Nolan Carroll emerging as Eagles corner option in camp

Eagles head coach Chip Kelly has said during his team's training camp that their depth chart was put together not by he or any of his legion of devoted coaches, but P.R. chief Derek Boyko. 

It's a gesture to the press, who are looking to craft a chart of their own in covering the team, and also a stark message: whatever is true today may not be true tomorrow. That radically temporary state of affairs illustrates one of Kelly's other stark messages, that his Eagles are not about stars or personalities, but his system. 

Names may come and go, but the culture endures forever.

It's the same reason why the number of reps in camp is roughly the same for presumed first teamers as for presumed third teamers. The idea being to get as many looks in as many formations for as many situations involving as many players as possible. 

But for every rule, there are exceptions. Most people are sure that Sam Bradford will start at quarterback, that Jason Peters will start at left tackle, that Connor Barwin will start at outside linebacker, that Byron Maxwell will start at corner. Especially with the money the Eagles forked up to get him.

But it's another name we haven't heard in some time that's been crossing the lips of those around training camp over the past week. The man who could end up starting opposite Maxwell: Nolan Carroll.

It's been he and Maxwell who have keyed the team's base defense thus far at NovaCare Complex, despite his being largely unable to make a spot for himself on the starting eleven last season.

Carroll saw the turf for shy of 40 percent of the Eagles' defensive snaps in 2014, a serious drop in output after playing 70 percent of the time in 12 starts with the Dolphins the season before. He was getting bored just standing around.

"I was frustrated, angry, and a little disappointed," Carroll said about his contribution last year for Philadelphia. "It wasn't what I thought was going to happen."

But things seem to be going right according to plan as far as Chip Kelly is concerned. He admitted last week at camp that the Eagles received trade offers for Carroll in recent months, all calls he declined to answer. Kelly said he thought Carroll was progressing during his tenure with the team in his eyes. 

Progression he, or somebody, clearly didn't see, or forgot to see, last season when the opportunities were clearly there to insert him into the increasingly desperate gameplan. Defensive coordinator Bill Davis was adamant in 2014 that cornerbacks Bradley Fletcher and Cary Williams gave them the best chance to win games. 

Tell us another one. Fletcher and Williams combined on what may have been the worst pass defending tandem in the NFL. The Eagles were second-to-last, better only than Atlanta, against the pass and allowed the fourth-most touchdowns through the air (30). 

Davis has since atoned.

"I've got this beautiful view of hindsight right now," he said. "When you're in the middle of it, you don't quite have it and as it works out and plays out against what you thought, you kind of say to yourself, 'I might have made a mistake there.'"

Carroll said his improvement this summer came from the inspiration he got from the feeling that he has to prove himself this year to earn a starting spot on the roster. He found himself doing the little things.

"My mind set was just different this year," he told ESPN Radio in New Jersey. "There were certain things I tried to hone in on. Technique wise. I really just wanted to improve my conditioning. Every time I was just sitting around the house, I would just jog a little bit. Jog down to the gas station or whatever. Just jog a mile or two. To do something just to try to work out as much as I could."

He impressed teammates with his exploits in the weight room during the team's voluntary offseason program, marking personal bests in strength exercises and in the particular drills that are designed in lieu of organized team activities.

It's work that hasn't gone unnoticed by the powers that be. Though Kelly's depth charts are as reliable as political press releases, the fact that Carroll is still taking the first-team reps consistently opposite Maxwell, held in his spot by a $63 million anchor, shows the Eagles may have the faith in him this season that they didn't (and should have) last season.