CAMP NOTEBOOK: Sidney Jones Running out of Time?

PHILADELPHIA – For the fourth straight practice, Sidney Jones stayed cool with a mix of head coverings each day, from a baseball cap with an Eagles logo to a bucket hat. What he didn’t have on was a helmet.

The Eagles cornerback continues to miss valuable time with an injury as the season opener winds under three weeks now.

Camp was supposed to be a heated battle to determine which corner would start opposite Darius Slay, with Avonte Maddox and Jones the presumed combatants and, to a much lesser extent, Rasul Douglas.

Well, Maddox is the clear frontrunner at this point, and the Eagles’ patience with Jones, a second-round pick in 2017, may be running out.

“Our time is starting to run short, and the only thing we can do as coaches is coach the guys that are available to practice,” said Eagles defensive coordinator Jim Schwartz prior to Monday’s practice. “Sid is into it. He's done a good job of staying up and everything else when he hasn't been able to practice.

“But as coaches, guys that are on the field are the guys that are getting the reps, and the guys that are available and doing those kinds of things and just unfortunately he has not been there for this last week or so. There's still time, but time is starting to creep in on us. We're less than three weeks from our opener right now.”

ALL THUMBS

Dallas Goedert is practicing with a hairline fracture in his left thumb. No biggie. Thumbs up, you might say.

“It’s just something that I gotta get used to,” said Goedert following Monday’s practice. “It’ll be gone or healed up hopefully by the time the season starts, but for right now I’m just playing without my left thumb. It takes a little getting used to. From (Sunday) to (Monday) I feel I came a long way getting used to the feel of it and how it affects different things.”

ALL’S QUIET

After a rather tumultuous offseason from DeSean Jackson with some poorly chosen words, the veteran receiver is letting his play on the field do the talking.

If Jackson has dropped a pass or a punt (yes, he’s practicing returns), it’s gone unnoticed.

"The thing about DeSean is he makes it easy for me,” said quarterback Carson Wentz. “When you create the amount of separation that he does, he makes it easy. I feel really good with being on the same page with him. Even last year when he was hurt for a while, we were always talking to each other. Talking about how we saw the game, how we understood things, I feel like when we do get the reps out there, we’re right on cue.

“DJack looks great. I feel great with him personally on the field and off the field, so I’m excited to hopefully get a full 16 games out each other this season.”

Nickell Robey-Coleman appears to be the only corner and safety in camp who can cover Jackson.

“I just went up to him and I told him, ‘I want to be great, and I want to go against the greats,’ and he was like, ‘Yeah, man, we’re going to get that work,’” said Robey-Coleman. “We just competed, being very competitive with one another. At the end of (a) route, we’re just talking about what we were thinking. What did I see? What did he see?

“That, right there, he told me he wants to be better coming off the line in the slot, he wants to be better being in the slot with releases. And I’m like, ‘I’m here,’ because I feel like I’m one of the best slots in the game.”

QUOTABLE

Maddox’s size, 5-9, 180, was the topic of some of the questions directed at Schwartz and CB Darius Slay, and that led to a pair of quotable gems.

Schwartz: “I would say about Avonte is the only time he looks short is when he's in the lunch line.”

Slay: “He’s got a lot of bunnies. He can jump pretty high.”

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