Eagles Training Camp 2022 Day 14 A few dominant performances

Eagles Training Camp 2022 Day 14: A few dominant performances

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BEREA, Ohio — Those last two drills together against the Browns are why Nick Sirianni believes in them so much.

The Eagles and Browns were fairly even on Thursday, but the Eagles were significantly better on Friday as practice shifted into the red zone.

While the Eagles remain in Cleveland for their preseason game on Sunday, don’t expect the starters to play in this one. Still, there will be plenty of young people ready for all those snaps.

Let’s get to the observations of day 14:

1. Housekeeping as always:

• Not training on Friday: James Bradberry (groin), Miles Sanders (hamstring), Javon Hargrave (toe), Jason Kelce (elbow), Greg Ward (toe), Christian Elliss (hamstring).

• Head coach Nick Sirianni avoids discussing the schedule but word is the Eagles expect Sanders and Hargrave back for Week 1. They are just precautions. Bradberry, on the other hand, is day-to-day.

• Restricted: Grant Calcaterra (hamstrings) returned to training for the first time since July 30th. Sirianni admitted that Calcaterra is obviously behind, but it was good to see the rookie tight end returning to the field.

2. AJ Brown had the catch of the day during early 11-on-11. With the Eagles working in the red zone, Jalen Hurts threw a pass for Brown, who passed Brown’s corner Greedy Williams and snatched the ball away from him as Williams was knocked to the ground. Standing over Williams, Brown stared at him. Absolute posterization.

Not to be outdone, Dallas Goedert won a 50-50 ball over safety D’Anthony Bell in the end zone just minutes later.

Brown and Goedert have been Hurts’ most reliable targets this summer, and it’s important to note how much Hurts seems to trust them, especially with those bouncy balls. A major criticism of Hurts is that he only throws at receivers that are wide open. But if he trusts these guys in practice, maybe he will trust them in the game too.

3. Aside from that play, when Goedert Moss had a safety, he had an impressive one-handed grip on a perfectly executed screen pass. This play was fun watching rookie cam Jurgens take the lead. The Nebraska rookie had a block about 15 yards downfield.

4. Brown defensive end Myles Garrett returned to practice Friday after missing several days due to a personal matter. While Garrett did not participate in team practice, he twice faced Jordan Mailata 1-on-1. On the first, Garrett had an impressive bull rush to pocket Mailata deep. Mailata said one was a win.

That was supposed to be all they did, but Mailata asked Garrett to leave one more time. On the second rep, Garrett attempted a speed rush around the ledge and Mailata used his power and speed to widen Garrett’s path well away from the quarterback. That was a Mailata win so they ended 1-1. It was great work.

Also, during a team practice, Mailata had a great block to put Boston Scott on a run up. Orienteering coach Jeff Stoutland started screaming and saying the game would be on their instruction tape.

5. Even without Hargrave, the Eagles’ defensive line was a wreck team against a pretty good offensive line on Friday. Late in practice, Haason Reddick was the victim of Brown’s tackle James Hudson III. After a summer with Lane Johnson, it’s fun to see Reddick unleashed against other tackles.

Another guy who ended up having a great time in team-wide competition was rookie Kyron Johnson. Johnson didn’t blitz much in his rookie training camp, but gave Deshaun Watson (who works with the second team) a sack and pocketed it on another.

The other three players who really impressed on the line were Josh Sweat, Jordan Davis and Tarron Jackson. Sweat had a few “sacks” on Friday. Simply put, Davis is an internal problem. He showed that in 1-on-1. And Jackson is a very different player in Year 2. I watched the Eagles’ offense on Friday, but every time I looked farfield on their defense, Jackson was in the backfield.

6. Rough end to this exercise from Kenny Gainwell, who is a sophomore running back and has been having some troubles lately. The relatively safe Gainwell had another drop. This one came in the middle of the field in the red zone. Just can’t happen. Immediately afterwards, Sirianni yelled loudly at Gainwell for screwing up his assignment.

7. The Eagles used a lot of reading options in this drill, and it’s fun to see how comfortable Hurts are with these plays. Sometimes he pulls the ball or passes it at the last moment.

A note on these games: while Johnson handled Jadeveon Clowney fairly well in pass protection, Clowney wrecked run games. He has such a long first stride that he was so quick in the backfield. It led to Sirianni jokingly telling Clowney to stop ruining her plays.

8th. Reid Sinnett got a couple of second-team reps on Friday but didn’t make the most of it. He missed a wide-open Britain Covey and the offense looked a little disjointed with him in there. But don’t worry about Sinnett losing that #3 job. Carson Strong finally got some reps and didn’t look sharp. On one play, he displayed his arm cannon but fired a bullet at nobody, which hit a large pad in the back of the end zone. It was a tough camp for the Nevada rookie.

9. The Eagles backend played a lot of games on Friday. Kyzir White had an interception and was hit on himself dropping another. He’s an excellent cover linebacker. And then Marcus Epps and Darius Slay had huge pass failures in the most competitive phase of training. Epps had a diving PBU on a pass aimed at Harrison Bryant’s tight end. And then a few games later, Slay knocked down a ball meant for Amari Cooper. That game, Cooper was open, but Jacoby Brissett’s pass was late and Slay closed super fast.

10 Scary moment for Calcaterra in his first training session after a hamstring injury:

Stupid observation of the day: Since the Browns practiced in Berea, Ohio, the Eagles used the locker room at FirstEnergy Stadium to dress before practice. They then took buses from downtown Cleveland to the Browns’ practice center, about 25 minutes away. When the Eagles got there, they had to go to the bathroom. So every day, about 20 NFL players lined up to hop in one of these portable potties before training. It looked like Sirianni had taken his class on a field trip.

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