The Eagles' second practice featured a cameo from Brian Dawkins, an illuminating news conference from Vic Fangio, and my realization that Makai Lemon is partial to blue raspberry water ice from Rita's.
For a comprehensive breakdown of everything that happened at practice, be sure to watch or listen to our Thursday show, which detailed essentially every play from practice and much more, but here are a few big-picture takeaways I left the Jefferson Health Complex with:
After an opening practice mostly defined by the new-look Eagles offense showing some encouraging signs, things were much more even between the offense and defense on Thursday. I usually attribute "muddy" practices where you don't have as many notes to a strong defensive line causing more broken-down plays, but the Eagles' secondary also deserves plenty of credit for the number of passing plays that wound up with scrambles or check downs to the flat.
What did stand out amidst the stalemate were two of the players central to it: DeVonta Smith and Quinyon Mitchell. Smith got the better of Mitchell on consecutive plays early in practice, the first coming on a slant route where he beat Mitchell to the inside for Hurts to find him in rhythm. The next play, Smith broke toward the sideline and made a nice, leaping catch over Mitchell and seemed to get his feet in bounds along the sideline, although his defensive teammates in close proximity protested the catch.
Seeing these flashes from Smith when matched up against Mitchell isn't an entirely new phenomenon, but Mitchell's most competitive moments in each of his first two training camps came against A.J. Brown, not Smith. And, as we're evaluating whether Smith is truly ready to step into a No. 1 receiver role for the Eagles this season, being able to create separation against an All-Pro cornerback who so seldom allows it on Sundays is an important box to check.
#smith #Eagles #plays #defensive
For a comprehensive breakdown of everything that happened at practice, be sure to watch or listen to our Thursday show, which detailed essentially every play from practice and much more, but here are a few big-picture takeaways I left the Jefferson Health Complex with:
After an opening practice mostly defined by the new-look Eagles offense showing some encouraging signs, things were much more even between the offense and defense on Thursday. I usually attribute "muddy" practices where you don't have as many notes to a strong defensive line causing more broken-down plays, but the Eagles' secondary also deserves plenty of credit for the number of passing plays that wound up with scrambles or check downs to the flat.
What did stand out amidst the stalemate were two of the players central to it: DeVonta Smith and Quinyon Mitchell. Smith got the better of Mitchell on consecutive plays early in practice, the first coming on a slant route where he beat Mitchell to the inside for Hurts to find him in rhythm. The next play, Smith broke toward the sideline and made a nice, leaping catch over Mitchell and seemed to get his feet in bounds along the sideline, although his defensive teammates in close proximity protested the catch.
Seeing these flashes from Smith when matched up against Mitchell isn't an entirely new phenomenon, but Mitchell's most competitive moments in each of his first two training camps came against A.J. Brown, not Smith. And, as we're evaluating whether Smith is truly ready to step into a No. 1 receiver role for the Eagles this season, being able to create separation against an All-Pro cornerback who so seldom allows it on Sundays is an important box to check.
#smith #Eagles #plays #defensive
2 months ago
