August 07, 2024
Day 10 of Philadelphia Eagles training camp is in the books, and it was the final day of a four-day stretch of Eagles practices. Low-key day, no pads. Let's get right to the notes.
• Did not practice:
• Tyler Steen was a full participant for the first time since injuring his ankle. He got second-team reps, while Mekhi Becton continued to get first-team reps. If there was any doubt who the first-team RG was before, there isn't now. During his pre-practice press conference, Nick Sirianni denied that there was a "shift" at RG from Steen to Becton, but there very clearly is.
We should probably note here that Becton hasn't really even done anything special, but it seems Jeff Stoutland either likes what he sees out of Becton, or is more intrigued by his pure size and power than whatever he sees in Steen.
I watched one weird rep from Steen in which he was blocking a defensive lineman, but he wasn't really driving his feet. He was just kind of leaning on him, and when the defender moved toward the ball in the direction that Steen was trying to block him, Steen just kind of fell over.
• 10 practices, still no INTs this summer from Jalen Hurts.
We all know he's going to throw like four picks in Brazil Week 1, right? I kid, I kid.
Hurts worked the middle of the field quite a bit today, finding Dallas Goedert and Grant Calcaterra for touchdowns. It was a short practice so Hurts didn't get a ton of reps, but was mostly efficient, a couple of slight overthrows on deep balls to A.J Brown in the end zone aside. Solid, unspectacular day.
Our Jalen Hurts thumbs up / thumbs down tracker:
🏈 Day 1: 👍
🏈 Day 2: 👍
🏈 Day 3: 👍
🏈 Day 4: 👎
🏈 Day 5: 👍
🏈 Day 6: 👍
🏈 Day 7: 👍
🏈 Day 8: 👍
🏈 Day 9: 👍
🏈 Day 10: 👍
• Grant Calcaterra made a bunch of catches today, both from Hurts and Kenny Pickett. Calcaterra has often been injured during training camp in previous seasons, but this year he has been healthy and is building momentum as we get closer to the season. He is unquestionably an upgrade as a receiver over Jack Stoll, the Eagles' former TE2 who signed with the Giants this offseason.
• DeVonta Smith made some catches in the middle of the field as well. On one catch, he got hit by Nakobe Dean after the reception and went to the ground. Smith wasn't happy about it. In Tuesday's practice, Dean had a chance to light up Smith on a hospital ball from Hurts, but eased up.
• Hurts made an on-target throw to Joseph Ngata deep down the right sideline, but Ngata had no separation whatsoever from Darius Slay, who easily swatted the ball away. Ngata was a camp darling early on last summer, but he has not built on whatever promise he showed.
• Britain Covey had a nice grab down the field in between two defenders (Tristin McCollum was one, didn't see who the other was), who both hit him as he gathered the pass. Nice concentration catch.
• The play of the day was made by... (drumroll)... Austin Watkins, an undrafted free agent in 2021 who has bounced around between the NFL, CFL, and USFL. Tanner McKee threw a good ball where only Watkins could get it in the back of the end zone, and Watkins made an acrobatic toe-tap catch.
Watkins had a great preseason with the Browns last year, leading the team in receiving in three of their four preseason games, totaling 16 catches for 257 yards and 2 TDs. He has some size, at 6'3, 210.
Beaten on the play was Josh Jobe. Is there a roster spot for Jobe? He was pretty high on the depth chart at corner to start the 2023 season, but when he got an opportunity to play at outside corner, he did not play well, and the Eagles never went back to him. He's a good special teamer, but so too are a lot of non-starters on this team. If it's between Jobe and other bubble guys like Ben VanSumeren, Patrick Johnson, or Brandon Smith, I'm probably taking any of those three latter guys over Jobe.
• I met Wilbert Montgomery today. He almost broke my hand. I did my best Pat Summerall impression of his long TD run in the NFC Championship Game against the Cowboys. "Wilbert Montgomery, touchdown, Philadelphia."
I felt pretty good about my impression. He didn't seem to want to talk to me anymore after that, lol. Fair, IMO.
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