July 30, 2024

Eagles 2024 training camp practice notes, Day 5: Rookie CB Quinyon Mitchell has some swagger

Mitchell, the Eagles' first-round cornerback from the draft back in April, got a 1-on-1 assignment against A.J. Brown and more than held up.

By Jimmy Kempski
PhillyVoice Staff

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Colleen Claggett/For PhillyVoice

Quinyon Mitchell might be good.

Day 5 of Philadelphia Eagles training camp is in the books, and it was the first padded practice of camp. Let's get right to the notes.

• Did not practice:

LB Oren Burks: Knee
RG Tyler Steen: Ankle

Limited practice:

OG Trevor Keegan: Shoulder

Mekhi Becton got first-team reps at RG in Steen's absence. Fred Johnson got some first-team work at RT after Lane Johnson came out for a bit. Max Scharping and Trevor Keegan each got some first-team snaps at LG when Landon Dickerson came out.

• The highlight of the day was during wide receiver / cornerback 1-on-1's, which were in the red zone. Quinyon Mitchell was matched up against A.J. Brown, and he blanketed Brown so well that Jalen Hurts didn't even venture a throw. (This does not happen often at all during these drills, much less with a player like A.J. Brown.)

Mitchell then stared Brown down, lol.

Soon after, Mitchell matched up with Brown again, and Brown made a great one-handed catch, but Mitchell's coverage once again was good, and Brown could not keep two feet in bounds. The Eagles' other defensive backs were hyped up for Mitchell's reps vs. the All-Pro.

There were plenty of other good reps during WR-CB 1-on-1's. My other highlights:

DeVonta Smith got open on a fade route and beat Avonte Maddox for a TD. Hurts dropped that pass in the bucket. Smith also shook Darius Slay on a slant and got wide open for an easy completion.
Slay had better coverage on a slant by Brown, and broke up the pass.
6'6 rookie Johnny Wilson won a jump ball over 6'2 Kelee Ringo. The big receiver beat the big corner on that rep.
Joseph Ngata made a really nice contested catch on a back-shoulder throw while working against Mitchell. Once again, Mitchell had good coverage and made Ngata fight hard for the reception.

For the first time this summer we saw offensive line / defensive line 1-on-1's, always a personal favorite of mine. The highlights:

Lane Johnson pretty easily handled Bryce Huff. In fairness, Johnson always pretty easily handled Haason Reddick too, and pretty much anyone else who has ever been thrown at him.
Jalen Carter tossed the 370-pound Becton like a rag doll. Carter is a bull in a China shop. I would have liked to have seen a rematch between those two, but it wasn't to be.
Jordan Davis put Cam Jurgens on roller skates, and walked him right back into the quarterback. Again, in fairness, Beau Allen used to do that to Jason Kelce. The center is at a particularly huge disadvantage in 1-on-1 drills. Jurgens had a much better showing in a rematch with Davis.
Backup OT Fred Johnson tossed Nolan Smith to the ground during one rep. Johnson had a pretty frisky day. In 11-on-11's, he threw LB Zack Baun to the ground well after the play was over, something that Baun obviously didn't like too much. That nearly led to our first training camp fight, but nothing really came of it.
Undrafted rookie Gabe Hall looked really good in 1-on-1's at the Senior Bowl, so I was curious to see how he'd fare in Eagles camp. He was bested by both Trevor Keegan and Brett Toth.
Another undrafted guy who has come into camp with a little hype is OT Anim Dankwah. He got dusted by Nolan Smith around the edge, and beaten inside by Jalyx Hunt. He also false started before his rep against Hunt. During 11-on-11's Dankwah got tossed to the ground by backup NT P.J. Mustipher. Tough day for the rookie.
Darian Kinnard was a surprise player to get first-team reps at RG after Steen got hurt a couple of practices ago. He got beaten by Patrick Johnson and Terrell Lewis.

• Jalen Hurts had what I would call a solid day. The Eagles ran a lot of red zone drills today, and he threw a bunch of TD passes, but also had a number of throws broken up. There was one play in which he was expecting Saquon Barkley to run a Texas route, but Barkley did not cut and run toward the middle of the field, where Hurts delivered an incompletion. After the play, Hurts quickly went to Barkley and communicated his expectation of the route he felt Barkley was supposed to run.

I thought Hurts once again looked good as a runner, with one example being a draw play that popped for a big gain. It looked like Becton and Jurgens opened up a nice hole on the play.

It's worth noting that there have been zero interceptions through the first five practices of camp.

Our Jalen Hurts thumbs up / thumbs down tracker:

🏈 Day 1: 👍
🏈 Day 2: 👍
🏈 Day 3: 👍
🏈 Day 4: 👎
🏈 Day 5: 👍

• Cam Jurgens had a stellar rep in 11-on-11's. On a screen, he blocked Jordan Davis enough that Davis didn't sniff out the screen, and then shoved him up the field away from the play. Davis went to the ground. Jurgens then turned and sprinted up the field and blocked S Chauncey Gardner-Johnson. Super impressive athleticism. The Kelce comparisons are probably going to get old at some point, but he looked like prime Kelce on that play.

• Isaiah Rodgers had a nice PBU while covering A.J. Brown on a slant. It looked like Brown got open for a hot second, but Rodgers closed quickly and batted the pass down. It's becoming evident that Rodgers has excellent recovery speed. I really like what I have seen from him so far both in training camp and in spring practices.

• I haven't really noticed TE Albert Okwuegbunam much so far in camp. He had a target near the flat with a chance to turn up the field and score. But... drop.

• Kellen Moore said on Saturday that Grant Calcaterra is the No. 2 tight end right now. Calcaterra had a nice contested catch over Nakobe Dean, who actually had good positioning on the play, but couldn't finish.

• Speaking of drops, RB Tyrion Davis-Price can't catch. He's had a ton of drops throughout camp.

• I know that some of you would like to see Hurts take more snaps from under center than he has so far throughout his career. Well, they did some of that today.

• Jake Elliott went 6/6 during his first kicking session a few days ago. He was 6/6 again on Tuesday, from distances of 33, 38, 41, 28, 43, and 38. That means that he is now 12/12. Trust me, I did the math.

• The special teams units worked on kickoffs today. A boatload of players got kick return reps. They were: