Here’s what you need to know from Tuesday’s Philadelphia Eagles practice, the 11th practice of camp thus far and the last before Thursday night’s preseason opener against the Pittsburgh Steelers.
Down goes Dillard
Perhaps the most notable development of Tuesday’s practice occurred early on during individual drills when Andre Dillard limped to the medical tent where he was evaluated before eventually going inside and missing the rest of practice. Dillard and Jordan Mailata have alternated every day as the first-team left tackle in the battle for that job, even though Mailata has outperformed Dillard to date. Before practice, head coach Nick Sirianni opted not to disclose which of the two would start at left tackle on Thursday night. Now, it seems as if that decision might be made for him. After practice, the team announced Dillard is week to week with a knee sprain.
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At this point, it’s fair to assume that Mailata will be the starting left tackle in Week 1, barring injury. Perhaps Dillard’s injury gives the Eagles a soft landing for the former first-round pick and then can more easily transition him to a backup role (or a trade, if an offer exists).
It was a tough day on the injury front, as two other players left practice banged up. The first was wide receiver Michael Walker, who has opened some eyes with his route running from the slot. During wide receiver-defensive back one-on-ones, Walker made a nice move on Josiah Scott then pulled up lame and eventually needed help getting off the field. Walker had missed practice recently with a foot injury.
Later, second-year safety K’Von Wallace also left practice with a groin strain and is now week to week. Wallace had been getting the most reps as the second safety opposite Anthony Harris. Until Rodney McLeod returns, Marcus Epps will now get the lion’s share of those reps, with Andrew Adams in the mix, too.
Among those who were already injured, Ryan Kerrigan underwent surgery on his injured thumb. The team said he should be out 7-10 days. If you’re looking for good news, Brandon Brooks participated in some full 11-on-11 action for the first time since the first practice of camp, and Isaac Seumalo was upgraded from day to day to “limited.”
The rest of the injured lineup:
Limited: Matt Leo (ramping up after being on the COVID-19/reserve list)
Day to day: Genard Avery (groin), Craig James (foot), Grayland Arnold (hamstring), Jason Croom (knee)
Week to week: John Hightower (groin), DeVonta Smith (knee), JaCoby Stevens (hamstring), Davion Taylor (calf), Casey Tucker (biceps)
The plan for Thursday night
Sirianni would not commit to how long the starters will play Thursday night.
“We’re still talking through that every day,” he said. “Everybody is in a little different scenario. … For me to say, ‘Hey, the starters are playing this many —,’ we’ve discussed everybody, and everybody has their own little scenario that we’re doing. Expect everybody to play for the most part.”
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Sirianni explained that part of the reason he preferred not to divulge the plan is that plan can change depending on how the team performs. If Jalen Hurts leads an 80-yard touchdown drive on the opening possession, for instance, that might be it for his night. If the offense opens with a pair of three-and-outs, then he might come out for a third series. For your viewing interest, the veteran starters don’t seem likely to play beyond the first quarter or so, especially with two sets of joint practices coming up over the next two weeks in addition to two more preseason games.
One curiosity from a game-management standpoint is that Sirianni won’t call the plays directly in to the quarterback. Instead, the first-time play caller will deliver the play call to offensive coordinator Shane Steichen, who will be the one to relay the information to the quarterback on the field.
“So I’ll say a number to Shane and Shane will say the number to Jalen if it’s a wristband play, or I’ll say the number to Shane and he’ll read it to Jalen,” Sirianni said. “We’ve been in that situation before. That’s just so I can talk to other people, too, and make some notes here. I just think that’s the communication that he hears every day in practice, and that’s why we’ll do it like that in the game.”
If that sounds inefficient, it probably is. Credit to Zach Berman for recalling a similar scenario with Doug Pederson in 2016. Pederson was also a first-time play caller then and entered his first summer in charge with the same plan, to relay his calls to offensive coordinator Frank Reich, who would then communicate with the quarterback. Before the start of that season, Pederson ditched his plan and began delivering the calls to the quarterback himself.
Another light practice
Somewhere, Chuck Bednarik is telling anyone who will listen about the country club nature of this Eagles training camp compared to how it was in his day. Practices are rarely much longer than 90 minutes, there’s no live tackling and sometimes they stop for water breaks!
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That was the case again Tuesday on a humid morning in South Philadelphia during which it seemed like Sirianni adjusted the practice plan because of the weather. The highlight of the day’s action came during what Sirianni calls a “jamboree” period in which the offense faces the defense with a specific third-down distance in mind. Sirianni will call out “Third-and-3!” and then allot points to whichever side wins the play (i.e. three points for the offense if it gets a first down, six points for the defense if it stops them from that distance).
On the first play of the period, a third-and-4, Hurts completed a pass to Zach Ertz for a first down despite very tight coverage from Eric Wilson. Ertz has been steady all camp long.
The second play was a third-and-7 with Darius Slay breaking up the pass intended for Jalen Reagor. Win for the defense.
On a third-and-3, Quez Watkins caught a ball right at the first-down marker, continuing his solid play.
On third-and-6, Hurts hit Dallas Goedert downfield for a big first-down play. Then on the final play of the period with the starters, Steven Nelson broke up a pass intended for Travis Fulgham, who had a chance to make the play.
The highlight of the second- and third-team action came on a disputed play, with Andre Patton catching a ball near the first-down line. Sirianni asked the sidelines for help settling the score and eventually awarded the first down to the offense (even though Patton was definitely short). Nick Mullens also made a questionable throw on a third-and-long into double coverage that was broken up by Shaun Bradley. If you were hoping Mullens would outshine Joe Flacco to win the No. 2 job, that hasn’t happened yet.
The juggle is real
During special-teams warmups, Aaron Moorehead incorporated a new drill with the punt returners in which they had to hold one ball in their arm while waiting to field the punt. The goal was then to be able to toss that ball into the air before catching the punt and then catch the original ball in some sort of modified juggle. Even if that sounds hard, it’s hard to overstate how difficult the Eagles’ punt returners made it look. Reagor, in particular, had no feel for judging the punt to begin with, let alone being able to juggle well. Boston Scott and Greg Ward struggled too, with only Walker looking comfortable enough to complete the task. Alas.
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Elsewhere, there was a split-field period of wide receiver-defensive back one-on-ones and running back-linebacker one-on-ones. Berman reports from the latter that Scott juked past T.J. Edwards for a completion only for Edward to even the score on their next rep opposite one another. Jason Huntley, the speedy running back, jetted past Rashad Smith for a deep completion. Eric Wilson and Alex Singleton forced incompletions against Jordan Howard and Miles Sanders, respectively, continuing Sanders’ disappointing camp catching the ball.
As for the receivers:
• Travis Fulgham stutters during his release to set up a slant on the inside of Darius Slay, though it may have taken too long to develop.
• Steven Nelson locks up J.J. Arcega-Whiteside and bats the Nick Mullens pass away for an incompletion.
• Greg Ward crosses over Avonte Maddox for a reception.
• Andre Patton runs a nice route and stacks Zech McPhearson for a completion down the middle of the field.
• Jalen Reagor beats Kevon Seymour on a comeback route.
• Quez Watkins catches a slant with Lavert Hill in tight coverage.
• McPhearson handles Hakeem Butler for an incompletion.
• Arcega-Whiteside makes a nifty downfield move to beat Michael Jacquet.
• Reagor runs down the right sideline and looks to have half a step on Nelson. Hurts delivers a beautiful ball into Reagor’s breadbasket, but Nelson gets a finger on the ball and forces the incompletion. Hurts’ deep balls have been easily his best attribute as a passer this summer.
• Seymour makes a nice play, reading Watkins’ route ahead of time and forcing the incompletion.
• Butler beats McPhearson for a short completion.
• Arcega-Whiteside made a sliding catch along the sideline against Hill.
(Photo of Andre Dillard: Mitchell Leff / Getty Images)