Eagles Training Camp Practice Notes: Jalyx Hunt and Jalen Carter help defense win the day

Today marked the third Philadelphia Eagles training camp practice ahead of the 2026 NFL season. The non-padded session lasted for a tad shy of two hours. Here’s what I observed at the Jefferson Health Training Complex.

EAGLES PRACTICE NOTES

• JALEN HURTS UPDATE: More bad than good from Hurts and the offense in this practice.
  • THE GOOD:
    • Hurts floated a pass to DeVonta Smith along the left sideline for about 15 yards on an extended play (though he may have been “sacked” before getting the throw off).
    • Hurts ripped a throw over the middle to Britain Covey in a tight window. The ball was bobbled and nearly picked off but that wasn’t Hurts’ fault. I liked the aggression from the Eagles’ QB.
    • Hurts made a good completion to a crossing Covey in 7-on-7 with Quinyon Mitchell trailing in the area.
    • During situational drills late in practice, Hurts hit Dontayvion Wicks — who was going up against Michael Carter II — in stride on a quick slant to pick up a crucial first down.
  • THE BAD:
    • Early in the first 11-on-11 series, Hurts threw two passes that were batted down at the line of scrimmage.
    • Hurts couldn’t drop a pass to Dallas Goedert in the bucket, instead overthrowing his tight end.
    • Hurts took a lot of “sacks.” A lot. SportsRadio 94WIP’s Eliot Shorr-Parks charted eight of them. Some were a result of quick pressure but others were a result of him holding onto the ball for a long time. After the first day of practice, I talked about how under center play-action can help Hurts’ timing in the passing game. Well, there didn’t seem to be as much of that today with the Eagles more commonly operating out of the shotgun.
    • Hurts threw a checkdown to Saquon Barkley that got knocked down by Jeremiah Trotter Jr.
    • Hurts overshot a downfield target to Makai Lemon, though I wonder if the rookie failed to properly get to his spot.
  • THE BOTTOM LINE BECAUSE STONE COLD SAID SO:
    • Day 1 featured encouraging signs from Hurts. Day 2 and Day 3 served to remind us that the offense is still very much a work in progress.
• EAGLES INJURY UPDATES: BGN’s Alexis Chassen wrote in more detail about the Eagles’ injury situation. An overview below:
  • DID NOT PRACTICE:
    • OT Lane Johnson (excused absence/not injury related)
    • LB Jihaad Campbell (excused absence/not injury related)
    • DT Ta’Quon Graham (excused absence/not injury related)
    • WR Elijah Moore (excused absence/not injury related)
    • OT Cameron Williams (knee contusion)
    • S Cole Wisniewski (hamstring)
  • IN-PRACTICE INJURIES:
    • OG Micah Morris and EDGE Keyshawn James-Newby left practice early to visit the medical tent. Undrafted rookie OL Jaedan Roberts was carted off after going down with what appeared to be a serious injury on the final play of practice. Pretty unfortunate.
• DEFENSE DOMINATES:
  • Buy all the Jalyx Hunt stock you can possibly acquire. The third-year edge rusher has been on fire to start camp. Hunt took advantage of Lane Johnson’s absence by terrorizing Fred Johnson, who repped at first-team right tackle. Hunt was living in the backfield both against the run and the pass. I also believe I saw him deflect a pass at the line of scrimmage.
  • Jalen Carter has also started camp strong. Fresh off a record-breaking contract extension, Carter has been putting in the work on the field. He knocked down a Hurts pass at the line of scrimmage and also “sacked” a quarterback on a play where edge rush pressure forced Hurts to step up into Carter’s waiting embrace.
  • No Jihaad Campbell? No problem. Jeremiah Trotter Jr. took advantage of his reps with the first-team defense. Trot Jr. was in position to blow up Tank Bigsby in the flat right after the running back caught a pass from Hurts. Trot Jr. broke up a pass on a play where Hurts first read the field right and then turned left to try to throw a dump off to Barkley only for the ball to be knocked down. Good range and discipline from the Eagles’ third-year linebacker. If Campbell and/or Zack Baun have to miss time this season, I feel good about Trot Jr. being able to fill the void.
• SLOW START FOR THE EAGLES’ TOP TWO DRAFT PICKS: All the necessary disclaimers apply here. Rookie players, only the third day of camp, no pads yet, new offense going up against an established defense, yada yada yada. So, we’re in a safe space now, right? No one is going to overreact to what I’m about to share? Okay, good … because it’s been a quiet start to camp for Makai Lemon and Eli Stowers. (gasp)
  • I’ve yet to see any kind of “wow” factor with Lemon. He didn’t look very fast on a vertical target where the ball landed in front of him. Not sure if that incompletion was an overthrow or if he simply didn’t get to where Hurts was expecting him to be. Lemon failed to hold on to the football on a target over the middle where Andrew Mukuba bumped him from behind as he was trying to make the catch. Lemon did draw either a defensive pass interference or defensive holding penalty during a red zone sequence, which is good! But his route on that play didn’t look very crisp prior to the contact. Lemon has looked natural fielding punts, which I didn’t fully expect since he only returned six of those in college. That’s been good to see. Ultimately, I think the Eagles are putting Lemon in a tough spot as a rookie. They really need him to be ready to contribute in a significant way as a rookie. To this point, I’m not ready to say I feel good about his chances in that regard. Of course, plenty of time for that to change between now and Week 1.
  • Stowers was pretty invisible during spring drills and he hasn’t done much to impress in the summer so far, either. The rookie tight end did do a nice job of playing defense and breaking up an off-target Tanner McKee pass that was put into harm’s way. But then another McKee throw hit him in the hands and he couldn’t make the grab while being covered by Mac McWilliams.
• Dontayvion Wicks looks like a solid starting wide receiver so far.
• Don’t sleep on my guy Darius Cooper. Last year’s unexpected summer standout continues to make catches in camp. His most impressive snag came on a play where Hurts placed the ball a tad high but Cooper caught it above his head. Cooper has seen a decent share of first-team reps … and certainly more than Johnny Wilson, which seems notable since Nick Sirianni grouped those two in the same bucket competing for a “dirty work” role.
• Speaking of Wilson, he had a catch knocked out of his hands by Jakorian Bennett. Probably an incompletion and not a fumble but a play that should’ve been made all the same.
• Speaking of Bennett, he was flagged for DPI on a play where he basically tackled Quez Watkins well before the ball arrived.
• BACKUP QUARTERBACK BATTLE: Judging on camp alone, I’d give the edge to Andy Dalton over Tanner McKee thus far. Dalton has had more fruitful completions.
• Some nice plays by the Eagles’ safeties. As I already mentioned, Mukuba helped to break up a Hurts pass to Lemon in 7-on-7. The second-year safety read the quarterback and broke on the ball to force the incompletion. Marcus Epps had good downfield coverage on Goedert during the aforementioned play where Hurts overthrew his tight end.
• Jordan Davis had a nice rep where he played the run (Saquon Barkley on play-action) before pursuing Hurts and pressuring the quarterback into a run for short gain/no gain to the left side.
• Drew Kendall saw some first-team left guard action with Landon Dickerson not taking 100% of the reps with the starters.
• The second-team offensive line today: LT Markel Bell, LG Jake Majors, C Drew Kendall, RG Micah Morris (prior to injury), RT John Ojukwu. Majors had previously seen second-team center action.
• On Thursday, I mentioned how I was curious to see Payton’s response to a bad Day 2. It was good to see the rookie quarterback bounce back with some good throws on Saturday afternoon. “Fearless” is the word that continues to come to mind with Payton. He ripped a ball to Danny Gray in a tight window just over the outstretched arm of a defender. Payton also looked good as a downhill runner on some designed QB runs, though it’s not like the defense is allowed to get near him.
• Cooper DeJean, Makai Lemon, Britain Covey, and Quez Watkins were the punt returners in today’s practice.
• The GOAT G.J. Kinne attended today’s practice. The Eagles shouldn’t let him out of the building. Bring him back to the coaching staff!

UP NEXT: The Eagles have a rest day on Sunday before returning to practice on Monday morning at 10:00 AM Eastern. They’ll also practice Tuesday and Wednesday before holding a walkthrough closed to media access

on Thursday.