August 07, 2015
Apologies, but there just wasn't much to see today. Today's practice occurred on the "far left" field, which is the absolute worst for seeing, you know, actual football. Below is a Google Earth screenshot. The yellow line shows where you're allowed to stand to watch practice. Or you can stand on the steps noted by the red arrow. The green line is the wall of Eagles players during team drills, with the green arrow showing which way the offense is driving.
So you have two options when trying to observe practice when the Eagles play on the "far left" field. You can either stand on the steps to get a bird's eye view of action that is at least 120 yards away, or you can stand by the yellow line and have a completely obstructed view. In other words, my notes today are going to suck today because I couldn't see much. That's not to be taken as a complaint, to be clear. More like an excuse.
• Sam Bradford had a good day. Probably. He completed a ton of passes and threw a bunch of touchdowns. However, as noted above, there was no way for anyone to see ball placement or accuracy. We could only see results.
• Tim Tebow takes off and runs at least five times more than the other three quarterbacks combined. I'm not sure if that's just because Tebow likes to take off and run, or if it's partly by design. Tebow threw an ugly shovel pass a few days ago that was picked off near the sideline while rolling to his right. He did it again today in a red zone drill, sans the interception part, but threw the shovel pass all the way to the back of the end zone. He should probably just stop that nonsense.
• Riley Cooper is going to be on this Eagles team. He just is. I'm sure the Eagles would love to take a mulligan on his contract, but as is he's clearly among the six best wide receivers on the roster and his contract is prohibitive to cutting him. Not happening.
• Miles Austin dropped a TD pass on a quick slant in a 4th and goal situation. He has not stood out at all this camp, although a number of the younger receivers have said that he has been great in terms of helping their development.
• One player who has been quiet so far this camp after a very strong camp last year is Trey Burton. Burton is noticably bulked up from last year, by design, but I wonder if the added weight is hurting his speed and quickness.
• G.J. Kinne made the move from QB to RB/WR this year. He said that if he were to run a 40 right now, he'd run somewhere in the high 4.5's to low 4.6's.
• RG update: Here's who got reps at RG with the first team OL each of the first five days at camp:
Musical chairs. After practice, Lane Johnson noted that it would be ideal if he knew who the starting RG would be sooner than later, so that he can get as much work with them as possible.
• There was a fan in an Emil Igwenagu jersey today.
• Eagles employee Alex Smith (not the quarterback or tight end) observed me eating a Rita's Water Ice today, which is available to the media and fans during practice.
Practice observation: @JimmyKempski the first media member to hit Rita's today. Mango appears to be the choice.
— Alex Smith (@AlexSmith720) August 7, 2015
However, Alex must not have seen Merrill Reese, who was in line in front of me. Merrill ordered "Juicy Peach," but when he was told they don't have "Juicy Peach," he settled on "Juicy Pear." If I'm ranking the water ice flavors, I'd go:
And I don't even like mango as a fruit, but for some reason mango-flavored water ice is delicious.
• Cody Parkey was money today. He didn't miss any of his FG attempts, and had a long of what looked to be 52 yards. On the 52 yarder, the ball hit a little girl in the head after a deflection. The girl shook it off like it was nothing. Because she's an Eagles fan, and she's tough.
Follow Jimmy on Twitter: @JimmyKempski
