August 13, 2024
Day 12 of Philadelphia Eagles training camp is in the books, and it was a joint practice with the New England Patriots. Fun day! Let's get right to the notes.
• Did not practice:
The most noteworthy news on the injury front is that Cooper DeJean practiced for the first time this summer. He only did individual drills, but he's back.
• The Eagles' defense dominated the Patriots' offense, and it was a sack party all day. There was one stretch in which the Eagles had sacks on five consecutive plays, by Moro Ojomo, Bryce Huff, Nolan Smith, Nakobe Dean, and then Dean again. I asked a few Patriots reporters if sacks allowed has been common theme for their offense throughout camp, and the consensus was that it was, but not to the degree that we saw today.
Looking through my notes, I wrote "sack" over and over. Josh Sweat, Jalen Carter, Jordan Davis, Brandon Graham, Zack Baun, and Ben VanSumeren all also had sacks. It would probably be easier to list the linemen and linebackers who didn't get a sack.
• Jalen Carter had one series in which he dominated one of the Pats' rare good offensive linemen, Michael Onwenu.
Onwenu eventually settled in and performed better against Carter, but Carter showed how extraordinarily talented he is during that series.
• The biggest play of the day came via Jeremiah Trotter, who jumped a route over the middle, plucked the ball out of the air, and had open field ahead of him.
Zack Baun also had an INT during a red zone session. Pats TE Austin Hooper had the ball in his hands for a hot second, but Nakobe Dean got his hand in and jarred it loose. The ball popped up and Baun dove for the pick. Good day for Nakobe.
• Darius Slay had a couple pass breakups. He seemed to be competing hard today.
If there was a shaky performance at corner, I thought it was Kelee Ringo, who had what should have been a pass interference penalty (they threw a flag, but it might've wrongly been called OPI) on a deep ball to rookie WR Javon Baker. Ringo also had a weird play on another deep ball. He broke to a spot where he thought to ball was going, but it was an off-target throw, and the ball instead found its way to Jalen Reagor (!) for a long completion.
• Jalen Hurts has still not thrown an INT this camp. We're a dozen practices deep!
I've been asked if there's reason to worry about the defense because they haven't generated interceptions this summer. Well, they had two today against another team's quarterbacks. (The Pats no longer employ Tom Brady, but whatever.)
Anyway, getting back to Hurts, he was sharp as usual, with his passes rarely hitting the ground. His best throw of the day was on a wheel route to Saquon Barkley, who beat Matthew Judon down the right sideline. Gorgeous touch pass.
He also found A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith for big gains down the field. 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: 👍
🏈 Day 11: 👍
🏈 Day 12: 👍
• A.J. Brown easily had double-digit catches today. Beast. He's been unstoppable in the middle of the field all camp. His slant game with Hurts has been especially precise and crisp.
• Once again Mekhi Becton was with the starters, and Tyler Steen was with the 2's. Steen had one really good rep in which he put a Pats defensive linemen on his ass on a double team, and then got to the second level and took out a linebacker. He also had a really bad rep in which he allowed a quick pressure to journeyman defensive tackle Armon Watts.
The bad play was more bad than the good play was good, in my opinion.
• The chippiest moment of the day came on special teams, when Isaiah Rodgers was absolutely leveled by former Eagle Christian Elliss. Rodgers fumbled and the the Pats recovered for a score.
On the next play, Kenny Gainwell took the kickoff and seemed hellbent on getting some revenge, as he slammed into the first Pats player that got anywhere near him. Patriots players didn't like that and swarmed Gainwell, causing a mass of bodies from both teams to congregate. No real fight broke out, though.
• After Nick Sirianni concluded his pre-practice press conference and was heading out to the field, a young Pats fan (maybe like 15 years old?) yelled at Sirianni, "Hey Sirianni, Bill [Belichick] is taking your job next year!"
Boston-area fans are a lot like Philly fans.
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