What is the story about?
The Philadelphia Eagles held their second and final mandatory minicamp practice on Wednesday and I was at the NovaCare Jefferson Health Training Complex to watch the action unfold. Here’s what I observed!
- ATTENDANCE UPDATES:
- ABSENT: DeVonta Smith was excused for personal reasons. Joe Tryon-Shoyinka was absent again and it’s still unclear whether his absence was approved or if he’s subject to fines ($53,959 total) by not attending.
- ROSTER MOVES:
- The Eagles officially announced they signed defensive lineman A.J. Epenesa and offensive guard Michael Jordan after practice. They also cut three players to make room for these signings. Adding Epenesa gives the Eagles more edge rusher depth, especially with the aforementioned Tyron-Shoyinka potentially out of the picture? Also possible he can contribute as an interior defender. Jordan, meanwhile, is a good addition to give the Eagles some more experienced interior offensive line depth where they previously had none.
- Eagles 2021 sixth-round pick Marlon Tuipulotu participated in today’s practice. Considering the team didn’t announce his signing, one would assume Mr. T was attending minicamp on a tryout basis.
- INJURY UPDATES:
- Before we get started here, I should note that the Eagles seemingly avoided any season-ending spring injuries (save for UDFA long-shot Tucker Large). That’s very important!
- DID NOT PARTICIPATE:
- Markel Bell watched today’s practice from the sideline. The rookie offensive tackle previously participated in every media-attended spring practice.
- Makai Lemon, Jihaad Campbell, Grant Calcaterra, Britain Covey, Carson Steele, Chandler Martin (waived after practice), and Tucker Large (reserve/non-football injury) all missed practice again.
- LIMITED PARTICIPATION:
- Jalen Carter once again participated in position drills but not team drills. Nick Sirianni declined to get into why Carter was limited. If it was purely injury-related and not involving his lack of contract extension at all, why wouldn’t Sirianni just say the team is monitoring his workload?
- Speaking of workload management, Jonathan Greenard and Cole Wisniewski were still limited to position drills.
- Eli Stowers had a helmet on but he did not seem to participate much while wearing a compression sleeve on his right leg. Unfortunate that the Eagles’ top three 2026 draft picks finished minicamp hampered by injury.
- FULL PARTICIPATION:
- Drew Kendall returned to team drills after being limited to position work in each of the last two media-attended practices.
- Saquon Barkley and Dontayvion Wicks survived some brief injury scares in this practice. Barkley was a little shaken up after trying to make a diving catch along the right sideline. Ditto for Wicks, who I think landed on the ball on a diving catch attempt along the left sideline. Both players seem to be OK since they continued to practice.
- JALEN HURTS UPDATE:
- Let’s start with the positive. Hurts’ best pass was a layered throw on time to Dontayvion Wicks along the right sideline with the ball arcing JUST above the outstretched arm of a defender to hit the receiver in a soft spot in the defense for first down yardage. Hurts had another good connection to Wicks on a comeback route along the right sideline (though the defense was signaling incomplete, perhaps a bobble or didn’t get two feet in). Hurts also found Dallas Goedert with Riq Woolen trailing for a nice gain. These two completions were part of Wednesday’s first 11-on-11-series and it was probably the most crisp the Eagles’ offense has looked during media-attended practices.
- Now for the not so positive. Hurts threw a pass intended for Goedert where Woolen jumped the route for a potential pick six. Hurts badly underthrew the ball to Johnny Mundt’s feet in the flat. Hurts threw a wobbly duck downfield to Elijah Moore that ended up incomplete (looked like he may have held the ball a little too long). Hurts tried to make a couple throws to the sideline (one to Barkley, one to Wicks) that didn’t look like they gave the targets enough room to get both feet in. Hurts then missed Danny Gray on another throw to the left sideline. Hurts had Quez Watkins with a step running deep down the field but the quarterback didn’t throw the ball until Watkins started to slow down … only to try to speed up and make the catch on a late throw to no avail.
- Overall, I thought there was more bad than good from Hurts on Wednesday. Which clearly means it’s time to panic and the season is over! Not quite. There are caveats to acknowledge here: 1) Hurts is adjusting to yet another new offense, 2) he was missing his top two wide receivers (no Smitty or Lemon), 3) the Eagles’ defense looks really good and comfortable as they enter their third year under Vic Fangio. It’s also fair to wonder how much Hurts’ spring performance matters in terms of translating to the regular season. Hurts had good springs in 2022 and 2025 but was less sharp in 2023 and 2024.
- To push back on my own defenses of Hurts, the Eagles’ defense was missing multiple key starters (Jalen Carter, Jonathan Greenard, Jihaad Campbell) and it’s not like he’s facing a game action pass rush.
- On a related note to Hurts’ performance, my big picture takeaway from watching the Eagles’ spring practices is that the defense looks like it’s going to be awesome and that the offense might be a work in progress. I’m currently reluctant to believe the offense is going to hit the ground running by the time Week 1 rolls around. But, hey, there’s still an entire training camp left to work out the kinks.
- While spring practices left me with questions about the Eagles’ passing offense, it also left me with some cautious optimism about their rushing attack. Lane Johnson and Cam Jurgens sound encouraged by the new scheme as it relates to run blocking and we saw some good runs on Wednesday, including what looked like it could’ve been a Saquon Barkley breakaway down the left sideline. Judging run plays in practice can be tough since tackling isn’t allowed but he appeared to go untouched. Later on, Dameon Pierce looked to have a long run up the middle while working with the backups.
- Speaking of running backs, and following up from my note on Tuesday about them potentially being more involved in the passing attack this season (for real this time!), the Eagles ran a drill where they usually just have the quarterbacks throwing to receivers with the backs included and leading off. Perhaps a Sean Mannion preference?
- RIQ WOOLEN UPDATE: The Eagles’ new starting cornerback has earned his own section after having an awesome spring. Woolen made no shortage of highlight plays in a total of four media-attended spring practice. The most splashy play from Wednesday was Woolen reading Hurts’ eyes to jump in front of a pass intended for Goedert for an interception. The 6’4” Woolen has shown a propensity to totally smother receivers (legally) in coverage, such as when he was all over Elijah Moore on a Hurts downfield throw that went incomplete. Between Fangio praising Woolen even prior to OTAs (bit of a surprise since Fangio isn’t always generous with compliments) and Woolen looking great in spring practices, it’s hard not to get excited about his outlook. The Eagles can truly have the NFL’s best cornerback trio with Quinyon Mitchell, Cooper DeJean, and Woolen in the fold. There are still questions at safety, sure, but even so … this secondary could be pretty awesome.
- BACKUP QUARTERBACK BATTLE (!): Prior to practice, Sirianni was asked if Tanner McKee is the Eagles’ backup quarterback. Sirianni refused to declare as much and instead claimed that McKee and Andy Dalton are rotating with the second-team offense. We had yet to see evidence of that through the Eagles’ first three media-attended spring practices … but that finally changed on Wednesday with McKee up as QB2. In 7-on-7, McKee mostly threw a bunch of short stuff (common theme for all Eagles quarterbacks) but he also had a good completion to Danny Gray up the seam and found an uncovering Johnny Wilson while rolling to this left. In 11-on-11s, McKee extended a play from the pocket to find Elijah Moore over the middle. He was also “sacked” for holding the ball too long at one point. McKee was certainly sharper than Dalton, who was checkdown city and got intercepted by Ambry Thomas on an out route throw that lacked adequate zip on the ball. It’s silly to me that this is a battle when the Eagles could instead be prioritizing getting McKee more quality reps. Don’t see the need for this “competition” to drag on until the end of training camp.
- QB3 already doesn’t see many reps during a typical Eagles practice, so, there’s very little work for QB4. But I thought Cole Payton showed some good things in a very small sample size this spring. Don’t get it twisted, the rookie quarterback is very much a work in progress. As evidenced by Payton missing Dae’Quan Wright (my guy) breaking open over the middle only for him to roll left and fire a bullet out of bounds. Or when Payton threw a deep pass to … absolutely no one but a leaping Kapena Gushiken, who couldn’t even make the leaping interception on a ball that went over his head. But Payton did complete a pass along the left sideline to a toe-tapping Bryce Ford-Wheaton (tryout player) and a good ball over the middle to Joaquin Davis (also a tryout player, and apparently not Kaden Davis as we previously suggested). Enough potential here to buy into him as a slow-played developmental project. Also, no evidence yet of the Eagles utilizing Payton in any kind of Taysom Hill role.
- E.J. Jenkins continued to get some first-team reps with Calcaterra not practicing, good sign for his stock. But he did have a really bad drop on a pass that hit him directly in the hands.
- The Eagles’ punt returners on Wednesday: Cooper DeJean, James Proche II (tryout player), and Elijah Moore. They fielded punts in that order and then repeated. Proche looks like he’d be worth signing to the 90-man roster to have him in training camp, especially if Covey is still injured. In addition to looking comfortable as a returner, I noticed him make a real nice one-handed grab that I didn’t think he would be able to pull off in position drills. That being said, I don’t feel good about his roster chances … or Moore’s, necessarily. And I don’t think the Eagles ideally want DeJean to return (save for desperate situations). So … who’s returning punts for this team? Worth noting that Covey (not practicing), Lemon (not practicing), and Bigsby also lined up by the punt returners but did not rep.
- Late in practice, the Eagles went back to position drills with the quarterbacks first throwing to players they’d actually target in games (wide receivers, tight ends, running backs) but then to defenders as well. Nolan Smith didn’t exactly make the most graceful catch, which prompted some chatter from his teammates, to which he loudly said something to the effect of “[Bleep] all y’all!” Some levity to end the spring workout program.
- The Eagles made Uar Bernard available to reporters for the first time since the team drafted him. First impression is that his physique is truly a sight to behold in person and it looks like he has baseball gloves for hands. Seems like he’s got a good head on his shoulders, should be a fun player for Eagles fans to root for.
UP NEXT: Summer vacation! Eagles players and coaches are off until training camp begins in late July. As always, we’ll still have daily coverage of the Birds here at Bleeding Green Nation in the meantime.
