Eagles OTA Observations: Two Plays Of The Day Plus Sights And Sounds

PHILADELPHIA –What a difference a week made. Last week, the Eagles were driven indoors for an OTA practice. On Tuesday, the sun was shining and the temperature flirted with 80, and the Eagles were outside – where football is meant to be played – on their practice fields at NovaCare.

Here’s what was observed:

Play of the Day 1. It’s an easy call because it happened right in front of where I was standing. It was a perfect throw from Jalen Hurts to tight end Dallas Goedert down the left sideline during a seven-on-seven drill. The ball floated perfectly over Goedert’s shoulder, and it had to be feathered into the perfect spot because linebacker Zach Baun had good coverage. The tight end snared the ball with his fingertips for what was a big gain, perhaps about 40 yards.

Play of the Day 2. Rookie Mac McWilliams broke up an intermediate throw from Tanner McKee intended for Harrison Bryant on the sideline. McWilliams went up to contest the throw and swatted it away.

Sights and Sounds. One: Tight end Cam Latu knocked Connor Barwin on his backside during a drill where players had to shred would-be tacklers holding bags, like Barwin was, and after getting through two waves of that, strip the ball from a dummy bag while tackling the dummy.

Barwin hit his backside, rolled backward a bit, then got up. Linebacker coach Bobby King, who was working the drill, said, “Take care of Connor.”

Two: Adoree Jackson and Saquon Barkley were chopping it up on their way back to the huddle after Barkley tried to get deep on Jackson. What were they saying, asked Philadelphia Eagles on SI?

“Not trash talk,” said Jackson. “It was just about the route concept and what was going on. So I was talking to him while I was carrying him. And I had safety help, so I’m looking at it, and I’m watching the whole play, and I was going to drop him but I didn’t really know where my safety was.

“I just heard him talking to me. But before I dropped him, I wanted to make sure the quarterback got the ball in his hand. Obviously, it’s Saquon Barkley, so they said I did drop him. By the time I looked, I’m like, ‘That could be a hole shot for Jalen Hurts to put it in there.’ And you know what Saquon can do. So, it’s just one of those things where I’m talking, like, ‘Man, I can’t just let you go down the pipe like this, so I had to carry you.’ That’s what it was.”

Three: Drew Kendall was at center and Kenyon Green at left guard, and it was just the two of them being taught how to surface a block by Jeff Stoutland. The offensive line coach must not have liked what he saw, because he dropped a few f-bombs and was animatedly waving his arms back and forth. Welcome to the Stoutland Way, rookie Kendall and veteran Green.

Tough guy award. That has to go to Landon Dickerson. The left guard had an offseason procedure done on one of his knees, but he was out there lining up next to Jordan Mailata with the first team. Center Cam Jurgens, who had back surgery, was running on a side field where the specialists were working, so Brett Toth, for the second straight week, worked at first-team center.

Holy Toledo. Several coaches and the general manager of the Toledo Rockets were on hand to watch four players from their school – cornerback Quinyon Mitchell, safety Maxen Hook, and linebackers Dallas Gant and Lance Dixon, who is an undrafted free agent like Hook. Gant was an undrafted free agent last year of the Vikings, who the Eagles added to their practice squad.

2 Who Stood Out

---Quarterback Kyle McCord. He made a terrible throw on one play, but he made up for it by throwing a dart over the middle of the field to Kylen Granson, who made the catch in heavy traffic.

--Tight end Nick Muse. The fourth-year pro had a nice one-handed catch to turn a bad throw from Dorian Thompson-Robinson into a nice gain.

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