August 05, 2026
After the longest practice of Philadelphia Eagles training camp on Tuesday, Wednesday's practice was a little scaled back, on a wet, soggy field. Still, as always, we have practice notes.
• The first-team offense only had a dozen or so reps on Wednesday, so there's not a lot to evaluate of Jalen Hurts. However, three of those 12 plays were completions to Dallas Goedert, who had been kind of quiet the first week of camp, at least relative to other seasons.
Over the years, Hurts has proven that he truly trusts throwing to three players — A.J. Brown, DeVonta Smith, and Goedert. Brown is gone. By my math, Hurts is now down to two players that he definitively trusts in Smith and Goedert. Smith is going to be the focal point of the Eagles' passing offense this season. But Goedert could see an uptick in targets as well. Unfortunately, that comes at a time when Goedert might not be the same player that he was in his prime.
Goedert has dominated in training camp in the past. Of course, some of those seasons were against starting linebackers like Nicholas Morrow. I wasn't anticipating him dominating in camp this year against Zack Baun and Jihaad Campbell, but it's encouraging that he had a good day.
On Tuesday, Zach Ertz's agent got Adam Schefter to give his client some free PR in exchange for future scoops.
After tearing his ACL last season, three-time Pro Bowl TE Zach Ertz officially has been cleared for all football activities and wants to play this season. He was at Stanford today catching balls from his college QB, Andrew Luck. Ertz is expected to be ready to sign in mid-August.… pic.twitter.com/Oihgg6zFrd
— Adam Schefter (@AdamSchefter) August 5, 2026
Maybe Goedert saw that and was like, "Oh hell no."
Side note: In the picture of Goedert at the top of this article, Goedert looks a little like Mayor Quimby when he lost a debate to Sideshow Bob.
• In the last bullet point we mentioned that Hurts has shown that you have to earn his trust to get the football. Well, one guy who is on his way toward doing that this camp is Dontayvion Wicks, who has quickly become Hurts' favorite target with Smith on the shelf with a hamstring injury. Wicks ran a crisp corner route, and Hurts completed an on target throw to him in between Jonathan Jones and Andre' Sam.
Wicks continues to build a case every day that he should be the WR2.
• I was debating today with Brandon Gowton (BGN) and John McMullen (SI) how we'd power-rank the Eagles' receivers this camp so far after Smith and Wicks. My list would go like so:
Cooper has made a lot of catches and is picking up where he left off in 2025 camp, when he was enough of a standout to make the team as an undrafted rookie. He also got shouted out by Hurts during Hurts' post-practice presser.
Moore has also been better than I was anticipating. Today he made a catch in the middle of the field, and showed some quick acceleration when he turned and ran up the field.
• We've noted good things from Kenyan International Pathway Program rookie EDGE Joshua Weru each of the last two days as a pass rusher. Today he was in coverage against newly signed WR Brandon Hayes, and he helped break up the pass. I recently remarked that Weru has almost no chance of making the 53-man roster, but I'm beginning to reconsider that.
• Andy Dalton got a lot of reps with the second-team offense, and Tanner McKee, by my count, only had two (?) reps with the third-team. Whatever it was, Dalton had way more reps.
Dalton found Johnny Wilson in stride over the middle from left to right, and then Cameron Latu over the middle from right to left.
McKee did have two on-target throws in his limited reps, one to Eli Stowers and one to Stone Smartt (who dropped it).
• Jihaad Campbell had a nice diving pass breakup today on a pass intended for Samori Toure. Of course, we know what Campbell is capable of in coverage (via Thomas Peterson):
• We mentioned that in Tuesday's practice, Cole Payton threw a YOLO ball deep down the field to a receiver who was surrounded by three defenders. That ball was actually on target to the receiver, but it was too difficult of a contested catch and it fell incomplete.
Well, he did it again today, deep shot to a triple-covered receiver, lol. This time the ball was deflected into the air, and easily intercepted by Tariq Castro-Fields.
Payton did rebound with a strike on a deep square in on the money to Erik Ezukanma.
If you were to give me a choice between a super-cautious rookie quarterback, and a super-aggressive one, I'll take the super-aggressive one 10/10 times. It's probably easier to get the aggressive guy to chill out a little than it is to get a checkdown artist to grow a pair.
Having said that, the Eagles' staff needs to get Payton to chill a little bit. I kinda can't wait to watch him throw it all over the yard in the preseason games. The Eagles' third-and fourth-quarter guy in recent years has always been a snooze fest. I promise you this guy will not be boring.
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