FOXBOROUGH, Mass. — The Eagles practiced against the Patriots as Tuesday morning turned into afternoon on a beautiful New England summer day.
The practice lasted 2 hours and 13 minutes, including the side-by-side walkthroughs that began at 10:30 a.m.
These are teams with very different ceilings this season. It’s fair to say that the Eagles, overall, had the better day. But that was to be expected.
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The Eagles will play the Patriots in the second preseason game on Thursday night before heading back to Philadelphia.
1. As always, we start with some housekeeping:
• The big news of the day was that rookie second-round pick Cooper DeJean was activated from the Non-Football Injury list. He had missed all of training camp with a hamstring injury so it was good to see him back on the field. He participated in just individual drills as he ramps up.
• Did not practice: Oren Burks (knee), Grant Calcaterra (shoulder), C.J. Gardner-Johnson (shoulder), Albert Okwuegbunam (abdomen), Caden Sterns (knee)
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• Limited: Parris Campbell (groin), Cooper DeJean (hamstring), Mehki Garner (hamstring), Brandon Smith (concussion)
• It’s worth making a special mention that Campbell is back at practice. He missed five practices.
2. Some depth chart notes:
• Nakobe Dean got first-team reps to start practice. This is the first change we’ve seen all summer. Before it had been Devin White and Zack Baun to start every day. Today, it was Dean and White. But later we also saw Dean next to Baun with the starters and even Jeremiah Trotter Jr. got some first-team reps.
• Isaiah Rodgers and Kelee Ringo again split first-team outside corner reps. Quinyon Mitchell was the top slot corner. The day began with Reed Blankenship and Avonte Maddox at safety for CJGJ. But in the dime package, Maddox bumped up and was replaced by James Bradberry.
• Mekhi Becton was right guard again. That’s his job.
• Tanner McKee got some reps with the second team but Kenny Pickett is still clearly the two. The threes didn’t get much action today so that was a way to keep McKee more involved.
• Johnny Wilson and Britain Covey split most of the WR3 reps. It’ll be interesting to see what happens when Campbell is fully healthy.
• The Eagles’ offense used some more 21 personnel today. Their top three running backs have the ability to catch the ball so this could be an infrequent changeup from Kellen Moore.
3. There were no major fights in this practice, which will make Nick Sirianni happy. He said before practice that there’s no place for fighting in joint practices because there isn’t fighting in games. There would be repercussions if there were fights.
But that doesn’t mean there weren’t scuffles — there were. Plenty of chippy moments in this practice. The biggest scuffle came during a kickoff drill with the Eagles receiving. Tight end E.J. Jenkins and returner Kenny Gainwell were in the mix for that one.
There were a few others too, including some back-and-forth jawing between Jordan Mailata and Ja’Whaun Bentley after a play.
4. The prettiest play on offense was a wheel route from Jalen Hurts to Saquon Barkley down the right sideline. It was very reminiscent of the play the Eagles hit to Barkley at the public practice earlier this month at the Linc.
On this one, Barkley ended up breaking free of Matt Judon in coverage and Hurts placed a beautiful teardrop pass into his outstretched hands. This is the pass Hurts consistently throws great. It reminds me a bit of a Russell Wilson deep ball.
5. We just mentioned Judon but let’s mention him again. He’s a really tough edge rusher and he presented some problems. Even though the Patriots might not have a great record, they’ll probably have a solid defense and they were in the backfield quite a bit on Tuesday. Several pressures and sacks against the Eagles’ offensive line. They also struggled to pick up a couple blitzes, which is notable given their problems with the blitz last season.
6. But when the Eagles’ passing offense was clicking, it shouldn’t be a surprise that it was running through A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith. I know … shocker. During the first 7-on-7 period, there were six reps — four passes to Brown, two passes to Smith. All but one was completed (nice pass breakup from Christian Gonzalez vs. Brown). But that run ended with a deep ball to Smith, who beat the help from Kyle Duggar.
In team drills, the Eagles’ offense showed a bunch of pre-snap motion as the influence of Kellen Moore was felt. But the result was the same as it has been in recent years: The ball went to No. 11 and No. 6.
At the end of the final competitive period, a move-the-ball period, Hurts lofted a pass to Brown, who caught it with his back turned to the defender. He then turned up field and thought he got in the end zone. He was visibly frustrated when they didn’t get to the line to get the next play off.
“That was a touchdown,” Brown said after practice. “He’s not making that tackle.”
Yeah, I have to agree.
The one play the Eagles missed was a Hurts pass to Dallas Goedert in the middle of the field with a couple bodies around him. It was a risky throw in the middle of the field but Goedert nearly pulled it in. Instead, it dropped incomplete.
Jalen Hurts, by the way, has still not thrown an interception through 12 practices this summer.
7. The Eagles’ defense really dominated. For the most part, I was watching the Eagles’ offense during this practice, but every time I glanced at the other field, the Eagles were in the backfield. A ton of sacks and pressure for the Eagles’ front in this practice.
8. And a couple of interceptions from linebackers:
a. The nicest of the day came when Trotter Jr. stepped in front of a Jacoby Brissett pass for K.J. Osborn. Brissett really stared him down and Trotter was able to step in front of the pass to take it in stride the other way. He had a long way to go to the opposite end zone but had green in front of him.
b. The other interception came when Dean popped the ball out of Austin Hooper’s hands in the end zone to Zack Baun, who secured the catch. I also noticed a batted pass from Baun in this session.
9. Some 1-on-1 notes:
• Dallas Goedert had a big catch over Jaylinn Hawkins, who trailed in coverage. He had another one against Kyle Duggar from Jalen Hurts down the right sideline.
• The A.J. Brown slant was pretty much automatic against Christian Gonzalez.
• The Eagles tried to get Johnny Wilson a fade but the timing was off and he couldn’t pull down a pass in the end zone with Azizi Hearn on him.
• Nice stutter step from Britain Covey to lose Isaiah Bolden in the middle of the field.
• Kelee Ringo got a little handsy covering Ja’Lynn Polk and was flagged.
• Patriots TE Mitchell Wilcox beat James Bradberry deep for a touchdown. Bradberry had a good rep in team drills later to push a receiver out of bounds for an incompletion.
• Really impressive swim move from Moro Ojomo working in OL-DL drills.
• Nolan Smith was able to dip under Calvin Anderson for a really good pressure.
• Nice push-pull move from Julian Okwara.
• Nifty spin move from Bryce Huff.
• A few Eagles defensive players, though, ended up on the ground during their 1-on1-s. Not what you want to see.
10. John Ross might have had his best day of training camp. In 7-on-7s, Kenny Pickett hit him for a deep ball over the coverage of Alex Austin. We haven’t seen that enough from Ross. In team drills, he had a great catch working his way back to the football in front of the defender. He also caught a pass in the middle of the field.
After all that, though, he had a bad drop later in practice. There were some bodies around him but it would have been a 20-yard gain on the left side of the field and he just dropped it.
Stupid Observation of the Day: As Nick Sirianni walked toward the field after his morning press conference, a 20-year-old Patriots fan in a Ty Law jersey yelled at him, “Sirianni! Bill’s taking your job next year!”
Oof.
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