Victor Abiamiri is no stranger to expectations. When he signed with Notre Dame in February of 2003, then-Irish head coach Tyrone Willingham, generally calculated and modest in his praise, could hardly contain himself when addressing the potential of his blue-chip defensive recruit.
“I'm awful careful not to overstep my boundaries on any one player. The focus is always the team,” Willingham prefaced. “But without the individual players bringing their individual skill, it's very difficult to get the team that you want.
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Abiamiri (shown wearing No. 78 as a rookie) is expected to be a major contributor to the Eagles defensive line in 2009.
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“But we are excited about what Victor brings to our football team. We think he has, what I guess I'll label them, some very Justin Tuck-like and tough like qualities, explosiveness that you're looking for in terms of a pass rusher, and I hope in the future he'll be able to add to our team in that category.”
And for the most part, Abiamiri lived up to expectations in his four-year career at Notre Dame, during which he played in 49 games with 30 starts while recording 128 tackles with 40 for losses including 21.5 sacks.
The Philadelphia Eagles rewarded his efforts by making him a second-round selection (No. 57 overall) in the 2007 NFL Draft, and the sixth defensive end taken.
After playing sparingly during his rookie season while learning the nuances of Jim Johnson’s defensive system, expectations were high once again heading into his second season in 2008 with many believing he would compete for a starting role. However, Abiamiri missed the first five games of the season while recovering from a sprained wrist, then a Lisfranc sprain in his foot.
Still, he managed to finish the season respectably strong, recording 22 tackles (10 solo, 12 assists) with two sacks while acclimating himself to the professional game in the process.
“It was good, really good, a confidence boost coming off the injury to get some game experience, playoff experience,” Abiamiri said at the outset of training camp this spring. “It really just boosted my confidence. I’m feeling good about what I did last year to finish up. I’ve got nowhere to go but up, really build off that and springboard into next year.”
The hope, not only by Abiamiri but also the Eagles, is that the third-year defensive end will crack the starting rotation on a regular basis in 2009, bringing a strong pass-rush off the edge with him.
“I’ve already got a grasp of the system, pretty much,” he acknowledged. “For me it’s focusing more on individual techniques. I’m focusing more on my pass-rush moves.”
However, the time away from the game early last season while nursing injuries left the door open for other players to steal the spotlight, including veteran Juqua Parker, who started all 16 regular season games in 2008.
So far this training camp, the two have been locked in a fierce but friendly competition, a competition that Abiamiri believes will have a positive effect on the team regardless of the outcome.
“I think with me and Juqua going at it and trying to push each other to be better, I think we’ll be better as a team. I’m going to try my hardest to compete and make the team better,” he said.
Abiamiri knows he can make the team better by getting to the quarterback often in 2009. He has spent much of the offseason developing a repertoire of moves, some of which he looks forward to testing more in situations where it counts.
“It’s really about trial and error for me. Right now is the time to do it,” he noted. “You’re not playing actual games. I’m really just trying out moves to see if they work, seeing how they do on ‘Big’ Shawn (Andrews). I’m trying to see what works, right now, so I can use them when it comes fall.”
If Abiamiri and the Eagles have their ways, he'll be using them on a full-time basis.
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