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Eagles News: Zach Brown and Jordan Howard talk about how Philly is better than their old teams

Philadelphia Eagles news and links for 6/4/19.

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NFL: Washington Redskins at Dallas Cowboys Jerome Miron-USA TODAY Sports

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Zach Brown enjoying Eagles’ locker room dynamic which he says differs from Washington in one big way - NCBSP
The tone is a lot different in the Eagles locker room compared to Washington, which meshes much better with Brown’s lighthearted attitude. “Nobody has a problem with anybody,” said Brown. “Everybody is cool. This locker room is different from the locker room I came from. There’s no cliques. It’s one big clique. I can talk over there and mess with the linemen, talk with them, chit chat, play cornhole. The running backs are right here, so I always give them s***.” Brown has even settled his trash talk beef with Eagles right tackle Lane Johnson, whose locker is directly across the room from his. “I was messing around with him all last week,” said Brown. “There ain’t nothing wrong with good competition, but me and Lane, he’s right there so we talk, chit chat every time. Good person.”

Jordan Howard catching on in Philadelphia, expects to be used differently than in Chicago - Inquirer
“I feel like they’re allowing me to do more, show my game off more instead of just being one-dimensional like Chicago had me,” Howard said after practice Monday. Howard was referring to catching the ball out of the backfield. He has 72 career receptions, and the volume declined in each of his three seasons. But Howard insisted that he can help in the passing game and that he didn’t in Chicago “because they had a [certain] view of me.” He’s tried to put in work behind the scenes, including catching “as many balls” as possible and working with tennis balls to improve hand-eye coordination. It’s still too early to know whether the Eagles will throw the ball to Howard more than in Chicago, but it’s a part of Howard’s game that the Eagles have evaluated this spring. “He’s caught the ball when we’ve thrown it to him, so that’s what I’m going to go [off] right now, his production with us,” offensive coordinator Mike Groh said. “I think he’s worked hard at it and doesn’t fight the ball, and we just have to keep throwing him balls.”

Eagles Practice Notes: Carson Wentz continues to shine at OTAs - BGN
CARSON WENTZ UPDATE: Doug Pederson wasn’t just blowing smoke when he said Wentz has been one of the team’s most impressive players in spring practices. The Eagles’ starting quarterback looks locked in. Wentz flashed deep ball accuracy on completions to DeSean Jackson (who shook off Avonte Maddox) and Marken Michel (who ran by Rasul Douglas). Wentz’s arm strength — a quality that Pederson specifically praised — showed when he rifled a pass by Maddox in 3-on-3. Maddox didn’t even have bad coverage as he was sitting on a short curl route but Wentz’s throw beat his reaction time. Wentz threw a strike between multiple defenders over the middle to Greg Ward. Wentz would’ve had a back shoulder touchdown throw to Charles Johnson in the middle of the end zone during a red zone drill had Johnson not dropped the pass. Wentz did have a couple misfires. He overthrew Zach Ertz on a fade in the end zone and he also underthrew a deep throw to DeSean Jackson, which allowed Jeremiah McKinnon to knock the ball down. Speaking of DeSean, Wentz absolutely LOVES throwing to him. They’ve connected so often in just three spring practices I’ve been able to watch this year. It’s not like Wentz is forcing the ball there, either. Wentz rarely throws an incompletion when he’s targeting Jackson.

Wentz + DeSean = Excitement at OTAs - BGN Radio
Michael Kist and Brandon Lee Gowton recap the day that was at the NovaCare Complex as the Eagles took the field in front of the media for OTAs! Wentz to DeSean continues to be must-watch stuff, plus the Eagles young secondary is having fun and some thoughts on the ticking clock with the Joe Douglas situation! All that and much more! Presented by SB Nation and Bleeding Green Nation.

Eagles OTA observations: Obligatory reminder that Carson Wentz is really, really good - PhillyVoice
Is it getting tiresome to note that Carson Wentz looks really, really good? Today, I can count one throw he’d like to have back, an underthrown deep throw to DeSean Jackson that was broken up easily by Jeremiah McKinnon. Otherwise, Wentz was dialed in, as usual, and was dropping dimes all over the field.

Practice Roundup - Iggles Blitz
Vinny Curry is happy to be back in Philly and it sounds like he’s having fun. Coaches love it when DL bring a lot of energy to the field. That is especially true for Curry and Tim Jernigan. Practice is hard. Anything you can do to get things going can help players and coaches.

Zach Brown here to win big helping Eagles defense - PE.com
“That’s all they talk about there. ‘The Eagles, all this and all that,’” Brown said. “The Eagles, they’re worried about – we’re worried about – winning a championship here. There’s nothing wrong with a little revenge, but … it’s different. It’s a different mentality as far as that goes, it really is.” Brown said that last year “wasn’t a good experience for anybody” in Washington. He says “everything is night and day” as far as differences between the two teams. The focus isn’t on Washington and the Redskins, though. Brown has to take care of his business. He has a defense to learn and a role to understand.

Picking winners of key camp battles around the NFL - PFF
Miles Sanders, a second-round rookie out of Penn State, gives the team a tough, elusive runner who ranked inside the top 10 among draft-eligible running backs in forced missed tackles (47), yards after contact (845) and runs resulting in a first down or touchdown (38) last year. And he himself proved to be quite the bruiser on his inside zone rushes, as he earned the draft class’ fifth-best rushing grade and averaged a class second-best 3.96 yards after contact per carry on such assignments last year.

Eagles practice observations: The best day of one player’s Eagles career, a Mack Hollins sighting and more - The Athletic
Deiondre’ Hall Hall gets his hand on a Nate Sudfeld pass to cause an incompletion. Hall is an interesting player to follow this summer after a bizarre first season in Philadelphia. The Eagles liked him enough to trade for Hall during the roster cutdown process, even if the compensation was minimal. But he played only six total snaps on defense all year, despite being healthy and the team suffering a never-ending series of injuries in the secondary. He also made little impact on special teams. Safety is a difficult position to pick up in a new system midstream, so Hall gets some benefit of the doubt, but he’ll need to impress this summer just to make the roster.

Progress reports for all 32 NFL first-round picks - ESPN
No. 22: Philadelphia Eagles: OT Andre Dillard: With Jason Peters absent from OTAs, Dillard has been manning the starting left tackle spot. Smooth and athletic, he looks like he belongs to this point. Several offensive linemen are cross-training at this stage, but the Eagles are working Dillard exclusively at left tackle. “Andre is different,” coach Doug Pederson said. “We’re just trying to get his feet wet with the playbook and get him moving around.”

Where the Jets general manager search stands - Gang Green Nation
After the interview of Kelly is complete, the first round will be complete. A decision could follow soon. If the numerous reports signaling Douglas are correct, and he did a good job at the interview he could be offered the job within the next few days. If something unexpected happens, there could be a second round of interviews, or the Jets conceivably could expand the search. We know some things at this point, but we await the big decision.

Report: Colts Worked Out Former Divisional Foe, Safety Johnathan Cyprien - Stampede Blue
As a traditional in-the-box strong safety, Cyprien might still be able to help a team—if fully recovered, as he isn’t too far removed from being one of the best safeties against the run in all of football. However, his play slipped in 2017, and he’s coming off a major knee injury, so it’s hard to anticipate that he’d receive anything more than around the veteran minimum right now—especially since the offseason just hit June and he remains unsigned. Cyprien also doesn’t offer much in the coverage department as a whole, which limits his usefulness.

The Patriots’ entire 2019 schedule, sorted by 9 types of revenge games - SB Nation
We beat Tom Brady in the Super Bowl, so ... — Carson Wentz missed his first opportunity to face the Patriots when he sat out Super Bowl 52 and watched Nick Foles earn MVP honors in a performance scientists are still trying to crack. Even if he loses in November, he’ll still have the warming comfort of the fact his teammates once made a bunch of Massholes angry in February 2018.

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