Day 13 of the Philadelphia Eagles training camp is done. It rained most of the day, sometimes heavily. If you’re an aspiring sportswriter, don’t forget to check the weather report before you head out, like I did today. Bad rookie mistake on my part. Anyway, let’s get to the notes.
• Not practiced:
- RG Tyler Steen: Ankle
- WR Johnny Wilson: Concussion
- WR Joseph Ngata: Ankle
- WR John Ross: Concussion
- TE Albert Okwuegbunam: Belly
- TE EJ Jenkins: Knee
- S Caden Sterns: Knee
- DT Gabe Hall: back of thigh
- OL Matt Hennessy: Back
Limited:
- S Chauncey Gardner-Johnson: Shoulder
- DB Cooper DeJean: back of thigh
- TE Grant Calcaterra: Shoulder
- WR Parris Campbell: Bar
- Linebacker Oren Burks: Knee
• Beginner DB Cooper DeJean participated in team drills for the first time today. As expected, he was in the slot, with the second team defense, although he also took some reps outside. As you can see in our Eagles training camp battle tracker, we never ruled DeJean out of the starting lineup. He will have a few weeks to show if he should start in the slot, possibly with Quinyon Mitchell Start outside at CB2.
DeJean also did some punt return reps today.
Mitchell made a really nice pass break near the sideline while DeVonta Smith. His skills on the ball are quite obvious.
• The biggest story from the Eagles’ second preseason game against the Patriots was the stark difference in the performance of Tanner McKee (good) and Kenny Pickett (bad). During his post-match press conference, Nick Sirianni said that Pickett was the QB2, even though it was pretty clear to everyone that McKee was the better passer.
Today Sirianni made an interesting comment.
“I think with Tanner and Kenny we have guys that a lot of teams would like to have,” he said.
If I were wearing my tinfoil hat, I might suggest that these words have some meaning, something like, “Hey, other teams, if you’re okay with one of our guys, Pickett, making you an offer.”
In today’s training, Pickett was actually second after Jalen injured. McKee was once again in good form, Pickett was not. Pickett was quite regularly late in getting the ball out, and he had a strangely bad throw that went way over the head of Will Shipleythat was in the apartment. (I’m 95 percent sure it wasn’t a disposable item.)
McKee, on the other hand, was more decisive and precise. In case you missed it, QB School reviewed McKee’s performance on Thursday night and loved his play.
• Jalen injured has not thrown an INT yet this camp.
Hurts had more passes on the ground today than usual and he took a few sacks, but overall I thought he was good. The defense made some good plays against him, with Mitchell deflecting a sideline throw to Smith (as mentioned above) and Reed Blankenship knock down a deep pass that is for Dallas Goedert. But I don’t think those were bad throws or bad decisions at all.
We have repeatedly mentioned how synchronously it hurts and AJ Brown have been on slants this summer. They have been unstoppable on quick outs. Hurts is perfecting his anticipation on these throws and sometimes starts throwing them before Brown even breaks through. Hurts and Brown made a few successful throws from the sideline today.
Our thumbs up/thumbs down tracker for Jalen Hurts:
🏈 Day 1: 👍
🏈 Day 2: 👍
🏈 Day 3: 👍
🏈 Day 4: 👎
🏈 Day 5: 👍
🏈 Day 6: 👍
🏈 Day 7: 👍
🏈 Day 8: 👍
🏈 Day 9: 👍
🏈 Day 10: 👍
🏈 Day 11: 👍
🏈 Day 12: 👍
🏈 Day 13: 👍
• Start-RG Mekhi Becton was up and down today. He stood Jalen Carter in 1-on-1 duels in three consecutive replays and in my opinion he won them all. At least he didn’t lose these repetitions. However, he was also Milton Williams during team practices. Becton is clearly a physical beauty, but be prepared to see an inconsistent player with moments of brilliance and shaky moments this season.
• Cam Jurgens also had a good day in 1-on-1’s lockdown Jordan DavisOh, and there was almost a fight. Brett Toth gave PJ Mustipher an extra jab at the end of a repetition, and Mustipher didn’t like that. He came back at Toth, but the punch was quickly broken up. With Derek Barnett gone, the fighting has decreased by about 80 percent.
• One player who seems more ready to play than I expected is the rookie edge rusher Jalyx HuntHe hit Fred Johnson today for a print, and had a nice separation on a pass for CJ Uzomah. Hunt is fast and physical and so far he seems to know what he’s doing.
• Nakobe Dean had a bad training session in the Linc some time ago when he was badly beaten a few times in cover when he tried to Kenny Gainwell. He’s had a lot of good days since then and I wouldn’t rule him out as a regular starter just yet. He gave Shipley a good run today. Dean has been one of the strongest physical players on the team this summer and is starting to play with confidence.
• Rookie WR Ainias Smith had a brutal training camp, but he made some catches today. He still has some time to show something positive and make the team.
