Eagles Training Camp Practice Notes: Offense out of sync as DeVonta Smith and Makai Lemon miss time

Today

marked the fifth Philadelphia Eagles training camp practice ahead of the 2026 NFL season. Here’s what I observed at the Jefferson Health Training Complex!

EAGLES PRACTICE NOTES

• Leading with injury news today since those developments were relevant to the on-field performance.
• EAGLES INJURY UPDATES:
  • DID NOT PARTICIPATE:
    • OT Lane Johnson (excused absence/not injury related)
      • Johnson has missed three straight practices.
    • WR DeVonta Smith (hamstring)
      • Smith’s injury isn’t considered serious.
    • WR Makai Lemon (hamstring)
      • Lemon’s injury also isn’t considered serious. But the rookie wide receiver previously missed at least four of the Eagles’ eight spring practices due to a hamstring injury (currently unclear if it’s the same one or a new one). And now he’s missed full team drills in two of their five training camp practices thus far. Doesn’t seem ideal if he’s out for extended period of time.
    • OG Micah Morris (shoulder)
    • S Cole Wisniewski (hamstring)
    • EDGE Keyshawn James-Newby (ankle)
    • OG Jaedan Roberts (calf contusion)
  • INJURED DURING PRACTICE
    • DB Cooper DeJean (left arm) got banged up and finished practice watching action from the sideline.
    • WR Britain Covey walked off the field with trainers.
      • With Smith, Lemon, and Covey hurt, the Eagles are down to the following healthy receivers: Dontayvion Wicks, Hollywood Brown, Darius Cooper, Elijah Moore, Johnny Wilson, Quez Watkins, Danny Gray, Samori Toure, and Erik Ezukanma.
• JALEN HURTS UPDATE: Whereas the Eagles looked really good on offense during Monday’s practice, that same unit was out of sync on Tuesday. Missing Lane, DeVonta, and Lemon probably didn’t help. It was also unusual to see some periods where Hurts was working behind an offensive line that mostly consisted of backups. Very much an extenuating circumstances kind of practice. That much acknowledged, I’m here to tell you what I saw, and it often wasn’t pretty.
  • Hurts wasn’t shy to throw deep today but the attempts weren’t fruitful. Not all of them were his fault.
    • A diving Quez Watkins failed to track one such throw.
    • Michael Carter II intercepted Hurts (while bobbling the ball but ultimately preventing the ball from hitting the ground) on a play where it looked like Hollywood Brown wasn’t expecting the pass to come his way. Brown was initially jogging before he looked up and started to sprint once he saw the ball in the air.
    • Hurts targeted Brown downfield again and the ball was placed on the receiver’s hands but the catch was not made. Cooper DeJean had tight coverage in a trail position to contest Brown.
    • A deep attempt to Elijah Moore was overthrown as the ball lacked a tight spiral.
    • Will Shipley was wiiiiiiiiide open on the wheel route … and he dropped the ball. Brutal. Would’ve been an easy catch-and-run touchdown if he simply caught it.
  • The offense was plagued by penalties in this practice. There were stretches where it felt like there was a flag on every single rep. One such infraction wiped out a Hurts to Hollywood goal-to-go touchdown due to an illegal shift.
  • Hurts overthrew Darius Cooper in the end zone.
  • SportsRadio 94WIP’s Eliot Shorr-Parks charted Hurts as 6/19 on the day.
• Dontayvion Wicks has seemed to earn Hurts’ trust. Hurts had a good completion to him in 11-on-11 where Mitchell closed on the defender while trying to knock the ball down but the pass was zipped in for a catch. Hurts connected with Wicks again on a play where the receiver was ruled down just shy of the goal line despite his insistence otherwise. Hurts made a good throw into the end zone where Wicks failed to make a leaping catch in traffic. I wouldn’t say that Wicks looks like a star but he does look like a solid starting-caliber receiver.
• My guy Darius Cooper continues to make plays. Today it was Dalton hitting him for a one-handed toe-tapping touchdown snag along the back of the end zone with DeJean in coverage. I originally thought it might be incomplete but the back judge signaled touchdown.
• BACKUP QUARTERBACK COMPETITION: Tanner McKee was first up with the second-team offense in 11-on-11 today. He continues to hold the ball longer than you’d like to see but he made solid throws, including one anticipation pass to Samori Toure along the left sideline. Andy Dalton found Grant Calcaterra on play-action pass where the defense bit on the run to the left side to leave the tight end open on the right for an easy completion.
• Markel Bell, not Fred Johnson, took first-team right tackle reps with Lane missing practice once again.
• Zack Baun broke up a short Hurts pass to Dallas Goedert.

• ONE-ON-ONE ACTION:
  • WR vs. DB:
    • Cooper DeJean deflected a downfield Hurts pass to Elijah Moore … but the wide receiver was able to track the batted ball and tap his toes to make a catch along the right sideline. Nice play.
    • Quinyon Mitchell had good downfield coverage on Dontayvion Wicks to prevent a catch.
    • Tanner McKee overthrew Darius Cooper deep. The wide receiver had a step on his defender.
  • LB vs. RB:
    • Jihaad Campbell allowed a short catch to Will Shipley.
    • Jeremiah Trotter Jr. knocked down a pass intended for Tank Bigsby. Later, Bigsby shook Trot Jr. by stutter stepping left before cutting right for a wide open catch.
    • Chance Campbell did a nice job of chucking Carson Steele at the line of scrimmage to knock the running back off his route and force an incompletion. Campbell uses his size to his advantage.
  • OL vs. DL:
    • Didn’t get to see as much of this as I would’ve liked; it’s difficult to watch three fields at once. But I did notice Gabe Hall beast Michael Jordan by running through him.

• Many are understandably excited about Uar Bernard’s developmental potential. But his fellow rookie, Josh Weru, has flashed more thus far. The Kenyan rugby player notched a “sack” late in practice. He also did fall for a hard count to get flagged for a neutral zone infraction … as did Bernard at one point.
• Jake Elliott attempted six kicks and made all of them. The distances: 33, 38, 42, 44, 44, 50, and 52 yards. He’s 13/14 overall in training camp so far.
• 76ers president of basketball operations Mike Gansey attended today’s practice. Even Howie Roseman is jealous of his offseason. (For all of your Sixers and LeBron James coverage, check out Liberty Ballers.)

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UP NEXT: The Eagles practice again tomorrow starting at 10:00 AM Eastern. We’ll hear from Vic Fangio prior to practice around 9:40 AM.