After their first day on Saturday, the Philadelphia Eagles were back on the field on Sunday for day 6 of practice camp. On Friday it was tackled to the ground, and we tried to focus on the trenches. On Sunday it was a non-padded exercise, so we are back to look at the skill position guys. Let’s just get to the notes.
• First, there are two major update updates:
- Andre Dillard left early and went to the medical tent. He left the tent later and went to the NovaCare complex. Dillard missed parts of practice earlier in camp due to a lower body injury. I’m told he was on crutches at one point after the Eagles reported to camp, and before beginning practice. We’ll see soon enough if Dillard’s injury is serious or not. If it is, expect it Jason Peters to approach right to left. If not, the Eagles will have to decide which is more important – getting Dillard completely healthy before rehearsing, or training him when he shows up, because he needs all the reps he can get.
- TE3 Josh Perkins is “indefinite time” with an injury to the upper body. That could open the door for guys like UDFA Noah Togiai of Caleb Wilson to make the roster. The Eagles could, of course, also look outside the organization for a third tight end.
• Jalen Hurts did not get many reps in the scrimmage-like exercise on Friday, but he did on Sunday, and he showed a strong arm. We’ve seen Hurts run in practice, but we already knew he could do that. We also saw him throw some nice deep balls, many of which you can see in his college college highlights. But what we have not yet seen or do is fire-precisely passed in tight windows in the middle of the field.
Today Hurts fits a laser in between Cre’Von LeBlanc en K’Von Wallace no Deontay Burnett. It was an extremely thin margin for error, but Hurts fit it in, and Burnett came on to flex after catching.
Burnett has actually had a nice camp so far. Should one of the six “locks” at receiver (DeSean Jackson, Jalen Reagor, Greg Ward, JJ Arcega-Whiteside, John Hightower, or Quez Watkins) come down with an injury between now and 53-man cuts, Burnett would be the next man to make the team, in my view.
After hanging on to Hurts’ laser, Burnett had two more compelling plays.
- With Hurts rolling to the right, he shot to Burnett, leaving him too much, but Burnett lay out and made a nice grip.
- At the same station, on a broken scene, Hurts directed Burnett to go to the back of the end zone while he ran to the right and then found himself in front of a TD.
Hurts does not look lost at all, as other rookie quarterbacks sometimes do. He has talent, and confidence, and it has been evident so far through the first six practices. True, that should not come as a surprise. I mean, we’re talking about a man who played in more than his share of enormous games at the highest level of college football. By comparison, training camp is nothing.
He has speed, a good arm, and confidence. That’s a good start. The challenge for him will be to find consistency with his accuracy.
• JJ Arcega-Whiteside had a strong day, and has legitimately improved looks from last year to this year. As Dan Orlovsky pointed out during the season, Arcega-Whiteside was probably not where he was on his routes, leading to some incomplete tests.
Throughout the camp, he has done a better job using his body to protect defenders and present a clearer goal for the quarterback. This is especially noticeable on the same types of lying routes shown above by Orlovsky.
Arcega-Whiteside also ran a great out-and-up route in the red zone against Avonte Maddox, but the pass to him went out the back of the end zone.
• There has been some level of concern about it Darius Slay’s first training camp with the Eagles, after there are videos of him giving up passes have come up. I would not worry too much about it. Slay has won something, and lost some, with the losses typically occurring in 1-on-1 or 7-on-7 situations, which favor the crime heavily.
As we showed in detail in May, there is not much question that Slay can cover. He will be fine. Today he had a pick-6 on one Carson Wentz reverse to Zach Ertz.
• We need to see Will Parks try to cover Jalen Reagor in a few 1-on-1 red zone reps. That did not go well for Parks. Reagor was able to defeat an over-aggressive jam attempt by Parks, and was then wide open, and later he got yard of separation on a breakout route.
Good receivers need to be able to vacuum safely in 1-on-1s, so it’s a good sign for Reagor that he could do that.
• We have not mentioned Greg Ward a lot since the beginning of camp (especially since you already know about him), but he was very active today. His highlight of camp came today when he was able to make a concentration catch near the sideline, with Nickell Robey-Coleman’s arms in his face.
• We noted above that Burnett would be my seventh receiver, but not far behind Marcus Green, which has something explosive. Green was a drafted player in 2019 (sixth round, Falcons) awaiting Atlanta on cuts of 53 men. The Eagles picked him up, and he spent the entire season with their training team. He’s a little boy (5’8, 191) with some return skills (five TDs back in college).
On Friday, he beat LeBlanc for a big win deep from the sideline. Today, he pulled a number of passes out of the lock, where he was able to consistently get divorced.
• The surprise name among Doug Pederson’s list of five young players who stood out was Michael Jacquet, a bigger corner at 6’1, 203. Jacquet had a nice pass breakup in 7-on-7s in the back of the end zone, in which he not only got a hand on the ball, but also a sort of volleyball in the air to give a teammate a chance at a pick. There were no other defenders to make the play, but the sentiment was well executed.
• In 11-on-11s, there was one small moment that my eye caught a play in which Casey Toohill, playing DE, mean speed demon runs back Adrian Killins on a wheelbarrow. As I watched the scene unfold, I realized that Killins himself had an easy matchup to exploit, even though Toohill is much more athletic than your typical DE. Nope. Toohill drew him down the entire sideline. Gold star for him as the coaches see that later on film.
• Jason Peters false start alert. Yes, they still happen when he plays RG.
• To hear some audio reviews of each exercise, Brandon Gowton and I record daily podcasts. You can find them here:
Previous notes for training camps
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