Anthony Scirrotto, the former Penn State safety who was signed yesterday to fill the roster spot created when Antoine Harris was placed on injured reserve, knows that he's got an uphill battle to make the Eagles roster, but that won't stop the 6-foot, 202-pounder from making every effort he can to make an impression.
"It's just a matter of me making plays now and taking advantage," Scirrotto said following his first practice as an Eagle.
Scirrotto, a native of West Deptford, NJ, grew up an Eagles fan, so he'll have to get over the initial shock value in order to focus on his game.
"It's pretty much like a childhood dream of mine," he said. "I grew up, this was my favorite team as a kid. Growing up, I've been to games every year since I was 10 years old and just watching them and now actually participating is a dream come true. It's almost surreal in a sense. But I'm playing football now and I have to forget about those things and take advantage of this opportunity and do what I can to stay around."
Scirrotto hasn't been in training camp with another team, so he's no doubt got a difficult road ahead, especially since he has so little time to learn the defense.
"Coach McDermott does a great job of switching the scheme up and confusing the offense and having so many different looks and blitzes and stunts, so it's hard," Scirrotto said. The Eagles defense has "had success over the past years defensively, and it's tough to learn. I'm getting thrown into the mix of things, thrown into the fire, and I'm just learning on the run right now. So the coaches are doing a great job of taking me aside and working with me one-on-one and staying pretty basic with me right now."
And physically, Scirrotto has to adjust to the speed of practice and preseason games.
"The toughest part is just being out of the game so long and then getting up to game speed," he said. "Other than that, I've been working real hard while I've been home with a bunch of guys who work out in Cherry Hill, just training, running and doing different defensive back drills and other types of stuff just to stay busy and stay right. So it's not too bad but I still have a ways to go."
-- Posted by Bo Wulf, 11:47 a.m., August 17
