August 09, 2024

Handing out 10 awards from the Eagles-Ravens preseason game

By Jimmy Kempski
PhillyVoice Staff

Tommy Gilligan/USA TODAY Sports

Kenny Pickett winds up for a checkdown.

The Philadelphia Eagles' and Baltimore Ravens' backups played a football game on Friday. We laughed, we cried, we're glad it's over. As always, win, lose, or tie, we hand out 10 awards.

1) The 'Keep Them Healthy' Award 👨‍⚕️: Howie Roseman

Jalen Hurts and the Eagles' known offensive starters did not play, #AsExpected. On the one hand, the first-team offense has looked sharp through the first 10 practices of training camp, so that decision is certainly defensible. On the other hand, the offense didn't play at all in the preseason last season either and they came out flat Week 1 in New England.

Just win Week 1, I guess, and you won't hear any criticism about that decision, Eagles.

Conversely, the defensive starters played, with the following exceptions:

Chauncey Gardner-Johnson (shoulder injury)
Josh Sweat (preservation)
Darius Slay (old)
Brandon Graham (old)

I would guess Vic Fangio pushed for that.

2) The 'Clearly in the Lead' Award 🥇: Mekhi Becton

Mekhi Becton started at RG over Tyler Steen. Technically, Steen started, too, at LG, but Becton being at the actual position up for grabs is more meaningful. Becton also came out after just one series, and Steen moved over to RG to take his place.

I wonder if that camp battle is already decided.

3) The 'Dink and Dunk' Award 🍩: Kenny Pickett

Kenny Pickett started and played the entire first half, plus one series in the second half. He was 14/22 for 89 yards, 1 TD, 0 INT. The receivers' first half stats:

Long reception: 10 yards.

Kenny Pickett dropped back to pass 23 times in the first half

he only threw the ball more than 10 air yards just 4 times

0-of-4
— Warren Sharp (@SharpFootball) August 10, 2024

It's the preseason, man. Let it rip.

Tanner McKee went 6/16 for 39 yards, but didn't get much help from his receivers. Neither quarterback separated from the other in their battle for the QB2 job.

4) The 'Here To Stay' Award 🍑🫷: The Brotherly Shove

There was a recent report from Mike Florio of ProFootballTalk saying that the Brotherly Shove formation has been outlawed.

The league decided that it doesn’t want multiple players aligned in or near the “A” gap and immediately pushing on the quarterback after the snap. If they’re going to push at the snap, they need to start the play clearly in the backfield.

The Eagles ran a Brotherly Shove, same formation as always, and no flag.

Long live the Brotherly Shove pic.twitter.com/n4edrTP8yN
— Shane Haff (@ShaneHaffNFL) August 10, 2024

So unless the officials are letting it go in the preseason games but they're going to enforce it in the regular season games, that Florio report is wrong.

5) The 'Improvement' Award 📈: Will Shipley

Rookie RB Will Shipley had a touchdown reception and 7 carries, but I thought the most encouraging play from his Eagles preseason debut was a nice blitz pickup on a completion to John Ross.

Impressive pass pro rep by Will Shipley. That’s the biggest box he has to check to be able to get onto the field in the regular season. pic.twitter.com/K5R6w2Q4qP
— Shane Haff (@ShaneHaffNFL) August 10, 2024

Shipley has looked good catching the ball in training camp, but he has struggled in pass protection. If Shipley can't pass protect, the Eagles will be wary of putting him on the field on passing downs. He'll get love on the film review on that play.

6) The 'Axeman, Jr.' Award 🪓: Jeremiah Trotter, Jr.

Trotter was active both in the regular defense and on special teams. 5 tackles, 1 sack.

Déjà vu 😏@TrotterJr54 | #FlyEaglesFly pic.twitter.com/c1gcgM7gK9
— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) August 10, 2024

Encouraging debut. Trotter has also had a good camp so far and could earn a role in the regular defense as a fifth-round rookie.

7) The 'PBU' Award 🙅‍♂️: Quinyon Mitchell and Kelee Ringo

On the Ravens' first possession of the game, Mitchell had great coverage and nearly picked off a pass.

Quinyon Mitchell almost had an interception. #FlyEaglesFly #Eagles pic.twitter.com/3rmkqWTpFW
— ☆𝘏𝘰𝘸𝘪𝘦𝘙𝘰𝘴𝘦𝘎𝘖𝘋☆ (@JalenCarterDPOY) August 9, 2024

Mitchell had the 12th-most and 14th-most pass breakups in a single season in college football history (or more accurately, as long as pass breakups have been tracked). 19 PBUs in 2022, 18 in 2023. He gets hands on a lot of passes.

Would it have been cooler if he made the pick? Sure. Was it a really good play anyway? Yep.

Kelee Ringo also had a bunch of nice plays on the back end.