Surviving Camp with Jalyx Hunt, Part 1: How many people at a practice!?

Over the next few weeks of Eagles training camp, we’ll be catching up weekly with third-round defensive end Jalyx Hunt from Houston Christian. We’ll be tracking his progress as the small school product acclimates to life in the NFL.

The day before Jalyx Hunt’s first NFL training camp practice, he took a long walk around the empty fields at the NovaCare Complex.

He called his friends back at Houston Christian, he called his parents, and then he started visualizing everything he would see and experience on those very fields over the next few weeks.

Really, he was just soaking it all in.

“It was a surreal moment,” Hunt said to NBC Sports Philadelphia on Tuesday. “It’s something that you dream about, to be out here, right on the cusp of practicing. It’s kind of amazing.”

It’s a big jump for any rookie to go from college to the NFL. But for Hunt, it’s even more drastic. He’s the first draft pick ever from Houston Christian of the Southland Conference and he’s not all that far removed from being a safety at Cornell. It was a rapid rise to being picked No. 94 overall as an edge rusher.

So all this is new for Hunt. 

And after a strong start to his rookie training camp, he can’t wait to get across the street for the Eagles’ public practice at Lincoln Financial Field on Thursday night.

Is he ready to practice in front of 50,000 people?

“Fifty!?” Hunt said. “On Thursday!? For practice!?”

He had no idea.

Maybe I shouldn’t have brought it up. Maybe this is gonna psyche him out.

We laugh about it for a while before Hunt tries to envision what it’ll be like to practice in front of that many fans.

“I don’t know,” he finally said. “That’s one of those things, I really just gotta get there to see it. Because I’ve never played in front of 50,000 people before. So, yeah, surreal. I think I might stay out there longer. I think I might walk back from the stadium and watch everybody leave.”

Coming from such a small program, Hunt is also enjoying the Eagles’ facility and all that comes with it: The sports science department, the training staff, the weight room.

But he does have a favorite resource at the NovaCare Complex: The cafeteria.

Even though Hunt hasn’t really gotten around Philadelphia much yet, he’s already convinced the Eagles’ cafeteria has the best food in the city. He’s a big fan of their crab cakes, chicken wings and their sandwiches — “You can’t go wrong with a good sandwich.”

Despite coming from a small school and despite his relative inexperience as an edge rusher, the Eagles still took Hunt in the third-round for a reason. His upside is huge. Hunt is 6-foot-4, 250 pounds and incredibly athletic. At the Combine, he ran a 4.64 in the 40, had a broad jump of 10-foot-8, a vert of 37.5 inches and still put up 19 reps in the bench press.

The one word that gets associated most with Hunt: Raw.

“I don’t really pay too much attention to it,” Hunt said about the label. “It’s kind of one of those things people say a lot so I don’t want to take too much of anything. But I do understand where they’re coming from and understand their point of view. But I think I’m a player learning.”

The Eagles’ mission is to harness Hunt’s raw skills and turn him into a productive football player. That starts with the coaching staff but extends to his veteran teammates.

Hunt called Brandon Graham and Lane Johnson the “ultra-vets” of the locker room and said have already been major resources for him. Graham is willing to give away all his secrets in his 15th and final year and Johnson spent some time after Tuesday’s practice chatting with Hunt about angles and pass rush sets.

But even other guys in his position room like Julian Okwara and Terrell Lewis, who both have time logged in the NFL, have been answering his questions too.

“I think they respect how I’m willing to learn,” Hunt said. “I know that’s not always the experience of rookies coming in. But I want to know as much as I can.”

Hunt is doing his best to be a good rookie. He’s practicing with the same high motor that got him noticed in college, he’s asking questions and he’s performing all of his rookie duties. Gotta make sure that meeting room is stocked with snacks for the vets.

And after the first padded practice of the summer, his veteran teammates could use a cool treat.

“I’m going to have a Rita’s run, for sure, after this interview,” Hunt said, glancing down the field to make sure the cart was still there. “So hopefully they don’t leave.”

Goal for next week: “Hands. I want to increase my usage of hands.”

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