Eagles 2026 training camp practice notes, Day 12: Camp battle at safety heating up

What stood out to Jimmy Kempski today at training camp? We've got notes.

By Jimmy Kempski
PhillyVoice Staff

Bill Streicher/IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Marcus Epps (above) is the favorite to win the Eagles' starting sub-package safety job, but Michael Carter is making a strong case for himself as well.

Day 12 of Philadelphia Eagles training camp fell in between the Birds' first preseason game on Saturday and joint practices with the New England Patriots, which will begin on Wednesday. So, it was a short practice, and it was in shells and shorts. Limited notes today, so let's just get right to them.

• A bunch of notable players returned practice:

1. DeVonta Smith: Limited after missing seven practices with a hamstring injury.

2. Quinyon Mitchell: Full participant after missing one practice with a glute injury.

3. Cooper DeJean: Full participant after missing one practice with a groin injury.

4. Cole Wisniewski: Limited after missing nine practices with a hamstring injury.

5. Keyshawn James-Newby: Limited after missing eight practices with an ankle injury.

Also, Makai Lemon was listed as a non-participant and was not in uniform, but he did participate in some drills, and it seems a return to the field is on the horizon.

• Michael Carter had a big day for the defense. He picked off Jalen Hurts deep down the middle of the field, beating Quez Watkins to the ball, and he also got home for a "sack" on a blitz. Marcus Epps is pretty clearly in the lead for the starting sub-package safety role opposite Andrew Mukuba, especially after he sat out the first preseason game with the cool kids, but Carter has played well this summer and is making a case for himself.

Carter is listed at 5'10, 184, so, you know, he's small. But he also ran a 4.36 40, and is one of the fastest safeties in the league, if that's what we're calling him. And you can see it on the field. He buzzes around out there.

To be determined if the Eagles will post another slow-mo video of Hurts' INT that will dominate the global news cycle again.

• Saquon Barkley is running a more extensive route tree in camp this year. In the past he's run some wheel routes, and otherwise been sort of a checkdown guy. This year he's out there running Texas routes and other stuff that works around the league.

Barkley isn't Todd Gurley or Christian McCaffrey in the passing game, but he should be more involved than he has been previously.

• OL-DL 1-on-1's weren't very spirited today. It looked a little like there wasn't maximum effort from the starters going against each other. But the backups did, and as usual, Willie Lampkin looked good, this time getting a win over Byron Young. 

Spoiler: Lampkin is going to be on the team.

• Hollywood Brown hasn't had an impactful camp so far, but he showed a little juice today. He settled into a zone, turned, and caught a pass, then shook Riq Woolen for some additional yards. A common thing that showed up on Brown's tape when we evaluated him this offseason is his ability to often make the first guy miss after the catch. He is known for his long speed, but he has short area quickness too.

• There were a couple of nice pass breakups today, by Quinyon Mitchell vs. Dontayvion Wicks, and by Jihaad Campbell vs. Dallas Goedert. I'm not sure if Campbell got a hand on the football, but he caused the incompletion.

• The following clip is from the first preseason game on Saturday, but I hadn't seen it until after I published my postgame articles. I think it's worth showing. It's Eli Stowers hesitating to hit someone on a block and instead getting pushed back into the hole where Tank Bigsby is bottled up. (Video via @fanalyzesports):

Oof. We know that Stowers is a work in progress as a blocker, but you'd certainly like to see more aggressiveness there.

• Practice notes should be much more plentiful after joint practices with the Patriots on Wednesday.

https://www.phillyvoice.com/eagles-2026-training-camp-practice-notes-day-12-camp-battle-safety-heating/

Does Jake Elliott have pictures of someone? How many misses is he going to have before they bring in some competition for him? Yes he’s been great, but he’s been mediocre for what seems far longer now. 3 misses in practice. This is a real problem.

Eagles 2026 training camp notes, Day 13: Eagles-Patriots joint practices, Part I

Observations and standouts from the first of two joint practices between the Eagles and Patriots in Foxboro.

By Jimmy Kempski
PhillyVoice Staff

Eric Canha/IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect

Jalen Hurts and the Eagles' offense got off to a good start in Foxboro, and then... meh.

Day 13 of Philadelphia Eagles training camp was also the first of two joint practices with A.J. Brown and the New England Patriots. Fun day! Let's just get right to the notes.

• Practice started off right away with WR-CB 1-on-1s, and yep, A.J. Brown faced off against Quinyon Mitchell. Brown was able to get a step on Mitchell (with Mitchell tugging at his pants), and he hauled in the pass over his shoulder, but Mitchell was able to swipe the ball out of Brown's hands. Awesome start to practice.

You can hear the crowd anticipate a big play, followed by a loud, "AWWWWWW!" Lol.

Thereafter, Brown had an active day. He beat Riq Woolen on a crosser over the middle, he beat Mitchell on a quick slant, and he was credited with beating Woolen again on a fade route down the right sideline. The fade route was caught on the Eagles' sideline, and Brown spun the ball after his catch. 

It should've been ruled incomplete, but whatever:

I thought Brown looked faster than he did a year ago. The Patriots are crazy for trading a first round pick for a player who does not have a lot of long-term value, in my opinion, but I do like his chances of having a bounce-back season in 2026.

• I thought the Eagles' offense got off to a great start today, notably the offensive line. They were moving the Pats' D-line in the run game and opening up gaping holes. The O-line starters also (mostly) dominated in pass pro 1-on-1's.

1. Lane Johnson easily handled Elijah Ponder.

2. Tyler Steen won against Christian Barmore.

3. Cam Jurgens got the best of Cory Durden.

4. Jordan Mailata shut down Dre'Mont Jones.

5. Drew Kendall had multiple wins, over Leonard Taylor, Isaiah Iton, and Casey Rodgers.

6. Markel Bell had multiple wins of his own against a couple of smaller speed guys in Quintayvious Hutchins and Jesse Luketa.

That's six of the Eagles' top seven linemen with a clean sweep on their reps.

The only loss was Landon Dickerson, to Milton Williams. (I originally thought Dickerson narrowly won that rep, but a few other Eagles beats with a better angle on that one vehemently disagreed, so I'll concede.)

I would have also given Willie Lampkin a 2-1 record on his three reps.

The Eagles' other backups in 1-on-1's? Yuck. Myles Hinton in particular got torn up. I had him down for 0 wins, 4 losses, and some of the losses were bad.

• The Eagles' offense also hit on some big pass plays today. The highlight of the day was on a play in which Dre'Mont Jones was buzzing around the corner. Jalen Hurts stepped up away from the pressure and delivered an outstanding ball on a deep corner route to Elijah Moore.

The Eagles also hit on a couple of long pass plays to Will Shipley, and a screen that got Saquon Barkley loose into the open field.

But it wasn't all good. As the day progressed, the Pats caught up and did better job of bottling up the run and forcing incompletions. They gave Hurts fits when they blitzed, which really has been a theme throughout camp, as well as in previous years, at times.

Hurts also threw a couple of INTs in 7-on-7's. I can't comment on what happened on those throws, because you kind of have to choose whether to watch 7-on-7's, or OL-DL 1-on-1's, and I chose the latter.

Otherwise, Hurts was up and down. I thought he made a really nice anticipation throw to the sideline to Darius Cooper. I also thought he had a miss in the middle of the field to Dallas Goedert that should have been a completion, but he threw to a spot where Kevin Byard could get the pass breakup.

• Will Shipley maybe had the best practice of his career. He had a long TD on a wheel route, but another long catch and run, when he was lined up in the slot. He also had a few nice runs, and he popped a blitzing linebacker in the hole in pass pro.

• Dontayvion Wicks got open for a handful of catches during a hurry-up session. He also broke the ankles of Charles Woods during 1-on-1's. Via Brooks Kubena:

His best trait is beating press coverage. 

• DeVonta Smith participated in individual drills, but not 11-on-11's. He joined the huddle when the first-team offense was on the field in 11-on-11s, but would then stand back behind the play.

• Riq Woolen was the darling of spring practices, but he has had a quiet summer, and he had a bad day today. As noted above, he got beat on the fade route to Brown (even if Brown didn't get both feet in), but also on an in-breaker by Mack Hollins, and on another pass in the middle of the field to Romeo Doubs. The pass to Doubs was dropped, but he got plenty of separation on Woolen.

• Vic Fangio made an interesting comment about Ty Robinson which is pretty much in line with what we have reported about his play this summer.

"He came to life. He’s been on life support since he’s been here.”

— #Eagles DC Vic Fangio on DT Ty Robinson, who had a sack in preseason Game 1 pic.twitter.com/Skft5y2hM0

— Jeff McLane (@Jeff_McLane) August 19, 2026

Lol. Howie Roseman decides on the 53-man roster, so Robinson will be on the team, but Vic does not seem to be a big fan.

• In his first practice away from the friendly confines of the JeffPlex, Jake Elliott went 3/5 in New England. It was too difficult to see distances, but they seemed to be roughly in line with distances in previous practices.

Ruh roh.

• If I'm assigning a joint practice win, I'm going with the Patriots, in a close call.

https://www.phillyvoice.com/eagles-2026-training-camp-practice-notes-day-13-eagles-patriots-joit-part-i/

2 hours ago, EazyEaglez said:

Does Jake Elliott have pictures of someone? How many misses is he going to have before they bring in some competition for him? Yes he’s been great, but he’s been mediocre for what seems far longer now. 3 misses in practice. This is a real problem.

The only competition they could bring in now is someone who just got cut for failing somewhere else so it'd be a wash at best.

If they were going to bring in someone to seriously compete they would have brought in some college legs after the draft, but as far as I can see all the draft eligible kickers from 2026 got signed elsewhere.

Hope Woolen doesn't turn out to be a bust after all the buzz during the spring. But maybe that's also why Seattle was ok with letting him leave (and I believe they benched him during last season, right?).

Based on the sound of things thus far, overall, there are going to be some real growing pains with the offense when the season starts. At least our first 2 games are against softer teams...but games 3 and 4 could potentially be disastrous if the offense can't find some kind of rhythm by then.

1 minute ago, EaglesAddict said:

Hope Woolen doesn't turn out to be a bust after all the buzz during the spring. But maybe that's also why Seattle was ok with letting him leave (and I believe they benched him during last season, right?).

Based on the sound of things thus far, overall, there are going to be some real growing pains with the offense when the season starts. At least our first 2 games are against softer teams...but games 3 and 4 could potentially be disastrous if the offense can't find some kind of rhythm by then.

Hopefully the run game and defense can keep us in those types of games till they get rolling on the passing side of things