On Thursday, the Philadelphia Eagles wrapped up a three-day mandatory minicamp, and the team won't hit the practice fields again until the end of July. The Eagles dialed back practice a bit, and they practiced waaaay on the other side of the field from us (making it quite difficult to see). Still, as always, we have notes.
• I hate to sound like a broken record, but Carson Wentz looks really good. It's hard to fathom (a) how well he is moving six months after tearing his ACL and LCL, (b) the improvement he has made just from the start of OTAs a few weeks ago to the final day of minicamp, and (c) how well he is throwing the football.
- MORE ON THE EAGLES
- Wentz, Foles could split first-team reps and more from Pederson's final minicamp presser
- Random Eagles notes: Super Bowl rings, an open roster spot and more
- When Wentz wants to play and when he'll be cleared are two very different things
If an alien parachuted into practice today and watched Wentz throw the ball, the only clue that he would have that Wentz had some kind of knee issue would be the brace on it. He looked more comfortable planting and throwing on his left leg than I've seen throughout the entire spring, and that even includes the past two days. Unfortunately, there was no video worth shooting of him today during the portion of practice when photography is permitted.
Wentz's highlight of the day was an effortless flick of the ball about 50 yards down the field that was on the money to Rashard Davis (who dropped it).
There were some comments that Doug Pederson made earlier this week that I believe have been misinterpreted, that there is some kind of quarterback competition or controversy or something. That's laughable. There is no controversy. When Wentz is ready, he'll play, and I'll be absolutely shocked if the team doesn't deem him ready by Week 1.
• Nearing the end of practice, Nick Foles, Nate Sudfeld, and Joe Callahan had a competition in which they threw passes from the 5, then the 10, then the 15, each trying to hit the crossbar. I'll give the unofficial win to Sudfeld in that competition.
• As we mentioned yesterday, from everything I've seen, Callahan is a legitimate backup quarterback in the NFL. I wouldn't completely rule out the possibility of the Eagles finding a way to trade Callahan if he plays well in the preseason, which he should against third string defenses. I mean, we're talking conditional seventh round pick territory here, to be clear, but it's perhaps something to watch.
• One of the rare things that was visible to us (the media) today was an interesting matchup between Dallas Goedert and Corey Nelson on the outside. Goedert beat him with a diving catch that (I think) went for a touchdown. As we noted yesterday, If Goedert gets his hand on the ball, he's catching it. His hands have been very impressive in the early going.
• It seems like every year, the Eagles draft a player from the Pac-12 who can't participate in OTAs because the player is coming from a school whose academic calendar works on a quarters systems. For example, Elijah Qualls and Sidney Jones of the University of Washington could not attend OTAs last year (not that Jones could have practiced anyway), while Isaac Seumalo of Oregon State and Joe Walker of Oregon missed OTAs in 2016. The Eagles had no such draftees this season that were forced to miss any time because of that stupid rule.
• The Eagles will receive their rings today, and as such, the Eagles played a bunch of songs today that had the word "rings" in it. The also ran what looked like the Philly Special. I'm not totally sure about that, but Foles caught a touchdown pass right around where he caught his pass in the Super Bowl.
• That's it. That's all I got today. My apologies. Tomorrow morning we'll update a video of Wentz's progression from the first day of OTAs to the final day of minicamp.
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