Eagles Rookie Camp: 'Don't Miss Adam Thielen!'
PHILADELPHIA - Nick Sirianni’s message to himself at the start of the Philadelphia Eagles rookie camp on Friday is one he’s been jotting in his notebook since he became a head coach.
“Don’t miss Adam Thielen."
For those who don’t know, the long-time Minnesota Vikings receiver, who is now in Carolina, had inauspicious beginnings as an undrafted free agent out of Minnesota State, who first caught the eye of the Vikings as a tryout player before being signed to their offseason roster.
From there it was making the 53-man roster as a special teams stalwart for Thielen and slowly moving up the depth chart with his surgical route-running. At his height with the Vikings, Thielen turned into a top-10 receiver in the NFL. When he does call it a career, he will return to Minnesota as a Ring of Honor player mentioned with legends like Randy Moss, Cris Carter, Ahmad Rashad, and Anthony Carter as one of the best receivers in history for a franchise known for its receivers.
On Friday, the Eagles started their two-day 2023 rookie camp with 43 players, 19 of them being tryout players.
The hopefuls on the offensive side were receivers Charleston Rambo (Miami), Austin Proehl (North Carolina), Garrett Maag (North Dakota), Jaylen Hall (Western Kentucky), and Galvin Holmes (Baylor), running backs Toa Taua (Nevada), and T.J. Cole (Ouachita Baptist), and tight ends Jordan Murray (Hawaii), and Sammis Reyes (Loyola).
The defenders brought in were defensive ends TyJuan Garbutt (Virginia Tech) and Quinton Bell (Prairie View), linebackers DaShaun White (Oklahoma), Jasir Cox (West Virginia), and Johnny Buchanan (Delaware), cornerbacks Chris Steele (USC), and Bentlee Sanders (Nevada), and safeties Dominique Long (Duke) and Xavier Bell (Portland State).
Rounding things out was one specialist: long snapper Dalton Godfrey (South Dakota).
That group has a very short window to catch the eye of Sirianni and his staff. The good news for them is that Sirianni is on the lookout for someone who may have been overlooked like Thielen was back in 2013.
When asked by SI.com’s Eagles Today how a tryout player could get noticed with such a small timeframe to do it, Sirianni perked up showing his signature love of the game and how invested he is in trying to uncover any potential rock to find Philadelphia a player.
“First of all, it's going into each drill and watching them in the drill and listen, this is what we do,” the coach said. “Every player that I watch this offseason, I watch their pro day and I watch their tape. And so now I'm able to do it in person and watch them in person.”
It might be the smallest of things, according to Sirianni. Body mechanics often imperceptible to the naked eye.
“We are truly studying the body movements of the player and seeing -- knowing the things we know about him and seeing how we can use him and stuff like that,” Sirianni said. “It will be fun to watch this tape tonight. ... We'll rewatch one-on-ones and seven-on-sevens.”
The Eagles also have an extra session just for the 19 tryout players as well and that’s where the Thielen test comes in.
“What we'll try to do with some of the tryout guys is we had a little extra session just for the guys that we knew that it could be only two days that we get to see them,” the coach said. “So, we had a little extra session at the end to make sure that we don't miss on an Adam Thielen.”
The odds remain long and most of the tryout players will be on the plane by Sunday with a little Eagles swag as a reminder of their short time in South Philadelphia. Perhaps some of them en route to another rookie camp tryout around the league if they're lucky.
“I know there's only one of him,” Sirianni said of Thielen.
One means there could be another somewhere down the line, however, and the Eagles coach is obsessed with not missing out on the opportunity.
“But you say that to [the tryout players] and you try to do everything you do so that you don't miss that, and so that's just that extra period that we'll evaluate but it is just watching the body movements and how they are going about [things],” Sirianni said.
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-John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's Eagles Today and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John, alongside legendary sports-talk host Jody McDonald every morning from 8-10 on ‘Birds 365,” streaming live on YouTube. John is also the host of his own show "Football 24/7 and a daily contributor to ESPN South Jersey. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen
