August 20, 2024
Day 15 of Philadelphia Eagles training camp is in the books. Let's get right to the notes.
• Did not practice:
• Coming off a right leg injury, starting RG Mekhi Becton was eased back in today as the first-team RG, with Brett Toth and Nick Gates filling in at times.
• Jalen Hurts has still not thrown an INT this camp. He has one more practice to go without throwing an INT for the entirety of training camp. Legitimately impressive.
Hurts' best throw of the day was a deep ball down the left sideline to A.J. Brown over Quinyon Mitchell. Perfect touch, perfect placement. Mitchell's coverage was pretty good on the play, too. It was just a better throw and catch. Brown celebrated by punting the football. It was a gross Shankopotomous that went like 5 yards. Earlier in camp, Brown attempted a PAT that was woefully short and waaaaay left. Brown can't kick a football.
Hurts also connected with DeVonta Smith down the left sideline against Kelee Ringo. Smith leaped for the ball, contorted his body in mid-air and made a spectacular grab while also drawing a flag on Ringo for pass interference. Smith's best trait is his body control. Because it was on the far side of the field from where I was standing I couldn't tell if Smith stayed in bounds or not, but if so that was the catch of camp, in my opinion.
Hurts also found Smith perfectly in stride over the middle with a chance for YAC after Smith beat Mitchell om an in-breaking route.
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: 👍
🏈 Day 13: 👍
🏈 Day 14: 👍
🏈 Day 15 👍
• Quinyon Mitchell got beaten through the air a couple times today, but his coverage aside I like his willingness to participate in the run game. He's physical and willing to mix it up at the line of scrimmage. He had a tackle for loss while darting through the big bodies from his slot corner spot.
Mitchell got first team reps outside in the base defense and bumped inside to the slot when Isaiah Rodgers came onto the field in nickel. Mitchell is looking like a good bet to win the CB2 job, but with added responsibilities as the nickel slot corner. Vic Fangio once said that they didn't want to put too much on Mitchell's plate as a rookie, but that's exactly what they are doing.
• Chauncey Gardner-Johnson made his presence known today. He had a big hit on a Grant Calcaterra reception over the middle. He also gave Kenny Gainwell a little extra on short pass to the flat. After the Gainwell hit, CJGJ danced by himself for at least 20 seconds.
• Speaking of Calcaterra, the book on him is that he has some receiving chops, but isn't much of a blocker. I'm not so sure that's accurate. He's not going to drive defensive ends off the line of scrimmage on run plays, but he does a good job hunting down linebackers and defensive backs at the second and third levels. He latches on and stays with them. He's an agile open-field blocker.
• Ainias Smith had a bunch of catches. It was looking like Smith wouldn't make the team for much of camp, but I think he has done enough lately that Howie Roseman will be able to justify keeping the fifth-round rookie receiver.
• Jordan Davis has a very effective bull rush. He consistently moves offensive linemen into the backfield. However, he does not have many pass rush moves otherwise. He's hard to block because he's such a massive, athletic human being, but he'd be harder to block if offensive linemen didn't always know what's coming.
• We're already into the part of training camp where we might sound like a broken record on some players, but it's worth noting as usual that Jalen Carter made plays in the backfield again. He stuffed Saquon Barkley on a tackle for loss.
• Wednesday's practice will be the last of 2024 training camp. One more batch of practice notes to go.
Follow Jimmy & PhillyVoice on Twitter: @JimmyKempski | thePhillyVoice
And on Threads: @JimmyKempski
Like us on Facebook: PhillyVoice Sports
Add Jimmy's RSS feed to your feed reader
