August 20, 2019

Eagles training camp practice notes, Day 18: The final media-attended practice of 2019

By Jimmy Kempski
PhillyVoice Staff

On Tuesday, the Philadelphia Eagles conducted their second of two joint practices with the Baltimore Ravens. It was the last media-attended practice of 2019, which means this will be the final practice notes that I will post. I know you're all heartbroken.

There was a lot of full team action today. As always, we have notes.

OL-DL 1-on-1's

• In OL-DL drills, we really only got a look at the Eagles' OL vs. the Ravens' DL, as the Eagles' DL vs. the Ravens' OL was way down at the other end of the field. As usual, Andre Dillard stood out. He looked good anchoring vs. a bull rush by Pernell McPhee, and also stoned Aaron Adeoye. He did kinda-sorta get beaten inside once by Tim Williams.

• Stefen Wisniewski got beaten badly by Willie Henry Jr. I don't know anything about Henry Jr., but Wis couldn't handle his quickness. If I'm the Eagles, Wis wouldn't be on my 53-man roster.

• The most noteworthy moment in 1-on-1's, or actually in this case 2-on-2's, was that Brandon Brooks took a rep. He tossed McPhee like a rag doll on a stunt. Impressive.

11-on-11's

• One player who impressed me on the Ravens was WR Miles Boykin. He was getting open at various levels of the field, and he caught the ball well. On one deep route, he toasted Ronald Darby by a couple of strides. Darby is wearing a brace and clearly doesn't have the same speed as I'm used to seeing. I don't know if that's because of the brace of if he still isn't quite back up to full speed yet, but Boykin (who, in fairness, ran a 4.42 in February) simply ran away from him.

• The Eagles were experimenting with some defensive line personnel on obvious passing downs today. Today, for example, they had Derek Barnett at LDE, Brandon Graham at LDT, Timmy Jernigan at RDT, and Malik Jackson at RDE.

Graham playing DT in obvious passing situations is nothing new, but Jackson playing DE is interesting (and makes some sense).

• The Eagles' top three corners all had good moments:

Avonte Maddox had a nice PBU down the sideline. He was in great position, and got his head around just in time to see the ball coming. He threw his arm up and was able to deflect the ball into the air, but another Eagles DB wasn't close enough to pick it off.
Sidney Jones isn't going to break anyone's ribs with his jams at the line of scrimmage, but he does a good job of getting a hand on his opponents, and then turning and running with them. Michael Floyd couldn't get a whiff of separation against Jones, with Jones playing up on him.
Rasul Douglas was actually getting kudos from Ravens coaches today for his break on a ball on a short throw to Boykin. Boykin ran a good hitch route, which Douglas did indeed break hard on. The pass was actually completed, as Boykin made a fingertip catch near the sideline in a perfect spot, but Douglas was right there. That drew a "Good break 3-2!" from the coaches on the sideline. Tampering!

Scrimmage

• In a practice-ending scrimmage, the defenses for both teams got the better of the opposing offenses. Still, the day wasn't without its highlights from both starting quarterbacks:

Carson Wentz had one play where he avoided a rush within the pocket, and then lofted an absolutely perfect deep ball on what we'll call a deep post to Mack Hollins at least 50 yards down the field. The ball couldn't have been placed in a better spot to Hollins, who had a step on the DB, aaaaand, mmmmmmm drrrrrop. Ugh.
Lamar Jackson had a scramble in which L.J. Fort was trying to track him down in the open field, and Jackson juked the ever-living shit out of him. Fort went to ground, and for a second I legitimately thought he might be injured. That play drew the rare "OOOOOOOOOOOH!!!" from BOTH teams.

• The Eagles had an interception (or near-interception) parade today:

Malcolm Jenkins athletically got into a great position to pick off Jackson, but he dropped it. Ditto that for T.J. Edwards, whose hands were viewed as one of his biggest strengths coming out of college.
One guy who didn't drop his INT opportunity was Vinny Curry (!) who made a diving interception. He quickly popped up, and headed upfield before making an ill-advised an off-target pitch to Maddox. The ball bounced around, and was picked up by Rodney McLeod, who was then stripped by Willie Snead (though by then McLeod had stopped running). Still, wild play.
In a span of, oh, I don't know, five or six plays, Penn State alum Trace McSorley was picked off by Tre Sullivan, Ajene Harris, and Jeremiah McKinnon. In McSorley's defense, he probably didn't know that you shouldn't dare throw at that trio of defensive backs.

• The Eagles' second team offensive line, which is objectively a very intriguing group, got owned today by the Ravens' first- and second-team defensive lines. It was ugly at times. Jeff Stoutland will want to see them play far better in the game on Thursday than they did in practice today.

• There was barely any chippiness at all over the last two days of joint practices, which is a good thing, I guess, but boring for people like me. The only notable dust-up was between Aziz Shittu and Isaiah Williams, which is obviously a matchup between a pair of household names. And I think we'll end our training camp coverage on a note about Shittu.

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