Murphy: Is Eagles' linebacking corps good enough?

TRAINING CAMP'S entrails are a difficult read. For every player who makes a play, there's a defender who allowed him to make it, and both play for the team whose fortunes we're attempting to predict. Case in point: After Wednesday's practice session, a reporter mentioned to Doug Pederson that Trey Burton seemed to be making a lot of plays out there, and Pederson agreed. Your first thought: Hey, maybe this kid's coming into his own.

Your second thought: What if he isn't? And what happens when the defense that couldn't cover Trey Burton is trying to cover Jordan Reed?

That might have been the thought that won out if you had watched Burton win an easy jump ball in the back of the end zone over a turned-around Mychal Kendricks, which is what happened during one of the goal-line reps on Wednesday. You might also have thought it had you watched Sam Bradford drop a dollop into Kenjon Barner's arms for a long touchdown after the running back dusted his coverage on a wheel route. Worth noting, this was the first-team offense against the second-team defense. Also worth noting, the guy covering Barner - linebacker Deontae Skinner - is one of only two backup linebackers in camp with NFL experience.

Lost in all the hullabaloo about the arrival of Jim Schwartz and the switch from a passive 3-4 to an attacking 4-3 is the fact that the personnel at linebacker really isn't all that different from what it was a year ago. Goodbye, Kiko Alonso and DeMeco Ryans; hello, Nigel Bradham and a bunch of rookies. The hope is that Jordan Hicks, who displayed solid coverage skills to go with his heady play at middle linebacker as a rookie, remains healthy for the entire season. Yet that was the hope last year, too.

One of the more interesting things former defensive coordinator Billy Davis said in his interview with the Daily News' Paul Domowitch last week pertained to the Eagles linebackers' struggles in coverage.

"The pass defense wasn't near where it needed to be," said Davis, who is unemployed. "But it wasn't all secondary breakdowns. A lot of it was linebackers on running backs, and a couple linebackers on tight ends, that were driving me nuts."

Often, one of those linebackers was Kendricks, whose susceptibility to the big play has long limited the net benefit of his athleticism.

In the Eagles' first eight games, they allowed opposing running backs and tight ends to catch 74 passes, 561 yards and two touchdowns. In the last eight: 84 catches, 1,098 yards, 10 touchdowns.

But it wasn't only the raw numbers. Consider how many impactful catches the Eagles yielded.

In the season finale, the Giants' Shane Verreen, Will Tye and Rashad Jennings combined for 13 catches, 145 yards and a touchdown. Nine of those catches went for first downs. The previous week, Redskins tight end Jordan Reed caught nine passes for 129 yards and two touchdowns, while running back Pierre Thomas had seven catches for 67 yards. Of those 16 catches, 12 resulted in first downs. Against the Lions, four of Theo Riddick's catches went for first downs and a fifth went for a touchdown. Both of Joique Bell's catches went for first downs. Miami running back Lamar Miller had six catches, three for first down, one for touchdown.

Against the Patriots, running back James White caught 10 passes, six of them for first downs, one for a touchdown, totaling 115 yards.

Coverage was supposed to be one of Alonso's greatest strengths, and you saw some evidence of it in the season opener, when he made a one-handed, barrel-rolling interception of a Matt Ryan pass in the end zone. By the end of the season, a contingent of fans and media seemed to view the middle linebacker as the poster child for the Eagles' wayward season, an underachiever whose lack of production underscored Kelly's foolishness in the trade that sent LeSean McCoy to the Bills. Yet Alonso was playing on a knee that required an arthroscopic "cleaning" after he injured it in Week 3, and it certainly looked as if he struggled to plant and change directions throughout the rest of the season. That might not serve as an excuse for the trade - Kelly knew at the time that Alonso was coming off an ACL tear in the same knee - but we should at least keep it in mind before counting his departure to the Dolphins this offseason as a case of addition by subtraction.

Regardless of whether Alonso resurrects his career in Miami, the Eagles' depth at linebacker is an issue that they did little to address this offseason. At the moment, fifth-year role player Najee Goode is one of only two backup linebackers in camp who has NFL experience, the other being Skinner, who spent last year on the Eagles' practice squad after appearing in seven games with New England as a rookie in 2014. Another name to know is Joe Walker, whom the Eagles selected in the seventh round out of Oregon and who has been working as Hicks' primary backup at middle linebacker.

After that, the depth chart features a trio of undrafted rookies: Quentin Gause (Rutgers), Myke Tavarres (Incarnate Word) and Don Cherry (Villanova).

"We're happy with the guys we have," Schwartz said recently. "I think we added a couple of good players in the offseason, and we've been happy with the progress. There's always going to be times you need more depth, and there's always going to be things that come up along the way. As we are out here coaching, those guys are always keeping their eyes on different opportunities to add to the team, and I think it's the same for 31 other teams in the NFL, also."

Of course, it's unlikely he would acknowledge it if he felt differently. Same goes for Pederson, who earlier this camp said he'd be comfortable entering the season with Goode as his only backup LB with significant NFL experience.

"If you had to go into the season that way, yeah, I'm comfortable with him," the head coach said. "Would you like to continue to have more depth at that position and at any position? Sure. But, yeah, I'm very comfortable with him."

They're still more than a month away from their Week 1 matchup against the Browns' Gary Barnidge. Until then, they'll concentrate on stopping Trey Burton.

@ByDavidMurphy