From the Desk of Eagles Outsider Barry Bowe
The Eagles placed Cody Parkey on Injured Reserve on Monday.
This came as no surprise to me.
In fact, it became painfully obvious to me – pun intended – that his initial injury occurred as far back as sometime during the last four games of the 2014 season.
Why do I think this?
Well, as the 2014 season was waning down, Cody Parkey’s performance was waning down in direct proportion to the season’s length. But before I get into how I arrived at conclusion, let’s back up a few steps.
Groundswell
In case you forgot, the 2013 season ended with a 26-24 loss to the New Orleans Saints in the Wild Card round of the playoffs. One of the prime reasons for the loss was the inability of Alex Henery to kick the ball deep and/or out of the end zone on kickoffs. The back-breaker that day came on his last kick, right after the Eagles had taken a 24-23 lead with less than 5:00 remaining.
Instead of blasting the kickoff out of the end zone and making the Saints start out at their own 20-yard-line, Henery kicked the ball two yards deep. That’s where Darren Sproles caught the ball and returned it 39 yards. And that’s also where the situation became dire when Carrie Williams horse-collared Sproles and was penalized an additional 15 yards – in essence making it a 54-yard return.
That gave the Saints the ball in a perfect position to run the clock down as they inched forward into field-goal range. And that’s exactly what happened as Shayne Graham kicked a 32-yard field goal as time ran out on the Eagles season.
This resulted in a groundswell among Eagles fans. They wanted – myself included – Chip Kelly to replace Henery with someone who could kick touchbacks. And Chip eventually obliged – although, of course, it was his idea and no one else’s the whole time – by signing Cody Parkey just prior to the beginning the 2014 season. And the Auburn rookie delivered – at first.
In his first four games, Parkey kicked 16 touchbacks out of his first 25 kickoffs. So 64% of his kicks weren’t returned. But in the remaining twelve games, Parkey kicked off 73 times, but only 30 were touchbacks. That’s only 41% of his kickoffs that weren’t returned – or 59% that were returned. That’s one helluva drop-off.
Parkey didn’t miss a PAT all season. So no fall-off could be deduced in that area. But when he missed two field goal attempts against the Redskins on December 20 – two misses that cost the Eagles the game and eliminated them from the playoffs – my suspicions grew legs – another pun intended.
Tired-Leg Syndrome
I started putting two and two together and concluded that Cody Parkey was hurt. Or in a best-case scenario, his kicking leg was fatigued.
In baseball, pitchers – especially the younger ones – go through a tired-arm syndrome as they adjust to pitching more innings than they ever have before. It then stands to reason that young kickers just might go through a tired-leg syndrome as they adjusted to kicking more times than ever before.
2015 Preseason
If my assumption were correct, Cody Parkey had ample time to heal from his “injury” during the off-season. But the way Chip Kelly sheltered Parkey during the preseason sounded an alarm inside my brain. And when it was finally revealed that Parkey had some sort of groin injury, my suspicion heightened.
Cody Parkey was hurt and Chip was hoping he’d heal in time for the season.
But Cody Parkey didn’t heal. Instead, he favored the injury. In attempting to compensate for the injury, he not only aggravated it, but he also contracted a second injury.
Falcons Game
In the first game of the season, against the Falcons, no way I’m sending an injured kicker out to attempt a game-winning kick. I’m going for the first down. But Chip sent Parkey out there. Parkey missed the kick and the Eagles lost the game.
Prior to the Jets game, Parkey kicked off eight times this season. Only three went for touchbacks – which gave him the worst percentage in the league at 38%.
Jets Game
Parkey kicked off five times in the Jets game:
- Kicked to the 1-yard-line and was returned.
- Kicked to the 10-yard line and the ball rolled out of bounds around the 2-yard-line and resulted in a penalty.
- Kicked to the 8-yard-line and was returned.
- Kicked 3 yards deep – his only kick that reached the end zone – but it too was returned.
- Kicked to the 2-yard-line and was returned.
Watching those kickoffs left no doubt in my mind that Parkey was hurt. So yesterday’s developments came as no surprise to me.
At first, the word was that Parkey aggravated his groin injury. Then new word came down that he’d suffered a new injury to his kicking leg. He’s now been placed on Injured Reserve – which ends his season after three games.
Tryouts
The Eagles brought in at least three kickers for tryouts on Monday:
- Nick Novack
- Billy Cundiff
- Caleb Strugis
The Eagles signed Caleb Sturgis.
Caleb Sturgis kicked for the Miami Dolphins for the last two seasons. In those two seasons, he hit 55-of-71 field-goal attempts – 77.5% – and was a perfect 74-for-74 on his PATs. But – and here’s something that should come as no surprise with any Chip Kelly acquisitions – Caleb Sturgis is coming off an injury of his own.
In June, Sturgis pulled a quadriceps muscle in his plant-leg playing kickball during OTAs.
Was the injury serious?
It was serious enough that the Dolphins cut him and replaced him with rookie Andrew Franks.
Oh, but how that Chip Kelly does love those injured players.
In addition to being an official Eagles Outsider, Barry Bowe is also the author of:
- Born to Be Wild
- 1964 – The Year the Phillies Blew the Pennant
- 12 Best Eagles QBs
- Soon-to-be-published sexy, police procedural Caribbean Queen
- Soon-to-be-published novel Stosh Wadzinski
- Soon-to-be-published novel Polish Widow
- Soon-to-be-published Birth of the Birds
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