Eagles Missed the Boat

From the Desk of Eagles Outsider Barry Bowe

The Eagles and Chip Kelly missed the boat with Alejandro Villanueva. In case his name slips your mind, Villanueva was a 6-foot-9, 277-pounder who played wide receiver, tight end, offensive tackle, and defensive end for the West Point Black Knights during his college days.

After he graduated from West Point, he served duty as an Army Ranger.

“There were a lot of missions, and everything I did with the Rangers special operations unit was classified. But my first deployment was not top secret. I had a really good group of guys from Fort Drum, and we had rescue missions in Kandahar (Province of Afghanistan). There were some good stories that came out of it and some bad ones.” – Alejandro Villanueva

After his Army enlistment ended, Alejandro Villanueva tried out for the Eagles during training camp prior to the 2014 season.

He caught my eye enough to write about him back then although – pardon my French – I can’t find the goddam link to the article. As a patriotic American, I was rooting for him to make the Eagles. Plus, he was bigger than hell, had tons of versatility, and an abundance of courage.

On August 21, 2014, the Pittsburgh Steelers came to Lincoln Financial Field for an exhibition game – the NFL likes to call them “preseason games” but we all know what they really are. At that time, Alejandro Villanueva also caught the eye of Steelers coach Mike Tomlin.

“I looked across the field during the anthem and there’s a guy standing over there about a head taller than everybody else and saluting during the anthem. It kind of got my attention. I wanted to know about this enormous human being over there saluting.” – Mike Tomlin

But – for some reason – he never caught the eye of any of the Eagles talent evaluators and the Eagles cut him before the end of camp.

Almost immediately, the Steelers signed him to their practice squad. The Steelers coaching staff evaluated him and believed they could transform him into an offensive tackle.

RIGHT ON THE MONEY

If you watched the Steelers-Bengals game this past Saturday, you saw Alejandro Villanueva – still 6-foot-9 but now 320 pounds – starting at offensive tackle for the Steelers. I know he caught my favorite son Ed Bowe’s eye – because he texted me during the game

(Ed): The Eagles had Villanueva and cut him, now he’s the starting left tackle for the Steelers. I think this is his second year. How is it that the Eagles can’t figure out how to use a guy like that?
(Me): The Ranger – I wrote about him last year.
(Ed): Yeah, him, starting at one of the most important positions on the field. Why couldn’t the Eagles figure out that the guy’s like 7 ft tall?
(Me): Chip Kelly
(Ed): Yup

OPEN YOUR EYES

The Eagles were dreadfully thin in the offensive line this season, and they’ll be dreadfully thin in the offensive line next season. At the age of 27, Alejandro Villanueva could’ve been a long-term solution to the offensive line woes – not to mention an inexpensive one – but the Eagles missed the boat.