To say it was hot at the Eagles’ practice Saturday morning would be an understatement.
At 8:15 in the morning, when practice was just getting started, the heat index had already surpassed 90 degrees. By 10:30 a.m. the heat index ballooned to 105 degrees.
“It was hot, there’s no doubt about it,” running back Kenjon Barner said. “These are the practices that you have to push through. You have to take yourself to a place you’re not accustomed to going to get through. It’s so hot, it’s mentally draining. You have to fight the fatigue factor, the mental fatigue.”
Despite this feeling, which surely affected all participating players and just not Barner, head coach Doug Pederson still went two hours and 42 minutes for practice, one of the Birds' longer days of camp so far. They practices have also generally been longer than when Chip Kelly was coach the previous three seasons. Kelly would routinely have practices finish in under two hours, although the sessions were usually later in the day.
Defensive end Bryan Braman said Pederson considered possibly shortening the practice if the conditions were too hot, but the Eagles' new head coach ultimately decided to go the full length on Saturday.
Pederson’s mindset going into camp was to have early morning practices to avoid the heat as much as possible. He said the team will have a walkthrough Saturday afternoon and another one Sunday morning before the open practice later that evening at Lincoln Financial Field.
But he admitted Saturday was a scorcher.
NFL
“It was warm today and the guys battled through it,” Pederson said. “I thought they actually came together and competed very well today.”
The Eagles had spray fans all along one of the sidelines and had plenty of water breaks to combat the heat. Barner said practices that are as hot as Saturday's require a greater level of concentration.
He also wasn’t surprised to hear the heat index reached the number it did.
“You knew it was hot,” he said while laughing.
Wide receiver David Watford felt the same way.
Some players, however, seemed to be completely immune to the conditions. A handful of guys were even wearing long sleeves.
“We’ve got a good group of guys,” Braman said. “We show up and work. We try not to let the elements mess with us too much.”
All right then.
Sam Bradford was not one of those players seemingly unaffected by the heat and humidity.
“I’m sweating more today in my press conference than I normally do in practice, so it’s pretty hot out here today,” he said.
With Sunday’s practice not scheduled to start until 7 p.m. and expected to go around only two hours, the players should get a bit of a break from the high temperatures.