PHILADELPHIA, PA. – The Eagles special teams don’t get the shine that the stars receive on offense and defense, but they are putting in the work.

Eagles special team’s coordinator stated, “That’s the beauty of training camp. You get to work all aspects. Kickoff coverage, we’ve done a couple drills to get back into the swing of things. There will definitely be an uptick in kickoff coverage and kickoff returns.”

Clay is in his 5th year as head of the special teams and that area of the game has changed a lot during that time. The league adding the dynamic kickoff and now this year, touchbacks will be brought out to the 35.

“I just do as I’m told. We had a long discussion with the special teams’ coaches and unit. Anything to make the game better. We’ll adapt and just on special teams like we always do.” Stated Clay.

Kicker Jake Elliott is taking a wait and see approach with the new touchback rule

“We worked on it a lot. Obviously, there’s going to be some tweaks. We don’t know what we don’t know yet, see where the returns come out. We’re going to learn a lot about this in the preseason as we did when they changed to dynamic kickoff a couple years ago,” said Elliot. 

The team will have to adapt to a new long snapper as Charley Hughlett replaces 2-time super bowl champ Rick Lovato.

“Charley’s no slouch either. Multiple pro bowls in Cleveland Big Body guy. That’s the nature of the beast in the NFL. The roster is always evolving. New adventures for new players.”

Charley has settled in, and he really likes Clay has his coach.

Charley Hughlett explained, “Definitely different than any coach I’ve had. He lets us do our thing. He trusts us to do our jobs. It’s nice especially as you get older in the league. You have your own way of doing things”

It’ll be a slightly different special teams look for the Birds this year, with Clay’s leadership, however, don’t count on any drop off.