The Eagles had a practice in shells and shorts that lasted 1 hour and 22 minutes before an exciting field goal competition to end the day with a few non-kickers.
Plenty coming on that in a moment.
Sunday was the 14th practice of training camp. The Eagles will welcome Shane Steichen’s Colts for a joint practice on Tuesday ahead of Thursday night’s preseason finale.
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Here are some observations from Day 14:
1. As always, we start with housekeeping:
• A bit of news to start the day as NFL Network’s Ian Rapaport reported linebacker Myles Jack has decided to retire. Jack joined the team back on Aug. 6 and over the last few weeks, it didn’t look like he had much. Jack got some first-team reps early but has since been passed on the depth chart and was buried. He seemed unlikely to make the team.
• Here’s the injury report from the start of the day:
NFL
Will not practice: Britain Covey (hamstring), Kyron Johnson (appendectomy), Moro Ojomo (concussion), Haason Reddick (thumb), Trey Sermon (ankle), Nolan Smith (shoulder), Greg Ward (ankle), Quez Watkins (hamstring)
Limited: Fletcher Cox (knee soreness), Mekhi Garner (ankle)
Smith has now missed two practices after he said he was pulled in the second preseason game for precautionary reasons.
Both Covey and Watkins showed up to the fields with helmets and worked out before but didn’t participate in practice. Still, it looks like they’re getting closer with their hamstring injuries.
2. A few depth chart notes:
• The Eagles again began the day with Nakobe Dean and Zach Cunningham as their starters at linebacker and then Christian Elliss and Nicholas Morrow rotated in. Cunningham has looked the part and if the Eagles want a veteran next to Dean, he’ll be the guy. Momentum seems to be building in that direction.
• While the Eagles began the day with Reed Blankenship and Terrell Edmunds at safety, we also saw first-team reps for Justin Evans and rookie Sydney Brown. Things are starting to come into focus at linebacker but not really at safety yet.
• Olamide Zaccheaus continues to get first-team reps in the slot in place of Watkins.
• Saw the Eagles sneak a 21 personnel package out there during team drills.
• As Cox deals with his injury, Jalen Carter continues to get a ton of first-team reps. He has clearly made an impression on his veteran teammates.
• James Bradberry got more snaps at nickel, which is an ongoing experiment. More on that later.
3. The team portion of practice began with three straight completions to A.J. Brown working against Bradberry on the same side of the field. Bradberry had tight coverage on Brown on all three plays but it still didn’t matter. Brown is a master at using his body to create separation and he did that to the veteran cornerback.
Overall, it was a strong day from Jalen Hurts again. We don’t talk about Hurts as much because we’re probably used to his high level of play. But he’s having a great summer. It really shows when you notice the difference between him and his backup.
4. The 7-on-7s red zone period between the Eagles’ first-team offense and first-team defense was bookended by DeVonta Smith touchdown catches. He got open with a nasty move on the first one. And then on the last play of the series, Josh Jobe had tight coverage on Smith but it didn’t matter as Smith leaped in the air to catch the ball and then came down with both feet in bounds at the back of the end zone. Great body control.
5. I heard from some onlookers that Marcus Mariota got off to a good start in 7-on-7s when the fields were split but he didn’t carry that over to team drills. He just keeps missing open receivers.
6. The catch of the day came from Zaccheaus who basically scooped the ball off the ground through contact on a Hurts pass for a gain of around 25+ yards. Nice moment for Zaccheaus, who is getting first-team reps in place of Watkins (hamstring).
7. Nick Sirianni was furious during situational work when the Eagles failed to manage the clock. He threw his bullhorn to the ground.
The situation was this: End of the half, +43-yard line, 20 seconds left, no timeouts, 3rd-and-12. The Eagles ran a QB draw and ended up picking up the first down. As Hurts hurried up to the line to spike the ball, the field goal unit was overly excited and ran out for the snap. It’s gotta be one or the other. It seemed like there was some confusion and the FG unit thought the offense didn’t get a first down and they were ready to kick it.
8. I’ve been keeping a close eye on Dean the last couple of days and he’s been making plays. Saw him get sent on a couple blitzes in this practice, which is worth noting because of how good a blitzer Dean was at Georgia.
Dean also had a chance for an INT but dropped it. In 7-on-7s, Dean jumped in front of Dallas Goedert route but the ball bounced off his hands for an incompletion. Nice reaction and instincts from Dean but you’d like to see him finish that play.
9. Ian Book finally got some reps during 7-on-7s and worked to get tight end Tyree Jackson involved. Book’s first pass in the back of the end zone was dropped by Jackson after a leaping attempt. But on the very next play, it looked like a do-over. This time, Jackson went up and caught the ball and came back with his feet in bounds. These two plays were in almost the exact spot where Jackson went up for a pass and came down hard on his back suffering a fracture in 2021.
Like we mentioned earlier, Bradberry has been getting some nickel reps with the second and third teams and there was one play on Sunday where he had tight coverage on Jackson down the field. All this work for Bradberry in the slot could be with tight ends or bigger slot receivers in mind. All I could think about watching Bradberry on Jackson was Giants tight end Darren Waller. Wondering if the Eagles’ best bet against a guy like him would be to have Bradberry match up with him.
10. Practice ended with a really fun field goal competition that started with four players: Marcus Mariota, Boston Scott, Cam Jurgens and Justin Evans.
Mariota began by missing his first field goal wide left. Then Scott, Jurgens and Evans all made their attempt to move on.
In the second round, it was a full-team drill, so there were 22 players on the field. Scott went wide left, Jurgens hit it off the right upright and Evans went wide left. So … no winner, I guess.
The best form?
“That’s a very good question,” holder Arryn Siposs said.
Evans probably had the best form on his kicks but Scott looked like he had the pre-kick ritual down. Jurgens toed the ball so he got a ton of power but not sure that is sustainable.
Stupid Observation of the Day: (I know you’re reading this thinking, ‘What I just read wasn’t the stupid observation?’) The Eagles were using volleyballs during special teams drills. Guys were working on getting around the edge and blocking kicks by slapping volleyballs to the ground. Somewhere, the Eagles must have a closet at the NovaCare Complex that looks like the one from my middle school gym class.
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