August 11, 2023
We are now 10 practices into Philadelphia Eagles training camp, so as I do each year I polled the Eagles' media contingent on which players have looked good so far throughout camp, and which ones have not looked so good.
For this exercise, I asked 22 Eagles media people, all of whom have attended every practice (or close enough to it in almost all cases) to identify one player whose stock is up, and one whose stock is down.
On the stock up front, seven players received at least two votes.
| 📈 | Votes |
| Cam Jurgens | 5 |
| Reed Blankenship | 4 |
| Josh Jobe | 2 |
| Joseph Ngata | 2 |
| Nolan Smith | 2 |
| K'Von Wallace | 2 |
| Quez Watkins | 2 |
For full disclosure, my vote was for Cam Jurgens, who entered camp with the burden of beating out rookie Tyler Steen for the starting RG job. In my opinion, Steen has played well to start camp, but Jurgens was simply better, and appears more than ready for his first season as a full-time starter. That camp battle never really materialized, and Jurgens quickly left no doubt that he is the guy.
Three other players got one vote each. In alphabetical order:
Here are the players in the past that have gotten at least four "stock up" votes:
| Year | Players with at least 4 "stock up" votes |
| 2017 | Marcus Johnson (13), Nelson Agholor (4), C.J. Smith (4) |
| 2018 | Kamu Grugier-Hill (4), Matt Pryor (4) |
| 2019 | Sidney Jones (10), Miles Sanders (7) |
| 2020 | John Hightower (4) |
| 2021 | Quez Watkins (7), Josh Sweat (4) |
| 2022 | T.J. Edwards (5), Britain Covey (5) |
The biggest "false positives" were Sidney Jones in 2019, and John Hightower in 2020. However, the first 10 or so practices of camp were predictive of good seasons for Miles Sanders in 2019, as well as Nelson Agholor, who had his lone impact season in 2017, and Josh Sweat, who had a breakout Pro Bowl season in 2021. Also, guys like Marcus Johnson, C.J. Smith, and Britain Covey were players who entered camp as longshots, but deserved to make the team, and did.
Last year, T.J. Edwards' training camp performance earned him a starting job.
On the "stock down" side, four players got at least two votes.
| 📉 | Votes |
| Nicholas Morrow | 7 |
| Nakobe Dean | 4 |
| Derek Barnett | 2 |
| Greedy Williams | 2 |
Eagles beats tended to struggle a bit coming up with a stock down player this year, as there aren't a lot of obvious candidates. Morrow got seven votes, which makes sense, since he has probably been passed by Christian Elliss on the depth chart, and the team signed a pair of veteran linebackers in Myles Jack and Zach Cunningham.
Dean is an interesting choice. He has missed three practices, most of a fourth practice, and was a limited participant in another. In the practices he has played in, he hasn't been an obvious standout, but it's probably also true to some degree that linebacker isn't a position where it's easy to stand out when there isn't a lot of hitting. But certainly, expectations were high for Dean heading into camp, and he has not yet announced his presence with authority.
My vote was for Derek Barnett, whose most notable moment through the first 10 practices was a personal foul penalty for throwing Landon Dickerson to the ground well after the whistle and then trying to fight him. To note, I didn't have high expectations for Barnett heading into camp, but I figured he would do enough to make the team. After the first couple weeks of camp, Barnett is probably on the bubble.
Seven players received one vote each. In alphabetical order:
Here are the players in the past that have gotten at least four "stock down" votes:
| Year | Players with at least 4 "stock down" votes |
| 2017 | Patrick Robinson (14), Shelton Gibson (10) |
| 2018 | Corey Nelson (7), Isaac Seumalo (5), Chance Warmack (5) |
| 2019 | Clayton Thorson (9), Jordan Mailata (7), Mack Hollins (5), Stefen Wisniewski (4) |
| 2020 | Sidney Jones (11) |
| 2021 | Andre Dillard (12), Jalen Reagor (4) |
| 2022 | Gardner Minshew (6), Jaquiski Tartt (5) |
Patrick Robinson had one of the worst starts to camp that I've ever seen, but after a switch from outside corner to the slot, he got better as the summer progressed and ended up becoming one of the best slot corners in the NFL that season, making a HUGE play in the NFC Championship Game along the way.
Otherwise, our stock down picks have been very predictive of bad seasons.
So, for the most part, like most Philadelphians, we can identify a struggling player when we see one.
Follow Jimmy & PhillyVoice on Twitter: @JimmyKempski | thePhillyVoice
Like us on Facebook: PhillyVoice Sports
Add Jimmy's RSS feed to your feed reader
