August 25, 2026

Eagles 2026 training camp practice notes, Day 16: Offense struggles at the Linc

Riq Woolen's two interceptions and Jalen Hurts' TD pass to Saquon Barkley highlighted the Eagles' annual open practice at the Linc.

By Jimmy Kempski
PhillyVoice Staff

Bill Streicher/IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

DeVonta Smith looked good, but the Eagles' offense in general struggled in front of fans at the Linc.

Day 16 of Philadelphia Eagles training camp was an open practice at Lincoln Financial Field, and the offense struggled for the better part of the night. As always, we have notes.

• Riq Woolen had a great day in the second joint practice with the Patriots last week. He had another great practice in front of fans at the Linc, snatching two INTs.

On the first INT, he stepped in front of a pass in the middle of the field intended for Makai Lemon. He then broke away from Lemon and had a good return.
On his second INT, Jalyx Hunt got quick pressure while working against Fred Johnson. Jalen Hurts panicked and tossed an ill-advised pass to the sideline intended for DeVonta Smith, but Woolen stepped in front of that and took it to the house.

Woolen is going to see a lot of targets this season with opposing quarterbacks avoiding Quinyon Mitchell and Cooper DeJean. My bet: He'll lead the team in INTs.

• I thought the offense was generally sloppy.

Hurts had the two INTs, as noted above.
There were at least four false starts that I counted.
There were at least three bad drops, by DeVonta Smith, Darius Cooper, and Hollywood Brown in the end zone.
Cooper stopped on his route on what looked like a good throw from Tanner McKee.

The offense made a nice handful of good plays, as we'll detail below, but for the 16th practice of camp, it was too sloppy for my tastes.

• The Eagles did have a few offensive linemen out, which certainly contributed to the sloppiness to some degree:

Landon Dickerson didn't practice. Drew Kendall filled in at LG.
Markel Bell remained out with thumb and leg injuries.
Lane Johnson practiced, but not for long. He came out early, with Fred Johnson replacing him. It was unclear if Johnson tweaked something, but he did watch the rest of practice from the sideline.
Jordan Mailata came out a few different times. He's fine. Whenever he came out, John Ojukwu filled in at LT.

• Before Lane left for the night, Nolan Smith beat him cleanly inside for a sack. As we've noted in our training camp battle tracker, Smith has really come on over the last couple of weeks. He and Hunt are highly likely to start Week 1.

• DeVonta Smith practiced on Monday for the first time since August 3, but that was a short practice and there wasn't much to see. He made several nice plays in the open practice at the Linc.

He got open deep down the field against Quinyon Mitchell, but Hurts underthrew him, and Mitchell was able to make the PBU. But that would have been a TD with a good throw.
He got separation on a deep curl against Mitchell, going up high for a nice catch as Mitchell closed in from behind.
He made a really nice contested catch vs. Woolen in the deep-to-intermediate part of the field. He brought it in and turned on the jets, breaking away from Woolen.

Smith did have a bad drop as noted above, but meh, whatever. After watching all the Eagles' "other" receivers throughout the summer, it's very clear that DeVonta is measures better than all of them, and it's not close. He's going to get a ton of targets this season.

• Makai Lemon had a semi-active practice. He caught a bunch of short passes, and got free for a TD on a coverage bust.

One thing I did like that I saw from Lemon was the aggressiveness with which he tried to block Nolan Smith on a run play. He was all over Smith like an angry gnat. Smith eventually tossed Lemon to the ground, but the block served its purpose. Smith even helped Lemon up and gave him a pat on the helmet, in appreciation of his effort.

• Hurts was able to connect with Dontayvion Wicks twice and Hollywood Brown once on deep crossers. Brown was able to scamper for a TD on his reception, after the catch. Spoiler: There are going to be a lot of crossers in this offense, to all levels of the field.

• The throw and catch of the night was probably Hurts to Saquon Barkley for a TD on what I suppose I would call a corner route. Zack Baun had good coverage and didn't leave much room for error, but Hurts got his throw over Baun, and Barkley made was looked like a difficult catch with Baun's body likely shielding his vision on the reception.

I do think Barkley's reception totals will increase some this season.

• Moro Ojomo had a couple of sacks. (Yawn). I feel like I type that after every practice.

• Punt returners: Britain Covey, Cooper DeJean, Makai Lemon, Elijah Moore.

• First-team kick returners: Will Shipley and Tank Bigsby. And, of course, Covey can do that, too.

• I made a point to check out the gunners during special teams drills. It was Kelee Ringo, Darius Cooper, and like 10 other guys who definitely aren't making the team. Also, Ringo was the first guy up on the first-team offense when Woolen went off for a play after his INT. I think Ringo's encouraging performances in the two preseason games are going to be enough for him to survive final cuts.

• The Eagles will have one more practice on Wednesday, and then a game on Friday against the Bengals at 8 p.m. Side note: Really? 8 p.m. on a Friday night for a third preseason game? REALLY?!)

And then the Eagles will start cutting down to 53.

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