You know the real season is getting closer when the summertime sessions graduate to some real thumping. I’m paraphrasing below some of the notes taken by Fran Duffy, Chris McPherson and Jimmy Kempski:
The tone was set over the weekend in an 11-on-11 session when Nick Foles threw a quick screen pass to Agholor, who was met almost immediately by Malcolm Jenkins in the flat. The veteran safety laid a nice thud on Agholor, setting the mood for what turned out to be a pretty physical set of plays. Foles and Agholor responded on the next play with a nice hookup for a first down off play-action.
While Carson Wentz came on as the second quarterback, he did get some reps with the first-team offense in this physical drill. If there were any questions about Wentz’s mobility coming off the knee injury, he took a big step in answering them. On a snap from the 40-yard line, defensive end Chris Long came crashing down from the left side forcing Wentz to roll to his right before firing the ball to Agholor who had to leap to make a great grab. This play came after Wentz threw an interception to Jalen Mills on the same side of the field.
They say offensive lineman Halapoulivaati Vaitai is having a difficult camp so far. You wouldn’t know it on one rep as he absolutely stonewalled rookie defensive end Josh Sweat.
In a special teams period, coach Matthew Harper worked with the gunners and the jammers on the punt and punt return teams. Harper praised Jalen Mills several times throughout the session, and young safety Tre Sullivan earned some props as well. There was some serious contact in these drills.
Dallas Goedert is making a statement that he wants to be the Eagles’ #2 tight end. He hauled in a beautiful one-handed grab down the left hash from Wentz. The ball was a bit underthrown, and safety Rodney McLeod was right in the rookie’s face, but Goedert went to the ground and still came up with the pass, drawing a ton of applause from the sidelines. “Anytime the quarterback throws me the ball, I want to catch it,” Goedert said. “I’m going out there trying to make a play every time. It was kind of lucky that it stuck right there. I like to think it’s a little bit of natural ability as well as working on it.”
Wentz stepped onto the field for his final five plays, and fans got a bit of a scare, as the quarterback dropped back and the pocket collapsed around him. One of his teammates was pushed right into his lap while another came from his blindside. Wentz took some slight contact, but stepped out of it, rolled to his right, and found Corey Clement for a reception along the right sideline.
Wentz had four more throws to close out the Saturday session, and on three of them the pocket closed around him quickly or a rusher flashed in his face almost right away. They can be scary moments, but these are the trials Wentz needs to go through at some point to prove that he is ready to roll this fall. Mike Wallace talked about the sequence of plays after practice, saying “I love it. We have a great defense, though. We like to see that. The one time I saw him scramble and it kind of collapsed and he got out of there. I was excited about that because just to see him move and he comes back in the huddle, he looks normal. That was a big sign because this is football. Not everything is going to be clean.”
After an install period on Sunday, the offense and defense came together for the first 11-on-11 action of the morning. Chance Warmack saw first-team reps at right guard while Brandon Brooks missed practice with an illness, but after an early false start penalty he came out in favor of rookie Matt Pryor (Warmack got the first-team reps for the rest of the day). The most notable personnel notes came from the secondary, however, where young veteran corner De’Vante Bausby lined up with the first-team nickel defense (through four days of practice, Bausby and Sidney Jones have split the first-team reps in that role), while cornerbacks Jalen Mills and Ronald Darby flipped sides. Mills began the day at right cornerback with Darby at left corner.
Nick Foles got his five reps in before giving way to Nate Sudfeld, who has shined through the first three days. The first few plays were not kind to him, however. All three of his pass attempts were knocked down by defenders. First, linebacker Nathan Gerry dropped back into zone coverage and dove in front of a pass intended for Markus Wheaton. It was a very athletic play by the former college safety. On the next play, Jones broke up a slant route intended for Kamar Aiken. Lastly, Josh Sweat batted down a pass at the line of scrimmage.
After receivers and defensive backs went one-on-one, the team got back together for some 11-on-11 work, and upon seeing the base defense come out on the field, all eyes went to the three linebackers. Jordan Hicks was in the middle, with Nigel Bradham on the strong side. That left the weakside position open for Kamu Grugier-Hill. We’ve seen a lot of different combinations, with Grugier-Hill as well as Gerry in at WILL or with Joe Walker in at MIKE (with Hicks sliding to WILL).
The very first play of this period brought fans to their feet, as Foles dropped back off of play-action, stepped up, and delivered a bomb down the field between the hashes. The ball flew over Jenkins’ head, and Darby was in tight coverage against Shelton Gibson, but the second-year receiver climbed the ladder and came down with a contested catch in traffic.
The defense took two plays in a row, as Rodney McLeod came away with an acrobatic pass breakup on the left side of the field before Fletcher Cox exploded into the backfield, beating Warmack on a run play and forcing Corey Clement to cut back to the other side. It would have surely been a tackle for loss for Cox, who looked dominant when given the chance on Sunday morning.
Wentz didn’t take reps in the full-team drills on Sunday, but saw extensive action in a 7-on-7 period with 10 snaps. He completed 3 of 4 passes in his first wave of snaps featuring a nice rope to Goedert down the right seam. The defense got the better of him in the final six snaps. Bradham cut off a route that should have been a pick-six, but the linebacker couldn’t bring it in. That, of course, was something Jim Schwartz joked about in the offseason saying it kept Bradham from making the Pro Bowl. Jenkins showed Bradham how it’s done the next snap by intercepting a deep ball intended for Agholor. Safety Tre Sullivan also broke up a pass from Wentz intended down the right seam for Wheaton.
The final team period of the practice began with two completions from Foles underneath to Jay Ajayi and Agholor. The third play went to Ajayi on a run inside, and Warmack absolutely flattened Bradham on a blitz. The linebacker flew downhill and Warmack, at right guard, pummeled him to the dirt to help create room for the back to pick up a chunk play on the ground.
Also noted in the 1-on-1 drills—-On two consecutive plays, rookie offensive linemanMatt Pryor pancaked his man. The first was 10-year veteran Michael Bennett. That was sort of a “wow” moment for the rookie. And then on the very next rep, he threw newly signed DT Adam Reth to the ground. Pryor doesn’t just have size and strength. It appears he has some nasty to him as well. He’s looking more and more like a lock to make the team, according to Jimmy Kempski.
Injuries:
- TE Adam Zaruba was carted off the field Sunday, and then helped into the building by the trainers. It looked like a left leg injury to Kempski. He looked like he was in a lot of pain.
- DT Aziz Shittu went inside for a bit, but came back out. He had his knee wrapped up upon his return.
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