Eagles' DeMeco Ryans is "ahead of schedule"

The word around the Philadelphia Eagles' defense during this summer's training camp has been "ahead of schedule." They needed to be after their performance against the pass in 2014. 

Safety Malcolm Jenkins declared the unit as a whole as such earlier this week and coordinator Billy Davis picked up the refrain in reference to a very important cog in that machine: linebacker DeMeco Ryans.

Entering his 10th professional season, Ryans last year suffered his second-career Achilles tear in the Eagles' game at Houston, the same contest that ended up the last with Philadelphia for quarterback Nick Foles, who broke his collarbone that same Sunday.

"DeMeco, for an Achilles injury -- especially a second one, is ahead of schedule," Davis said. "The fact that he's out there playing some team reps and some 7-on-7 reps is really where you need to grow. He's such a professional."

Davis said the new offseason regimen Ryans ventured this time around has helped him come back in a new way. He was determined to see the injury as a blessing in disguise.

"He knows how to practice and still come back from injury without going backwards in the injury, without having something else give up," he said. "DeMeco's a pro all the way through. He's taking great strides, ahead of where most people would be, but he still has a little ways to go."

Ryans is looking to be the leader of what has become a deep inside linebacking group for the Eagles. The team went without Kiko Alonso (concussion) and Mychal Kendricks (illness) at camp on Friday and the former is still out as he goes through the league's protocol. But the team added Jordan Hicks in the draft and signed Brad Jones. Emmanuel Acho and Najee Goode fill out the roster at the position. Coaches like what they see from that rotation.

"We are really deep," Davis said. "I don't think I've been through a training camp as a linebacker coach where the inside 'backers don't get thin at some point. It's nice to have the depth we have. We also have a pattern going of swinging ILBs and OLBs. So whenever we get light, we can move a guy."

Something they'll have to venture after outside 'backer Travis Long will miss the entire season after he fell to his second-career ACL tear, nearly a year to the day he tore it at Eagles camp last summer.