Eagles practice notes, Day 10: Wide receivers up, O-line down

Day 10 of training camp Philadelphia Eagles is in the books, and with a day off on Friday, the Eagles ended their week with another live practice. Let’s go to the notes.

• Are you tired of hearing about how good the wide receiver looks? Well, they were fine again today.

1. From about the 20-yardline, Nate Sudfeld lofted a 50-50 ball to the back of the end zone, which John Hightower went up and hung over Craig James. Great stuff. Hightower mayyyybe a smidge off, but he did not stretch his arms seriously, which is not normally called. Every other team in the league gets away with it. Why shouldn’t the Eagles.
2. Every day, Deontay Burnett makes a great game. Today he has Moss’d Cre’Von LeBlanc near the sideline, and could hold two feet within bounds. Burnett has made a strong argument for a roaster place, but they can not hold sand, can they?
3. DeSean Jackson had some fun matchups with today Darius Slay, and both boys won their share of it. DeSean defeated Slay on a deep post during 7-on-7s, then jumped into the set-up gate that leads the perimeter of the NovaCare Complex. You decide, maybe, DeSean. Later, Slay ran fight for fight with DeSean down the sideline for a nice pass breakup. DeSean also caught his share of passes on square-ins deep in the middle of the field. In addition to catching bombs, he has also been a weapon in that part of the field throughout his career.
4. Jalen Reagor seems legitimately interested in blocking, which some scouts said he sometimes did not do in college. He got some atta boys from the sideline (Miles Sanders seemed particularly interested, not surprisingly) on a running play in which he locked up Slay. (Blocking slay does not count in my opinion. 😉)
5. And finally, the moment many of you have been waiting for. Greg Ward throws a pass on a trick. He connected with JJ Arcega-Whiteside.

• The offensive line is a big concern this season. If you miss it, Andre Dillard is presumably done for the season, which means Jason Peters is most likely the new LT.

The Eagles obviously lost already Brandon Brooks, and Peters is not exactly a model of sustainability. And oh-by-the-way is there Lane Johnson, who was named Sunday with a lower body injury on Sunday, and has not been seen since.

With Peters getting a maintenance day today, the first team’s offensive line looked like this:

😬

Have the Eagles had a better offensive line depth in a season? Yes. Yes they have.

• Adrian Killins showed today the best and worst parts of his game. On one running game, he had a big hole to run through, and he blew into the open field for a big win. Killins thinks he’s the fastest player on the team, and he could be. On another, the middle ran up, however, Hassan Ridgeway stuck out his arm, Killins ran in, and Ridgeway’s arm won, emphatically. Killins will not be confused for Earl Campbell in the tackle-breaking department.

Regarding the fourth running fight, I have had Elijah Holyfield mostly in the lead for that job. I’m starting to think about that again. Holyfield offers no real distinctive skill, but Killins does, with his speed. Or maybe they only hold three?

• One of the underestimated things that Fletcher Cox has done a great job of over his career is sniffing and disturbing screens. He got a hand on a screen card a few days ago, and then another one today, after which he swung his finger, Jalen Millsstyle.

• Following the conclusion of the 2020 NFL Draft, I feel that the player that fans seemed to be happiest in terms of value for which he was selected was S K’Von Wallace. We barely mentioned him because he, surprisingly, did not really stand out. If you’re a type of “glass half full”, is it perhaps a good thing that he did not notice much, because he is not really beaten?

• Genard Avery went down Wednesday with what appeared to be a serious injury, and was even mapped from the field. It turns out it was not serious at all. 🎉

The Eagles named Avery today as Daily.

• To hear some audio reruns of each practice, Brandon Gowton and I record daily podcasts. You can find them here:

Previous notes for training camp