Eagles News: Philadelphia’s injured reserve players kept each other motivated through rehab

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Club Rehab: How Five Eagles Players Leaned on Each Other Through the Arduous Recovery Process - Sports Illustrated
Jason Peters is well-known among his Eagles’ teammates as The Bodyguard, but in the training room, he was The Godfather. “Whatever JP says goes,” says Hicks. “I’ve been fined”—he drops air quotes around “fined”—“for being late. I wasn’t actually late, but if you walk in after him you’re late.” The Godfather’s catchphrase during rehab was “Write ’em up!” If someone was late or slow in finishing a workout, Peters would hand out a “fine.”

Eagles 53-man roster projection: Pre-training camp edition - BGN
It’ll be interesting to see how the Eagles split up their backfield touches this year. On one hand, the team could look to give Ajayi a huge workload in what could be his final year with the team. On the other hand, the Eagles have always employed a frequent rotation with Doug Pederson and Duce Staley in charge. Sproles and Clement aren’t chopped liver. Both of them figure to be better contributors in the passing attack than Ajayi does. Jones gets the nod for now because we’ve heard the Eagles’ coaching staff likes him. Donnel Pumphrey will make a push for the fourth job. Pump could help his case by flashing return skills in addition to contributing on offense. Wendell Smallwood is probably in his last summer with the team while Josh Adams could be a redshirt candidate if he doesn’t get healthy soon.

Camp Opens - Iggles Blitz
Aiken is more than just a camp body. To me, those are guys that can simply eat up reps. Aiken is a veteran who can push for a roster spot. It isn’t likely that he’ll make it, but the Eagles at least feel he’s got enough talent that it is worth giving him a shot. Aiken knows how to run routes, how get open and how to block. The coaches don’t have to teach him a lot. They just want to see if he can play well or if that 2015 production is an anomaly that’s long gone. The Eagles have plenty of young guys already in the mix. It was smart to add a veteran to go along with Markus Wheaton. The backup QBs need some veterans to throw to.

Lawlor: State Of The Eagles Entering Training Camp - PE.com
As the team opens Training Camp, it is a good time to take a look at the State of the Eagles. Confidence is high, with the team entering the 2018 season as the reigning Super Bowl Champs. They bring back most of the coaching staff and key players who helped the team have a great 2017 season.

PFF Training Camp Preview: Philadelphia Eagles - PFF
If you go back to 2016 to look at Sidney Jones’ play at Washington, he finished the season with 18.7 snaps in coverage per reception allowed, which tied him for 17th among 455 FBS cornerbacks with at least 135 coverage snaps. When targeted, opposing quarterbacks had a passer rating of just 42.1 against Jones, a mark that ranked 19th. Jones will have some stiff competition in Jalen Mills, Rasul Douglas and rookie CB Avonte Maddox, but with two starting spots available (one outside and one in the slot), the promising young cornerback will get plenty of opportunities to show what he can do against the superior NFL competition.

2017 Slot vs. Wide: Wide Receivers - Football Outsiders
Mike Wallace has largely been lost in this league after the Steelers discovered in 2011 that Antonio Brown was the future top receiver of the Pittsburgh offense. Wallace’s 2016 debut with Baltimore went better than expected. It was his first 1,000-yard season since 2011 with Pittsburgh, but the sequel did not go so well last year. Wallace often played out wide where he struggled, posting a DVOA of -17.2% (ranked 43rd) in Baltimore’s dink-and-dunk attack. Wallace did at least post impressive numbers from the slot, where he had 39.6% DVOA. That would have ranked second in the league with just one more target. This split meant that Wallace’s DVOA increased by 56.8 percentage points from wide to the slot, the largest improvement in the league. Now Wallace is back in Pennsylvania, but with the defending champion Eagles, where he should fill Torrey Smith’s role. The two had some similar numbers last year, except Smith was even worse in wide DVOA (-19.0%) and his 26 slot targets weren’t nearly as successful (-16.8% DVOA). With Alshon Jeffery returning and Nelson Agholor in the slot, Wallace actually could be a slight upgrade over Smith this year.

NFL star Malcolm Jenkins reflects on the power of protest as new season looms - NBC News
Philadelphia Eagles safety Malcolm Jenkins first raised his fist during Week 2 of the 2016 season. It was his version of the protest ignited weeks earlier by 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick, who decided to sit and later kneel during the national anthem to protest police brutality and other issues. “At the end of the day, I’m fighting for people,” Jenkins told NBC Nightly News’ Lester Holt. “I’m fighting for Americans and citizens that have been disenfranchised, that have been systemically oppressed for centuries.”

The Eagles’ annual training-camp ritual: Filling in the pieces of the roster puzzle - Daily News
Overall, Roseman’s biggest preseason moves have come the past two years – the Bradford trade in 2016 that netted defensive end Derek Barnett, and the Matthews-Darby trade last year. This might reflect the fact that Roseman, brought back from personnel exile upon Kelly’s firing, was placed more firmly in charge than he’d ever been previously. But it’s unclear the Eagles really need a “big” move now, as they look to defend their Super Bowl title. A third safety (Corey Graham again? Happy 33rd birthday Wednesday, by the way) and a serviceable linebacker or two seem like the only outstanding needs, though it would be nice to see the vaunted defensive line get close to full health before the Sept. 6 season opener against Atlanta.

Super Bowl champion Eagles on brink of another memorable training camp - DelcoTimes
If we’ve learned anything from Eagles training camps, it’s to expect the unexpected. From the outrageous behavior that got Terrell Owens kicked out of camp in 2005, to the introduction of the Dream Team in 2011 to the tragic drug overdose taking the life of Andy Reid’s oldest son Garrett in 2012, you never know what’s around the corner. The Eagles report to camp Wednesday glistening from their Super Bowl LII win over the New England Patriots. Something tells me there’s going to be a lot of celebrities dropping in for face time. Here are a few training camp memories culled over the years of covering the Eagles.

All-22: The RPO evolution that had Eagles’ opponents searching for answers - The Athletic
There are some limitations to how creative offenses can get with RPOs because quarterbacks have to get rid of the ball relatively quickly, or they run the risk of the run-blocking offensive linemen being downfield. That’s one reason why some of the perimeter runs work better than the north-south ones where linemen are almost immediately climbing to the second level. On the other hand, the Eagles feel like they’re just scratching the surface of experimenting with different route concepts to tie to their run game and keep defenses off-balance. “Once defenses understand who you are sort of reading and keying on, they can try different things with ‘backers and d-ends and things,” Pederson said. “But the thing for us is if we’re going to stay ahead of everything, we’ve gotta just make sure that a lot of things look very similar: formations, the same guys are on the field, the tight ends are right.

Top Eagles storylines heading into 2018 training camp - NBCSP
Wentz isn’t expected to play much (or possibly at all) during the preseason, but don’t expect Foles to play a ton either. After all, if Wentz doesn’t get cleared by the opener, Foles is going to need to be the starter and the team will need to limit his reps. That means we’re going to get an extended look at Nate Sudfeld in an Eagles uniform. Remember, Sudfeld came to Philly after the 2017 training camp and then played in just one game during the season after spending the first two months of the season on the practice squad. But the fact that the Eagles put Sudfeld on the 53-man roster to prevent the Colts from poaching him shows how much they think of the young QB. The former sixth-round pick completed 19 of 23 passes for 134 yards against the Cowboys in the 2017 regular-season finale. Expect Sudfeld to play a ton this preseason. And based on what we’ve seen from him so far, and based on how much the Eagles think of him, expect him to look good. Sudfeld might be the future backup of the team if Foles gets traded or when he leaves as a free agent next offseason.

Julio Jones will report to training camp, per the Atlanta Falcons - The Falcoholic
Atlanta Falcons WR Julio Jones has come to an agreement in principle with the front office and will report to training camp, per the team. This means that Jones’ holdout, which looked like it might be a long one as recently as earlier today, appears to be over. We don’t yet know what Julio is getting from the Falcons, but the team alluded to an adjustment in their statement and a larger conversation about a re-worked contract in 2019. Thanks to ace NFL reporter Ian Rapoport, we also know the move is “cap neutral” for 2018, which means the Falcons aren’t in more of a jam than they were yesterday.

Cowboys owner Jerry Jones excited about Jason Garrett, says coach is not on hot seat - Star-Telegram
[BLG Note: Great news for the Eagles!]

Report: Rookie CB Sam Beal injures shoulder, could be done for the season - Big Blue View
Beal wasn’t expected to contribute right away after missing all of the Giants’ offseason program. But with his talent and coverage ability, it was hoped that he would work his way on to the field to help relieve Janoris Jenkins and Eli Apple as the season wore on. In the longer term, getting Beal a year early was seen as a boon and a chance to develop him in-house long before his peers would be drafted. Now it looks like he will spend his rookie season on injured reserve.

CB Joshua Holsey will miss start of Redskins training camp with freak foot injury - Hogs Haven
A new injury was reported today involving 2nd-year CB Joshua Holsey. A table fell on his foot, which will cause him to miss the start of training camp tomorrow. Holsey was expected to compete for the slot corner job that opened up when Kendall Fuller was traded to the Kansas City Chiefs in a deal that brought QB Alex Smith to the Redskins.

REPORT: Aaron Donald’s agent “insulted” by Los Angeles Rams contract extension offer - Turf Show Times
As the tweet notes, the Rams are more than willing to make Donald the highest paid defender in NFL history, though Donald’s camp isn’t satisfied. Not only are they searching for number one defender money, but they actually want quarterback money, per the report.

Presenting the NFL’s Jason Witten All-Stars - The Ringer
Who are the league’s best players who’ve never made a conference championship game? And who has the best chance of finally reaching that stage this season? [BLG Note: Spoiler - no Eagles on this list since they just won the Super Bowl.]

Jerry Jones says Terrell Owens making a “mistake” skipping Canton; TO responds - PFT
“Jerry ‘made a mistake’ of releasing me after listening to others when I produced, gave my ALL, sacrificed my health for the team but who am I?! But hey I thought Jerry had a mind of his own too. #GOFIGURE What I’m doing is for the FANS. #THISISFORYOU,” Owens tweeted.

NFL training camp holdouts at a glance: Who, why and what’s next - ESPN
As NFL training camps ramp up, NFL Nation looks at who isn’t reporting to camp, what they’re looking for and how long their absences might last.

Jerry Jones keeps making the NFL’s mishandling of the anthem worse - SB Nation
In May, NFL owners unilaterally passed a policy that they hoped would end an enduring narrative of protests during the national anthem. Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who has been one of the most vocally opposed to players kneeling or otherwise protesting, helped lead the effort. Two months later, that policy is on hold amid public backlash and a grievance filed by the NFLPA. Owners were recently “instructed to stand down” while the NFL and NFLPA discuss a plan moving forward about protests, according to Bengals owner Mike Brown. But Jones couldn’t help himself. On Wednesday, he spoke to reporters and dumped fuel on the fire.

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