August 04, 2024
Day 7 of Philadelphia Eagles training camp is in the books, and it was the first of a four-day stretch of Eagles training camp practices. Let's get right to the notes.
• Did not practice:
CB Josh Jobe (concussion) was a limited participant.
• Another day, another highlight reel catch by DeVonta Smith. This was a contested catch down the right sideline vs. Tyler Hall. In a prior notes post, I opined that Smith is having easily the best camp of his career, and has often looked like the best player on the field. Receivers coach Aaron Moorehead agrees, to some extent.
"He's had as good of a camp — probably the best camp — since I've been here with him," Moorehead said. "His confidence is through the roof. He's continuing to master his craft. He's getting into that good part of his career where as long as he's doing the things he's doing it's going to be hard to cover him."
We probably don't think of Smith as a "breakout" candidate because he's already so good, but maybe he's a player who can go from "really good" to "great" in 2024. (Yes, I realize these are arbitrary measures of quality.)
It's perhaps worth noting that Smith had a monster "breakout" season when he won the Heisman at Alabama in 2020:
| DeVonta Smith | Rec | Yards | YPC | TD |
| 2017 | 8 | 160 | 20.0 | 3 |
| 2018 | 42 | 693 | 16.5 | 6 |
| 2019 | 68 | 1,256 | 18.5 | 14 |
| 2020 | 117 | 1,856 | 15.9 | 24 |
So he has gone from "very good" to "great" in the past.
Smith is also engaged when he's not on the field. He watches the second- and third-team offenses/defenses closely, and will chirp from time-to-time. For example, Tanner McKee hit Isaiah Rodgers with a pump fake and then lofted a completion down the field to WR Jacob Harris. When Rodgers bit on the pump, Smith yelled "GOT EM!"
• A.J. Brown had a highlight reel moment today as well when he outmuscled Isaiah Rodgers for a contested catch TD on a deep ball from Jalen Hurts. It was borderline offensive pass interference, but the officials on the field let it slide.
Hurts made good throws on both highlight reel catches by Smith and Brown, and has still yet to throw an interception this summer. Even in practice, that is hard to do. And really, I can only remember one throw that was even close to an INT. (I believe it was Kelee Ringo who nearly victimized him.)
Hurts is making smart decisions with the football, but also delivering accurate passes 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: 👍
• Tanner McKee got some second-team reps for the third straight practice. The pressure is on Kenny Pickett to pick up his game. On one rep today, Pickett threw a ball away to the sideline, but there wasn't an eligible receiver in the area. He had time to throw it away where a receiver was, but... he just didn't. Weird. Easy grounding call, in my opinion.
• With Tyler Steen and Mekhi Becton both out, Brett Toth got first-team reps at RG. Trevor Keegan also filled in at times with the starters at LG in place of Landon Dickerson.
Toth faced Jalen Carter twice in 1-on-1's, and handled him both times. Carter has been unblockable in 1-on-1 situations all summer, so for Toth to handle him in 1-on-1 drills — which favor pass rushers — is notable.
The Eagles have had sort of a weird fascination with Toth, in that he has been on the Eagles' roster in some fashion every year since 2019 with stops in between in Arizona and Carolina. Last year in training camp the Eagles gave Toth a chance to widen his versatility by playing him at center, but he simply couldn't snap in shotgun and was demoted to third team LG. This year he is again playing center and guard, but his snapping has improved and he has impressed enough at guard to get first-team reps over experienced veterans like Matt Hennessy, Max Scharping, and Nick Gates.
In 11-on-11's, Toth had a physical block on the edge on rookie Jalyx Hunt. Toth is beginning to feel like a good bet to make the 53-man roster.
• Milton Williams also had a good showing in 1-on-1's. He beat Trevor Keegan, and looked super quick in doing so. Williams has quietly had a good camp, in that he hasn't really had a monster day but he seems to make at least one nice play every day.
• Bryce Huff hasn't had much luck going up against Lane Johnson, but he beat Jordan Mailata today. Johnson pretty much never loses, and looks like he will still be an elite player in 2024. Johnson easily handled Josh Sweat.
• Rookie sixth-round center Dylan McMahon was recently promoted from third-team center to second-team center. He had a good rep against Marlon Tuipulotu in 1-on-1's, and I haven't really seen any obviously bad reps from him in 11-on-11's.
• Stock up 📈 for LB Zack Baun. Nick Sirianni went out of his way to praise Baun's play during his pre-practice press conference, unprompted.
"Another new addition to our team that I think brings an element of toughness with the way he plays with his motor, with the way he strikes blocks is Zach Baun," Sirianni said. "It shows not only on the defensive side, but it also shows during special teams. Like this guy is a tough, tough dude that plays with great detail and great passion for this game with physicality."
• I like what I have seen so far from rookie LB Jeremiah Trotter. He's smart and instinctive, and he too brings some physicality when he hits. It appeared that RB Lew Nichols had a hole to run through, but Trotter filled it quickly and gave Nichols a pretty nice pop. He also had a sack on a blitz.
Trotter hasn't made any big plays in the passing game, but he hasn't stood out in a bad way either. He got some first-team reps today.
• Meanwhile, Nakobe Dean has struggled in coverage. PFF had him down for 13 completions on 14 targets for 120 yards last season, and he has not looked comfortable this summer. The question heading into camp was whether Dean could wrestle his old starting job back from Baun, but now it's looking more like he'll do well just to fend off Trotter from jumping him in the pecking order.
• Ben VanSumeren is making plays at linebacker, too. Today he met a running back in the hole (I didn't see who), with a thud, and then celebrated with a flex. The book on VanSumeren coming out of college was that he was "more of an athlete than a football player." While I agree with that phrasing to some extent in that he was a raw prospect, I don't think that should be confused with any notion that he isn't physical. He is absolutely willing to throw his body around.
• Vic Fangio showed a defensive look today in which Marlon Tuipulotu joined the starting trio of Jalen Carter, Jordan Davis, and Milton Williams on the defensive line. That would be four DTs. Tuipulotu and Williams were playing DE spots. The offense tried to run against that look, and it went nowhere.
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