The Eagles had a relatively light practice Wednesday, as six veterans were given the day off for maintenance. Fletcher Cox, Brandon Graham, Jason Kelce, Lane Johnson, Zach Ertz and Darius Slay all watched practice from the sidelines while the rest of the team worked. That meant a chance for some younger players to move up the depth chart. Here’s what you need to know.
Advertisement
Injury update
The most significant injury news of the day was the demotion of second-year linebacker Davion Taylor from day to day to week to week. Taylor left the end of Tuesday’s practice with a calf injury and will now miss practice time that is arguably more valuable for him than anyone else on the roster. Defensive coordinator Jonathan Gannon said after practice that Taylor has been meeting one-on-one with linebackers coach Nick Rallis every morning to go through the playbook, which Gannon hopes should mitigate the impact of the lost time. Isaac Seumalo (hamstring) and DeVonta Smith (knee) join Taylor on the week-to-week timetable.
Brandon Brooks (hamstring), tight end Jason Croom (knee) and wide receiver Michael Walker (foot) are all day to day, while Ryan Kerrigan was limited with a thumb injury.
There were two bits of good news for the Eagles as Andrew Adams, the veteran safety and special-teamer who was the Eagles’ first free-agent signing this offseason, practiced for the first time this summer after starting training camp on the COVID-19/reserve list. Linebacker Alex Singleton, who is also on that list, was at practice for the first time watching from the sidelines as he begins the ramp-up period to return to practice. To make room on the roster for Adams, the team waived injured defensive back Nate Meadors.
Nick Sirianni chews out Jalen Reagor
The most memorable moment of Wednesday’s practice came during an 11-on-11 session when head coach Nick Sirianni and passing game coordinator Kevin Patullo laid into second-year wide receiver Jalen Reagor after some kind of misstep or missed assignment. Patullo began the tough coaching after the play but Sirianni was the more relentless one, laying into Reagor for close to a full minute after the mistake. A day earlier, Reagor told reporters he appreciated Sirianni holding him accountable for failing his conditioning test. That was taken to another level Wednesday.
Advertisement
It has been an underwhelming start to camp for Reagor, who is also dealing with the emotional aftermath of the death of a close friend. But aside from a one-on-one period on his first day back, he has not made much happen. With Smith out, the Eagles surely hoped Reagor would step up as he enters his second year. But Travis Fulgham, Quez Watkins and John Hightower have each made more splashy plays since Smith’s absence, and J.J. Arcega-Whiteside and Greg Ward have been steadier. It’s hard to imagine that Reagor won’t be a starter along with Smith and either Fulgham or Ward come Week 1, but he’s the type of speed-reliant player who should be thriving in a training camp setting. So far, he has mostly just been the go-to guy for wide receiver screens.
Zech McPhearson moves up
Rookie fourth-round cornerback Zech McPhearson has been one of the risers in camp over the past few days and was rewarded for that level of play with Slay on the sidelines. McPhearson has spent almost all of his time in camp thus far working as an outside cornerback with the third team. But he moved all the way to the first team on Wednesday, leapfrogging Michael Jacquet and Craig James in the process. McPhearson didn’t see a ton of action come his way, though he did surrender a deep ball down the sideline to John Hightower.
More depth-chart notes:
• With Kelce and Johnson out, the offensive line had a makeshift look to it. From left to right: Andre Dillard, Nate Herbig, Luke Juriga, Matt Pryor and Jack Driscoll.
• Adams entered the fray of constantly rotating safeties and took a handful of reps with each of the first, second and third teams. If Rodney McLeod is healthy and ready to play in Week 1, the Eagles may have a choice to make between Adams and Marcus Epps for the fourth safety job.
• There was one odd look on the second-team defensive line at one point with second-year defensive tackle Raequan Williams lined up at right defensive end and undrafted rookie defensive end JaQuan Bailey lined up as a defensive tackle.
Advertisement
• Shaun Bradley was the first-team linebacker next to Eric Wilson on Wednesday as Gannon continues to rotate those pairings up and down the depth chart. At this point, Wilson, Bradley, Taylor, T.J. Edwards, JaCoby Sevens and Rashad Smith have all had reps with the ones and most of them have worked, at some point, next to each of the others.
Gannon explained the intention behind that after practice. “There is a comfort zone with certain guys that when they look next to them, they know who is going to be next to them, and right now we do not want them in that comfort zone,” he said. “Two reasons is everybody has to be able to think and communicate. Second reason is in a game when somebody gets hurt, you’re not gonna have a comfort zone all the time. So that’s why we do that, to see the different combinations.”
Jalen Hurts’ up-and-down day
After two successive good practices on Monday and Tuesday, Hurts threw what was probably his worst pass of camp during team drills. Locked in on his receiver over the middle, he threw a lazy pass that almost looked intended for Stevens, who had dropped into zone coverage. After practice, Stevens called the interception “bittersweet” because he had not been dropping wide enough in his zone until that play. Then, when he finally did it right, boom, interception. “It was a sign the coaches know what they’re talking about,” he said.
To Hurts’ credit, he bounced back to throw one of his best passes of the day on the very next snap, the aforementioned deep ball to Hightower that was dropped perfectly in the bucket to beat good coverage. When Hurts is decisive on those deep balls, he has tended to put them on the money.
On a day that was more run-heavy, Hurts had one more eye-popping throw when he rolled out to his right and fired in the direction of Dallas Goedert, who was blanketed by the defender. Hurts put the ball on a line where only Goedert could snag it, which he did. If the Eagles offense is going to succeed in 2021 under Hurts, it’s likely going to require them to be productive on off-script plays, so that was one to remember.
Miscellaneous
Emptying the rest of the day’s notebook:
• Another day, another drop for Miles Sanders, whose dip in receiving production last season is starting to seem less entirely the fault of Carson Wentz. This one came during a red-zone seven-on-seven drill.
Advertisement
• During that drill, Hurts hit on short touchdown passes to Goedert and Watkins before Craig James broke one up intended for Goedert.
• Joe Flacco continues to target tight end Tyree Jackson more than any other pass catcher. Jackson drew a penalty in the back of the end zone on one Flacco throw. Flacco also misfired on a short check-down to Kerryon Johnson.
• Instead of one-on-ones, the offensive and defensive lines spent their time together Wednesday in pairs, with the offensive line having to pass off stunts and other two-man games. Matt Pryor and Sua Opeta drew praise from offensive line coach Jeff Stoutland at different points while Genard Avery snuck inside on Andre Dillard on a separate rep.
• At the end of practice, the ball was placed on the 1-yard-line, which is typically a sign we might be treated to a couple of snaps of live football from the goal line. Instead, both sides proceeded to take the play at half speed. What a bummer! But at least we got to see Jack Stoll line up as the fullback.
• After practice, Fulgham was asked about his bizarre disappearance from the offense in 2020 after his monster four-game stretch during which he led the NFL in receiving. “Alshon (Jeffery) came back healthy and that was his spot,” he said. “I went back into my role, I guess.” Yikes.
• Arcega-Whiteside enters Year 3 in something of a do-or-die position from a roster standpoint. He has been incredibly unproductive through his first two seasons and faces an uphill battle to become any kind of part of the offense. On the field, we’ve seen one change this summer with Arcega-Whiteside working primarily in the slot whereas he was an outside receiver for the first two years. He said after practice that he made changes entering camp off the field in terms of weight training, practice habits and mindset. The unifying theory behind all of those was to get back to what he did at Stanford. In more clichéd words, dance with the girl who brought you. “Going back to what helped me out in college,” he said. “Being great at the things that required no talent and letting the talent take over when it’s time for the talent to take over.”
(Photo of Jalen Reagor: Mitchell Leff / Getty Images)