Eagles training camp observations, Day 6: Don't forget about Alshon Jeffery

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Today was the eye of the storm. 

Sandwiched between Tuesday's long practice and Thursday's scheduled marathon practice, today was a light 10-10-10 workout in shorts. These practices are without pads and there are periods designed for the offense and periods designed for the defense. 

Not as competitive as Tuesday, but still plenty to note: 

1. Jason Kelce didn’t practice on Wednesday but it wasn’t injury related; just a veteran rest day for him. Likewise, Jason Peters went through all the warmups and stretching but didn’t participate either. Doug Pederson has been good at managing his veterans. 

Cre’Von LeBlanc (he’s still in a walking boot) and Paul Worrilow were not at practice. Mack Hollins was out on the field, but didn’t participate in team stuff again. 

2. Without Kelce and Peters, the Eagles had this first-team offensive line (left to right): Andre Dillard, Stefen Wisniewski, Isaac Seumalo, Halapoulivaati Vaitai, Lane Johnson. 

Interested to see Seumalo slide to center and Wiz come in at guard, but offensive coordinator Mike Groh said they did that just to get Seumalo some center reps because Wiz has gotten a ton as second-team center. 

Without Wiz with the second team, rookie Nate Herbig took over. 

3. With how much we’ve talked about DeSean Jackson and even Nelson Agholor during this training camp, we can’t forget about Alshon Jeffery. No. 17 made two big catches today. One was going across the middle of the field when Carson Wentz hit him with a beautiful pass in stride ahead of Orlando Scandrick. The other came against Josh Hawkins in the end zone. On that one, Jeffery used his big body to create separation and went up to haul in the pass. 

4. Good awareness from Tre Sullivan on an interception during a defensive period. Rasul Douglas stepped in front of a Nate Sudfeld pass to pop it in the air and Sullivan was able to pick it off and head the other way. 

5. Saw Miles Sanders get some kick return work today. Kick returning in this modern NFL really isn’t super important (most kicks are touchbacks anyway), but perhaps this could be part of Sanders’ role, depending on his piece of the pie on offense. Sanders returned 38 kicks during his freshman and sophomore years at Penn State when he was Saquon Barkley’s backup. He averaged 20.1 yards per return. 

6. Sudfeld threw a dart to the back of the end zone to Zach Ertz who got in the air to catch it and then planted both his feet in bounds for a touchdown. Relatively quiet camp for Ertz, but he’s past the point where that really matters. Get him to Week 1. 

7. Shelton Gibson nearly caught up to a ball that was overthrown, laying out horizontally, but he couldn’t haul it in. It would have been a tough play. “Gotta catch the tough ones,” a disappointed Gibson said after practice. It’s probably been somewhat of a disappointing camp for the third-year pro. He was the talk of the team last spring and summer but hasn’t had a great 2019 training camp. 

8. Slight change with the starting corners today. Still Douglas, Sidney Jones and Avonte Maddox, but today Jones was the nickel corner. The constant has been Douglas on the outside. Maddox and Jones have been rotating their roles. 

9. Scandrick had another good day. He hasn’t been here long, but the veteran definitely wasn’t out of shape. I still want to see more, but if the Eagles can’t get healthy at cornerback, it wouldn’t shock me to see him be on the opening day roster. 

10. Blake Countess, who missed a couple days earlier in training camp, has now been back for a few days and got second-team safety reps with Deiondre’ Hall. It’ll be a little interesting to see which safeties the Eagles keep. Malcolm Jenkins, Rodney McLeod, Andrew Sendejo and Sullivan? Are Hall and Countess in the mix? Some decisions to be made in the preseason games. 

Stupid Observation of the Day: There’s a giant cardboard cutout on a stick of Wentz’s face above Sudfeld’s locker. It’s pretty funny. I’m sure there’s a story behind it. 

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