Eagles Rookie Minicamp: Five First Impressions

Finally some grass time with Nick Sirianni. Here's what we learned.

PHILADELPHIA - Nick Sirianni finally got some grass time with his rookie class, a first-year prospect or two, and five tryout players at the NovaCare Complex on Friday.

The media was around for about 25 minutes of it which consisted of an expanded stretching routine and some one-on-one work with the coaches in individual drills.

There wasn’t a lot learned to be blunt but there were some things you could take out of the session and here are some first impressions:

EXPANDED WARM-UP PERIOD

The Eagles spent about 15 minutes before the practice getting their bodies ready with an expanded stretching routine. Perhaps that’s just because no one has been doing much work in the offseason but there was certainly longer and a more expanded approach than usual. The organization has struggled with soft tissue injuries in recent years and perhaps this is Ted Rath’s response to those issues in his second year with the organization.

INTERESTING TRYOUT PLAYER

Lengthy veteran safety Obi Melifonwu, 27, was trying out for the Eagles. A former second-round pick of the Raiders in 2017, Melifonwu is still young and at 6-foot-4 might bring an interesting presence to a back end that’s added Anthony Harris to play alongside Rodney McLeod, who is still rehabbing from a torn ACL in December.

The Eagles also brought in offensive lineman Caleb Benenoch, who was the Buccaneers’ 5th-round pick out of UCLA in 2016, for a look as well as old friend Casey Tucker but the team is deep on the offensive line.

DEVONTA, DEVONTA, DEVONTA

Smith looked as advertised from an athleticism and movement standpoint. His body type is interesting because the Heisman Trophy winner has long arms and a nice catching radius but his lower body is extremely thin with former Eagles linebacker Gary Cobb joking that he needs to find some sweatpants to cover up the skinny legs.

“As advertised, he catches everything,” Sirianni said after practice. “That ball touches his hands, he catches it. He’s really long. You guys saw that. He’s got long arms and he’s got a big catch radius.

"He showed his length, he showed his unbelievable hands and he showed I just thought excellent, excellent ability to change directions at the top of his route, even better than we saw on tape, to be honest.”

LANDON'S LEAP FORWARD

Injured second-round pick Landon Dickerson was in uniform and showed off just how far he’s come from ACL surgery five months out. The fact that he had a helmet, was stretching, and able to get some on-field teaching from Jeff Stoutalnd was a positive development but the Eagles need to be cautious here. It’s not about how Landon is feeling, it’s about giving the graft time to heal on a 6-6, 330-pound man and that’s what sticks out most about Dickerson, he’s a monster physically.

Sixth-round DT Marlon Tuipulotu tweaked his hamstring a couple of weeks ago and was forced to watch the session. It's nothing serious and the team was just being cautious.

THE NEW COACHES

Assistant head coach/running backs Jemal Singleton was the most vocal coach and Sirianni himself showed some emotional intelligence by introducing himself to every member of the media.

The head coach seemed to be trying to get involved in all aspects of the team which is a good early sign.

“The [coaches] that are new to me, I think they wanted to come out and impress me and show me that I made the right decision of hiring them,” Sirianni told Si.com’s Eagle Maven. “So that was pretty cool to see them coaching. I know they have a ton of energy. You can't fake what they have every single day because they bring it every single day.

“But the goal for them was keeping it simple for the players, and they've heard me talk about fundamentals and technique a million times. It's one of those things where I'm not going to stop, either. I'm going to be a relentless pit bull about fundamentals and technique. That was another main thing.”

John McMullen contributes Eagles coverage for SI.com's EagleMaven and is the NFL Insider for JAKIB Media. You can listen to John, alongside legendary sports-talk host Jody McDonald every morning from 8-10 on ‘Birds 365,” streaming live on both PhillyVoice.com and YouTube. John is also the host of his own show "Extending the Play" on AM1490 in South Jersey. You can reach him at jmcmullen44@gmail.com or on Twitter @JFMcMullen

Ed Kracz is the publisher of SI.com’s EagleMaven and co-host of the Eagles Unfiltered Podcast. Check out the latest Eagles news at www.SI.com/NFL/Eagles and please follow him on Twitter: @kracze.