Eagles Practice Notes, Observations


The players were not in pads today, and practice was held indoors due to the weather, so no running diary. But here are some notes and observations.

INJURIES

Jason Peters (hamstring), Arrelious Benn (knee) and Antonio Dixon (hamstring) all missed practice.

DeSean Jackson left early with a minor toe injury. Dennis Kelly had a lower back issue. Tight end Derek Carrier had a shoulder injury. Offensive tackle is Ed Wang is dealing with a knee problem. And Bradley Fletcher suffered a groin injury.

Also one roster move: the team waived WR B.J. Cunningham (injury settlement). They have not yet filled his spot.

THE VIDEO CLIP

Do you or your loved ones have an exercise ball at home? Then you too can run through Eagles tackling drills!

OBSERVATIONS

* Nick Foles had a good day with the deep balls. This was an issue for him last year. Just 35.7 percent of his passes that traveled 20 yards or more downfield were on-target, according to Pro Football Focus. That ranked 24th in the league, just ahead of Michael Vick (35.0 percent).

During 11-on-11s, Foles unleashed a bomb to Damaris Johnson that traveled about 50 yards through the air for a touchdown past Emmanuel Acho and Kurt Coleman. Later, against a heavy blitz, Foles got rid of the ball quickly and lofted a perfectly-placed pass into Greg Salas’ hands near the left sideline, but the wide receiver couldn’t hang on. And Foles also hit Riley Cooper for a 40-yard strike past Brandon Boykin, one of the only times the second-year corner has been beaten all camp.

* The Eagles struggled to find bodies at tackle with Peters, Kelly and Wang all sidelined. The first team had Todd Herremans at right tackle, Danny Watkins at right guard, Jason Kelce at center, Evan Mathis at left guard and Lane Johnson at left tackle. The second team, from right to left, was Matt Kopa, Nate Menkin, Dallas Reynolds, Allen Barbre and Matt Tobin.

* One note on QB reps. Looking at total snaps with the first team can be a bit deceiving because when Vick or Foles throws a touchdown or interception, they come off the field. In other words, if one guy throws a 40-yard TD on his first play, and the other guy moves the chains and gets a couple first downs, it will look like the second guy is getting more first-team reps when that isn’t really the case.

At every practice I’ve been too, Vick and Foles have split drills with the first team fairly evenly. On occasion, one guy gets three drills and the other gets two. But that’s the extent of it. I wouldn’t expect that to change for awhile.

* One QB drill I haven’t seen before. Two guys stand next to each other a few yards apart. The guy with the ball takes a few steps in place before tossing the ball to his partner. Then the other guy goes. In essence, they’re simulating a toss on the read option.

* With Jason Phillips out for the season, Casey Matthews and Jamar Chaney are running with the twos.

* Consecutive plays show the good and bad of Mychal Kendricks. On one snap, he sticks with Cooper 40 yards downfield and helps force an incompletion. On the next play, he has no chance against 6-5 Zach Ertz on an intermediate out to the left sideline.

* On one play, LeSean McCoy got pushed back into Vick in pass protection, and the QB came up hobbling. But he stayed on the field and hit Salas for a 35-yard completion on a corner route near the right sideline on the very next play.

* Another practice tomorrow, and then the team is off Saturday.

Follow Sheil Kapadia on Twitter and e-mail him at skapadia@phillymag.com.
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