Philadelphia Eagles Training Camp 2013 Notes & Quotes - Wednesday 7/31/2013

Today's big story didn't have anything to do with the Eagles training camp practice. Instead, it had to do everything with the Riley Cooper incident. I'm not going to speak on that here because that's not what this post is for. We have other BGN threads for that. So with that said, let's get to today's notes.

[Side note: I'm working on a post with the quotes from the scouts I got this morning (Anthony Patch, Tom Gamble, Howie, etc.) for tomorrow or so. Stay tuned.]

Practice Notes:

• QB UPDATE: Nick Foles threw his first interception (that I've seen, at least). A Colt Anderson pick 6. One of Foles' passes intended to DeSean Jackson (deep) today looked a little wobbly. Michael Vick ran a lot today. On on redzone rep, he took entirely too long to throw the ball which led to him throwing a pass out of bounds. The ball simply has to come out quicker. On the next redzone rep, Vick threw a quick bullet to Russell Shepard who caught the ball in a tight window for a TD. As for Barkley, I really think he looks like a rookie. He has an outside chance to win the QB job with an impressive preseason, but at this point it's likely that the winner of the QB competition is going to be either Foles or Vick.

• Brandon Boykin continues to have an amazing camp. He's constantly all over the field breaking up passes. Per unofficial Eagles training camp rules, it's 50 pushups for a defensive player if they break up the pass but don't intercept it. So you can imagine that Boykin has been doing quite a few pushups. And that's something to be excited about.

• David Sims had himself a nice day. Previously in camp he had seen some time with the 1's at safety. Today I saw him knock down a pass and nearly pick off another (thanks to a DeMeco Ryans deflection). Sims might have an uphill battle but he's fighting hard.

• BUY: Chris Polk. SELL: Felix Jones. Polk has had himself a good camp. Along with breaking off a few nice runs today he showed good hands when catching passes. Jones, on the other hand, had a couple drops.

• All aboard the Damaris train. Another player who's having a great camp. On a 1 v 1 rep vs Patrick Chung, Damaris easily got behind Chung and caught the ball deep, which led to Chung jumping around in frustration after the catch.

• Soft camp, you say? Not so fast. The Eagles did a very physical 1 on 1 tackling drill today. Matthew Tucker had a "Welcome to the NFL" moment when DeMeco Ryans hit him hard and planted Tucker's butt on the ground.

• LB Jake Knott had a PBU on a Barkley redzone pass.

• At one point QB GJ Kinne was lined up on the punt-block team. Nothing to make out of this other than pointing out the lighter moments of training camp.

• Donnie Jones had a great punt that went out of bounds at the 2. Coffin corner.

• JUGS UPDATE: Chung, Kurt Coleman, Earl Wolff, Clay Harbor, and Shepard were all doing some JUGS work after practice today.

Quotes:

Chip Kelly

• Chip was asked about the WSJ article regarding the speculation on the conflict between his fast-paced offense and the pace of the NFL referees. Chip downplayed this speculation and said he's not concerned. "Just tell us what the rules are and we'll always play by the rules," Kelly stated.

• On a related note, Chip mentioned NFL referees will be at the Eagles practice tomorrow (8/1) and on the days of the Eagles-Patriots joint practices.

• Chip spoke on the importance of OLB Connor Barwin's leadership. Essentially said he's been a good role model to his teammates.

• Chip said Trent Cole is "getting more comfortable" with his new role on defense.

Nick Foles - (Video)

• Nick praised Boykin's impressive camp.

• Nick said he heard about the Kelly pace/refs thing (I referenced it earlier: the WSJ article), but he also downplayed any concerns there.

• On the pass he threw that was intercepted by Colt Anderson: "They just went robber and Colt did a great job. I tried to look him off and I came back down, and we have an in cut route, and he did a great job of robbing the route. That's why we come out here and practice. You're gonna make a mistake, it's how you come back from it. It's one of those things where if I see the same situation I'll come off the read and drill another route. He made a great play. We'll talk about it in the locker room and I'm sure he'll give me some stuff, but it'll make me a better player."

Michael Vick

• Surprise! Vick downplays the ref/space thing.

• On the QB battle: "it's a non-stop competition." "We're not looking for separation (from each other), we're looking for improvement."

Injury Update:

• Jason Peters left practice with a hamstring injury. Nothing too serious. Dennis Kelly also left practice early.

• Todd Herremans (knee) was back at practice after missing some time.

• Players who did not practice: CB Brandon Hughes (knee), CB Cary Williams (hamstring), WR BJ Cunningham (foot), WR Arrelious Benn (knee) and DT Antonio Dixon (hamstring).

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Up next: Another day of practice tomorrow.

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