Saturday was the sixth day of 2015 Philadelphia Eagles training camp practice. There's a lot to talk about, so let's dive right in.
• The Eagles did not wear pads. It was a pretty short practice, so expect these notes to be light. The team only went through 13 periods. That's about half as much as they usually run through.
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• Quick injury update: DeMarco Murray, Mychal Kendricks, and Zach Ertz returned to practice on Saturday after not participating on Friday. Kiko Alonso is still recovering from a concussion injury. Safety Jerome Couplin recently had an appendectomy and will be able to return early next week. More details on the injury situation later today.
• Tim Tebow went out of his way to run over to a disabled fan before practice and give him a high five. Beau Allen gave double high fives to a little kid before practiced started. Good guys.
• The Eagles started out practice with some special teams drills. During this period, some of the wide receivers were hanging out in the end zone. Jordan Matthews and Nelson Agholor were playing catch and then walking around with each other afterwards. Best buds!
• The special teams drills featured a part where gunners were responsible for trying to down the punt near the goal line. Donnie Jones did a great job of landing his punts where they needed to be, as always. As far as the gunners went, Eric Rowe and JaCorey Shepherd stood out. Rowe got in good position but dropped the ball at one point. Shepherd made a nice diving effort to make sure the ball wouldn't go in the end zone for a touchback. It's important the Eagles find a good gunner now that Brandon Boykin is gone. These rookies could be in the mix there.
• Special teams coach Dave Fipp took some reps with the defensive backs during a position drill where they had to run a certain way and catch a ball thrown at them. He did a pretty decent job! It's funny how the Eagles utilize extra bodies at practice. During the spring, the team had vice president player of personnel Ed Marynowitz throwing some passes to the defensive backs.
• Walter Thurmond almost made a really impressive one-handed catch during one DB drill. Chris Maragos broke it up, though. The former Seahawks got a little chatty about it after the play.
• Sam Bradford took all the first team reps yet again. Surprise.
• Bradford looked good during the short practice. The thing that stood today was his command of the team's high tempo offense, especially in the red zone. He looked in control out there between plays: getting everyone to the line quickly, having everyone lined up, making pre-snap adjustments, and then running the play.
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Bradford hit Jordan Matthews on a short pass in the end zone for a touchdown at one point with a defender tightly covered the receiver. Matthews has done a great job of making contested catches and holding on this summer. The Bradford to Matthews connection has been red hot lately.
• Mark Sanchez was up and down. He threw a beauty of a seam pass to Jeff Maehl in the end zone for at touchdown. That's Sanchez's staple throw. Later, however, he was almost picked off by Ed Reynolds on the same pass. Reynolds was in good position to make the play but he dropped the ball.
Sanchez threw a few passes in practice that sailed high out of bounds as he was targeting his outside wide receivers. As I had just got done saying outloud "Man, Sanchez really just isn't great at throwing outside the numbers" he then overthrew his next target on a post route. Welp.
• Matt Barkley struggled in the red zone. Shepherd contributes to his woes. The rookie cornerback shut down Rasheed Bailey on one play, causing Cory Undlin to run up and give him a pat on the back.
• Meanwhile, Philadelphia's other rookie sixth round cornerback, Randall Evans, has struggled a bit. He's been a little too physical while in coverage. On Saturday, he was called for defensive holding in the end zone.
• You don't want DeMeco Ryans dropping deep into coverage, but he can get the job done when he keeps things in front of him. Ryans knocked down a Bradford pass that was in the arms of Zach Ertz. Good sign from the veteran.
• Emmanuel Acho lined up as a deep center field safety at one point after dropping back from his typical insider linebacker position. Not sure what that was about. Weird.
• Tebow targeted G.J. Kinne deep but it was incomplete. That's really a shame.
Up next: Practice again tomorrow on Sunday. It's the second and final practice open to the public this summer at Lincoln Financial Field. Start time is 12:00 PM ET.