Training Camp Thoughts Day 12: Jalen Hurts Flashes Frustration
PHILADELPHIA - With joint practices looming against the New England Patriots early next week in advance of a Thursday preseason game, the Eagles went 70 minutes on a steamy South Philadelphia Saturday morning.
It was another nondescript session in what has been a conscious decision to practice smarter, not harder.
The practice itself was again heavy on red-zone work and the Eagles offense spent considerable time working on the running game, including at least one designed run by Jalen Hurts, and dumps offs underneath zone coverage.
The highlights for each side came in 7-on-7 red-zone work.
For the offense, Zach Ertz used his considerable frame and route-running skills to keep Darius Slay on his hip before snaring a nice touchdown pass from Hurts.
On defense, on a very similar play, backup safety Elijah Riley did a nice job undercutting things for a PBU when Joe Flacco was trying to find Richard Rodgers.
On special teams, coordinator Michael Clay was working on kickoff coverage with the L5 and R5 pinching in to stop the returner. The first team coverage players in those positions were cornerbacks Avonte Maddox and Mike Jacquet.
"I can probably play four more years like I thought I would if we keep this up," veteran defensive end Brandon Graham joked of the short practices. "But it’s all about getting to the game.
"You want to make sure you’re the freshest you can be for the game, and you have to pay (head coach Nick Sirianni) back by making sure you take every rep seriously and stay focused because you do get a lot of extra time. It’s all about using that time wisely."
A FRUSTRATING MOMENT FOR HURTS
No player has kept it on more of an even keel than Hurts, who seems to have a resting pulse rate at all times as almost the quintessential never-get-too-high and never-get-too-low player.
On Saturday hurts threw the football down in frustration while flushing right when the whistle was blown. It seems like Hurts has a bad habit of flushing first without trying to climb the pocket, something Sirianni addressed.
Jalen Hurts
"Jalen and I haven't watched a game together yet, but, yeah, I'm going to tell him on the [preseason play] where he scrambled, like, boom, step up in the pocket and take a look at where Dallas [Goedert] was on that play against cover two and rip it to him," Sirianni told SI.com's EagleMaven. "... So, again, you don't want to take away what one of his biggest values are. You want him to use that with all his other talents, right?
"Because he did a great job of stepping up in the pocket. And we'll talk about that play today. But I don't ever want to limit him to - with what he's gifted at, but again, you're just trying to make improvements of when to stay in the pocket as well."
NICE DAY FOR A VISIT
Julie Ertz and Mike McCoy were at practice today.
Ertz is coming off a Bronze Medal performance at the Tokyo Olympics with the USWNT and McCoy had a large influence on Nick Sirianni's coaching career when the two were together with the San Diego Chargers.
McCoy hired Sirianni to be an offensive quality coach in 2013 and promoted him to quarterbacks coach for the 2014-15 seasons. In McCoy's final season as the head coach of the Chargers, Sirianni was the receivers coach and key that job for another season before Frank Reich brought Sirianni to Indianapolis.
McCoy was interviewed by the Eagles in 2013 for their head coaching job before they hired Chip Kelly.
"It's great to have him here," Sirianni said of McCoy. "It's really great to have him here and see him practice. I always respected how much Mike paid attention to situations."
COMMITTEE APPROACH
Sirianni won't name a starter at left tackle even though Jordan Mailata has outplayed Andre Dillard and the latter is now hurt. He also will not admit Hurts is the starting quarterback even though he's taken every first-team snap to date.
So, it was a little bit of a surprise when the coach confirmed he's going with a committee approach in the backfield with Boston Scott, Jordan Howard, and rookie Kenny Gainwell the leaders in the clubhouse to complement Miles Sanders.
"I think I've always been - and especially in that room, piecemeal it together," Sirianni admitted. "And that's our job as coaches to make sure you're not tipping your hand. Right? So, it's like, ‘Okay, if this guy fits this role, he can't just do this role or the defense is going to know it.’ So it is - and you have to have guys that have rest, too. So I like that we do it by committee because - and that we've always done it by committee because it gives a guy rest. But guys are good - that's just our job as coaches.
"Who does what well and let him do that. But without giving tips to the defense."
As for the "QB competition," backup Joe Flacco is still going about it the same way but sees the writing on the wall.
“I’ve said from the very beginning that’s the kind of way I’m approaching it just because I’m letting myself down if I take it any other way," Flacco said. "I think Jalen is doing a good job and obviously he’s taken all the reps with the ones.”
ROSTER MOVEMENT
With the first cut from 90 to 85 looming on Tuesday, the Eagles waived a couple of players: running back turner receiver Adrian Killins and tight end Caleb Wilson, the son of former Eagles defensive line coach Chris Wilson.
The team only picked up one spot, however, because veteran offensive tackle Le'Raven Clark from taken off the Active/PUP list.
Clark, who is coming off a torn Achilles' suffered in December last season with Indianapolis, had his helmet and did some individual work in what the team called a ramp-up period.
Also back at practice in a limited fashion were LB Genard Avery (groin), S Grayland Arnold (hamstring), TE Jason Coom (knee), and starting LG Isaac Seumalo (hamstring).
Seumalo even got in a few reps in team drills, meaning that the projected first-team offensive line of Jordan Mailata, Seumalo, Jason Kelce, Brandon Brooks, and Lane Johnson was together for the first time this summer.
In other injury news, receiver DeVonta Smith was upgraded from week-to-week to day-to-day with his MCL sprain, On the negative side, RB Kerryon Johnson is out with a knee injury that is still being evaluated, not a good sign for a player who has seen significant knee issues in the past.
GAME BALL
Let's give it to Riley, who is coming off an interception in the preseason opener against Pittsburgh as well. The second-year undrafted free agent out of Army is making a run at a roster spot due to his special teams acumen and ability to play in a representative way on the back end.
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 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.
