1 hour ago, Hawkeye said:

Sounds like there was an old-fashioned training camp dust-up at practice today.  Kelce is the ultimate Eagle teammate. 

The second joint practice between the Eagles and Colts came to an early end on Tuesday.

According to reporters in attendance, it had already been a chippy day when Eagles center Jason Kelce took offense to a hit that Colts linebacker Zaire Franklin put on running back Kenneth Gainwell. Kelce laid Franklin out at the end of a play and that touched off a brawl between both teams.

Once the two sides were separated and the situation calmed down, the decision was made to call off the rest of practice. That also brought an official end to Eagles training camp.

The two teams are slated to play in Philadelphia on Thursday night and all involved will be trying to keep emotions under better control in that game.

https://www.nbcsports.com/nfl/profootballtalk/rumor-mill/news/eagles-colts-practice-called-off-after-brawl

 

They need to reduce pre-season to 1 or 2 games.

 

5 hours ago, Talonblood said:

They need to reduce pre-season to 1 or 2 games.

18 and 2 is next.

It was 14 and 6 then 16 and 4 now 17 and 3.

1 hour ago, SkippyX said:

18 and 2 is next.

It was 14 and 6 then 16 and 4 now 17 and 3.

I think you are correct here. And it will be within 5 years, more than likely.

1 hour ago, Talonblood said:

I think you are correct here. And it will be within 5 years, more than likely.

President's day with the Monday holiday for the SB recovery is probably the end goal.

I'm here for that.

Eagles training camp observations: Fights, crazy catches and trick plays

The Eagles' final training camp practice of 2023 had a little bit of everything

By Dave Zangaro • Published August 22, 2023

 

The Eagles wrapped up their 2023 training camp on Tuesday with a practice that featured a little bit of everything.

A joint session, offensive highlights, trick plays and even a sideline-clearing brawl.

The Colts were in town for just one joint practice, which is a good thing. Because after how Tuesday’s practice ended, it wouldn’t be a good idea to hold another one. The Eagles and Colts will face off in the preseason finale on Thursday night and final cuts have to be in by 4 p.m. on Aug. 29.

So for the final time this summer, let’s get to the observations:

1. As always, we will begin with some housekeeping notes.

Here was the injury report from before practice:

Will not practice: Britain Covey (hamstring), Kyron Johnson (appendectomy), Moro Ojomo (concussion), Haason Reddick (thumb), Nolan Smith (shoulder), Greg Ward (ankle)

Limited: Quez Watkins (hamstring)

• This was Watkins’ first practice since Aug. 10. He participated in individual drills and 7-on-7s but not full-team drills.

• Noticed Ojomo out at practice as a spectator for the first time since his scary concussion during the preseason game against the Browns. That’s a positive sign.

• Zech McPhearson and Shaun Bradley scootered their way out to the practice fields on Roll-A-Bouts halfway through practice. They both suffered torn Achilles tendons in their right ankles this preseason.

2. A few depth chart notes:

• Justin Evans began the day as the first-team safety next to Reed Blankenship. It appears that Evans is very much in the running at that spot. A little later, we saw Terrell Edmunds and Sydney Brown get reps with the ones too.

• Zach Cunningham continues to get the reps next to Nakobe Dean in that defense. It appears that competition is winding down.

• Olamide Zaccheaus continued to get slot work without a fully healthy Watkins.

3. You’re all here to read about the fights, so let’s get into it. The major brawl at the end of practice happened when Jason Kelce didn’t like a hit from Zaire Franklin on Kenny Gainwell so he bowled him over and the sidelines cleared. You can read more about that one here.

But even before that melee, things were chippy. It was brewing before that explosion.

A.J. Brown on the first rep of the most competitive period of 11-on-11s took a hit to his lower back as he caught a ball in the middle of the field. He didn’t like that kidney shot and I don’t blame him.

But even before then, you’ll be shocked to hear that Derek Barnett was involved in a scuffle. After Jalen Carter made his way into the backfield, Barnett put his hands on quarterback Anthony Richardson and the Colts took exception. Eventually, after a few more plays, Barnett was still jawing and had to be guided back to the Eagles’ sideline by Milton Williams.

4. Aside from the extra curricular activity, the highlight of Tuesday’s practice for the Eagles was probably DeVonta Smith, who made two tremendous catches on Colts cornerback Darrell Baker Jr. late in practice.

Smith won 50-50 balls twice in the span of three plays.

The first catch was made over Baker near the sideline. Not only did Smith make the catch but he somehow kept both feet in bounds. And then a couple plays later, he caught one on his back shoulder vs. Baker in the end zone for a touchdown.

5. There was one play from Jalen Hurts that was especially impressive on Tuesday. After a botched snap in shotgun, Hurts very casually scooped up the ball from the ground, set his feet and heaved a 40-50-yard bomb to Smith, who jumped over safety Teez Tabor for a touchdown.

It was clear that Hurts liked whatever he saw pre-snap because the second he picked up the football, he didn’t hesitate to throw the deep ball to Smith in 1-on-1 coverage.

6. The Eagles on Tuesday waited until the final period of practice to break out a trick play. Jalen Hurts revealed that the play was a Shane Steichen special, so the Eagles ran it when Steichen was watching.

Mariota got the snap and pitched it left to Kenny Gainwell, who while rolling left threw a deep pass to tight end Grant Calcaterra. The Eagles’ second-year tight end made a nice grab but the highlight was watching the pretty left-handed throw from Gainwell.

Will we see that play this season?

"I hope so, man,” Gainwell said. "We’re going to try to get this thing going. It was a beauty ball. It landed right in the bucket and I trusted the receiver to go up and get it. He trusted me to throw the ball.”

Because he threw the pass with his left hand, Gainwell was asked if he’s left-handed in everything he does.

"I’m ambidextrous,” he answered, "so y’all watch out for that one.”

7. (Guest ob from Roob) Newly crowned Colts starting quarterback Anthony Richardson, the fourth pick in this year’s draft, showed off his big arm and made some plays on the Eagles’ first defense during 7-on-7s. Richardson threaded a perfect deep ball to receiver Alec Pierce, who was blanketed by James Bradberry but came down with the ball in the end zone. He also had a nice 20-yard gain to tight end Pharaoh Brown in the middle of the field over the top of Zach Cunningham. But he also got picked off by Mekhi Garner on a throw into the end zone intended for wide receiver Malik Turner. 

In a short period of 11s with Richardson tried to connect over the middle with tight end Mo Alie-Cox, but Sydney Brown came over and leveled Alie-Cox with a little more juice than he was supposed to. Richardson threw a short sideline pass to tight end Kylen Granson, who was smacked by Reed Blankenship for just a three-yard gain. Gardner Minshew made some nice throws against the Eagles’ second defense, including a sweet TD pass to tight end Will Mallory with Garner in coverage. But Josiah Scott showed up with a knockdown of a short Minshew pass intended for Mallory.

8. When the fields were split on Tuesday, I watched the Eagles’ receivers against Colts’ defensive backs in 1-on-1s:

• Brown started the period by smoking Kenny Moore II on a go ball. A little later, Brown beat Moore II for a touchdown and Brown celebrated by giving the ball to his young daughter, who watched from the sideline.

• Smith had a step on CB Dallas Flowers but the ball was overthrown.

• Nice PBU from Colts’ Jaylon Jones on a ball intended for Johnny King.

• Olamide Zaccheaus couldn’t haul in a pass that was behind him. Would have been a tremendous grab. But he did catch a ball against safety Henry Black.

• A couple of good reps from rookie Jadon Haselwood. On his first, he undressed CB Chris Lammons to get open. Later, Haselwood beat him down the field and Lammons was called for DPI.

• Devon Allen got a step on Kevin Toliver II and caught a touchdown.

• Mariota had a bad overthrow on a pass to King.

9. K’Von Wallace jumped a route during a team drill for what looked like an interception but was called for DPI. After the brawl to finish practice, Wallace was still asking the official why he got flagged. Apparently, he arrived a tad early and bumped the receiver just before the ball got there. It was close.

A few plays after the DPI, Minshew burned a pass to Juwann Winfree on a slant for a touchdown in front of Sydney Brown.

10. All summer, we saw those "receiver hands” from D’Andre Swift, but today wasn’t his best day. He dropped a pass during individual drills and then dropped a couple during team drills, including a wobbler from Mariota. 

Swift has 14 drops in his three-year career but had just 3 on 70 targets in 2022 for a drop percentage of 4.3%. He had the sixth-lowest drop percentage in the NFL among qualified running backs last season so maybe don’t worry about this too much.

Stupid Observation of the Day: The last question for Jalen Hurts in the 2023 training camp was asked by LeSean McCoy.

Shady asked Hurts something about the possibility of Hurts’ winning the MVP. "Whatchu think?” Hurts responded.

https://www.nbcsportsphiladelphia.com/nfl/philadelphia-eagles/eagles-training-camp-observations-fights-crazy-catches-and-trick-plays/533301/

Eagles-Colts 2023 training camp joint practice notes, Day 15: Fight! Fight!

A practice-ending melee highlights an eventful day in South Philly.

BY JIMMY KEMPSKI
PhillyVoice Staff

KATE FRESE/FOR PHILLYVOICE

Jason Kelce

On Day 15 of Philadelphia Eagles training camp, the final media-attended practice of the summer, the Birds got into a huge melee with the Indianapolis Colts. Let's just get right to the notes.

• The Eagles and Colts were chippy from the start of practice, and tensions built throughout the day. Early on in practice, undrafted rookie cornerback Mekhi Garner picked off a pass during 1-on-1's and flipped the ball to the receiver he was covering after the play. A little later, A.J. Brown got into it a bit with Colts safety Teez Tabor, but that dissipated quickly enough. 

The animosity between these two teams went up a notch after... guess who... Derek Barnett (#ItsAlwaysHim) knocked a ball out of Colts starting quarterback Anthony Richardson's hand. Barnett had gotten a sack on the play and had stopped playing. He was just kind of standing behind Richardson, when Richardson was about to throw the ball down the field, a common occurrence after sacks during training camp practices. Barnett was like, "Nope," and he swatted down at Richardson's arm, jarring the ball loose.

That is absolute no-no in training camp practices. The rules are simple — do not hit the quarterback at all. About a half dozen Colts players tried to fight Barnett after the play, who squared up against them like a 1920's boxer. Jalen Carter rushed in looking for smoke from the half dozen Colts, but that fight got under control quickly enough.

After some consistent extracurriculars after the whistle the rest of practice, it felt like a bigger fight was brewing, and sure enough, Colts LB Zaire Franklin, who had been going hard all day, gave Kenny Gainwell an extra thud long after the whistle. That's when Jason Kelce, with a running start and a full head of steam, absolutely decked Franklin.

Both sidelines cleared and a huge fight ensued. When the Eagles' and Colts' staffs were finally able to separate their players, the practice was ended early, thus also ending 2023 Eagles training camp, lol.

There were a range of perspectives on the fight after practice. 

Gainwell appreciated Kelce having his back, and commented about the Colts, "We whooped they ass."

Jalen Hurts was clearly annoyed that practice ended early as a result of the fight, because of course he was. (I mean that in the most positive way possible.)

Kelce expressed remorse, saying, "I let my emotions get the better of me."

Franklin got a little shot in on Kelce, who blindsided him. "Thought the OG's would at least look me in the eye," Franklin said.

The Eagles don't often have big fights during training camp practices, but that was an all-timer.

• Before the big fight, it was also a pretty fun practice. The star of the day was DeVonta Smith, who is simply a special player. On a deep ball down the right sideline, Smith went up high and Moss'd Colts CB Darrell Baker Jr. Baker had better position on the play, but Smith out-jumped him, fought for the ball, and after it was loose momentarily was able to corral it while going to the ground. He also had the wherewithal to keep both feet in bounds. Smith's awareness and body control are both elite traits.

Later on that drive, Smith caught a back shoulder throw from Hurts for a TD. Once again, Baker had decent enough coverage, but Smith just made the play.

Update: The two Smith catches noted above can be seen here.

There was also a play in which the snap hit the ground, but Hurts tracked it down, scrambled to buy some time, and then saw Smith streaking across the end zone. He fired high, and once again, Smith went up and made the catch, this time over Tabor. 

There's no limit to how good Smith can be.

• A.J. Brown is pretty good, too, by the way. He owned Kenny Moore on a couple of deep plays down the field early in practice. Moore is probably the Colts' best corner, but at 5'9, 190... good luck against Brown.

• Gainwell wasn't just involved in a fight today. The Eagles ran a trick play in which they pitched to Gainwell, who threw threw a left-handed pass deep down the field to Grant Calcaterra, who made a jumping grab. It was a really nice throw!

After practice, Hurts revealed that the play was a Shane Steichen creation. In other words, Sirianni ran Steichen's trick play against him.

• Sirianni was chippy today as well. On a play in which K'Von Wallace intercepted Richardson, a pair of flags came out for pass interference. Wallace bumped the receiver, but he was making a play on the ball. Personally, I thought they were garbage flags. So did Sirianni. He ran over, picked up both flags, and tossed them back to the officials.

A play or two later, a Colts receiver was flagged for OPI on a long completed pass down the right sideline. Sirianni ran over to the Colts bench and signaled OPI, lol.

• We mentioned Calcaterra above. He had his best practice of camp, making a bunch of catches on the day. His best play of the day was a fingertip catch in traffic over the middle.

• In safety news, once again, Justin Evans, Terrell Edmunds, and Sydney Brown all got some first-team reps. Brown had a play in which he saw a chance for an INT on a pass to Mo Alie-Cox, so he broke hard to try to pick it off. Instead, he ran square into Alie-Cox at the same time that the ball arrived, and Alie-Cox went down hard. Brown didn't get the pick, but he got a PBU.

• Reed Blankenship and Zach Cunningham each had tackles for loss. Cunningham got first-team reps again. I think he's the starter opposite Nakobe Dean, barring a big move for a linebacker.

• If there was one Eagles player that I thought had a shaky day, it was Cam Jurgens. He got dusted twice in 1-on-1's by Dayo Odeyingbo and Tyquan Lewis. Odeyingbo also beat Jurgens for a sack during 11-on-11's. Jurgens has otherwise had a very strong camp while transitioning from C to RG. I do think it's interesting that Sirianni has not played Jurgens at all in any of the preseason games, whereas other inexperienced starters like Jordan Davis and Jalen Carter played in both games.

D'Andre Swift also dropped what should have been a TD reception on a wheel route.

• Back in June, in our Eagles dumpster fire piece, we pointed out that the Eagles were going to get everyone's best this season, and certainly that was true of both the Browns and Colts during joint practices this summer.

https://www.phillyvoice.com/eagles-colts-2023-training-camp-joint-practice-notes-day-15-fight-jason-kelce-zaire-franklin/

 

 

So, are we doing the cut tracker here or a separate thread?

Anyone want to lay odds on whether Mariota makes the 53?

14 minutes ago, Hawkeye said:

So, are we doing the cut tracker here or a separate thread?

Anyone want to lay odds on whether Mariota makes the 53?

We could swing a deal for Trey Lance to serve as Hurts’ backup.  Oh wait, the Cowboys already are!  

 

1 hour ago, time2rock said:

We could swing a deal for Trey Lance to serve as Hurts’ backup.  Oh wait, the Cowboys already are!  

 

Interesting plot twist

Cowboys now the scrub qb factory