Eagles Training Camp Observations: Injuries Are Piling Up

Eagles training camp observations: Injuries are piling up originally appeared on NBC Sports Philadelphia

The Eagles held their penultimate training camp practice on a cool Tuesday morning at the NovaCare Complex.

The session in full pads lasted 1 hour and 49 minutes with the developmental period at the end.

Training camp will officially wrap up on Wednesday morning. The Eagles have a walkthrough on Thursday and will play the Jets in the third and final preseason game on Friday evening.

Let’s get to the observations from Day 17:

1. As always, we start with some housekeeping:

• The injury report from before practice:

Did not practice: A.J. Brown (hamstring), Landon Dickerson (knee), Jordan Mailata (concussion), Tanner McKee (finger), DeVonta Smith (groin), Tariq Castro-Fields (hamstring), Lewis Cine (groin), Brandon Johnson (groin)

Limited: Dallas Goedert (groin)

• McKee injured a finger on this throwing hand during Monday’s practice and was pulled from the end of those team drills. McKee does not need surgery but was not present at Tuesday’s session.

• With guys like Brown and Smith, it seems like the Eagles are being conservative with two of their star players.

• In addition to the guys on the report, the Eagles also suffered two more injuries during Tuesday’s practice that could play a role in the starting lineup and roster construction.

First, safety Andrew Mukuba suffered an injury to his left hamstring during 1-on-1s going against tight end Nick Muse. Right after the rep, Mukuba immediately grabbed at the back of his left leg. He tried to tough it out and even got a rep in a tackling drill but pulled up lame again. After a brief trip to the medical tent, Mukuba walked inside with a trainer and his day was over. This injury comes the day after he got the bulk of the first-team reps at safety. It looked like Mukuba might have wrapped up that starting position but this injury could throw a wrench into that plan.

The next injury happened early in team drills and appeared to be more serious. Receiver Johnny Wilson went down in the middle of the field after getting rolled up on by Brett Toth and wasn’t putting much weight on his left leg as he got helped to the sideline. After going to the medical tent, Wilson was carted inside. Wilson has had an impressive second half of training camp and was almost a lock to make the team as the fourth wideout. This could change those 53-man roster projections if Wilson’s injury is a significant one.

2. Some depth chart notes:

• Without Mukuba in team drills, Sydney Brown was back with the first team as the safety next to Reed Blankenship.

• Adoree’ Jackson got most of the reps at outside cornerback with the first team, but Cooper DeJean for the second straight day got corner reps in the base package. Later in practice, Jakorian Bennett mixed in with the ones. The corners with the second team were Bennett and Mac McWilliams, not Kelee Ringo. It seems like Ringo has been demoted.

• The day began with Zack Baun next to Jeremiah Trotter Jr. in team drills but Jihaad Campbell got a lot of first-team work as well.

• Without Tanner McKee, rookie Kyle McCord got all the second-team reps over Dorian Thompson-Robinson. That’s a notable change from earlier in camp when DTR was clearly ahead of the rookie.

• Without Jordan Mailata and Landon Dickerson, the first-team OL looked like this (L-R): Matt Pryor, Brett Toth, Cam Jurgens, Tyler Steen, Lane Johnson. Darian Kinnard did take a few reps for Johnson at right tackle.

• Without A.J. Brown and DeVonta Smith, the top receivers to start the day were Jahan Dotson, Johnny Wilson and Darius Cooper. After Wilson’s injury, we saw Ainias Smith and even newcomer John Metchie III get reps with the ones.

3. Metchie, who wore No. 8 with the Texans, has No. 80 with the Eagles. That number was worn by Parris Campbell last season.

In his first practice since the trade from Houston, Metchie caught a couple of passes, including a grab on a high pass from McCord on a slant. On the very next play, McCord rifled a ball toward Metchie that Metchie couldn’t handle. Later in practice, Metchie was able to get some time with the first-team offense and caught a pass from Hurts.

Metchie also spent some time with the group of punt returners. That’s an interesting note because he has not returned punts in the NFL and didn’t at Alabama either.

4. Jalen Hurts threw an interception to Nolan Smith on Tuesday after the outside linebacker drifted back into coverage. That play might have been a “sack” but Smith looked smooth dropping and showed off his hands to pull in the pick.

Overall, it was a sloppy day for the offense, which could be expected given that it was without some key players.

5. The Eagles’ first-team offense was able to get a couple touchdowns in the red zone portion of practice. The first came on a pass from Hurts to E.J. Jenkins, who beat Reed Blankenship in coverage and made the catch falling to the ground.

The other came on a shovel pass (!) to Grant Calcaterra in the tight red zone. It’s always fun to see a shovel pass at the NovaCare Complex. Andy Reid would approve.

6. Late in practice, Will Shipley caught a pass from Jalen Hurts on four straight plays. While Shipley is still improving in other areas of his game, he is clearly very good at catching passes out of the backfield and that should be his role in 2025. He could be the guy in 2-minute drills, sort of like how Kenny Gainwell was used last year.

7. Jalen Carter batted down a pass from Jalen Hurts at the line of scrimmage on Tuesday and then did a Dikembe Mutombo finger wag in Hurts’s direction. This has become a big part of Carter’s game. After not registering a single batted pass in his rookie season, Carter had six in 2024. As he gets double-teamed more and more, Carter still finds ways to make an impact.

8. Some notes from watching 1-on-1 routes:

• Jahan Dotson ran a stutter-go to get just enough separation on Quinyon Mitchell to make a grab down the left sideline.

• On their first rep against each other, Nick Muse used his body to make a grab in front of Andrew Mukuba. On their second, Mukuba tweaked his hamstring.

• Giles Jackson made an acrobatic catch on a deep ball with A.J. Woods in coverage. Woods had great coverage and the ball popped up in the air but Jackson showed off impressive concentration to get it off the bobble.

• Ainias Smith was able to shake Cooper DeJean in the middle of the field. Smith is good in these 1-on-1s when he has a two-way go. A little bit later, DeJean stuck with Cooper on a tight-area route for a PBU.

• Terrace Marshall Jr. caught a deep ball on Mac McWilliams.

• E.J. Jenkins leaped over Andre Sam for an impressive catch on a 50-50 ball.

• Jakorian Bennett broke up a pass to John Metchie — two guys who weren’t here a few weeks ago.

9. The Eagles did some very specific situational work in this practice. In the four-minute drill, the Eagles’ offense was up 3 points and needed to get a first-down to move the chains and win the game and they couldn’t. They were ruled short after three straight Saquon Barkley runs. The second-team offense got a first down when Elijah Cooks caught a pass in front of Kelee Ringo to move the chains.

The Eagles’ first-team offense also worked on a situation with 35 seconds left in the game, no timeouts, down 2 points, from the 50-yard line. After a quick pass to Grant Calcaterra, Jalen Hurts ran to the line for a spike. Eventually, the Eagles faced a fourth down and Hurts scrambled for a first. But after another spike, the next play was an incompletion and we never got to see Jake Elliott attempt the field goal.

10. Some odds and ends:

• Adoree’ Jackson had an active day. He had a tone-setting play early in practice, when he hit Darius Cooper on the first play of team drills, sending Cooper to the ground. Jackson also had a pass breakup against Dallas Goedert.

• Eagles linebackers coach Bobby King always talks about block destruction and we saw a great example from Jihaad Campbell today. He tossed aside Grant Calcaterra to get a run stop.

• Jeremiah Trotter Jr. picked up a coverage sack against Jalen Hurts in the red zone. It was a long developing play but Trotter eventually made the play. He also had a nice play on a swing pass to Saquon Barkley.

• Jalyx Hunt was beating Matt Pryor (filling in for Jordan Mailata at left tackle) with ease. He had at least one sack and a few pressures. Hunt also looked comfortable dropping into coverage to break up a pass to Nick Muse from Kyle McCord.

• Myles Hinton was beaten badly by Ochaun Mathis with the second-team offense and was pulled from the period. He then walked over to the big screen to watch the replay.

• Ben VanSumeren had a good seal block to spring a run.

• Mac McWilliams was sent on a blitz and picked up a sack on McCord. Will Shipley was late to diagnose.

• Tristin McCollum had an interception in the developmental period and Eli Ricks nearly had one.

Stupid Observation of the Day: The Eagles at one point split up their practice and had team drills on fields that were side-by-side, which became an issue when the Eagles’ first-team offense heard a whistle from the other field and thought there was a false start. Eventually, assistant GM Jon Ferrari walked to the far field, perhaps to ask the refs to blow their whistles a little quieter.