One of the things you always hear about a rookie at a skill position transitioning to the NFL is that he needs to improve his blocking. We’ve pretty much heard that about every TE the Eagles have drafted. From L.J. who never improved to Brent Celek who started out pretty poor but got better.
But Clay Harbor is a little different.
“I take a lot of pride in my blocking and I know it’s something that can separate me from other people, but all of the guys on our team are good blockers. I just take pride in that, and more of a mindset than anything. Some guys are more receivers, and they’re a lot more finesse players, but I just like to grind it out and hit people and see how they react to that.”
Clay Harbor’s blocking actually made one of my plays of the day in my recap of yesterday’s practice.
That brings me to one of my plays of the day. It wasn’t something the crowd probably noticed, but I was impressed. Rookie TE Clay Harbor took on DE Daniel Te’o-Nesheim by himself and absolutely stoned the guy. Just stood him up and drive him back. That’s blocking ability you rarely see in a rookie TE. After practice, Marty Mornhinwheg remarked “Clay will hit you, now.”
We were able to get a video interview with him on Tuesday.