Daily Local News (West Chester, PA)
Groh out to help Birds catch competently
The Eagles are confident the coaching staff guiding the team to a 7-9 record can improve with Mike Groh, who agreed to terms to be their wide receivers coach.
Groh, 45, succeeds Greg Lewis, who was canned two weeks and a lot of bad jokes ago. Groh is the son of former New York Jets and University of Virginia head coach Al Groh.
Mike Groh played quarterback for his father with the Cavaliers in 1995-96. He later joined the staff as dad’s offensive coordinator. Still later, Groh was an assistant for his father with the Jets. This past season Mike Groh was wide receivers coach and passing game coordinator for the Los Angeles Rams. He also spent time with Alabama and three years with the Bears as a wide receivers coach.
“We are excited to add Mike Groh to our coaching staff,” Doug Pederson said in a statement furnished by the Eagles. “Mike brings with him a vast array of experience coaching wide receivers in the NFL and college. Over his career, he has demonstrated a great ability as a teacher and as a motivator and we look forward to him getting started in Philadelphia.”
Groh has a daunting task ahead. Just three quarterbacks had more dropped passes during the 2016 season than the Eagles’ Carson Wentz, whose receivers dropped 24, according to The Sporting Charts.
Most of those drops were by the wide receivers, Jordan Matthews giving up six passes, Nelson Agholor and Dorial Green-Beckham four each.
Only quarterbacks Matt Stafford of the Detroit Lions (28 drops), Derek Carr of the Oakland Raiders (26) and Alex Smith of the Kansas City Chiefs (25) had more dropped passes.
The Eagles’ receivers largely failed to show improvement in route running, getting open and even lining up legally with Lewis showing them how he got it done during a six-year career with the Eagles that ended in 2008.
Though Lewis, 36, brought energy to the wide receiver room and was appreciated by the rookies, there was minimal improvement in his charges, most notably Agholor, the first-round pick out of USC, and Green-Beckham, the second-round choice out of Missouri acquired in a trade with the Tennessee Titans.
While Groh was in and out of the lineup at quarterback with Virginia, he was a football star at Randolph High in Morris County, N.J. Groh kicked the winning field goal in the 1990 N.J. North 2, Group 4 sectional championship game, against Montclair.
*** Eagles football boss Howie Roseman and Joe Douglas, his player personnel chief, were on WIP Monday morning. The highlighted topic on the station’s website dealt with the Eagles’ decision to trade cornerback Eric Rowe to the Patriots.
Roseman’s revised explanation made no more sense than his original answer. More telling was Roseman refusing to call the trade a mistake. That wasn’t a coincidence. The Eagles get at least a fourth-round pick for Rowe, who in addition to the easy interception in the AFC title game with the Patriots, was beaten for a score and somehow avoided drawing at least two pass interference penalties against the opposition’s least talented receivers. Rowe was the least skilled defender on the field, give or take an injury substitute.
*** NOTES >> Running back Darren Sproles and center Jason Kelce will replace Falcons counterparts Devonta Freeman and Alex Mack in the Pro Bowl Sunday. Freeman and Mack and the rest of the Falcons will be preparing to meet the Patriots in Super Bowl LI in two weeks . ... The Eagles signed defensive tackle Justin Hamilton to reserve-future contract.