And on the 13th day of Eagles training camp, it rained. Saturday morning’s weather didn’t prevent coach Nick Sirianni from sitting his starters, like he did when weather impeded on the first two preseason games in Baltimore and Foxborough.
“It’ll be good work for us to get the weather as far as just our handling of the football in practice, which we anticipate in the Northeast we'll have some bad weather games here and there,” he said.
Here are five overreactions to what went down:
ROOKIE GONNA START
No surprise, the rookie is Quinyon Mitchell. The first-round corner made a nice pass break up a throw from Jalen Hurts to DeVonta Smith. This kid will start Week 1. Watch out for Kelee Ringo, too. The second-year corner had a nice day in the rain and continues to look better with each practice.
“The main thing is pattern recognition, just them being able to pick up on things that they’ve seen,” said Smith about Mitchell and Ringo. “Today I ran a route on Q that I ran last week, and I was open and he read it and he knew what I was running.
“Shout out to him. I told him, that’s a good job of recognizing patterns and things like that, seeing something one time and not letting it get you again. So, just being a student of the game, them learning more to be a student of the game. When you get to that level, the talent is gonna always be there, but the smarter you become playing this game, the easier it’s going to get.”
STARS DIMMED
The three big offensive standouts in Thursday’s 14-13 win over New England on Thursday were unable to practice on Saturday. That’s not a good way to follow up strong performances.
Those players sitting out were receivers John Ross (concussion) and Joseph Ngata (ankle), and tight end E.J. Jenkins (knee). As Chip Kelly used to say, “You can’t make the club from the tub.”
Ross was looking like a candidate to make the team based on his two stellar kick returns against the Patriots, averaging 34 yards on two kickoff returns. Now, who knows? Ngata was probably a longshot to make the team, anyway, and probably Jenkins, too, though his camp has been solid.
GETTING THEIR KICKS
The Eagles haven’t been very strong on special teams so far in the preseason, and that’s no overreaction. Sirianni realizes that and the Eagles worked some on kickoffs and kickoff coverage, though there was some punt work, too, for Braden Mann.
Speaking of Mann, he was used on kickoffs against the Patriots and was at it again on Saturday. Special team coordinator Michael Clay will speak with the media on Wednesday, so it will be interesting to hear what the plan is there between Mann and Jake Elliott handling kickoff chores.
It wasn’t a good day for Will Shipley fielding punts. The rookie dropped two on three of his three reps.
As for kickoff coverage, the Eagles gave up a big one against the Patriots, a 53-yarder from David Wallis, a Division III player from Randolph-Macon College.
“Obviously we all have work to continue to do there,” said Sirianni. “We're not where we want to be in anything. We want to continue to grow in everything that we do. Kick return even more so because that's such an unknown.
“We gave up a big return, and we need work at it because every time we do it, we learn a little bit more about it. Like every time we take a rep our coaches learn a little bit more about it, our players learn a little bit more about it.”
The Eagles started a new period on Saturday specifically for kickoffs and they will do more of it on Sunday.
WELCOME BACK AYEDZE
The Eagles brought back offensive lineman Gottlieb Ayedze after making a couple of roster moves – putting slot corner Tyler Hall on IR and waiving defensive back Mekhi Garner. Ayedze, who started his career at Division II Frostburg State before transferring to Maryland, was cut with an undisclosed injury after just two days of camp, and the Eagles probably want to get a good look at him in Saturday’s final preseason game.
Ayedze wasted little time getting back into the swing of things. He had three consecutive plays against Nolan Smith in one-on-ones and won two of three.
Maybe Ayedze, who can play multiple spots on the O-line, will make a late roster push since some of the depth there struggled against the Patriots.
DAY OF THE HUNT-ER
Vic Fangio will talk on Sunday morning and the defensive coordinator will be asked about rookie Jalyx Hunt and his practice habits. Fangio didn’t seem to think much of them when he last spoke and was asked about Hunt’s play against the Ravens. The defensive coordinator said he was somewhat surprised given how he had done in practice.
Maybe that lit a fire because Saturday may have been Hunt’s best day, yet, and he has gone from someone I initially thought would be a gameday inactive until he could develop, into someone who should very much have a meaty role when the season begins.
