Fans did not realize how important Eagles long-snapper Jon Dorenbos was until he was hurt. Photo by Pete Lerro/contrastphotography.com

Every football coach will tell you that a third of any game is special teams. But not every coach spends a third of their practice time sharpening the many blades of special teams. As a result, most special teams aren’t special. They are just teams.

That’s what the Eagles were the past two seasons under special team coordinator Bobby April. They were teams. One additional truism from all special team coaches are that “we want to win two games each year because of our special teams and we want to never lose a game because of poor special team play.”

All of this is going to change under Chip Kelley. In 32 years as a pro football player and as an NFL commentator I have never seen a team denote more time to special team drills. Chip is seen coaching every aspect of it as does his new special team coordinator, Dave Fipp. They drop special team drills in between every period, just like a game. So the Eagles will go from 9 on 7 straight to kick off return; or from one on ones to punt block.

The early returns in preseason game No.1 vs Patriots were favorable. The kickoffs under Alex Henery were deep and when the ball was returned the Eagles pinned the Patriots inside the 20-yard line two different times on tackles by Brandon Graham and Kurt Coleman. Alex is an excellent young kicker. His field goals last year were amongst the best in the league going 27 for 31. But there is always room for improvement. He did not make a field goal over 50 yards and I think his kickoffs can consistently go deeper into the end zone.

The Eagles punter of the past two years was Chaz Henry. He was released in favor of 11-year veteran Donnie Jones. Jones is a multiple pro bowl punter and for good reason. In the past three years he has averaged 30 punts downed inside the 20-yard line each season. My biggest pet peeve in all of football is punters who cannot consistently drop the ball in side the opponents’ 20-yard line and as a result, settle for sailing the ball into the end zone for touch backs.

Regardless of what kind of team you are and at what level you play there is a simple truth: longer fields produce fewer points and shorter fields produce more points. That is as sure a thing as death and taxes. If the Eagles can consistently make their opponents go longer fields they will surrender fewer points.

On Friday night vs the Patriots Donne Jones punted from just shy of the 50-yard line. He punted the ball with Australian Rules Football backspin the way Tiger hits a 100-yard wedge with backspin that makes the ball stick upon contact with the ground. Jones had a ball bounce straight up at the 2 yard line and then was deftly knocked back into play by Brandon Boykin. The result was that Patriot punter Zoltan Mesko was forced to punt from his back goal line three plays later.

Favorable field position because of special team plays win and lose games as much as strong QB play and stringent defense. Hidden yardage is a big part to winning and losing. Donnie Jones will be a huge upgrade

The dark spot of the Eagles first game was the head and neck injury sustained by 11-year veteran Jon Dorenbos. In his 8 seasons in Philadelphia he has yet to err on one short or long snap. He is simply the most consistent performer at his skilled position in the league and is indispensable to the Eagles turning their teams into Special Teams. His replacement, Brent Celek, was thrown into duties as punt snapper and field goal snapper and his inexperience showed. One field goal snap was errant due to Brent snapping low and outside and too soon. I am not faulting Brent since he has never never actually done this skill in an NFL game. I am merely pointing out how valuable Dorenbos is.

It should be exciting to get DESEAN back in punt return action. In 2010 he became the first NFL player to ever be voted to the pro bowl at both the WR position and as the NFC PR. The punt return is a way for DeSean to ignite the crowd, the team, and sometimes himself with his elecrifying ability. No one will ever forget his return in the Meadowlands v the NY Giants to help come back from 21 points down with 10 minutes remaining in the game.

The other message that all of the attention in practice to special teams is how vital they are to every outcome. When the key starters and all coaches are paying attention for 5 and 6 periods every day in practice it sets the tone that the core special teams players are as important as the starting quarterback and starting middle linebacker are.

Coach Kelley thinks special teams are so important that he attends every meeting, when most head coaches are far too busy to do this. In a sit-down meeting with Chip he told me that the great Jerry Rice used to attend special team meetings while a 49er even though he never played on any. His reasoning to the team was that if I attend those meetings then they are important for everyone to pay attention. Chip adheres to the same philosophy as he attends.

Some of the biggest game changing plays in any ball game are special team plays. How about Jones kickoff return for a TD in the playoffs. Or how about Kyle Williams muffed punt in the 2011 NFC Championship game that allowed the NY Giants to get great field position and eventually score and move onto the Super Bowl 2 weeks later

It is time for the Eagles to turn their TEAMS into SPECIAL TEAMS and Chip has spent a good portion of preseason building that part of the team up

If the Eagles are going to be perennial challengers to the Lombardi Trophy they need to lay a strong foundation. Part of that foundation is being among at the best special teams in the league, protecting the football as if it were a bar of gold and playing with electric emotion. All of those things can be accomplished even without elite talent. •

Email Baldy at brian@footballstories.com