Eagles Minicamp Practice Notes: Sam Bradford looks sharp, JaCorey Shepherd steps up, and more

The Philadelphia Eagles continued their three-day minicamp with a practice open to the media on Wednesday. I was there to observe it all.

Keep in mind that these are all non-contact drills at this point. Players aren't allowed to wear shells yet. There's only so much to be gleaned from players running around in shorts, but here's what I learned from Wednesday's session.

• Injury update: Earl Wolff (knee), DeMeco Ryans (Achilles), and rookie cornerback Randall Evans (?) started out practice with the trainers. They participated in position drills but didn't seem to be going in team drills.

• If you follow me on Twitter (shameless plug: @BrandonGowton), you may have seen me streaming the Eagles' defensive linemen running through drills with Jerry Azzinaro. If you missed it, download Periscope and watch it here on your phone.

• Drill where quarterbacks throwing to uncovered wide receivers: Jordan Matthews drops a pass that may have been a little out in front. He gets real mad and yells after he picks the ball up. The guy practices super hard and hates making mistakes.

Nelson Agholor bobbled and dropped a catch. Ball was thrown a little high, but he could have had it.

Mark Sanchez threw a pass that was a little high but undrafted free agent Justin Tukes was able to snag it and hang on as he fell to the ground. All that time spent on the JUGS machine seems to be paying off for the rookie. Sanchez gave Tukes some props by celebrating the catch. The rookie UDFA tight ends have been fairly quiet, so maybe Tukes is taking a lead.

• Sam Bradford continues to impress. Like he did on Tuesday, he went second behind Mark Sanchez during 7-on-7 drills. Bradford connected with Zach Ertz on his first rep. There was tight coverage but he fit the ball where it needed to be. Ertz almost made a fantastic one-handed catch along the sideline not long after his first catch but Bradford put the ball a little too high and it bounced off of Ertz's outstretched hand.

• Special teams ace Seyi Ajirotutu continues to have a good spring. The veteran wide receiver made a solid over-the-shoulder grab down the field from Matt Barkley at one point. Barkley likes throwing to him. It was a good ball, too.

• Here's a Jerome Couplin update for you: the safety did a nice job of diagnosing the play in front of him and jumping a G.J. Kinne route to knock down a Tim Tebow pass.

• Speaking of Kinne, Byron Maxwell forced a fumble on him. It may have just been an incompletion if Kinne didn't have possession, but unfortunately we don't have the benefit of replay in practice. Still, it's funny to see how the ex-Seahawks defensive backs keep forcing fumbles in practice. Walter Thurmond is the other player I recall stripping his teammates. They're really good at punching the ball out without even having to make the tackle.

• Hard to get a great sense of how the running backs are doing when there's no real contact going on but I like what I've seen from DeMarco Murray. He doesn't dance a lot and he hits the hole hard. I can't say I've seen him leave any meat on the bone during practice. He's very hungry.

• Agholor had another drop in team drills. BUST! Kidding. He did seem pretty frustrated after the play, though.

• Rookie cornerback JaCorey Shepherd had a good practice. First he dove to break up a short Barkley pass. Later, he batted down a deep attempt from Tebow. It's easy to see how Shepherd had 32 passes defensed in college.

• Matt Tobin took first team reps at right guard today. The Eagles likely want him to step up and earn the job, but it won't be handed to him.

• Josh Huff's quiet spring hasn't been so quiet the past two days. Today he caught a pass from Sanchez in the middle of the field and outran the defense to score a touchdown. It's not like the defenders are allowed to tackle him, but he still looks fast.

• Jordan Matthews dropped a punt return attempt. He dropped a kick return attempt yesterday. You won't want to see him on the return team any time soon.

• Back to Bradford: he connects with Brent Celek on a deep pass. Yet another good ball. Feel like I haven't seen him make any real bad decisions this spring, which is impressive since he's picking up a brand new offense.

Bradford hit a tightly-covered Riley Cooper along the sideline who tip-toed to make the catch. He hit Cooper again on a short pass near the goal-line before capping off the drive with a short swing pass to Murray for the score. It's fun to watch Bradford operate in the red zone because he can zip passes into tight windows.

• For as good as Bradford looks, Tim Tebow still looks rough. He kept sailing passes during his red zone attempts. One time he missed a wide open tight end in the end zone. He also still takes a long time to even get rid of the ball.

• Agholor finally redeemed himself for the drops earlier in practice by catching a deep ball from Barkley with Eric Rowe trailing in coverage. I've written about this before, but the way Agholor goes up and attacks the ball in the air is impressive. He looks like he's going to be good.

• Sanchez hit Ertz with a perfect seam pass at one point, which should remind you that Sanchez loves the seam pass and that he's also pretty good at it.

• Nick Foles sighting at practice! Well, sort of. Barkley felt pressure and threw off his back foot into coverage. Marcus Smith (!) did a nice job of batting the ball down.

• G.J. Kinne ended practiced with a nice catch on a Tebow pass. I didn't even see it happen, but I already know it was the best catch to ever take place in Eagles minicamp history.

Up next: The Eagles have one last minicamp practice tomorrow. Unlike the practices held on Tuesday and Wednesday, Thursday's session will begin around 10:15 AM ET.

BGN will have a lot more minicamp coverage today so check back often.

Remaining offseason workout schedule:

Mandatory Minicamp: June 18.

BGN Coverage: The following practices are open to the media: June 18.