Eagles Training Camp Practice Notes: Carson Wentz is on FIRE

Today marked the 12th day of 2017 Philadelphia Eagles training camp practice. The Eagles held their second and final training camp practice open to the public at Lincoln Financial Field. Let’s get right to my notes.

PRACTICE NOTES

• Injury updates: Click here for a more detailed summary. The big news is that Alshon Jeffery returned to practice but didn’t participate in team drills. Zach Ertz got banged up after making a catch and got looked at by trainers but returned to practice in full. Marcus Johnson didn’t return to practice after getting banged up but told reporters he’s fine.

• Carson MF Wentz. The dude looks super legit. I feel like simply describing the throws he made today doesn’t do them justice. He was on fire and it was a sight to see.

During one-on-one drills, Wentz dropped a deep ball right in the bucket to Jordan Matthews. He threw another deep ball to Torrey Smith. I thought it was going to be overthrown, but nope, right on the money.

Wentz hit Ertz on throw 30 yards down the field. Nigel Bradham was trailing closely from behind but Wentz placed the ball high enough for his tight end to jump up and make the play.

Wentz’s best play of practice, in my view, is when he rifled a bullet down the seam to a diving Trey Burton. The ball split three defenders who were very close in the area. Wentz made a difficult throw look incredibly easy.

You can wonder if the Eagles’ cornerback struggles have helped Wentz look good this summer. It’s true that they haven’t made life incredibly tough on him. Still, Wentz is making some really legit throws even when the coverage looks good. He’s clearly a lot more advanced than where he was at this time last year, as we discussed on the latest episode of BGN Radio.

While Wentz was lighting it up in practice today, all I could think about is his doubters who don’t think he’s any good. They might need to get used to being on the wrong side of history.

• This city really loves their Carson. I saw a ton of Wentz jerseys at practice — a lot more than I saw last year. After practice, fans were going nuts for Wentz as he signed autographs for fans leaning over the edge of the front row at the Linc. Wentz spent a lonnnnnng time signing autographs, too. He was one of the last players to leave the field.

• More evidence of the Wentz effect: last year the Eagles’ combined attendance total for two open practices was around 35,500. This year that total is up to 60,000 fans. You can imagine fans are a lot more excited to see Wentz as opposed to ... Sam Bradford.

WR vs. DB one-on-one notes

• Malcolm Jenkins ripped the ball out of Matthews’ hands.

• Nelson Agholor’s route-running was on-point. His hands? Not so much. Agholor dropped two passes, including a long would-be touchdown reception in the end zone. That looked like 2016 Agholor.

• Bryce Treggs ran a really nice route to completely shake Terrence Brooks off of him.

• New Eagles DB Corey Graham generally looked good in coverage. He broke up a short pass meant for Greg Ward.

• Mack Hollins beat Rasul Douglas deep for a touchdown. Douglas turned around too early.

• Shelton Gibson (!) had two really nice receptions in one-on-ones. First he leaped to make a contested catch on a ball thrown from Wentz. The rest of the team’s receivers ran up to him and celebrated. Nice to see Gibson getting encouragement from his teammates. Gibson followed up that play where he shook the corner off him with a good out and then made a diving catch with his arms extended. Maybe there’s a little hope for Gibson after all.

• Jalen Mills picked off a deep pass meant for Torrey Smith. McGloin underthrew the ball.

7-on-7

• Ertz made a nice catch on the aforementioned play where he got hurt. He had a good day overall.

• Rasul Douglas broke up a short pass. He also came up with a pick against Dane Evans. Bad throw from the quarterback but Douglas still made the play.

• Aaron Grymes broke up a deep pass. He’s kind of had a quieter summer compared to spring practices but he’s still had some nice moments.

11-on-11

• Nigel Bradham sniffed out a screen and would have been right there to blow up the running back if it was a real game situation.

• Torrey Smith made a real nice leaping grab with his arms extended away from his body. Smith’s had a real solid offseason. Despite his struggles in San Francisco, I’m confident in saying he’ll be a nice contributor for this team.

• That Wentz pass to Burton I talked about earlier in my notes ... have to give credit to Burton for doing his part on the play. Really nice diving effort.

• Billy Brown caught a ball over the middle of the field in stride and kept on running. With Anthony Denham now battling some kind of injury, Brown’s stock could be on the rise.

OL vs. DL

• BGN Radio’s Vince Quinn was at practice today and noticed Halapoulivaati Vaitai had his way with Derek Barnett a few times.

• I noticed rookie defensive tackle Elijah Qualls get thrown to the ground by Dallas Thomas.

• Chance Warmack stood up Steven Means. I like what I’ve seen out of Warmack as a pass protector in these drills.

• Chris Long did a nice job of getting around the edge to record a “pressure.”

• Check out Jim Schwartz’s press conference via the Bleeding Green Nation Facebook page (click here or watch below).

Up next: The Eagles return to the NovaCare Complex on Monday. Practice starts at 9:15 AM. Stay tuned to BGN for more coverage.