August 10, 2023
Day 10 of Philadelphia Eagles training camp is in the books, and it was (I think?) the shortest practice of training camp to date, at around 50-55 minutes. So, you know, our notes will be a little shorter than normal.
• Dallas Goedert catches everything that comes his way. Early in practice, Terrell Edmunds had good positioning on Goedert (a rarity for any defensive player this camp when trying to cover Goedert), but it didn't matter. Goedert reached in front of Edmunds and made the catch. Later, he beat Christian Elliss, which is nothing new. Linebackers simply haven't had a chance against him.
I've seen reports out of Giants camp marveling at how Darren Waller has been uncoverable, and I think that Goedert hasn't gotten that same level of attention in Philly (a) because the Eagles have two star receivers also regularly making plays, while the Giants don't, and (b) Goedert isn't new here. In other words, saying that Goedert is good isn't exactly breaking news. But just to be clear, Goedert has had an outstanding camp.
• Josh Jobe has had a good summer after making the team as an undrafted rookie free agent a year ago. On Thursday he stuck with Joseph Ngata after a double move and caused an incomplete pass, and he had a nice pass breakup while working against Tyrie Cleveland. Jobe has had some good battles so far with A.J. Brown as well. In my view he is the team's fourth corner right now, comfortably ahead of guys like Zech McPhearson, Kelee Ringo, Greedy Williams, or anyone else not named Darius Slay, James Bradberry, or Avonte Maddox.
• I've been trying to specifically watch Sydney Brown a little more lately. In practices, he has neither made big plays yet nor has he been responsible for negative big plays. I don't know how either is possible with the way that he runs around like his hair is on fire.
There was one play where the defense was in a 2-deep look, and Brown spotted a post route by Britain Covey coming his way from the opposite side of the field. Brown broke hard on it toward the middle of the field, and was correct that Marcus Mariota was going to Covey. However, Mariota held onto the ball for an extra beat and lofted the ball to the area of the field that Brown had just vacated. Brown was able to somehow hustle back to where the throw was headed and would have had a chance to break it up if it weren't off-target.
He is an athletic beast, but there may be some early growing pains with his aggressiveness.
• Mariota missed the throw noted above but he made several other nice ones. I thought his best throw of the practice was a window throw to the back of the end zone that should have been TD, but it was dropped by Grant Calcaterra. Mariota has been much better the last three practices after an alarming start to camp.
• I liked what I saw from Olamide Zaccheaus today. He had a diving catch near the sideline in 7-on-7's, and was able to keep his feet in bounds. He also had a long TD on a busted coverage. Zaccheaus is pretty clearly behind Quez Watkins for starting slot receiver job, but there's still time. He'll be the No. 4 receiver, at worst.
• Jalen Carter got one of his big paws on a football at the line of scrimmage today, giving Darius Slay a chance to pick it off. Carter had three batted passes in 2022, so that's part of his game.
• D'Andre Swift ran a nice angle route today, and Mariota hit him in stride. Watch the 2:00 mark against the Dolphins and the 3:12 mark against the Packers in the video below. Watch him stick his foot in the ground and dust linebackers.
Nick Sirianni should be looking to make good use of that route this season with so much attention being paid to A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith on the outside and Goedert up the seams.
• Buncha catches again for Joseph Ngata. Nothing new there. Kinda want to see it in the preseason.
• The fun part of training camp is coming up. Preseason game No. 1 is Saturday night, then a couple of joint practices with the Browns on Monday and Tuesday, and preseason game No. 2 on Thursday.
• Brandon Gowton and I will have post-practice podcasts throughout training camp. They'll populate below a few hours after we publish our notes. And here's the iTunes link. Review, subscribe, etc.
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