Thursday was the fourth day of 2016 Eagles training camp practice. It was also the first practice where the entire roster was present. Let's dive right in to my observations from today's session.
PRACTICE NOTES
• Injury update: Starting right guard Brandon Brooks sat out of practice due to a hamstring injury. He's day-to-day. Stefen Wisniewski filled in for him.
• The Eagles practiced inside today because it was raining out.
• Back when Andy Reid was head coach, the Eagles did something in practice called "10-10-10." Since Doug Pederson is an Andy disciple, he's doing them as well. Here's a good description of the setup via Alex Smith of PhiladelphiaEagles.com.
This practice format, which the Eagles had previously used during the Andy Reid era, cycles through 10 offensive plays, 10 defensive plays and 10 minutes of special teams work. During the offensive plays, the offense will be set up to succeed on every play, meaning the defense will back off a bit so the offense can see how each play is designed to work in its best-case scenario. During the defense’s 10 plays, the offense will allow the called play on defense to work to perfection. Finally, special teams will take the field for 10 minutes of work. That cycle will repeat during the length of the practice session.
So between the Eagles practicing inside and the 10-10-10 setup, today's notes are a little light. The Eagles also cut practice 30 minutes short of the normal two hour routine.
• Quarterback talk.
Not a lot to say about Sam Bradford and Chase Daniel today. Daniel did have one run where he completely fooled the defense on play-action. Daniel has some wheels. He doesn't look slow.
Carson Wentz had a really beautiful pass on the final play of practice. He dropped back and flicked his wrist to hit an open Paul Turner deep along the left sideline. The throw was effortless and the ball really jumped out of his hand in a hurry. Ball was right on the money, too. Wentz has had some issues with deep ball accuracy during various practices, but when he's on, he's on.
Another nice Wentz throw came on a pass over the middle to Trey Burton. The tight end was tightly covered by a trailing Ed Reynolds but Burton made a nice one-handed grab in stride. Wentz threw it right to only where the tight end had a chance to get it.
Wentz isn't without issues. He threw a really ugly and wobbly ball to Matthews. The receiver should have been able to make an easy catch and have a chance to run afterwards. Instead, Matthews had to come back to the ball and making a diving effort to get it.
• Note about the lineups: Leodis McKelvin and Nolan Carroll lined up with the first team defense at outside cornerback. Ron Brooks was the nickel cornerback. Sometimes Brooks replaced Carroll on the outside when it was just two corners. Brooks was mostly just a special teams contributor and backup in Buffalo, but he's been getting a lot of first team work in Philadelphia. For now, at least.
• Guess what I'm going to say about Jalen Mills? Yep, he broke up another pass. It happened when Jordan Matthews caught a pass down the field. Mills had tight coverage. It was a great effort by Matthews to snag the ball into his own hands, but Mills ultimately won and forced the ball out as the two went to the ground. Matthews was clearly frustrated at first after the play, but then he helped Mills get up and slapped his helmet.
• Kenjon Barner dropped a pass despite being wide open in the flat.
• Brent Celek is a really strong dude. He collided with Quentin Gause immediately after catching a short pass over the middle. Instead of Celek going down, though, the rookie linebacker bounced right off him. Gause looked like he briefly had the wind knocked out of him.
• Still how weird how much standing around there is during these practices after watching Chip Kelly's practices for three years.
• See below for video of Eagles practice. Like on the official Bleeding Green Nation Facebook page to watch these videos live as I'm streaming them.
Up next: The Eagles practice again tomorrow morning starting at 8:15 AM ET. Stay tuned for more coverage until then.