The Eagles officially wrapped up their 2024 training camp with a fully padded practice that lasted 1 hour and 52 minutes on Wednesday before a fun competitive period.
Initially, the Eagles were going to practice Thursday too but changed that to a walkthrough. So training camp is now officially over … although, the work continues.
The Eagles will host the Vikings in the preseason finale on Saturday afternoon and will need to trim their 90-man roster to 53 players by 4 p.m. on Tuesday.
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For the last time this summer, here are 10 practice observations:
1. As always, we start with housekeeping:
• Before practice, the Eagles made a couple of roster moves, releasing TE C.J. Uzomah and re-signing OL Jason Poe. Uzomah is in his 10th NFL season but didn’t do much to distinguish himself all summer. It was clear that Grant Calcaterra is the TE2 and the Eagles weren’t going to keep Uzomah as the TE3, so they cut him loose.
• Did not practice: Dallas Goedert (oblique), Matt Hennessy (back), Jalyx Hunt (oblique), Trevor Keegan (hip), Albert Okwuegbunam (abdomen), John Ross (concussion), Tyler Steen (ankle), Caden Sterns (knee), Johnny Wilson (concussion)
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• While Saquon Barkley wasn’t on the injury report, he did not participate in team drills. It was basically a load management day for him.
2. Some depth chart notes:
• Without Barkley, it was a big Kenny Gainwell day. We’ll get to that in a moment. But Will Shipley also got some first-team reps without Barkley.
• Parris Campbell and Britain Covey are still splitting WR3 reps.
• Without Trevor Keegan, the second-string left guard was Max Scharping.
• Devin White and Zack Baun began the day as the top linebackers. That makes it 15 of 16 days for them. But just like all those other days, there were a ton of different combinations after that with White, Baun, Nakobe Dean and Jeremiah Trotter Jr. It’s a bit of a mystery who will line up in Brazil on Sept. 6.
• Quinyon Mitchell lined up opposite Darius Slay at outside cornerback in the base package. In nickel, Mitchell bumped inside and was replaced by Isaiah Rodgers. This appears to be the rookie’s role going into the season. If this holds, he won’t leave the field and will basically be playing two different positions. That’s a lot on Mitchell’s plate but there’s no reason to think he can’t handle it.
3. Jalen Hurts went 15 straight practices without throwing an interception in training camp. But that streak ended on his second throw of the second series on Wednesday. On a play that took way too long to develop, Hurts threw the ball in the middle of the field to Parris Campbell and Darius Slay stepped up and picked him off.
What did Hurts say to Slay?
“I told him, ‘About time,’” Hurts said.
Slay said he was aware that Hurts hadn’t yet thrown an interception all camp and he seemed pleased he was able to get him
“Yeah, I baited him,” Slay said. “That’s it. I know how to bait Hurts. I made him feel like he was open and then ‘nah, he ain’t.’ That was it. Just a little bait, bait. Just threw a little rod out there and just reel it in.”
4. While Hurts threw his first pick of the summer, he ended his fifth training camp with a beautiful long touchdown throw to DeVonta Smith. For the second straight day, Hurts hit Smith on a go ball down the left sideline vs. Kelee Ringo.
Even with how good Smith is, it’s a bit disappointing to see Ringo give up both of these passes. He’s a long cornerback with great straight-line speed. Theoretically, he should be able to defend a go ball. On Tuesday, Ringo got called for DPI and Smith still caught the pass.
On Wednesday, it looked like Ringo slowed down with the ball in the air and let Smith gain a step on him. Ringo just misjudged the ball in the air and Smith made him pay with a long touchdown catch.
5. A really good day for second-year cornerback Eli Ricks, who picked off Kenny Pickett and then nearly had another interception off the Eagles’ backup quarterback.
Ricks did, however, get a bit lucky late in practice. Receiver Jacob Harris leaped over Ricks and caught the ball in the corner of the end zone but didn’t secure the catch through the ground. Incomplete.
A coupe diving PBUs from Wednesday: Avonte Maddox and Zech McPhearson.
6. After practice, Nick Sirianni called out several players for competitive 1-on-1 situations in front of the whole team.
a. Britain Covey ran a route against Cooper DeJean to get open but the pass was a little too out in front of him.
b. A.J. Brown ran a deep route against Quinyon Mitchell and maybe gained a step but the ball was overthrown for an incompletion.
c. Nolan Smith had an impressive push-pull move to beat Darian Kinnard in an OL-DL rep.
d. Tyrion Davis-Price held up against the blitz rush from linebacker BenVanSumeren.
e. This might have been the most electric moment of the summer. Sirianni had VanSumeren line up as a tight end against safety Andre’ Sam and VanSumeren absolutely shook Sam with a nasty route to get wide open. Kenny Pickett’s pass missed him by a ton but it was an impressive rep that everyone went crazy over.
The Eagles are a little light at tight end going into the third preseason game. Just saying …
7. Without Saquon Barkley, it was a heavy Kenny Gainwell day. In a red zone period, all four plays went to Gainwell with the first-team offense. He had a run up the middle and then three straight receptions. The final one was a touchdown on the right sideline of the end zone. The ref ruled him in, which was heavily disputed by the defense, especially Darius Slay and C.J. Gardner-Johnson. Slay even went as far to point out a divot on the wrong side of the white line. But the ref’s call wins.
Hurts called it an “unbelievable catch in the corner.”
8. While Hurts made some really nice throws on Wednesday, he and the other quarterbacks were under duress quite a bit. There were a couple coverage “sacks” in there but there was also constant pressure from the guys up front. Saw good pass rush reps from Jalen Carter, Jordan Davis, Brandon Graham, Milton Williams, Thomas Booker, Tarron Jackson and Patrick Johnson, among others.
9. Rookie fifth-round pick Ainias Smith has stacked a couple of good days at the end of camp. He got off to a really rough start in his first NFL training camp but it was good to see him turn it around late.
On Wednesday, he had his best catch of the summer on a pass from Tanner McKee in stride streaking in the middle of the field. It was a fingertips grab from Smith, who really seems to have turned a corner.
10. I saw two really impressive reps back-to-back from Cam Jurgens as a run blocker for Kenny Gainwell. We all know Jurgens has the athleticism to get to the second level but he showed enough strength on these plays to be strong at the point of attack.
Stupid Observation of the Day: I think Big Dom might have signed more autographs than any of the players at training camp this year. Fans love him.
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