Eagles Notebook: J.J. Arcega-Whiteside vs. Travis Fulgham
PHILADELPHIA – It may not happen, but just want to get everyone ready in case it does, because the majority of Eagles fans won’t like it.
J.J. Arcega-Whiteside could make the 53-man roster over Travis Fulgham.
Arcega-Whiteside has had a better camp, but then that’s been his MO in his first two summers since being picked in the second round of the 2019 draft. Then, when the season begins, he vanishes.
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Fulgham seems to be taking the opposite approach. He had a nice flurry of games in 2020 then was parked on the bench after Alshon Jeffery returned to health, but has not had a particularly consistent camp, struggling again on Tuesday in one-on-one drills against the Patriots, a drill that is heavily slanted toward the WR.
For the second day in a row, Fulgham had some difficulty getting separation.
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Meanwhile, Arcega-Whiteside had a strong Tuesday and can play both the slot and outside. Fulgham’s slot reps, if he has gotten any, haven’t been noticeable.
“Me and J.J. talk all the time,” said fellow WR Greg Ward. “He’s a guy that can play inside and outside, very versatile. He’s very hungry. He has a big frame so he can move guys out of the way. He can make the big catch, strong hands and that’s the guy you would love to play with, the type of guy you need out on the field.”
The Eagles have four WRs secure in a roster spot: DeVonta Smith, Jalen Reagor, Quez Watkins, and Greg Ward.
They will likely keep five and maybe six depending on how heavy or light they go at running back and tight end.
That leaves, Arcega-Whiteside, Fulgham, Andre Patton, John Hightower, who returned to team drills after being out for a week with an injury, Jhamon Ausbon, and Marken Michel battling for a precious few jobs.
SIGHTS AND SOUNDS
The action on the field was intense on both days.
Here are some things heard and seen on Tuesday:
Safety K’Von Wallace talked some trash with Cam Newton, calling him “slant king,” referring to back-to-back dump-off passes to running backs in red zone seven-on-sevens.
“I’m just aggressive, and my approach to the game, who I go against, I feel like whoever is the opposition I’m going to do my best to get in their head, to say what I need to say, to do what I need to do to beat him, to win,” said Wallace. “I feel like at the time there were a lot of checkdowns going on, so I had to let him know that not only is he throwing checkdowns but he’s doing it over and over again like he mastered it, like he was the king of it, so I had to let him know about it.
“I feel any way you can get in a quarterback’s head, that’s the best approach, to say whatever and mean what you say.”
A few plays later, Newton, from the sideline yelled, “that play was on you 42,” after Mac Jones rolled to his right and had a lot of time to throw with no pass rush before finding a Pats WR just across the goal line in front of Wallace.
- Jalen Mills was extra chippy with his words, getting into it with Marken Michel on one goal line play Mills made. A few plays later, Mills was beaten by Quez Watkins, who shouted at Mills, “This is Year Two, Bro!”
- The Patriots sideline erupted when RB Brandon Bolt took a jet sweep around the right side and collided hard into Zech McPhearson and continuing on his way for a few yards into the end zone.
LOOKING TO THURSDAY
With the Eagles and Patriots getting some good practice time against each other the past two days, it will be interesting to see how Nick Sirianni handles his starters for Thursday night’s second preseason game, which kicks off against at 7:30 p.m. (NBA10) at Lincoln Financial Field.
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“We had a plan of what we thought we wanted to do but again we have to just get through (Tuesday) and get great work today and see where we are and re-evaluate because (Monday), these two practices are game-like,” said Sirianni prior to the start of Tuesday’s practice.
“As much game-like as you can possibly get. That's why I value these practices so much. So just something that we're in the process of evaluating and like I said, we have a plan but that could change, and I don't want to disappoint.”
CUTS
The Eagles got their roster to 85 players as mandated by the NFL by waiving injured RB Kerryon Johnson, center Luke Juriga, and OT Casey Tucker.
Johnson’s knees were a big reason why the Lions moved on from him. The Eagles were awarded the waiver claim, ahead of the Dolphins who also put a claim on for him, but Johnson's knee couldn't hold up.
Juriga was on the team last year after being signed as an undrafted free agent and played 13 games, mostly on special teams, though he did get 13 offensive snaps.
Sirianni was asked about the cuts prior to practice before he knew who they would be. He said it’s his job as a head coach to talk to each player when they are cut.
“I owe that to every guy to talk to them and be able to give them feedback to help them develop their career,” he said.
He added, “It's hard because they have bled and sweated and they have done all these things as a team, and then it's the bad part of the business, you've got to let the guys go.”
The roster must be at 80 players by next Tuesday at 4 p.m.
Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s Eagle Maven and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles or www.eaglemaven.com and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.
