Eagles Training Camp Practice Notes: Dallas sucks but Goedert doesn’t

Thursday marked the sixth Philadelphia Eagles training camp practice ahead of the 2024 season. Tonight’s session was the first and only public practice open to fans this summer. Here’s what I observed at Lincoln Financial Field.

EAGLES PRACTICE NOTES

• Jalen Hurts saved his flashiest practice for a big audience.

The Eagles quarterback had a strong night, consistently leading the starting offense on long scoring drives in a scrimmage setting.

Hurts’ first touchdown pass was set up by a deep ball on the money to A.J. Brown, who made the over-the-shoulder catch with Darius Slay trailing. On the next play, Hurts hit Dallas Goedert in the front left corner of the end zone for a touchdown.

Funny enough, Hurts hit Goedert in that exact same area of the field for two more touchdowns. One of those completions came when Hurts navigated the pocket to scramble away from pressure and kept his eyes downfield to find his tight end while throwing on the move. Hurts also hit Goedert in the front right corner of the end zone for a successful two-point conversion try.

I was tempted to go with the rare and prestigious “two thumbs up” for Hurts … but he did have another turnover-worthy throw tonight when he almost got picked by Bryce Huff. He also seemingly overthrew a fade touchdown pass to Johnny Wilson and another to Parris Campbell (though that may have been on the receiver, more on that point later).

This was an encouraging practice for Hurts after the last two days weren’t as good as the first three.

Day 1: Thumbs up

Day 2: Thumbs up

Day 3: Thumbs up

Day 4: Thumbs down

Day 5: Thumbs sideways

Day 6: Thumbs up

• EAGLES INJURY UPDATES: Landon Dickerson (knee) did not practice. Nick Sirianni said he won’t be out for too long. Fun side note: Lane Johnson practiced in Dickerson’s No. 69 jersey on Thursday night while Dickerson wore Johnson’s No. 65 on the sideline.

Tyler Steen (ankle) missed his third practice. He might be back on Sunday?

Josh Jobe (concussion) did not practice after leaving early on Day 5. He’ll need to be independently cleared before he’s back on the field.

Oren Burks (knee) hasn’t practiced since the first day of camp.

Mekhi Garner (hamstring) unexpectedly did not practice

Trevor Keegan (shoulder) was upgraded to full go after being limited on Day 5.

Kendall Milton was not on the injury report despite leaving early on Day 5.

McCallen Castles left practice after making a short catch and being tackled during a “live” period. He limped off the field with trainers.

Sydney Brown is still on active/PUP and Cooper DeJean is still on active/NFI.

• Nice to see Goedert shine after having a slower stretch following Day 1 of camp.

• CORNERBACK TRAINING CAMP BATTLE: Isaiah Rodgers took the first first-team cornerback reps across from Darius Slay in 11-on-11. That’s three days for Rodgers (second in a row) and three for Kelee Ringo. It’ll be interesting to see if Rodgers takes a four-to-three lead on Sunday or if it goes back to Ringo. Rodgers has been the better player. He’s also a great panderer, it turns out:

• Speaking of “Dallas Sucks,” that was probably the loudest chant on Thursday night. As I was driving into the stadium, I noticed someone wearing a Dak Prescott jersey. What a loser, just like their favorite quarterback:

• LINEBACKER TRAINING CAMP BATTLE: For the sixth day in a row, Devin White and Zack Baun were the first first-team linebackers in 11-on-11 (Nakobe Dean was originally in for Baun during an 11-on-11 look that was more of a warm-up activity than a normal full team series). Dean had a “sack” as a blitzer but he struggled in coverage, noticeably getting owned by Kenny Gainwell twice. The first rep involved Gainwell (figuratively) breaking Dean’s ankles after making a short catch and gaining more YAC than he should’ve gained had a sure tackle been made. The second rep involved Dean trailing well behind Gainwell on a wheel route for a touchdown. Dean just hasn’t been impressive in coverage.

• WR3 TRAINING CAMP BATTLE: Speaking prior to practice, Jalen Hurts had nice things to say about Johnny Wilson. Wilson continued to get first-team reps on Thursday night. Hurts being willing to throw to him during a goal-to-go series was notable. Wilson had a good catch over the middle later on while working with the second-team offense. Campbell had two incompletions that stood out: the first was an attempted back shoulder throw from Tanner McKee that he didn’t seem to be looking for (might’ve been a bad throw from McKee) and the second was the deep target by Hurts that looked overthrown but I wonder if he wasn’t fast enough to get to the spot. Didn’t really notice John Ross do much. Britain Covey continues to look solid.

• RIGHT GUARD TRAINING CAMP BATTLE: Mekhi Becton had a good rep where he paved the lane for a good run by easily shoving Moro Ojomo out of his way. Becton also had a bad rep where he failed to prevent Jalen Carter from getting to Saquon Barkley in the backfield for a TFL.

• QB2 TRAINING CAMP BATTLE: McKee got some reps with the second-team offense for the second practice in a row. The most notable McKee moment I wrote down is when he got pressured and missed a wide open Ainias Smith running across the field. Kenny Pickett did a good job of scrambling and keeping his eyes downfield to hit Grant Calcaterra for a chunk gain. Later on, Pickett missed an open target over the middle and then he threw an interception (the first by any Eagles quarterback so far this summer) to Eli Ricks on the final play of practice. Probably forced it more than he normally would’ve in a do-or-die situation.

• Other offensive line notes: Brett Toth was the first-team option at left guard with Dickerson out and Becton already filling in at right guard. Interesting to see that Matt Hennessy continues to get passed over for first-team reps. Nick Gates was the third-team center in his first practice with Dylan McMahon remaining as the second-team center. McMahon had a good block to set up a goal-line touchdown run by Tyrion Davis-Price.

• Jake Elliott made a 54-yard field goal. Nice to see.

• Ainias Smith failed to reel in a catch where the ball was thrown a tad too high but he still got his hands on it.

• Jeremiah Trotter Jr. “sacked” Pickett by beating Will Shipley, who was kept in for pass protection.

• Shipley was active as a pass-c

• Brandon Smith steamrolled whoever it was who tried to block him on a blitz attempt. I like a Brandon Smith for the practice squad, at the very least.

• The Eagles announced a practice attendance total of “nearly 50,000.” The “nearly” seems to be doing a lot of work there since the stadium didn’t quite look 74% full (50,000 / 67,594). Still, it was a good showing by Eagles fans, who brought energy all night long.

For historical context, here’s a look back at the team-announced attendance totals over the years:

2016 — 36,000 (two practices combined)

2017 — 59,000 (two practices combined)

2018 — 75,000 (two practices combined)

2019 — “More than 40,000” (one practice)

2020 — No practices

2021 — 25,896 (one practice)

2022 — “Almost 30,000” (one practice)

2023 — “Over 50,000” (one practice)

• For those wondering why the players were wearing jerseys with lime green numbers, it’s to promote the Eagles Autism Foundation. They’ll be auctioned off for charity if you want to get your hands on one.

UP NEXT: The Eagles have a walkthrough closed to media access on Friday. Then the players have off on Saturday. The team returns to practice on Sunday at 10:00 AM Eastern, when they kick off four straight days of action at the NovaCare Complex.