Sunday was the sixteenth day of 2016 Eagles training camp practice. The Birds practiced at Lincoln Financial Field. Let's get right to my observations.
PRACTICE NOTES
• Injury update: No practice for Carson Wentz, Mychal Kendricks, Jalen Mills, and Jordan Mathews. With Wentz out, McLeod Bethel-Thompson filled in as the third team quarterback. JaCorey Shepherd returned to practice after missing the past week or so. Unfortunately, Shepherd's last name somehow got spelled wrong on the back of his jersey for this practice. It said "Shephard".
• Kicker battle update: Caleb Sturgis went 6/7 with attempts from 33, 40, 41, 44 (missed), 46, 48, and 54. Cody Parkey went 5/7 from the same distances with misses at 46 and 54. As Jimmy Kempski points out, Sturgis is now 34/38 through training camp while Parkey is 28/38. Sturgis was also better than Parkey during spring practices. The Power Sturge has the edge.
• QUARTERBACKS
Sam Bradford had a nice night. Aside from a few deep overthrows, he was pretty accurate. No big mistakes. He had a few nice throws over the middle to Brent Celek and Zach Ertz at different points during practice.
Chase Daniel wasn't great. He overthrew some passes and got picked off by rookie middle linebacker Joe Walker in the red zone. Really nice jumping interception from Walker, who had to jump as high as he could to get it. The best thing I can say about Daniel is that he caught a pass on a play where the running back pitched to Rueben Randle and the receiver threw to the quarterback.
Carson Wentz didn't practice, but the Eagles still gave his equal share of third team reps to McLeod Bethel-Thompson. You probably don't care how MBT did, so I'll just say it wasn't anything you wouldn't expect. He had passes broken up by Ed Reynolds and Myke Tavarres.
• The Eagles' first team offensive line once again featured Allen Barbre at right tackle and Isaac Seumalo at left guard. With Lane Johnson expected to be suspended, this could potentially be Philadelphia's opening day lineup.
• DROP COUNTER: Ertz, Celek, Randle (more on that below), Paul Turner, Darren Sproles (!), Nelson Agholor, T.J. Graham,
• Rueben Randle had a really incredible one-handed catch on a deep pass in the end zone. He beat Aaron Grymes on the play. He also had a good red zone catch with Ron Brooks draped all over him. So much for that article about Randle struggling, huh? Well, not quite. The former Giants receiver was wide open when he bobbled and dropped a would-be touchdown catch. Fans booed him after it happened.
• Speaking of drops, Leodis McKelvin knocked the ball out of Agholor's hands shortly after the receiver made the catch. Then Eric Rowe did the same thing to Randle.
• During WR vs. DB drills, C.J. Smith jumped up high to knock down a deep Bradford pass intended for Chris Givens. The rookie corner, who made the game sealing interception on Thursday night, has had a nice offseason.
• Interesting look by the Eagles lining up Fletcher Cox as a standing defensive end. He chucked the tight end on his way to the passer. Expect Jim Schwartz to get creative with his defense.
• A lot of Eagles receivers dropped passes tonight ... but surprisingly Josh Huff was not among them! Huff actually had a few nice catches.
• Turner continues to get first team looks in the slot with Matthews not practicing.
• Grymes got some first team looks at nickel corner. He also lined up as the second team outside corner with Mills not practicing.
• Good night for Kenjon Barner. He looked good as a runner and receiver.
• Matt Tobin pancaked Marcus Smith during team drills. Smith and Steven Means are splitting second team reps now. It used to just be Smith getting those.
• Fan attendance: The Eagles announced a crowd size of 17,389 tonight. That's nearly 1,000 less people than they had at the first open practice (18,276). It's also a lot less than the 43,000 they had at Military Appreciation Day last year. There are some key differences between this year and last year. This year was much hotter and the practice started late on a Sunday night. Also Wentz wasn't practicing. Still, that's a big drop.
• Doug Pederson led the team huddle before practice this evening. He was pretty fired up.
• It was Military Appreciation Night at Eagles practice. Some highlights.
Chase Daniel is playing catch with some military members and fans. Pretty cool. #Eagles pic.twitter.com/jqKHhuE9uO
— Brandon Lee Gowton (@BrandonGowton) August 14, 2016
#Eagles players going around high-fiving military members before practice starts. pic.twitter.com/pmlb6vng5Z
— Brandon Lee Gowton (@BrandonGowton) August 14, 2016
Eagles give their jerseys to military members after practice. Cool scene. pic.twitter.com/DEaNhA71Hy
— Brandon Lee Gowton (@BrandonGowton) August 15, 2016
Thank you to those who serve.
• Ron Brooks and Marcus Johnson both have dreads. They also both have pretty good arms. They were airing out 45 yard bombs to each other prior to practice.
• Jon Dorenbos took selfies with fans during practice. The life of long snapper.
Up next: Quick turnaround for the Eagles. They return to practice early tomorrow morning starting at 9:05 AM ET.