Making Moves & Camp Talk

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Making Moves & Camp Talk

Posted: August 6th, 2023 | Author: Tommy Lawlor 

The Eagles had a quiet summer in terms of roster moves until this weekend. A week of practice, injuries and other factors led to some changes with the bottom of the roster.

 

Ok, let’s go through the moves.

The Eagles needed help at LB. With Nakobe Dean hurt and Davion Taylor gone, they were down to 4 linebackers.

Nick Morrow
Christian Elliss
Shaun Bradley
Ben VanSumeren

Keep in mind that VanSumeren is a project and isn’t a guy you want on the field a ton. He’s learning the position. The Eagles have a preseason game on Saturday and need bodies to get through that. Beyond depth, Jack and Cunningham offer competition for Morrow, Elliss and even Dean.

Cunningham is 28. He’s got good size at 6-3, 238. He started 66 games in Houston from 2017-2021. He was limited to 6 starts in Tennessee last year.

Jack is 27. He’s 6-1, 244. Jack started 82 games for the Jaguars from 2016-2021. He started 13 games for the Steelers last season.

Nick Sirianni faced both players on a regular basis when he was with the Colts. He thought highly of both of them. The players have the kind of experience the Eagles need in the LB room. We would need a time machine for these to be significant moves, but they do improve the middle of the defense. There is legitimate depth at LB now. Jack and Cunningham will have to battle for roster spots. Neither one of them is guaranteed anything other than an opportunity.

***

Josh Andrews is back in Philly. He’s had one of the stranger careers in league history. Andrews is 31 and has played in a total of 9 games. He signed with the Eagles as a UDFA in 2014 and has been on five teams. He must be a fantastic guy because he’s not a fantastic player.

I’m guessing the Eagles signed him after watching Brett Toth struggle with snaps this summer. It went beyond some errors to a guy whose problems affected the entire backup offense. You can’t get much done without functional snaps.

***

Josh Sills is back.

I’m not going to get into right or wrong on this. I know some of  you aren’t happy about his return. That certainly is fair. This was a complicated situation.

I’m going to focus on the football side of things. Sills was a UDFA last summer. Here is what I wrote about him last August.

Josh Sills played LG and LT this summer. I thought he showed good potential, but I thought the coaches would prefer Anderson or Awosika for their experience. Instead they went with Sills. He is a more natural tackle than Awosika and I think Anderson was hurt by the presence of Cam Jurgens. That made Sills the better option.

Sills was also the more physical of the trio. He earned a spot on the team. He’s not practiced since January so Sills will be rusty. It will take him some time to get back into football shape. He will have to compete for a spot. He wasn’t so good last summer that’s guaranteed anything. We’ll see if the off-field situation affects his play.

With Tyler Steen showing promise as a backup LT, Sills could focus on playing OG this year.

***

Here is Bo Wulf with some praise for Marlon Tuipulotu.

There have been times this summer when Marlon Tuipulotu has looked like the Eagles’ best defensive tackle. That’s obviously unlikely to be the case come the regular season, but his power has become hard to ignore (at one point in one-on-ones, he planted Julian Good-Jones onto the ground). That’s a worthwhile reminder of the "defensive tackles take time to develop” conversation we’ve had regarding expectations this season for Jalen Carter and Jordan Davis.

Tuipulotu has developed slowly. He didn’t do much as a rookie, got better last year and has taken another step forward this season. Tuipulotu has played well this summer. He’s showing a good combination of power and quickness. He could be a key role player this season. It is cool to see how he’s gotten better each year.

***

Edge Patrick Johnson has played really well in camp. He injured his ankle a couple of days ago and there were some fears it might be a lengthy injury. Good news.

Glad to hear Johnson won’t be down for an extended time. You hate seeing a guy playing his best football only to have an injury ruin his summer. It sounds like Johnson has played well enough to make the team, but he will have an uphill battle because of the depth at Edge.

Johnson’s ability to play in space and also contribute on STs make him a good role player. We’ll have to wait and see if that’s enough to win a job.

***

Nick Sirianni continues to praise RB Trey Sermon. This goes beyond saying nice things about backups. Sirianni talks about Sermon as a player he’s genuinely excited about. As with Johnson, the problem is the depth chart. Sermon is behind Penny-Swift-Gainwell-Scott. If anyone goes down, Sermon is a player the coaches seem to believe in. It will be interesting to see how he does in the preseason games.

***

This is not encouraging.

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Brown is a terrific athlete and physical hitter. The key for him is the ability to key and diagnose plays correctly so that he’s in the right spots. His speed can work against him if he makes a bad decision. That would put him even further out of position.

Brown started out with the third team. He’s now getting reps with the second team on a more regular basis. The coaches are going to give him every chance to show what he can do.

http://igglesblitz.com/2023/08/making-moves-camp/