Offense? Defense? Which Unit Is Winning The Day At Eagles Camp?

PHILADELPHIA – Jalyx Hunt was heading off the field after practice on Saturday when he shouted something in the direction of A.J. Brown and Saquon Barkley. The receiver and running back were good-naturedly messing with Hunt throughout practice, and the second-year edge rusher had something he wanted to tell them.

“I was just letting them know that defense won (the practice session),” said Hunt. “Defense won the third downs, and they were like, all right, and Saquon is saying you gotta double A.J., stuff like that. It’s all good fun, all good competitive fun. That’s all it was, just chirping back and forth.”

There’s been some debate the past couple of days on which unit won a particular practice – offense or defense?

Hunt was right on Saturday. Defense won the day, putting an end to the first two days of practice when it appeared the offense won. The defense flexed its muscle again on Monday, but the difference wasn’t as vast as it was 48 hours earlier. Tuesday, when full pads came on for the first time, it was probably a push, though if you’re going to pick one, give it to the D.

“We ran the ball well,” said quarterback Jalen Hurts about Tuesday's session. “Defense played very well. Connected on some in the pass game; have to finish on some. Ultimately, it’s just great competition, and that’s what it’s about in training camp. You talk about building that foundation for a team and establishing the right temperament for the team and coming out here and competing every day.”

Defensive coordinator Vic Fangio wasn’t initially sure if the defense is better than last year’s defense at this point, but after thinking about it he thought maybe it is.

“A lot of them are doing better even though we lost a lot of players on defense, there's still a lot of players that were here, so we're probably doing a little bit better in that mode,” he said.

Center Cam Jurgens said that the defense might look like it’s ahead of the offense because it has everything installed, while the offense is still adding layers. Not true, said Fangio, then cracked a joke about what Jurgens alluded to.

“Totally installed? No, we've got some stuff for him,” the DC jokingly said.

Hurts stuck up for his center and his opinion.

“I think that’s a fair perspective to have because we’re still implementing things offensively, so we’ve kind of been sitting and saturating ourselves in things that, as time goes on…you know,” said the QB. “Last week was a different emphasis, this week is a different emphasis, next week will be a different emphasis, so it’s a competition, and there’s always competitive practice, but it’s more so giving the reps that we need, having lessons that we pulled from so we can continue to grow.”

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