Eagles Day 6 Overreactions: Receivers Catching More Injuries Than Passes

PHILADELPHIA – Receivers are supposed to be on the field, wilting in the summer heat like their teammates, making catches. Instead, too many of them are catching their share of injuries as Eagles camp rolled on in South Philly’s omnipresent heat and humidity on Thursday.

DeVonta Smith missed his third day of practice with back tightness. No biggie. Everybody knows what he can do. It’s players who are trying to win jobs that are dropping. Terrace Marshall joined Smith on the did not practice list with a knee injury suffered on Tuesday.

Already, the Eagles released promising receiver candidate Danny Gray with a finger injury, but after going unclaimed he reverted to the Eagles and injured reserve. There will probably be an injury settlement at some point with Gray.

With that backdrop, it wasn’t a promising sight when Elijah Cooks couldn’t come down with a nice pass into the end zone from about 25 yards about by Tanner McKee between safety Andre Sam and cornerback Tariq Castro-Fields. Cooks had it then dropped it when he hit the ground.

He didn’t get right up and was eventually helped to the training tent. Cooks has had a solid camp and was playing his way onto the roster, but now we will have to wait and see what the injury is and how that will impact his status.

Here are some overreactions from Day 6.

Welcome back. Jalen Carter participated in his first team drills of camp, lining up with Jordan Davis and Moro Ojomo on the defensive line. On one of his first reps, he appeared to clothesline Keilan Robinson runnig through the hole. Carter was called for a facemask penalty.

Mac the knife. Mac McWilliams will have a role somewhere on the field this year on defense. He keeps showing up on the outside. On Thursday, he broke up a pass intended for Kylen Granson. Here’s is a big overreaction: Cooper DeJean will end up at outside corner and McWilliams will be in the slot before Halloween.

“Mac is a young player that we like; we think he can play the nickel position,” said defensive coordinator Vic Fangio. "Think he's got a chance at corner. He's an interesting guy here these next four or five weeks to see how much he progresses and see if he finds a role with us.”

Eli (not Manning). Hey, don’t forget about me is what Eli Ricks seemed to be saying after he dove forward to the ground to gather in Jalen Hurts’ second interception of camp, this one a ball that floated on the quarterback as he lofted a ball in the center of the field during a situational drill. With all the talk about the top three cornerbacks, Quinyon Mitchell, Adoree Jackson, and Kelee Ringo, perhaps it’s not wise to forget about Ricks.

“He's just a guy that comes in every day and competes, you know, he works, and that's really, really any cornerback,” said Mitchell, who had Hurts’ first pick of camp earlier in the week. “You know, we wanna be a strong group to talk about him. We wanna compete and just go out and make plays.”

Cut him. Dallas Goedert dropped a pass. No way he makes the 53-man roster. Ha. The tight end is having a great camp, making easy catches, fingertips receptions, and, like the one he made on Thursday, using his big body to shield a defender from getting close to the ball, in this case safety Tristin McCollum.

But he dropped his first pass of camp, an easy one that hit him right in the hands on a short throw over the middle. So, I asked him about it.

“Terrible job today,” he said. “I’ll definitely beat myself up over that one. Jalen (Hurts) rolled to the right a little bit. I knew the ball was coming. …Before the ball got there, I started turning my head, and (the ball) hit me in the palm, batted it down. Those are ones with easy concentration, easy fix, not worried about it. You want to make them but make them on Sunday. It’s practice, learn from it, make sure you catch the ball before you make a move.”

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