August 20, 2026
Day 14 of Philadelphia Eagles training camp was also the second of two joint practices with A.J. Brown and the New England Patriots. Another fun day!
Before we get to the notes, a quick disclaimer: The Eagles' offense / Patriots defense was practicing on the far end of one field, and was difficult to see. The Eagles' defense / Patriots offense was on another field right in front of me, so I made the executive decision to focus on the Birds' defense for the bulk of practice. I didn't really see the offense until the end of the day, when the two teams had something of a scrimmage.
• Riq Woolen had a tough day on Wednesday but he bounced back in a big way on Thursday. He made plays all day, but two monster plays stood out.
1) Covering A.J. Brown on a goal line play, Brown ran a quick out, and Woolen also ran Brown's route for him. Drake Maye seemingly decided he was going to Brown no matter what at the snap. But Brown was blanketed by Woolen and when Maye let it rip Woolen stepped in front of Brown for the INT and was off to the races. It would've been something like a 100-yard pick-six.
2) While covering Brown again, Brown ran a slant, and again, Woolen had close coverage. Brown was able to secure his hands on the ball for a moment before Woolen ripped it out of his grasp, sending the ball high in the air. It looked like the ball was going to fall harmlessly to the turf, but Jalyx Hunt made an incredible diving INT. That was the play of Eagles training camp, in my opinion.
Woolen also had a really nice pass breakup on a fade route to Romeo Doubs. Doubs leapt for the ball, but Woolen, with his back to the play, had good technique and got his hand in between Doubs' hands and broke it up.
He also forced an incompletion late in practice once again against Doubs in the back of the end zone. I think by that point he was feeling himself a little and talked some s*** to some nearby Pats fans.
Woolen did give up at least one TD in red zone drills, one of which was a great throw and contested catch by Doubs, but even on plays with bad results he was right there. And certainly, the good plays outweighed the negative ones.
• In addition to his INT, Jalyx Hunt forced a fumble on a run play by Rhamondre Stevenson. A few plays earlier, Stevenson finished a run through the echo of the whistle, lowering his shoulder into Cooper DeJean, which sparked a little post-play extracurriculars. But Hunt would eventually get the best of Stevenson.
• Jeremiah Trotter has continued to have a very good camp. Just generally, he was physical against the run today, and he had good coverage on an incomplete pass to the end zone against the speedy TreVeyon Henderson. Trotter can play.
• Jalen Carter didn't practice today, but I thought that Moro Ojomo and Jordan Davis owned to the interior of the line against the Pats' run game for the better part of the day. They each had multiple tackles for loss, and Davis had a batted pass, as he often does. Even when they weren't making the stops themselves, Ojomo and Davis were messing up Pats run plays. For example, Ojomo got a great jump on one snap and instantly got into the backfield with an impressive swim move, forcing the back to stop dead in his tracks and try the backside, which wasn't blocked up.
• Ojomo also had a play in which it was debatable whether he got close up for a sack or not. But if he didn't get to Maye, Nolan Smith sure did. All four of the Eagles' D-line starters made plays today.
• One guy I haven't mentioned much — maybe because he's been around for years now and hasn't been able to crack the 53-man roster for sustained periods of time — is Andre' Sam. Sam is just a really physical player who is willing to do the dirty work. On one run play to the perimeter, Sam took on a lead-blocking tight end, and absolutely lit him up, sending him to the ground. He also had a physical tackle on a Pats RB, as well as good coverage on another back in the end zone.
Sam isn't likely to crack the 53-man roster because the Eagles can probably feel safe about getting him to the practice squad, but if I'm ranking Eagles safeties, he's fourth behind Andrew Mukuba, Marcus Epps, and Michael Carter.
• The backup linebackers aside from Trotter had some nice moments as well. Smael Mondon had a nice batted pass on a blitz, and Chance Campbell unleashed a great ghost (dip) move on a blitz that I wasn't expecting him to be able to execute. That dude is athletic. Fast, with bend.
• Kelee Ringo has shown a little something the last week or so. Kayshon Boutte made a nice contested catch over Ringo, but Kelee had good coverage on the play. Ringo also skied for a PBU in the back of the end zone on a purposefully high throw to 6'6 tight end Eli Raridon.
"I think Kelee is, he's been everybody's piñata doll for a while," Vic Fangio said on Wednesday. "I kind of sense he could be coming. We'll see. See how he does these next, I think somebody asked a question [about] these two days. I think these two days for him are big."
I think Ringo had a couple of good practices in Foxboro. He could use another good performance in the game on Saturday.
• As noted above, I did not watch much of the offense. When I did try to peek over to that field from time to time I mostly saw the offense struggling. It felt like the Pats defense decisively won the day on that side of the ball. However, at the end of practice, in the scrimmage setting, the offense came to life.
Jalen Hurts had two consecutive really good passes to Hollywood Brown, who couldn't keep his feet in bounds in the back of the end zone on one, but did on the second reception attempt, for a TD.
Hurts also had a play in which he rolled to his right, and lobbed the ball back over the middle of the field over a defender's head to Darius Cooper for a TD. Really nice creative look by Hurts.
• Andy Dalton got reps during the "scrimmage" session; Tanner McKee did not.
• A.J. Brown had a busy day on Wednesday, but the Eagles defense slowed him up today. He did make one contested catch over Quinyon Mitchell, after which he flexed to Pats fans. And as you can see from the picture above, he chatted with Hurts after practice, though it was brief. And now we watch afar.
Follow Jimmy & PhillyVoice on Twitter: @JimmyKempski | thePhillyVoice
And on Threads and Bluesky: @JimmyKempski and @JimmyKempski
Like us on Facebook: PhillyVoice Sports
Add Jimmy's RSS feed to your feed reader
