Day Four of training camp is in the books, and the Eagles had their second day of practice in pads. This is right around the time during training camp when you'll start to see players fall off or separate from the herd. Here are my notes:
- MORE FROM TRAINING CAMP
- Chip Kelly's 'educational philosophy' is brilliantly simple
- Kiko out with concussion; D-Jax separates shoulder
- Tebow vs. Barkley for third QB spot
- #ChipKellyRacistTracker
• Tim Tebow had a really good day, and more specifically, he had a terrific series in which he threw three passes down the field that were all on the money. The first was a seam throw to UDFA WR Mike Johnson. The second was a well-placed ball on a corner route to Quron Pratt. The third was a deep ball down the left sideline to RB Raheem Mostert that led him perfectly in stride on a wheel route. Early in camp, Tebow rarely threw more than 10-15 yards down the field, but today he aired it out a bit, and looked impressive doing so.
• As noted above, one of Tebow's throws found RB Raheem Mostert down the sideline. He blew right past linebacker Brandon Hepburn, who had no shot of sticking with him. That kid can run. In fact, he was the 60 meter Big 10 Champion at Purdue:
While Mostert only got a grand total of 136 carries in college, he was the primary kick returner for the entirety of his four-year career at Purdue. One guy Mostert will not be mistaken for, however, is Earl Campbell. On consecutive run plays, DeMeco Ryans and Mychal Kendricks easily threw him to the ground, and the Eagles aren't even tackling in camp. I'll be interested to see how Mostert looks as a kick returner during the preseason.
• Chip Kelly talked at length about Sam Bradford's athleticism today, and then Bradford himself fielded a lot of questions about his athleticism after practice. (Side note/prediction: There will be a lot of articles about Bradford's athleticism tonight or tomorrow). In regard to his athleticism, while Bradford isn't running around a whole lot just yet, he did flash some athleticism today. During a red zone drill, he whipped a side arm throw under a defensive lineman's hands, that found Riley Cooper over the middle for a TD.
• Malcolm Jenkins has looked like the best slot corner so far. I was impressed with him in one-on-one drills against Jordan Matthews today. Matthews has often been able to get open with regularity this camp, but Jenkins stayed in his hip pocket on an 'in' route and batted down a pass. Really well done. Later in practice, he picked off Tebow, which was Tebow's one bad moment of the day.
• A lot has been made over whether or not Zach Ertz has improved as a blocker this offseason, thus warranting more playing time over Brent Celek. While we probably won't get a good idea of that until the preseason games, Ertz did have a nice moment as a blocker today. On a WR screen in the red zone, Ertz took out Nolan Carroll, paving the way for Nelson Agholor to score.
• Here's who got reps at RG with the first team OL each of the first four days at camp:
- Aug 2: Matt Tobin
- Aug 3: Andrew Gardner
- Aug 4: Matt Tobin
- Aug 6: John Moffitt
Otherwise, every day it has been Jason Peters at LT, Allen Barbre at LG, Jason Kelce at C, and Lane Johnson at RT.
• Kiko Alonso missed practice with a concussion today. DeMarco Murray (sickness) and Jerome Couplin also did not practice today, although Couplin was out on the field.
• The Eagles' hurry-up is in full swing. I timed them today from the whistle at the end of one play to the snap on the next at 9.18 seconds. That is very impressive for the fourth day of camp.
• Chip Kelly was effusive in his praise of UDFA CB Denzel Rice. We'll have more on him in the morning.
• The Eagles may have something in the WR trio of Jordan Matthews, Nelson Agholor and Josh Huff. That group could be really good here for years. I'm buying in.
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