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The Philadelphia Eagles began their third and final week of OTAs on Tuesday. The practice session was open to media and I was there to watch it. Remember that these are still non-contact drills at this point. Players aren't allowed to wear pads yet. There's only so much to be gleaned from players running around in shorts, but here's what I noticed on Tuesday.
• Attendance update: Fletcher Cox and Darren Sproles still haven't showed up at practice. They're required to show up to practice next week when mandatory minicamp begins (June 7) or else they can be fined up to $76,580.
• Injury update: Ryan Mathews returned to practice after sitting out last week due to an illness. Rueben Randle had gallbladder surgery last week and is expected to be out for a few weeks. Offensive guard Malcolm Bunche, who was on the practice squad last season, left practice early today and did not return. Jordan Hicks didn't participate in team drills after doing so last week. Nolan Carroll and JaCorey Shepherd still aren't practicing fully.
• Sam Bradford's struggles were the main highlight (or lowlight) of Eagles practice today. He had a rough day. He almost threw four interceptions in total.
1) The first interception came on a pass intended for Josh Huff, who was running a slant, in traffic. Ron Brooks, who took reps at first team outside cornerback, had tight coverage and tipped the pass. Rodney McLeod snatched the ball out of the air with one hand and ran it back for a potential pick six.
2) The second interception came when at the hands of Jaylen Watkins in the back of the end zone. Bradford threw into double coverage. He may have been trying to throw the ball through the back of the end zone for the incompletion, but if that's the case it didn't get there. Bad decision and bad accuracy.
3) The third interception may not have been an interception. The short pass was thrown directly at Mychal Kendricks. It looked like Kendricks dropped it but I didn't have the perfect angle to see for sure. In any case, another mistake from Bradford.
4) The fourth play was not an interception, but it easily could have been. Bradford threw a ball into traffic in the middle of the red zone that went off Malcolm Jenkins' hands. Jenkins was visibly frustrated about dropping that one.
This was easily Bradford's worst practice of the three sessions that have been open to the media so far.
• Sticking with quarterbacks, Chase Daniel had another nice practice. I'll repeat what I said last week: he's solid and doesn't make any big mistakes. Nothing overly flashy, but consistently above average. This is probably to be expected given his experience with Doug Pederson's offense. He's thrown some really nice seam passes in spring practices so far. It's funny because Mark Sanchez was really good at that too. For some reason Eagles backup quarterbacks are just masters of the seam.
• Carson Wentz has shown some slight improvement in the short amount of time I've seen him practice. Less wobbly throws. Some real nice passes. Wentz once again made the throw of the day when he hit UDFA wide receiver Xavier Rush deep down the field. Rookie cornerback C.J. Smith, who was teammates with Wentz at North Dakota State, had tight coverage on Rush but the throw was right on target. The rookie passer made two red zone throws that stood out as well. The first was on a wheel route to Cedric O'Neal. The UDFA running back couldn't haul it in, but the pass was great. Wentz also hit a tightly covered Chris Pantale, who had a solid practice, in the end zone on the last play of practice. Wentz took off running once and looked pretty fast.
It wasn't all good with Wentz. He was almost picked off a few times. He had a pass sail over a wide receiver's head and through the hands of C.J. Smith. Former CFL cornerback Aaron Grymes jumped the route on a short pass by Wentz and would have had the pick if it had not gone through his hands and bounced off his chest. Wentz threw a pass to no one in the end zone at one point. Looks like there's still some communication issues to be sorted out.
Another issue with Wentz is that he had two of his passes batted down near the line of scrimmage. First it was Marcus Smith and then it was Bryan Braman.
Overall, an up and down day for Wentz.
• The Eagles ran some trick plays during routes on air (no defense). Didn't see that too often during Chip Kelly practices. The first attempt came when Sam Bradford lateraled to Josh Huff on a fake screen. Huff completed his attempt to the opposite side of the field. Nelson Agholor caught a lateral from Wentz and aired it out to the quarterback down the field. Unfortunately, the pass was overthrown.
• As noted last week, I have to give Caleb Sturgis the leg up in the kicking competition so far. He's looked better than Cody Parkey. It's early, though, and Parkey could be rusty due to injury.
• A few depth chart notes: Allen Barbre is still taking first team left guard reps. Kenjon Barner and Mathews split time at first team running back while Wendell Smallwood took most of the second team reps. Mike Martin is filling in at first team defensive tackle with Cox not at practice.
• FIGHT! Martin and Barbre got into a shoving match after a rep during 11 on 11. Fights aren't as common in spring practice as they are in training camp. The two big men had to be separated by Jason Peters and Jason Kelce.
• Zach Ertz has looked mostly good but he dropped a pass today. So did Trey Burton.
• Good observation from Jimmy Kempski: the Eagles ran some drills where players were wearing red pinnies with "88" and "82" on them. It could have been the Eagles doing some early scouting against the Cowboys: Dez Bryant and Jason Witten wear those numbers, respectively.
• Leodis McKelvin, who continues to rep at first team CB, always wears long sleeves and long pants to practice. Even when it's 90 degrees out like it was today.
• Here's three minute video of the Eagles doing some warm-up stuff and position drills.
LIVE on #Periscope: Live look at Eagles OTA practice. (5/31) https://t.co/XgTPral5DU
— Brandon Lee Gowton (@BrandonGowton) May 31, 2016
Up next: The Eagles practice again this week on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. The next open practice is this Friday, June 3.
Remaining offseason workout schedule:
OTA Offseason Workouts: May 17-19, May 24-26, May 31, June 1-3.
Mandatory Minicamp: June 7-9.
BGN Coverage: The following remaining practices are open to the media: May 31, June 3, and June 7-9.