Eagles training camp 2024, Day 7: Nick Sirianni hammers situational work

The Eagles were back on the practice field Sunday morning for the first time since their public practice on Thursday night at the Linc.

This session lasted just a tick over an hour and a half in shells and shorts. The Eagles should be back in full pads soon.

Here are some observations from today’s practice:

1. As always, housekeeping:

• The following Eagles did not practice: Mekhi Becton (illness), Oren Burks (knee), Parris Campbell (groin), Mehki Garner (hamstring), Eli Ricks (illness), Brandon Smith (concussion), Tyler Steen (ankle)

Limited: Josh Jobe concussion

2. Some depth chart notes from Sunday:

• Without Steen and Becton, the Eagles played veteran Brett Toth at right guard. When Landon Dickerson took some plays off, rookie Trevor Keegan mixed in.

• Sixth-round pick Johnny Wilson got a ton of first-team reps today with Campbell sidelined. Wilson (6-6, 228) is having a good training camp and is earning his extra practice reps.

• The Eagles ran a play in 13 personnel with Dallas Goedert, Grant Calcaterra and C.J. Uzomah on the field. The only receiver? Wilson. That’s a large personnel grouping.

• First-team OL: Jordan Mailata, Landon Dickerson, Cam Jurgens, Brett Toth, Lane Johnson — Second-team OL: Fred Johnson, Trevor Keegan, Dylan McMahon, Matt Hennessy, Darian Kinnard — Third-team OL: Max Scharping, Nick Gates, McMahon, Jason Poe, Anim Dankwah

• More second-team reps for Tanner McKee. While Kenny Pickett might not actually be in danger of losing his No. 2 job, McKee looks good and has been getting some second-team reps in recent days.

• For the third straight day, Isaiah Rodgers worked as the RCB opposite Darius Slay with the first team, while Kelee Ringo mostly worked with the second team, but did get some time with the ones.

• Quinyon Mitchell continues to get reps as the nickel. He finally got a rep against DeVonta Smith today and even though Smith beat him to pull in a catch on a comeback route, Mitchell still told Smith his route was trash. The kid likes to talk.

• The top two linebackers — like they have been all camp — were Devin White and Zack Baun. But we saw Nakobe Dean and even the rookie Jeremiah Trotter Jr. work in there some with the ones. Trotter had a good morning.

3. The Eagles aren’t running Nick Sirianni’s offense anymore but his stamp is still all over practice and that was evident on Sunday. Sirianni stresses situational football more than any other coach I have ever covered and the Eagles put a ton of time in on situations Sunday.

With his bullhorn, Sirianni will explain the situation. One example from Sunday: 55 seconds left in the game, down 4, 1 timeout, from the +40 yard line.

There’s nothing that gets Sirianni worked up more than his players making a boneheaded play during this work. So when Kenny Pickett threw away a pass in a gotta-have-it situation with the clock expiring, Sirianni wasn’t pleased.

In the final situational period — with the parameters as explained above — the first-team and second-team defense both performed well. The first-team offense sputtered some and barely moved the chains after getting it to 4th down and then clocked it. The second-team offense was ultimately foiled by an Isaiah Rodgers PBU on a pass to Joseph Ngata, who has been on the wrong end of some big plays from defenders all summer.

4. The two best catches of Sunday’s team drills came from the guys you’d expect:

• Going against the second-team defense, Jalen Hurts hit DeVonta Smith with a beautiful drop in the bucket on a perfectly run slot-fade against Tyler Hall. Great body control from Smith to catch the ball over his shoulder and make sure to stay in bounds for a gain of 25 or so yards. That was his best catch of the day but not his only one; he’s having a great summer.

• In the red zone, Hurts hit A.J. Brown on a perfect fade over Isaiah Rodgers, who had tight coverage. There was some contact both ways before the catch but Brown was wise to never extend his arms and wasn’t called for a push-off. He went up and high-pointed a touchdown catch.

5. The best play from the 7-on-7 portion of practice was a pass to Britain Covey, who made a great sliding catch about 20 yards downfield against the coverage of Quinyon Mitchell. Covey keeps making the most of his opportunities.

6. Even though I was watching 7-on-7s closely, I was able to peek across the field to see some of the 1-on-1s between offensive linemen and defensive linemen:

• Really nice win from Jordan Davis against Cam Jurgens. Davis is huge but he moves so well so he was able to swipe and sidestep the Eagles’ center who had to brace for the bullrush. This is nothing new with Davis, of course, but his movement skills for a guy that big are impressive.

• Lane Johnson is so good in these drills and we’re all so used to it. He absolutely stonewalled Josh Sweat to kick off the period.

• Good rep from Milton Williams against Landon Dickerson. Williams is starting to come on a bit.

• Rookie Dylan McMahon was able to stop the momentum of fellow rookie Gabe Hall, who tried a power move.

• Veteran Julian Okwara was able to beat rookie Anim Dankwah cleanly around the edge.

• Nice power from rookie Jalyx Hunt, who was able to get a ton of push on rookie and international exemption Laekin Vakalahi.

7. When the second-team offense was facing the first-team defense, Tanner McKee had a great toss to Jacob Harris for a big gain on the left side of the field in front of C.J. Gardner-Johnson, who was visibly upset after the rep.

Gardner-Johnson’s on-field demeanor is fun to watch but when he messes up, he’s really hard on himself. He holds himself accountable.

8. There were three pre-snap penalties from the first-team offense on Sunday. That’s too many. There’s a lot of moving pieces with this new-look offense but that will drive coaches nuts.

9. Grant Calcaterra continues to be a big part of the Eagles’ passing game as their TE2 but there was a blocking play from him that impressed me on Sunday. He got downfield and had a lead block on Julian Okwara to help spring Hurts on a long run. That’s the more important development than his pass-catching ability.

10. For a non-padded practice on a cool August day, this was a pretty chippy morning. At one point second-year defensive tackle Moro Ojomo got airborne and ended up colliding with Kenny Pickett in that red No. 7. That’s a no-no but Ojomo probably had his best day of camp so far.

Also plenty of big hits in the middle of the field from Tristin McCollum and Jeremiah Trotter Jr. 

One of the chippiest players today was actually James Bradberry. The veteran is playing a new position and knows his future is very much up in the air … but he’s not going through the motions.

Stupid Observation of the Day: New tight end Kevin Foelsch, who was claimed by the Eagles off waivers from the Jets, made his practice debut and even caught a pass in the middle of the field. But he must have arrived a bit too late for the equipment staff. He took over the No. 43 left by McCallan Castles, who was waived/injured, but it didn’t yet have his name on the back.

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