August 11, 2026
Colleen Claggett/For PhillyVoice
Jeremiah Trotter Jr. #54 of the Philadelphia Eagles performs a drill during training camp at the Jefferson Health Training Complex on August 4, 2026 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
The Eagles had the pads on and ran a bevy of plays with the offense in the shadow of its own goal post in their latest practice in South Philly.
As such, there weren't a ton of explosive plays — but there were still performances worth highlighting. Here are a pair of heroes and zeroes from training camp Tuesday morning:
Jeremiah Trotter Jr., LB: The third-year linebacker hasn't broken through into a starting role yet, despite showing lots of talent and even more drive on the football field. He probably won't this season either, unless Zack Baun or Jihad Campbell get hurt. But he's a really solid LB3 and showed it Tuesday.
During a string of plays that saw the first team offense facing the second team defense, Trotter got in the backfield in a big way on back-to-back plays. First, he blitzed and was the extra man gunning for quarterback Jalen Hurts, skirting around Jordan Mailata to get to Hurts for a "sack" totally untouched. Then, on a toss play to Tank Bigsby, he was right there to make a would be (should be) tackle for loss. Plays like that will earn some playing time.
Eli Stowers, TE: We haven't been shy to criticize the Eagles' first two draft picks for being virtually invisible in practices this summer. Makai Lemon is actually out with a minor hamstring injury, but before the setback he wasn't doing much. Stowers hasn't really either.
However, he had a pair of catches in practice No. 10, including a very impressive grab on one of those series with the Eagles inside their own 10 yard line. He ran a really nice route and caught a pass from Tanner McKee for what would have been a really big first down if the action was live.
The third team defensive line: We're sort of stretching here — there were no real obvious goats in practice or huge mistakes to criticize. But one glaring mess up was toward the end of practice, where the third team was trying to pick up a first down on a "third and six." The defense jumped offsides, setting up a more manageable "third and one." Guess what happened next? Yep, another defensive lineman jumped offsides and the drill just ended. AJ Epenesa was one of the culprits. The third team might be a tough watch this weekend in Baltimore.
Andy Dalton, Cole Payton, QB: Once again, we're sort of taking liberties here as neither of these guys had a particularly bad day overall. Each made an error respectively in 11-on-11 drills. Dalton took a bad "sack" in the end zone for a safety after Byron Young and Arnold Ebiketie closed in on him during a play early in practice. If it were a real game, he probably would have thrown it away or done better to evade the rush — but he didn't here.
Payton also had a brain fart, dropping a shotgun snap that he luckily picked up himself in an 11-on-11 play. He spent a lot of time scampering in the backfield Tuesday and didn't make too many impressive plays.
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