Mike Kafka, the only quarterback in attendance yesterday, was thrilled to see McCoy. Kafka said the addition of a running back meant he could finally work on screen passes.
The point has been made before, and will be made again - that while we're still quite a ways from the NFL lockout causing preseason or regular-season games to be canceled, we're not quite a ways from it affecting the 2011 season. Rookies and vets should have been through minicamp by now, and would be in the middle of organized team activities, what the Eagles have informally called "passing camp."
Players would be learning new offensive and defensive wrinkles, gaining knowledge coaches then could build upon in training camp. Winter weight gains would have been addressed.
Instead, the NFL waits for Friday's hearing of the league's appeal of the injunction that briefly lifted the lockout. There seems little suspense how the Eighth Circuit panel will rule - two of the three judges all but endorsed the owners' view in their decision to grant a stay of the injunction. But no ruling is expected for at least a few weeks, and apparently, there is no momentum toward serious negotiation.
McCoy has mostly been working out in Florida, but he flew home to Harrisburg over the weekend and drove to South Jersey to get some reps with teammates. He said yesterday was his first time running patterns and catching the ball this offseason.
"I've just been doing a lot of lifting, running, conditioning. This is actually my first type of like, football workout," he said.
