PHILADELPHIA – The Eagles’ training camp finish is in sight after the team completed Day 15 with a one-hour, 47-minute session on Tuesday. That leaves two more days of practice before Saturday’s preseason finale (1 p.m.) against the Minnesota Vikings at Lincoln Financial Field.
Here are five overreactions from Tuesday:
KELLEN MOORE’S BEST MOVE
The offensive coordinator can be credited with improving quarterback Jalen Hurts’ game and using more quick slants, but his best move might be putting DeVonta Smith in the slot more consistently. The receiver is difficult to defend when he’s on the outside with his precise route running. Put him in the slot where he has some room to get off the line and forget it, he’s on his way to the finish and leaving defenders behind him, just like he did once to Eli Ricks on Tuesday.
While I wouldn’t go so far as to say that Smith could have more yards than Brown this year, I think the gap between the two in terms of receiving yards won’t be too wide.
COOPER NOT SUPER
Some believe Cooper DeJean will start in the slot on Opening Day. I say not so fast. The second-round rookie still has two weeks to adjust to the NFL, but he missed the first three weeks of training camp with a hamstring injury and is struggling to get game-ready.
On Tuesday, he may have shown the effects of his inactivity, as he struggled. Britain Covey had space against him on multiple reps. Even Ainais Smith had space against DeJean.
DeJean could have addressed these issues earlier in training camp, but now he must do so in a compressed time frame before the Eagles play the Packers in Brazil on September 6. We’ll see if DeJean can get it done in time to be in the starting lineup.
SMITH FIND OUT
That would be rookie Smith, a fifth-round pick, Ainias Smith. He had his best practice of the summer on Tuesday, and I think the pass he caught that was the deciding factor in Philly’s 14-13 win over the Patriots last Thursday boosted his confidence.
We’ll see how high that goes after he ran a nice route to Quinyon Mitchell. He seemed to run deep to get Mitchell to think about a long pass before driving up and coming back to catch the pass. Smith caught every pass thrown to him, and there were several. His route running seems to have improved, and maybe the game is slowing down a bit for him, and that’s good to see.
Bubble unpacked
Joseph Ngata returned to practice last week after an injury in New England, and his healing process may have been spurred by seeing how well Jacob Harris practiced in the three practices Ngata missed.
Harris, 6-5, had another strong day. He managed to get past Eli Ricks once in a one-on-one, but then had to be stopped on another route by Shon Stephens to prevent Harris from going deep.
When the final roster decision is made in about a week, receiver will be an important position to consider.
“I think it was a great battle for that receiver room,” Moore said. “AJ (Brown) and DeVonta obviously did a great job. I think we have a really great group with different skill sets and they were all able to highlight those skills and it’s a really fun process for the guys.”
“Like I said, we like this group. It’s a really fun group. They bring different elements to the offense and I think we’re excited to be able to use these guys in all their different ways.”
The “old boys” in defense
It may be easy to overlook what camp mega-veterans Brandon Graham (36) and Darius Slay (33) are doing, but they’ve both been solid all summer and were again on Tuesday. Graham continues to apply consistent pressure and Slay won his part of the battle against AJ Brown.
Whether they can last 17 games and everything else that comes their way remains to be seen. The Eagles would be wise to give Slay a few game series during the games, especially given the depth they have at the position, while Graham’s playing time has decreased in recent years as the Eagles try to keep him fresh. That’s what they need to do with Slay as well.
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