "One thing that spoke to me is when you're younger than fourth grade, you're learning to read. And after fourth grade, you're reading to learn. So kids that can't read by the start of fourth grade are getting left behind faster and faster every year. …It's access to books at home, but really, it's being able to sharpen that tool."

Long said he loved The Very Hungry Caterpillar, which was read to him when he was younger and he reads to his son. He also liked Goodnight Moon and The Giving Tree.

Rasul Douglas is the Eagles' top reserve at outside cornerback, but he's behind Jalen Mills and Ronald Darby. He played last season when Darby was injured. He would need an injury (or a demotion) to get meaningful playing time this season. I know there's a school of thought that the Eagles should try him at safety, but that's not how the coaching staff views Douglas. They also don't look at him as a candidate for the slot. They think Douglas is an outside cornerback.

"We think that best fits his skill set," Jim Schwartz said. "He's always ready no matter the situation. We saw that in the opener, had to come in for just a couple plays, and he made plays. He did for us last year. We have confidence that if he's called on, he'll do the same thing for us this year."